Amaris Ziayanah

Featured Bellydancer of the Month in Splash Magazine - December 2009:

The drums pounding, the music soaring, a lone figure shimmies, shakes and twirls into the center of the room. The slight woman beams at those around her, as her arms move like snakes to the pulsating rhythms. Her belly undulates, rolls and flutters, legs propelling her around the room as the bells that hang from her create their own music as complement to the drums. But even with all of the control she exerts over her body, what is noticed first by those watching are her eyes. Her eyes dance and her body follows. This is Amaris Ziayanah.
Her style is a surprise; unique and traditional at the same time, blending Turkish, tribal fusion, Indian and cabaret all together with a Spanish twist. The love and fluidity that she expresses through her dance is an intriguing and captivating experience. It is through her dance that Amaris has found the liberating freedom of fully experiencing, embracing and expressing the various moments of Now. Inspired to help women reconnect with themselves, Amaris believes that through our own conscious living, conscious loving and conscious movements we are able to respect, honor and cherish the beauty that we all are and the wonders of what we each have to offer in this life.
A registered certified yoga instructor, Amaris has practiced yoga for over sixteen years, including throughout all four of her pregnancies. For the last seventeen years Amaris has lived a vegetarian lifestyle, and for the past eight years has maintained a vegan diet. She is currently working on her degree in holistic nutrition.
Amaris is an instructor of both belly dance and yoga, and teaches classes and workshops for young and old alike. Currently she is teaching a Belly Dance Technique class at Todd Rosenlieb Dance on Monday nights in Norfolk on Granby Street. For these classes she is collaborating with drummer/percussionist Greg Lee, a master of rhythms. More information about these classes can be found at www.trdance.org. These classes offer instruction for everyone from beginners to more advanced students. Amaris brings a wealth of artistry, expertise and enthusiasm to each of the classes that she offers. She is able to provide developmentally appropriate, stimulating and nurturing activities that encourage the wonder and excitement in learning for the young and the young at heart.
Amaris is also a singer/songwriter and performs frequently with her band Yes Now IS. With many years of playing together in various guises under their belt, Yes Now IS create unique and spellbinding sounds, allowing the inner ear and inner mind to travel freely through a landscape of beautiful aural delight. A cascading and dynamic blend of lush and flowing harmony, this brainchild of Amaris Ziayanah and her other half Jason W. McKinzie (aka mascodagama) is a proposed journey into extreme positivity. Amaris uses this forum to combine her love of music with her love of dance and Yes Now IS incorporate both in their one of a kind shows. Visit www.YesNowIS.com for booking information.
Amaris is Red Cross CPR certified, is a registered certified yoga instructor with the Yoga Alliance, and a certified Kindermusik educator. She has had formal instruction as well as self-study in yoga and dance, and studied with Graham Schweig, Phd. in the philosophy, history and lifestyle of yoga. Amaris completed the yoga teacher training program and teaches various classes of yoga: strengthening and conditioning, restoration and meditation, and children’s and pre-natal.
On December 5th Amaris will be performing at the Fair Trade Festival at Waterside both with Yes Now IS in the morning as well as a solo dance performance later that afternoon. Amaris will also be performing and dancing with her band at Colley Cantina in the Ghent section of Norfolk on December 8th. That will be a full two hour show featuring acoustic music, harmonizing vocals and mesmerizing dance. Check out her website www.PaleTurtleMoon.com for more information on classes and shows.

Featured In A Blog:

The article below is a delightful blog entry about one Mom’s experience of attending Amaris’ Classes with her son.

A little Yogi or a Yogi with a crush - too soon to tell!
By Traci Showalter Brune - www.trudyboom.com

Sometimes when I get excited about something on Zach’s behalf I wait for the first shoe to drop. And that’s where I am now – excited, anxious, and scared I’m going to jinx it.

You see I have been taking Zach to a children’s class at my yoga place for the last month and it has been a really lovely experience . . .so far. I am as nervous writing this as I am every time we go there – I wasn’t sure if he would stay in the room, much less participate. But, as I am loathe to say, and helpless to stop myself, “so far, so good.”

I can be a tad superstitious in these situations – when things are going well in our part of Schmolland, I am looking to get schmutzed. I’m like those athletes who won’t wash their uniform during a winning streak, or those players who don’t shave until after the playoffs. Once, during a family dinner outing, Zach accidentally gobbled up an entire calamari appetizer he had mistaken for chicken nuggets. The next day at school he was so remarkably agreeable and his eye contact so impressive that his teacher called us at home. We fed Zach a lot of calamari after that with never quite the same results.

It was the same way with horseback riding therapy. After the first few weeks it was going so well I was ready to buy Zach a horse farm. It’s not that he didn’t get a lot out of it – he did, but it was not the “door opening” kind of experience I had hoped it would be. That’s the thing about hope – it has fangs. It’s best to let it sniff the back of your hand with a closed fist, before you get too close to it.

The yoga place I go to is beautiful – family-owned and very welcoming (www.elementsyogaspa.com). I am always happy to be there and blessed with bliss when I leave. So, naturally I was hoping for Zach to get a little of that experience as well.

The class, “Sweet Beat and Happy Feet” combines yoga, dance, music and Simon Says. It is geared for kids who are “chronologically” much younger than Zach, but developmentally, it’s exactly his speed. (As that cool tortoise says, slow and steady wins the race) While he loves the poses and getting to wear a jingly scarf around his waist for the dance moves, his favorite part seems to be Simon Says. He will even take a turn leading the class but will only whisper to me what he wishes the other children to do. Tonight he “asked” the other kids to be “Darth Vader.” He started them off with dark-side mask breathing noises which evolved into light saber noises and then he tossed in a few movie lines under his breath. I hope this is just him warming up.

For the Z man, this is pretty unusual behavior – this quiet stuff. Typically, Zach is a very noisy boy with no inside voice who likes to repeat a great many things – we used to lovingly call him “echo-centric.” Equally unusual is how cooperative he is when we get there – helping set up the mats and props for the class (he won’t hang his backpack up for me at home!). Zach has also been completely compliant with any work we do in front of the mirrored walls – which is not so unusual since he is his biggest fan. The drawback there is getting Narcissus to break his gaze when changing activities or poses. With some prompting it was a bit better tonight. And he only used the restroom once during this week’s class (he loves public restrooms!).

When we were finished with class and gathering up our mats and shoes I really tried to get him to talk, say thank you, anything, but he wasn’t going for it. Then on the drive home I asked him if he liked going to the class . . .once . . .twice. . . third time’s a charm . . . I eventually got a grumpy “yeeesss”. Then I said, “What do you think of the teacher? Isn’t Amaris nice?” He looked out the window for a couple of beats and turned to me and said “She’s beautiful.”

For the first time in a while, I was the one who was speechless! I don’t know if this means he likes the class or that he’s got a sweet spot for this wonderful woman who has been kind enough to try drawing him out the last few weeks, but I don’t care. That was the most spontaneous thing I’ve heard him utter in months and I even got some nice eye contact.

So, I am adding this to my gratitude journal for today and hoping for some more gentle time with my little yogi tomorrow – and quietly, carefully, fingers crossed, I am keeping my eye on the tiny creaking of the door – perhaps I will get another glimpse inside . . . . and just for the heck of it, I may celebrate our tiny triumph with a little calamari. Stay tuned . . .

On The Local News:

The two videos below are News clips of Amaris promoting The Feed Virginia Music Festival that was on May 2, 2009.

In The Local Paper:

The article below was one promoting a “Greek Night” event featuring Amaris Ziayanah at a local restaurant in December 2008.