Arlyn Deva

My prayer is to know my Self and act with clarity and love. 

I grew up in Hotchkiss, CO and currently live here  - creating, dancing, drumming, making pottery, teaching, working and playing. This land has been such a blessing for me as I re-pattern myself for health and sustainable living. 

I am a graduate of Matrix Leadership Institute's Facilitator Training and have my B.A. degree in Expressive Arts through Prescott College's Adult Degree Program (read: self-directed learning). I have also completed extensive dance training with Melissa Michaels.

I am a DJ (radio and live dancing), and have been a professional choreographer and performer of aerial work, stilt-walking, and improvisational dance.  I have led movement in a variety of contexts including spiritual retreats, outdoor dance parties, community celebrations, and more.

I have written for years now and have completed a number of art books with my writing and mixed media artwork. You can see those on the Writing and Art page of the site.  Thank you Ixeeya for your permission of me to create.

I am a student of many teachers including Sharon Landrith, Joi Sharp, Neelam, Jeannie Zandi, Arjuna, Michael Regan, Carolyn Myss, Ken Wilber, Byron Katie, Adyashanti and others.

Thank you Amy Williams, Sofia Diaz, Amy McCarrel, Blythe Massey, Kelly Larson, Amy Williams and all who have come before in the lineage of yoga for your influence on my practice.

For my dance practice I thank Melissa Michaels, Amina Knowlan, Neelam, Jeannie Zandi, The Magical Mystical Muse, Cheri Shanti, Gabrielle Roth, Nancy Smith and Frequent Flyers Productions, Terry Sendgraff, Authentic Movement, yoga, satsang and thousands of years of dancers moving their bodies.

I give great thanks to David and to my family and friends who have supported me upon this life-journey.

I pray for the world and for this species as we walk through these tumultuous times.

david alderdice

  i am.

  beyond that i am in love with developing a deeper conscious relationship with sound and silence and how they interact and communicate through motion and stillness within the infinite vastness of space and time.  i am also a rhythmist.  i enjoy learning, internalizing, exploring, and playing with different rhythms and sensibilities from around the world.  my main allies in this quest have been the drumset, different frame drums, rhythmic vocalizations, visual arts and of course the music itself.

  i was born in new orleans and this journey has also had me living on both coasts, on the plains and in the shenandoah before bringing me to be living more and more sustainably here in the north fork valley of the rockies in 2003.

  after taking a summer class at the university of north texas when i was 17 i decided that i didn't want the bureaucracy and competition or the debt of a major music school, so i went to a small college taking some music, but mainly art courses.  by putting my focus on applying the universal concepts, aesthetics and mysticisms of the different art mediums i was learning into different musical projects which i was involved in - i was able to meet music in its own realm.  since then i have been putting myself through a self-applied study of the rhythms from around the world and the uses of intermingling sound and silence.

  i have studied privately with great teachers including... frances thompson (drumset /rhythm theory), jon seligman (drumset/frame drums/rhythm theory), ed soph (drumset /jazz sensibilities, robert jospe(drumset /latin styles), n. scott robinson (frame drums), and faisal zedan (riq /persian sesibilities).

  i have also attended many workshops with great clinicians including . . .  glen velez (frame drums/solkattu/overtone singing), gary chaffee (drumset/linear concepts), pejman hadidi (persian daff), billy cobham (drumset/progressive stylings), lori cotler (solkattu), kenny werner (effortless mastery), randy gloss (kanjira), brad dutz (brazilian pandeiro), will rapp (snaredrum/drumline), dom famularo (drumset), steve houghton (jazz drumset) as well as others. 

  through active listening, internal searching, and present awareness, music, silence and nature have been my greatest teachers.

  my most inspirational human influences have been hazrat inayat khan, ram dass, rumi, dr. seuss, jim henson, glen velez, bunny wailer, nusrat fateh ali khan, zigaboo, dali, cristina, jesus, j.r.r. tolkien, david grisman, w. timothy gallwey, stomp, max roach, adyashanti, the grateful dead, street musicians and performers, and the symphony of everyday human interaction.

  i am a founding member of the classical celtic world fusion group feast.  we play a hybrid of classical, celtic, spanish, eastern european, americana, and funk musical styles.  we usually play as a four-piece consisting of violin, cello, electric piano and percussion, but also as the mientka/alderdice consort (a trio) and celtica symphonia (10-12 piece, w/dancers).  we play regularly here on the western slope, some around the western states, and toured germany twice in 2008.  we are awaiting the release of a live cd and dvd later this year. 

   i love the union of movement and sound and have enjoyed accompanying, collaborating, and performing with many dancers including belly dance troupes, modern dance departments and performance groups, african dance classes and performance groups, irish step teams, western tap dancers, flamenco dancers, ballet companies, dances of universal peace gatherings, as well as ecstatic dance and avant-garde movement events.

  i am available for and really enjoy studio recording.  i have been recorded dozens of times within the last 15 years and have been first call drummer for studios in the d.c. area as well as in western colorado.  i have also enjoyed playing with different theatre companies and have performed musicals and ballets including west side story, godspell, pirates of penzance, seussical the musical, and the nutcracker.  i also really enjoy presenting percussion-based concerts with friends including jon seligman and joseph smith, and sitting in with different musical groups around the western slope. 

  these days i seem to be really into playing different frame drums, "reciting" solkattu (south indian rhythmic vocalization patterns), spending time in the high-country, shaking stuff,  sharing different ideas, concepts and feelings on rhythm and drumming through workshops and lessons, and trying to be present with whatever arises.    

 

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