Illeana Aurora Curtis is a local elementary school student with the voice of an angel.
Saturday January 19, 2008. 8pm - 10pm live musicians, 10pm - 12am DJs.
NEA Dance Studio 25 Main St. 4th fl Northampton, MA
Dance Spirit Presents a Groove Paradise Production
New Beginnings
a benefit for hurricane relief efforts in Nicaragua.
THE SOUND WEAVERS - Shamanic Sound Healing Music for transformational movement. with special guests!
Nina Umai Spiro - Native American Flutes, Mexican Occarinas, and Vocals
Antonio Aversano - Didjerido, Percussion, Native American Flutes
Nina Umai Spiro began exploring the world of sound healing and shamanism at a very young age following a near death experience, which opened her deeply to the power of healing, sound, and nature. Her Russian Siberian grandparents raised her to listen to and speak with the earth for healing and guidance. She began playing music intuitively on wooden flutes when she was three and a half years old in the forest surrounding her country home, discovering self healing through sound by connecting with the spirit and natural beings. Improvisational sound soon became one of her favorite ways to communicate with the human, natural, and spirit worlds. Over the years Nina Umai has developed Pravada Sound Healing, an easy, joyful avenue for transformational self healing that has become a new therapeutic shamanic healing art. She has woven together the earth's teachings with her training in shamanic sound healing, expressive movement, psychotherapy, meditation, Reiki, and Siberian Shamanism. Nina Umai has 28 years of experience in private practice as a shamanic sound healing practitioner and psychotherapist, and has recorded five sound healing CDs on Native American Flutes. She offers individual, couples, family, and group sessions, as well as a four year apprenticeship training program at the Pravada Sound Healing Center in Leeds, Ma. pravada@earthlink.net.
Nina Umai's music creates a peaceful, sacred space that quiets your mind and invites you on a deep inner journey. The soft ethereal tones of her spirit flutes envelop you in a dream-like world of sound, as her long centering notes draw you gently into your spirit journeys. The melodic repetition creates an altered state that relaxes your entire body, increasing your core level of receptivity to sound, healing, and spirit connection. Because of her special attunement with nature she brings a unique sensitivity to sound healing that lives in every note of her music.
" Prepare to be moved when Nina Umai's flute music enters you. She gives sweet voice to the earth, the plants, your bones, sticks, and stones. Delicious and deeply nourishing " - Susun Weed - Author and Herbalist in The Wise Woman Tradition - Woodstock, NY
Antonio’s musical path continues to feel divinely guided so he humbly continues to answer that divine call to be used as a vessel to transmit the healing energy of spirit through the universal vibrations of sound.
A more extensive bio can be found at www.SoundingSpirit.com
Hi Root,
I am just curious, upon reading your email, about what the fundraising will support? Is your contact Rosa part of an NGO on-site in Nicaragua that delivers aid? Where will the money go and is there any process for accountability built in for the people receiving the money? -- Afia
hi Afia,
thanks for your questions. here's some answers:
i met Rosa Oviedo Medina 4 years ago by sharing a show at WMUA radio. her show has as a part of its focus interviews with revolutionary leaders from Latin America, as well as a form of music called "Nueva Trova," folk songs in the Woody Guthrie tradition, decrying corruption, greed, and violence. Rosa travels regularly to Nicaragua, to visit family and to volunteer for another radio station 91.7 FM "Radio La Primerisima". (www.radiolaprimerisima.com) it is through this radio station that her efforts have been organized, through people that Rosa actually knows and has traveled with.
2 in particular. during her most recent visit in November, directly after Hurricane Felix, Rosa joined forces with William Grisby and Omar Garcia, her trusted connections. she has had a number of meetings with William and Omar about how to move supplies from the capital city to the tiny village of Krukira, on the Caribbean/Atlantic coast. according to Rosa's map, the truck they rent will only go two-thirds of the way before the roads turn to impassable mud. they then use boats to ferry supplies the rest of the way down jungly rivers to the Caribbean, and north to Krukira. Rosa went to Krukira herself this past November, and she plans to go again next week when William and Omar plan to return.
Rosa has been clear that physical building supplies were the most desirable things needed: hammers, trowels, shovels, concrete, wheelbarrows, that sort of thing. Krukira was in the hardest hit area, and is in one of the most remote regions of Nicaragua in general, so any sort of help is appreciated.
most of the other global service projects Dance Spirit supports give money to people who Prakash knows personally through his connections to the Ananda Marga society. in this Nicaraguan effort, i've been giving the money to Rosa, who gets a receipt from William at the radio station. she's big on the receipt, as if that proves her legitimacy. i'm basing my donations on trust. trusting specific people, who can vouch for the money going to where i think it's going. if you don't have trust, what do you have?
so, yes and no. i'm trusting Rosa to trust good people. last time when she came back she had a video, in Español, detailing and describing the village, interviews with people in it, and she spoke well about William and Omar and their trip together, and her plans for her next trip. the money helps her buy gas, rent the truck and boats, and actually gets the supplies to a remote region. in terms of accountability, Rosa brings us updates, videos, stories, and hugs and kisses, which are really fun.
i hope this helps your curiosity!
love, Root