Travis Fontaine Jarrell

First studied Middle Eastern Oriental dance in 1971 with Elizabeth Cogburn after fourteen years of classical ballet and modern dance. She received Performing Arts scholarships to Colorado State University and to Perry-Mansfield, and studied in New York with Erik Hawkins.
Travis has studied Middle Eastern dance with such excellent teachers as Jamila Salimpour, Serena, Morocco, Bert Balladine, Badawia, Ibrahim Farrah, Dahlena, and many others. She also studied creative dance with Zuleikha and Anna Halprin, and Kathak, classical dance of North India, for five years with Zuleikha and Nyssia Chakour-Wali. Other dance studies include Flamenco, Persian, Armenian, American clogging, and East European and Middle Eastern folkdancing.
In 1990, Travis was introduced to Central Asian dance by Laurel Victoria Gray, and in 1992 was invited to Bukhara, Uzbekistan to study and perform as a guest artist with Mohy-Sitora Folkloric Ensemble. She also studied classical Uzbek dance in Tashkent, Uzbekistan with the acclaimed Akilov family.
Travis' performances with artists from Uzbekistan include the Smithsonian Silk Road Festival, Washington, D.C. in 2002, the 47th Annual Enthnomusicology Conference in Estes Park, Colorado, and the 92nd St. Y Tisch Center for the Performing Arts in New York City in 2004. She has been very active in bringing teachers and artists from Uzbekistan.
Travis' solo dance concerts, presented around the US and Europe, include Middle Eastern and Uzbek dances as well as her own original works. She has been an Artist-in-Residence in the public schools in the US and abroad, and teaches dance at the College of Santa Fe and Santa Fe Coimmmunity College in New Mexico.

Ecstatic Gestures of Dance

"Dance is the soul in ecstacy." attributed to Isadora Duncan

"Dance is the hidden language of the soul." Martha Graham

"Art (dance) is the communication of ecstacy." Baraka

"Dance to dance - leave embarassment at home!" Hawaiian

We've all seen them in the garden of dance: those exquisite and juicy little moves and gestures that catch the eye, the mind, and the imagination of the watcher, lift the dancer and watcher out of the ordinary, tell a story or cast a bit of mystery and meaning, and are just plain cool. These flowers of gesture, these unspoken words, these jewels, and ornaments arise in seemingly seperate forms of dance. And yet, with a little attention, we can lift the veils and discover their transcendant and universal qualities and meanings.
We'll explore a few systems of gesture, both western and eastern, Indian, Uzbek, Persian, and others, and trace their roots through the times and cultures and into our dancing bodies. The class will include a wonderful warm-up, belly dance time, discussion, discovery, and exploration of gesture and meaning, and some improvisation.
Please bring a veil.