Spotlight Dancer/Troupe
Wicked Temple

Wicked Temple is a troupe of Pittsburgh-based bellydancers including Amethyst, Thaleia, Shanti and Vitriol. Wicked Temple performs both Experimental and World Tribe Fusion styles of bellydance, and often performs alongside musician Maurice Rickard. They enjoy dancing to a variety of music including Middle Eastern, Electronica and more. Wicked Temple provides Bellydance performances and lessons, Sacred Dance Workshops, Ritualistic Dance and special events. For more information and to contact Wicked Temple and Maurice Rickard, please visit Amethyst's website: www.HealingArtsByAmethyst.com.


Amethyst:
"Bellydancing has opened up a natural part of me that I always longed to find, and has given me a great sense of freedom. I'm a very spiritual person, and bellydancing has intensely deepened that."

Amethyst began bellydancing by studying under Christine Andrews, Maria Hamer, and Olivia Kissel of Zafira (then "Ghawazee") from 1997-2001. Half-way through those four years, Amethyst happily joined her first performance partner Kari Merlina. Amethyst was self-taught from 2001-2005, building on what she had learned in class, exploring dance through the rave scene, travel, and other experiences, and developing her own style. Amethyst wanted to reconnect with her original teachers to continue to learn, and so currently studies again under Maria Hamer.

In early 2005, Amethyst joined Wicked Temple and musician Maurice Rickard, together performing Contemporary Experimental bellydance and music. 

Amethyst began teaching bellydance in 2001, and currently teaches group classes, private lessons and workshops. She teaches Bellydance and Sacred Dance. 
As a pagan, she enjoys connecting dance with ritual, prayer and other pagan practices. Amethyst mostly credits her life-time decision of veganism for her high energy and stamina. 


Thaleia:
"My earliest dance memories are of dipping and swinging my little sister around the living room. My mother, herself a musician, always fostered my artistic inclinations and signed me up for tap, ballet and jazz although I never excelled at any of them. My college years brought me into the world of nightclub dancing which I loved so much that I was never afraid to be the first one on the dance floor.

Dance took on a spiritual dimension in my life when I became a Neo-Pagan; primarily through dancing at rituals, drum circles, and festivals. I felt a new passion and joy in the dance as I found it opening me up to the Divine. I was initiated into the Sacred Dancers Guild at the Sirius Rising Festival in 2000, and I am a founding member the Dance Guild of Àr nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship. I began taking bellydancing lessons with Amethyst in October 2004 in order to formally train my body as an instrument of praise and prayer. Through the controlled movements of bellydance, I can focus and direct the spiritual energy that flows through me into a sacred celebration of the beauty and magick of the Gods and Nature."


Shanti:
"I have always been enamored with dance, in its every infinite variety. As a child I struggled to find my place in the narrow molds of tap, ballet, and jazz, only to find that neither my feet nor the rest of my body wanted to conform. During my college days, a nice young woman named Amethyst gave me my first introduction to belly dance. I thought: A dance form that celebrates and moves with a woman's body, not against it? I can live with that. Finally, I had found my niche.

Since then it has been hard to maintain a steady practice. The rigors of everyday life like to creep in and steal my dance time. But I keep coming back. It's a powerful force that commands me to move every time I hear a drum beat. I may not be able to stand on the tips of my toes or float gracefully through the air in a grand jete, but that doesn't matter to me. When I dance, its not about the technique or the precision. It's about the way I feel: powerful, energized, and free."


Vitriol:
Born and raised in Pittsburgh Vitriol embraced the arts at an early age. Never thinking herself a dancer however she abandoned all forms of dance to under go a childhood of medical procedures. Slowly delving back into the arts after her formal education she is now exploring the art of bellydancing and has been a student since October of 2004.

When not dancing Vitriol can be found pursuing her interests in the sciences, furthering her education, playing paintball, or playing video games.

To contact Wicked Temple:
Website: www.HealingArtsByAmethyst.com
Email: Amethyst@HealingArtsByAmethyst.com

NOTE: above photos of Wicked Temple by Elizabeth Keating

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