Bio & Contact Information
Melanie "melmacpink" MacNeil is a true movement specialist. With a background in yoga, fire dancing and hooping, in conjunction with her experience in social work and mental health care services, she takes a unique approach to help people "come home" to their bodies by utilizing a variety of movement techniques. Born and raised in Plymouth, MA, she relocated to Western NC to attend Warren Wilson College where she attained a degree in Social Work. During her years at Warren Wilson she established intimate ties to Asheville's burgeoning electronic music scene in which she began to participate in TOUCH Samadhi psytrance music events. This connection led her to explore black light theatre and fire dancing which grew into her co-creating the all women ritual performance troupe Tranceform Venus, with which she is still active today.
To follow her heart's work of promoting movement as a mode to physical, emotional and spiritual health, Melanie completed an Introduction to Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training then later became certified as a yoga instructor in 2004 through the Yoga Alliance, at Asheville Yoga Center. She also received training at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in 2006, learning LifeForce Yoga for depression and anxiety. In the summer of 2007 Melanie received her certification as a Hoop Dance Instructor with Christobel Zamor, the original "HoopGirl."
Today Melanie lives in a lovely mountain chalet in Hendersonville, NC and works at the Cooper Riis Healing Farm, a holistic, therapeutic farm community for mentally ill adults. At the farm she works as a Life Skills Coach, as well as teaches a variety of Yoga and Hoop Fitness classes as well as to the Asheville community at large.
Through the years Melanie has honed her performance skills and now has the reputation as one of Asheville's finest fire and hoop performers. She currently performs with Unifire Theatre with whom she also works on performance creation, production and fire safety coordination. Additionally, she is still very active in the psytrance community and can be found at music festivals throughout the East Coast creating black light art installations, ritual altars and participating in ritual performance. Her detailed costumes and hand-crafted mask designs enhance her performances and demonstrate her appreciation for black light art and an aesthetic of the sacred. Resonating with the full-participation and gift economy ethic of Burning Man culture has brought her to share her many performance, design and movement specialties with kindred spirits in Black Rock City for the Burning Man festival in recent years.
Bio by Justina Prenatt
http://just-a-position.blogspot.com