MeccaDance.com
Title
MECCA: A Live Studio & Gallery
Description
The place is called Mecca: A Live Studio and Gallery and co-founder Teresa Tomb explains how the name was chosen: "Mecca is a place that is regarded as the center of activity or interest. It's also defined as a place visited by many and different peoples. We're here to bring together a vivid variety of folks by using a common language: dance and movement."
Tomb along with co-founder Lisa Duggins is excited at the notion of offering something different to Lexington residents, something with a community spirit, with the potential to greatly enrich the individual, as well: "Dance is a release and a personal balancing, which is invaluable considering the crazed pace of the modern world. Cultural dances have strong properties and feelings attached to them: Middle Eastern Belly Dance is hypnotic; There's a poetic languor in the Ancient Hula; You can find explosive passion in the Flamenco dancing of Spain. We're trying to give a person the opportunity to step away from the mundane, to balance the stress of the day with something beautiful and redeeming."
Both Tomb and Duggins were themselves transformed by dancing after taking Belly Dance classes with Suzanne Armetta some 5 years ago. Two years ago, Armetta died unexpectedly, and Tomb was faced with taking a more leading role with the dance troupe. "I was very turned on by the dance and had many ideas for choreography and image. My goal was to make us a professional dance troupe," Tomb explains. As the troupe worked to redefine itself without its mentor, Tomb and Duggins realized that an offshoot group was necessary to continue expanding horizons.
