TANYA LEE
Tanya Lee has been immersed in the movement arts for 25 years as a facilitator, performer, author, choreographer, and producer. As an interdisciplinary professional Tanya has devoted thousands of hours to the study of body, mind and spirit. Through the weaving of movement modalities with ancient mystery traditions, she creates a container for embodied expression and storytelling that embraces the body, awakens the spirit, and moves from the soul.
Tanya’s Body Art Motion School of Transformation is inspired by a desire to enhance self knowledge and actualize potential through embracing each person’s unique composition and path of individuation within a broader connection to nature, each other, and the unknown of the cosmos. This passion has led Tanya to invest in countless hours studying, performing, and teaching movement-based fusion practices in: transcultural dance, mixed martial arts, and various lineages of yoga – each of which are connected to cultural and spiritual history. This has guided Tanya towards deeper explorations in meditation, healing arts, natural cycles, esoteric anatomy, and ancient astrology.
It is Tanya’s mission to weave together key principles from complementary disciplines providing her students, colleagues, and audiences with powerful, body-based spiritual practices and a shared movement language for community connection and collaboration.
Throughout her career, significant mentors largely influenced Tanya’s perspective in the conscious weaving of movement arts, providing her with invaluable insights for innovating tradition and creating fusion systems: Bryan Kest’s California-based Power Yoga system which modifies and blends traditional lineages of Ashtanga and Hatha Yoga. Canadian Rockne White as a Yoga pioneer in Calgary. Brazilian Lerrita Rubinoff’s work with healing, Reiki, energy work and spiritual connection. Lee Mein’s role in the grassroots development of Mixed Martial Arts in Canada. Gert Van Leeuwen’s European Critical Alignment Therapy system developed from the Iyengar lineage, and Danielle Pechie’s fusion applications of Gert’s work with Rolfing and Ashtanga Yoga. Americans Jill Parker, Rachel Brice and SamiTe’s introductions to the Fusion Bellydance World. Amy Sigil’s ITS dance format – a transcultural dance vocabulary fusing Raqs Sharqi with Hula and Hip Hop, as well as Sigil’s ‘Improv Team Sync’ method for creating group improvisational formats.
Tanya has completed multiple professional certifications in Lifestyle Management Consulting, Personal Training, Behavioral Rehabilitation, Pilates, Posture Therapeutics, Yoga, Sigil ITS Dance, Improv Team Sync, Critical Alignment Therapy, Fusion Bellydance, and Astrology. As a professional Tanya has published books, authored personal/professional development programs, achieved national bodybuilding awards, managed a team of personal trainers, created a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Program, directed an international performance troupe, and co-founded Alberta’s longest standing Mixed Martial Arts event. She is currently studying cultural dances with source instructors from North Africa, Iraq, Hawaii, and Caribbean, as well as continuing her studies in western mystery traditions and astrology.
"Any magical or spiritual system is the product of a lively dance in which tradition and innovation take the lead by turns. "