TANYA LEE – Facilitator, Performer, Author, Choreographer, and Producer
Tanya Lee is an interdisciplinary artist who has dedicated over 25 years to the integration of body, mind, and spirit as a full-time independent creator and teacher. Her work bridges physical movement practices with ancient mystery traditions, offering transformative spaces for embodied expression, self-discovery, and personal evolution.
“I believe there’s a deep yearning in our modern lives to reconnect with something spiritual—something that transcends the mundane while grounding us in the profound beauty of this physical reality. The mysteries of this world hold endless light and wisdom, captivating seekers, martial artists, yogis, and dreamers throughout time. I’ve chosen a path that explores these mysteries through the lens of magick, not as an escape, but as a tool to enrich my daily life. I’m passionate about cultivating community and sharing this journey with others—whether they’re already on this path or just beginning to explore it.”
Tanya has devoted countless hours studying, performing, and teaching movement-based practices namely: fusion bellydance and transcultural dance, personal training, mixed martial arts and various lineages of yoga. She holds certificates and has created certification courses for several of these disciplines. Her curiosity for the cultural and spiritual history of these practices continues to guide her towards deeper explorations in meditation, healing arts, natural cycles, esoteric anatomy, ritual magick and ancient astrology.
Fueled by the discovery and sharing of intersections between key principles from complementary disciplines, Tanya continues to provide her students and colleagues with easy-to-understand, body-based spiritual practices. Her current work is named Conjure Motion which is a lifestyle, a practice, and a dance vocabulary inspired by the tarot, the tree of life and the 5 classical elements: spirit, fire, water, air, and earth. Community, teamwork and collaborative learning are at the core of her work. The practices are conceived for self-knowledge and exploration, but are born and raised in the classroom through the community that engages with them.
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 their SIGIL Method for creating group improvisational formats.
Tanya has completed multiple professional certifications in Lifestyle Management Consulting, Personal Training, Behavioral Rehabilitation, Pilates, Posture Therapeutics, Power Yoga, Reiki, I.T.S Dance, SIGIL Method, Critical Alignment Yoga Therapy, Fusion Belly Dance, Tarot 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 show tour, co-produced festivals, 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.
TANYA’S STORY
I was born on an island located just east of the mainland of Nova Scotia called Cape Breton or Unama’ki, a part of the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) People of the Wabanaki Confederacy (People of the Dawn). When I was young, the poor economy in the Maritimes had my father move us to Calgary for work. I was a sensitive ginger kid in grade 5 who signed out all the books on ancient Egyptian tombs, organized a ‘secret society’, led seances, and truly believed I could move objects with my mind.
When I entered high school, my mom married a cattle farmer and moved us to rural Alberta. I traded my black lipstick for wranglers and my ‘coven’ became the 4H club and volleyball team. This was my young adult life as I learned to excel in team sports, run a business, and eventually go off to train for a career in law enforcement. I was a full blown muggle, but there was always this quiet pull within that drew me towards the mysteries and magick of life.
Fast forward to the early 2000’s (my mid twenties), I had opened a pilates studio, was performing as a national level bodybuilder and was helping my husband (at the time) build the Canadian mixed martial arts scene. One day a client introduced me to this ‘new style of exercise’ called yoga. My experience with yoga became what tarot readers would call my ‘tower card moment’. I could feel that this ‘yoga thing’ wasn’t just an exercise class – something was calling to a deep and dormant place within me, and I needed to answer that call. I dove head first down the spiritual yoga rabbit hole and when I resurfaced I was divorced, living in a van (in a new country), studying astrology, fusion bellydance and the structures of ancient secret societies.
It was 2007 when I returned to Calgary ready to start over and build a new life for myself. Due to previous success publishing a bodybuilding book, my reputation as a personal trainer was still well and alive. This became my entry point to rebuild financial stability. At this point yoga had boomed and there were studios in every neighborhood – people were more open to the spiritual, so I took a risk and gave myself the label “Yoga Trainer”. I spent the next few years trying to explain to people how I was like a gym trainer, but I preferred to use yoga techniques, fusion belly dance, and astrology LOL!
During that time I worked with corporate companies to design productivity and work-life balance models based on solar and lunar cycles. I adapted this similar model for professional athletes and successfully used it to optimize performance and prevent the onset of overtraining, while also spearheading an idea for an advanced piece of training equipment which ended up receiving a patent and funding from Dragons Den.
By 2014 I had developed ‘Power Align’ a fusion movement system based on the moon cycles, along with a 200 hour yoga teacher training program that ran for 7 years. I began to reveal more about the ‘method behind the madness’ by talking more openly about astrology, cycles and energy work. I was pleasantly surprised at how many “normal people” resonated with the logic and functional application of these ancient arts and sciences.
Today, astrology has become mainstream where you can get a mini birth chart interpretation through snapchat and there are thousands of members belonging to local non-for-profit witches associations. Due to this upsurge in the mystic arts (and the internet making the world a smaller place) I’ve also expanded and refined my personal studies and practices into hermetic traditions, tarot and ceremonial magick. I am so very thankful for all of the mentors, grandmothers, occult scholars and modern mages who have found the courage to share their cultivated wisdom.
It feels like this is the moment in time where it is, once again, becoming safer for the spirit of the ‘inner arts’ to come out of the shadows and into the light.
During the 2020 global lockdowns, my entire business was shut down. In that darkest of times, I felt like I had no choice but to strengthen my connection to source energy. In that journey, Conjure Motion was born. It is an incredible honor to create space for this work – I feel like this is the big one for me. This is the legacy work. It is everything I love, all in one place. I feel like all the incredible teachers I’ve learned from are here with me. This practice is for self-awareness, development, and ultimately self-actualization – BUT it is also a team sport that grows with the connection of the players. So, thank you for joining us on the adventure!
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"Any magical or spiritual system is the product of a lively dance in which tradition and innovation take the lead by turns. "