Biography

Hailing from Lexington, Kentucky, Alyssum Pohl brings wit and joy to her performance. A lifelong dancer, she began her study of tribal-style bellydance with Sri Tarasita, director of Rakadu Gypsy, in 1998, and commenced performing with Rakadu three years later.  Rakadu, famous for their storytelling and improvisational bellydance, has been the perfect launching pad for Alyssum's performance style.  In addition to bellydance, Alyssum is accomplished in yoga, front-bending contortion, rhythm tap, and has many years of training in dance forms from around the world besides (including creative movement, lyrical stage, jazz, classical Indian, classical Chinese and Mongolian, African, contra-dance, waltz, as well as 80's pop).  While she lived in New England (2004-2008), she honed her own style of tribal bellydance by incorporating her contortion abilities and sharpening her isolations.  During this time, she also began teaching regularly and coached Boston-based tribal troupe, OmBellyCo.  She is influenced greatly by her teachers Sri Tarasita and Julie Lively as well as Heather Stants, Mira Betz, and more (check out her links page!). 

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