Kathryn Ferguson

Alamos, Sonora Film Festival

“Rita of the Sky” documentary went to the Festival Internacional de Cine (Alamos, Sonora, Mexico International Film Festival). What an honor! And what a great colonial town with amazing people. And a wonderful, inspiring film festival produced by filmmaker John Sheedy. The filmmakers were guests at the Hacienda de Los Santos, one of the most beautiful places to stay in the entire world. I’ll be back! (Go to the Rita of the Sky page under Films.)

“Rita” has been doing well. The film was also screened at the Arizona International Film Festival (won 2 awards: Best Feature  Documentary, and Best of Arizona), Boston Latino Film Festival (Boston), LA Femme Film Festival (Los Angeles),and the Cherokee International Film Festival (Oklahoma) where it won Best Documentary, and Kansas City for the Kansas City Film Festival (used to be Jubilee).

We had some lovely things happen with the book. Huffington Post’s Anis Shivani selected “Crossing with the Virgin: Stories from the Migrant Trail” as one of the best 17 Social and Political books of 2010, then at the incredible March 2011 Tucson Festival of Books, we were filmed by C-SPAN for our complete panel discussion “Dispatches from the Borderlands.” In this website, go to the “Books” page and read  Shivani’s observant comments, then watch the C-SPAN discussion with fellow authors Margaret Reagan and Sam Quinones. And read Charles Bowden’s and Demetria Martinez’s blurbs on the cover of the book.  And how incredible was the festival?! Amazing. 100,000 people attended this year’s Tucson Festival of Books, and National Public Radio went crazy about it! Great discussions with authors, a zillion books to buy, and food booths and beautiful skies. What more could you want?

“Ashtalea’s performances are crisp, sensual, intelligent and Humorous. Her choreographies show both traditional and modern influences in Mideastern dance.” -Kathryn Ferguson

Ashtalea’s love for dance began at the age of four. She has studied ballet (both Russian and French methods), jazz, tap flamenco, Mexican folkloric, modern dance and Middle Eastern dance for a brief time during her preteens. Middle Eastern dance found its way back into her life in 1992. Thanks to pervious dance training, belly dance came very naturally to her. She has studied with many notable teachers such as Raqia Hassan, Suzanna Del Vecchio, Elena Lentini, Eva Cernick, Dalia Carella, Morocco, and the list goes on… however, the majority of Her training came from Kathryn Ferguson (Miss Ferguson still remains her favorite performer and teacher). Not only did Kathryn train Ashtalea to be a performer but trained her to be a teacher as well, paying close attention to the culture and history of the dance as well as the moves. Ashtalea was a member of Miss Ferguson’s Xanadu Mideastern Dance Company from 1996-2003. During her years as a Xanadu dancer she had the honor of dancing with famed musicians, Georges & Elias Lammam, Souhail Kaspar and Naser Musa. She has performed in restaurants, night clubs and shows in AZ, CA, NM and NV. She has taught workshops all over the southwest.

Ashtalea is best known for her unique choreography. She has choreographed for many dancers in AZ and the Vegas area. Her Performance troupe “Ah Ya Helu” shows off her love of choreographing and staging productions for large groups of dancers.

Teaching is her number one love. Ashtalea is truly dedicated to her students. “Nothing gives me more joy then to see former students of mine go out and perform professionally. I feel like a proud mom.” she states.

Currently she teaches Middle Eastern Dance for UNLV Continuing Education.

For info and class schedule go to http://edoutreach.unlv.edu

or e-mail Ashtalea at: opaltopaz0618@yahoo.com