Yanika Chemerisov (Belly Dance and Morning Yoga)
web site

Picture
Yanika (a.k.a. Nika Rey) was born in the former Soviet Union (Ukraine region), and immigrated to Los Angeles with her parents at age six. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UC Santa Barbara in 2005 with Highest Honors, with a major in Theater and a minor in Russian language. Having spent the earliest formative years of her life in Odessa, the diverse port city on the Black Sea in Eastern Europe, Yanika’s tastes and talents developed in a unique way. The majestic geography of an ancient seabed combined with the area’s historic Carpathian mountain ranges haunted her dreams and visions as a young child - memories she now recalls as those of an entire history upon planet Earth, as if she had climbed out of that very sea, ages ago, and evolved along with the land, a native. Her romanticized notion of such an indigenous existence contrasts with her life’s mostly urban details, and she finds creative challenge and motivation in this polarity. Her urge for soul-exploration has led her through various theatrical productions, teaching and performing many world dance styles, pursuing her personal craft of visual arts while living in the woodlands of Northern CA, earning a certification in yoga instruction, and spending a year of life abroad in Cairo, Egypt, where she found lifetimes of adventure and inspiration. Her heroes are her mother and father, who are also artists; and the deepest wellsprings of joy in her life are her son Geo and his papa, Eric. Together they are beginning a new chapter in Colorado, where Yanika dreams of opening an arts center located on their homestead, as well as traveling the world, teaching and performing.