Lyndon’s Upright Steeple Society will present An Evening of Middle Eastern Dance, featuring three dynamic performers, at York Street Meeting House, on Saturday, March 14, at 7:00 pm.

The show celebrates the movement, music, and connection of Middle Eastern Dance, and the program will include soulful, grounding Egyptian forms, lively improvisation, and high energy American Cabaret style. Dancers Magdalene, Irit, and Lilya bring their own interpretations and musicality to the stage for a delightful evening of warmth, joy, and inclusion. Audience members are encouraged to lean in, clap along, and enjoy the rhythm together!

St. Johnsbury’s own Magdalene uses her Middle Eastern dance talents to spread joy, connection, and healing while building thriving communities of women. Magdelene’s dance journey has been a winding road that has always brought her back to the music and dances of the Middle East. Her passion is Egyptian dance forms like the homegrown Baladi, the staged Raqs Sharqi, and modern revolutionary street dances like Shaabi and Mahranat.

Magadalene’s signature style is characterized by slow, sultry movements that get audiences’ hearts beating, encouraging their nervous systems to downshift. By treating any stage as if it were her family room, Magdalene welcomes each audience member as her own special guest. She teaches and performs throughout New England and New York.

Irit is passionate about Middle Eastern dancing and has graced stages throughout New England for many years. She has lived in many places throughout the world and currently calls Southern Vermont home. As she learns and evolves, the music inspires her soulful improvisational technique, bringing a sense of freedom and light to her body and soul.

Lilya started shimmying in the late 20th century and has continued through two cross-country moves and three children. She mainly dances and is trained in American Cabaret (“AmCab”), an engaging performative style developed in the nightclubs of New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago in the 1950s. Unlike the traditionally more subtle movement vocabularies of Egyptian-style belly dance, AmCab is a theatrical rollercoaster of props and big moves, and dancers expect audiences to clap along and make some noise!

Event host the Upright Steeple Society is a Vermont nonprofit corporation with a mission to restore the York Street Meeting House (formerly the First Congregational Church of Lyndon) and maintain it as a nonsectarian meeting house available for community functions in the Town of Lyndon. Since its restoration by the Upright Steeple Society, York Street Meeting House is used as a live music venue, a public meeting facility, a learning/rehearsal space, and a source of joy and pride for the greater community.

An Evening of Middle Eastern is presented by the Upright Steeple Society in partnership with Catamount Arts. Buy tickets or learn more at www.catamountarts.org.