TEDxSalem entertainment fuses yoga, Broadway, Latin jazz, and Middle-Eastern folk dancing

For those of you who have been to TED con­fer­ences in the past, you’ll know it’s more than just speak­ers (although they are cer­tain­ly a high­light!). It’s a whole day of inno­v­a­tive think­ing, engag­ing con­ver­sa­tion, mak­ing new friends, stretch­ing your brain, par­tic­i­pa­tion and enter­tain­ment. Beyond our ros­ter of speak­ers, we have break­out ses­sions and per­for­mances lined up to real­ly round out your day.

And if you’ve been to a TEDxSalem event before, you’ll know our enter­tain­ment always rocks.

This year is no dif­fer­ent. We have Mik­ki Trow­bridge teach­ing yoga; Ishtar Sumar with Iraqi folk danc­ing; Edna Vazquez per­form­ing folk, rock, pop and Mari­achi music; and a sur­prise per­for­mance from the folks at Enlight­ened The­atrics!

Mik­ki Trow­bridge

Mik­ki Trow­bridge has been teach­ing a flow­ing, vinyasa style of yoga since 2010. She received her 200 hour Yoga­Works cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in 2011 and also have com­plet­ed cer­ti­fi­ca­tions or advanced train­ings with Strala, Yoga Med­i­cine and Street Yoga. Her class­es are anatom­i­cal­ly informed and soul­ful­ly inspired and promise to be fun, flow­ing (often a lit­tle sweaty) and leave you feel­in’ good. She aspires to infuse her pas­sion for the prac­tice, her love of music and gen­uine, life-inspired mus­ings into each class.

Mik­ki teach­es pri­mar­i­ly in the Salem, Ore­gon area with stu­dio class­es at Indi­go Well­ness Cen­ter and pri­vate class­es at Ore­gon State Hos­pi­tal and at a vari­ety of local busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions. In addi­tion, she hosts reg­u­lar Yoga + Beer events at local brew­eries around the state and offers StandUp Pad­dle Board Yoga class­es in Pacif­ic City.

Ishtar Sumar

Ishtar Sumar is an Iraqi folk dancer using move­ment to con­nect with cul­ture. She is a dance and fit­ness instruc­tor at Chemeke­ta Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege with expe­ri­ence in Mid­dle East­ern dance, as well as jazz, hip-hop and mod­ern dance plus health and fit­ness.

With cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and degrees in his­to­ry and sports fit­ness, Ishtar uses her danc­ing to teach move­ment and the his­to­ry of Mid­dle-East­ern folk dance. Ishtar is also the vice pres­i­dent of the Iraqi Cul­ture and Arts Asso­ci­a­tion in San Diego, as well as the chair of the Iraqi Jour­nal­ist Union in Amer­i­ca.

Edna Vazquez

Edna Vazquez is a Port­land-based Latin Amer­i­can singer-song­writer who per­forms orig­i­nal com­po­si­tions that pay homage to her inter­na­tion­al influ­ences with a pas­sion that comes through in every note of her music. She lifts the audience’s spir­its dur­ing her cathar­tic live per­for­mances with a vocal range that allows her to tran­si­tion seam­less­ly between folk, rock, pop and Mari­achi, all while explor­ing jazz stylings. Edna’s songs are deeply root­ed in uni­ver­sal human emo­tion and she has trav­eled far and wide spread­ing her mes­sage of light, love and cul­tur­al heal­ing.

Born in the Mex­i­can state of Col­i­ma but raised in Jalis­co, Edna spent half of her life immersed in the cul­ture and music of Mex­i­co and Latin Amer­i­ca, mov­ing to the Unit­ed States as a teenag­er. Her pas­sion for music and per­for­mance was born from these bicul­tur­al roots and has led her on a path of self-dis­cov­ery through song that has brought her suc­cess at each turn in the road. Whether shar­ing the stage with her musi­cal influ­ences or win­ning the first prize on Saba­do Gigante with her ren­di­tion of Cucur­ru­cucú Palo­ma, Edna’s spir­it and pow­er­ful vocal per­for­mance have been the cor­ner­stone of her career.

Enlight­ened The­atrics

Found­ed in 2013 by the­atre pro­fes­sion­al Vin­cen­zo Meduri, Enlight­ened The­atrics, a 501(c)(3) non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion that aims to fur­ther the cul­tur­al enrich­ment of Salem by pro­vid­ing pro­fes­sion­al musi­cal the­atre expe­ri­ences and edu­ca­tion for all.

A Salem native and grad­u­ate of Sprague High School, Vin­cen­zo earned a Bach­e­lor of Fine Arts in Musi­cal The­atre from Elon Uni­ver­si­ty in 2011. Fol­low­ing grad­u­a­tion, he pur­sued his dreams in New York City dis­cov­er­ing a love for direct­ing and teach­ing, which inspired him to return to Salem to estab­lish an orga­ni­za­tion for artists, stu­dents and dream­ers ded­i­cat­ed to instill­ing hope, edu­ca­tion and inspi­ra­tion in gen­er­a­tions to come.

Enlight­ened The­atrics brings the Broad­way expe­ri­ence to Salem, while con­tin­u­ing to breathe new life into a rich, his­tor­i­cal insti­tu­tion at the cen­ter of the city’s cul­tur­al, social and eco­nom­ic evo­lu­tion.

In Jan­u­ary 2015, the Meduri fam­i­ly acquired Salem’s His­toric Grand The­atre. Con­struct­ed in 1900 and list­ed on the Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places, the the­ater has served as a sta­ple of Salem cul­tur­al life for more than a cen­tu­ry hous­ing and host­ing every­thing from per­form­ing arts to enter­tain­ment, retail, restau­rants and more.

It’s not too late! Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem IV

Tick­ets are on sale now for Salem’s annu­al TEDx event Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 7, 2017. Tick­ets are $50, $40 for a stu­dent. You can also buy tick­ets at the door! The all-day event includes talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.