The place is called Mecca: A Live Studio and Gallery and co-founder Teresa Tomb explains how the name was chosen: "Mecca is a place that is regarded as the center of activity or interest. It's also defined as a place visited by many and different peoples. We're here to bring together a vivid variety of folks by using a common language: dance and movement."

Tomb along with co-founder Lisa Duggins is excited at the notion of offering something different to Lexington residents, something with a community spirit, with the potential to greatly enrich the individual, as well: "Dance is a release and a personal balancing, which is invaluable considering the crazed pace of the modern world. Cultural dances have strong properties and feelings attached to them: Middle Eastern Belly Dance is hypnotic; There's a poetic languor in the Ancient Hula; You can find explosive passion in the Flamenco dancing of Spain. We're trying to give a person the opportunity to step away from the mundane, to balance the stress of the day with something beautiful and redeeming."

Both Tomb and Duggins were themselves transformed by dancing after taking Belly Dance classes with Suzanne Armetta some 5 years ago. Two years ago, Armetta died unexpectedly, and Tomb was faced with taking a more leading role with the dance troupe. "I was very turned on by the dance and had many ideas for choreography and image. My goal was to make us a professional dance troupe," Tomb explains. As the troupe worked to redefine itself without its mentor, Tomb and Duggins realized that an offshoot group was necessary to continue expanding horizons.

Rakadu Gypsy Dance was the result and since their inception, the troupe has received regional accolades and traveled widely to promote and perform Tribal-Style Belly Dance.

"Rakadu Gypsy Dance was the first step towards Mecca. Mecca is the home base of Rakadu, but we recognize that others' interests might not necessarily lie with Tribal Belly Dance," says Duggins. "We're interested in different things, too! So the studio offers a range of classes to allow interested individuals to design their own odyssey."

Current offerings include Tribal Style Belly Dance, Ancient Hula, Flamenco, and Modern Dance, as well as several non-dance offerings such as Kick Boxing Exercise and Hand Drumming. There's even a class that Duggins teaches called Belly Babies, a belly dance class devoted to kids ages 5-9.

According to Tomb, Mecca is also looking forward to hosting some familiar faces from the Lexington dance scene: "We are so excited that several of our personal mentors—the people who got us into dance—are going to be working with us now, people like Meriah Kruse and Sandra Cairo." Both Kruse, who teaches Ancient Hula, and Cairo, who is teaching Spirit Dance, have rich Lexington histories with Syncopated, Inc. and other dance-centric activities in the area and around the world.

"We're thrilled to be bringing this avenue of expression to Lexington. There's a lot to look forward to in coming times from Mecca. We'll be expanding programs as our audience discovers us and binding in new elements as well, like Acting/Drama classes, specialty dance workshops with masters from around the world, and a challenging program of visual and performance art showings in this space," Tomb predicts. "Incidentally, our building here is fabulous! It's a completely renovated portion of the Bond House, which used to be the old Nick Kremer Wholesale business, which was here for, like, 40 or 50 years. There's definitely a sense of history here."

"And we plan on adding a little history of our own. Did you know this building is haunted?" chimes Lisa with an enthusiastic sparkle. "That's okay! If there's ghosts here, we hope the music will have them dancing, too, between here and the Hereafter!"

Mecca Live Studio and Gallery had its official opening on April 10. The studio is located at 451 B Chair Avevue in downtown Lexington.