Mayadia's Page

Name

Ashlei Mayadia

About Me

An independent performance artist, Ashlei Mayadia loves creating, onstage and off. Her first stage appearance, Mayadia was 5 years old. It was a dance recital, and she didn’t know a lick of the choreography. Even though scarce funds stopped Mayadia from continuing the Kuumba House dance classes, the director allowed her to participate in the closing recital. On stage in her pink leotard and green tutu, Mayadia was full of stage fright and did not know what to expect. As she watched her peers perform in semi-perfect unison tundu's, plié, and other ballet positions, Mayadia just went with the flow. She repeated each bit of choreography two beats after her fellow ballerina’s and continued until the recital was finished. Stage fright abated, Ashlei Mayadia tuned into the creativity around her and began her independent and spirited creative path.

Even though music and singing are Mayadia’s first love, she studied theatre in public school. “My mother said I was already singing all the time around the house, so she put me in theatre classes to learn something else! I complained at first, but it has proven a vital tool for me with singing and songwriting.” After high school, she had her chance to combine her theatre and natural singing talents as an intern at Renaissance Performing Arts Center as a cast member in her university’s traveling musical theatre troupe, The Original Cast.

Through Renaissance, she had the opportunity present her poetry in two shows, “The Free Spirit Show” and “Love and Lies”. Both shows added music, song and dance to aide the experience. “I loved doing all I could with Tamiyka and Tyrone at Renaissance. In a mall, they converted a KB Toy Store into a 100 stadium seating theatre. They created and presented works that spoke to the wide spectrum of black culture. They were revolutionary creators and I learned so much from them.” Mayadia not only acted in their children’s shows, and she also wrote lyrics for, did some directing and even wrote her own children’s play. “It was great real world experience in the creative world. I learned booking and promotions. I answered phones, got even to talk to Prince once! That was awesome to say the least.”

As a member of the Original Cast, Mayadia toured East Texas festivals, nursing homes, and school and church events performing humorous musical portrayals of Texas history and notable era’s of American entertainment. In both environments, she learned the value of independent art and arts organizations, and how they balance out the homogenous commercial landscape.

With that foundation, Ashlei Mayadia experimented with the ways theatre, writing, song, and interpretive movement are affective means for telling creative stories that relate to man and woman. She has sang backup with jazz singer-songwriter, Jawaad and was a featured dancer at the Houston’s Storytelling Festival. Each year she performs a tribute show to Dr. Martin Luther King as a dancer and actress in the show.

It seems only natural that Ashlei Mayadia would become an artist of South Park Coalition. She laughs, “K-Rino and the independent movement of the SPC is a great fit for me, even though I’m not a rapper! My brothers and sisters in rhyme and their hard work to create great music with the art of storytelling is a rarity in today’s commercial music landscape. Not only am I glad they love my voice enough to do hooks and adlibs on their tracks, but I’m glad that everyone are truly about the art, and as indie’s if their isn’t any heart in the work, you’re really not gonna make much of an impact.”

Ashlei Mayadia is putting the finishing touches on her first solo album The Mayadia Project, set to release in summer of 2011. Look forward to songs with poetic-jazzy-soul landscapes that take the full creative life of Mayadia and present a story of awakening that any man and woman can relate too.

Website :

http://www.the144elite.com

Favorite bands:

Prince, Sade, Frank Ocean, Amel Larriuex, Michelle Ndegeocello, Janelle Monae, Ananda Project's Morning Light album, Sa-Roc, Michael Franks, Esperanza Spalding, Jones Girls, Michael Jackson, Fiona Apple, Alanis Morissette, Putomayo Compilations, Habib Kiote, Bria Valente, Jamiroquai

Favorite movies:

Ghost Dog, Blazing Saddles, Under The Cherry Moon, Emperor Jones, The Darktown Strutters, The Life Of David Gale, The Spook Who Sat By The Door, Donnie Darko, Under The Tuscan Sun, Stone, Midnight In The Garden Of Good and Evil

Favorite books:

Of Water and The Spirit, Women's Wisdom From Africa, Metu Neter, Are You There God It's Me Margaret, Meditation (Osho), The Mustard Seed, African Spirituality, The Maroon Within Us, Good Night Willie Lee I'll See You In The Morning

Favorite TV shows:

I haven't turned on my personal television since Dec. 2011...if I do end up seeing television, it is at a friends house, and I'm at the mercy of their vision muse....lol

Relationship status:

something beautiful...lol

Zodiac Sign

Gills and Tails

Band Question - Genre:

jazz pop soul

Band Question -Band Members:

Ashlei Mayadia

Band Question - Sounds like:

A Jazzy Pop Freedom Orgasm All Up in Yo Ear

Band Question - Record label:

Indie