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Mara Shaye Corti Bio

Mara was born to a musical legacy.

Her father is the son of a Diva soprano, while her mother is a singer/musician. In utero, Mara’s mom practiced guitar every day, infusing her with the musical “vibes.”

With children in tow, Mara’s mom raised them in a bohemian world, playing in an Irish band, bellydancing, protesting equal rights for women and Irish independence from England. Some of Mara’s earliest memories include exotic Persian surroundings where she’d watch her mother’s belly dance troupe perform, or smoky Irish pubs where the band would play.

As a small child, Mara’s calling was steered toward the dance. She spent many years competing in Irish Dance until she found Clogging, or Appalachian tap dance. In her younger school years, she cultivated a “frailty” which made her prone to sickness, and became a master at convincing everyone, so she could stay home and pretend to be Olivia Newton-John all day.

By the time teenage years came around, she was teaching Clogging until she discovered Rock N’ Roll. Her brother had become a virtuoso bass player, and often let her sing in his bands. By the age of 16, she was sneaking into bars to sing.

In high school, she spent her years dedicated to the special select choir touring state competitions. The choir focused on all aspects of performance.

At 19, she was in her own full time band. The master-mind behind all their music was the son of a local recording guru, and spent many hours training Mara to record in their family’s professional studio. She divided her time between the rock band, and a family ensemble that played Irish music, blues and folk.

When the rock band fell apart, she retreated for a while, deciding that her style wasn’t original enough. Dropping all music and dance, she searched for channels through which she could cultivate something different. During this time she pursued a career in resort management and hospitality, worked for the family publication business, and finished writing a novel. www.shadowriddle.com

During this phase, she found the Society for Creative Anachronism (www.SCA.org), which is an international medieval and Renaissance re-enactment group. Convinced she had found paradise, she spent 8 years touring events, performing, and searching for her missing “style.” With the persona of a gypsy fire dancer, Mara was prolific in improvisational drum circles, where she vowed never to structure her music and dance.

During those years, she never danced or sang unless surrounded by master drummers around a fire and under an open sky. She became well known for her exotic vocal improvisations, which could be heard across desert and mountain camp sights unamplified. She was known there as "The Faery Princess."

She left the medieval circuit for the resort industry, where she spent a few years doing cabaret acts at Club Med and on ships. Here she performed hits from the 70’s thru 90’s as well as jazz and Latin.

After her stint at sea, she returned to Boulder, Colorado, where she discovered Burning Man-style performance. She spent four years developing a hybrid comic-book on stage; focusing on the production end of the stage as well as the performance. A summer spent in the recording studio during that time produced a CD entitled “Love Songs to America,” with songwriter Gregg Eisenberg out of Boulder. The music is vocally arranged by Mara, and can be found at www.heavymeadow.org.

After moving to Los Angeles, she spent two years in the downtown underground world. There she spent time studying the fast paced art production world. From Coachella Music Fest to Los Angeles Anon Salon Sea of Dreams at the Los Angeles Theater, Mara, aka Commander dazzle spent a year in production, moving up through various levels of responsibility. The next year She took Command of Bedlam Warehouse, the "castle" for the oldest underground art collective in downtown L.A. Here she ran events and performed her infamous Dazzle Jazz, which gained legendary status. She rolled her experience to the Burlesque and cabaret world where she joined Vintage Vamps Burlesque; a Gothic Moulin Rouge extravaganza.

Mara’s flare for the exotic has brought her performance to a whole new level. Her dance style mixes the fancy footwork of childhood Irish and clogging roots with belly dance, East Indian temple dance, Spanish Flamenco, Turkish Romani, ballet, jazz, modern club dancing, Latin, fire dancing, circus style contortions, Chinese streamers, and 14 years of martial arts training and enthusiasm. Her powerful vocal style fuses haunting middle-eastern melodies with a Disney style clarity, and silky dreamlike textures.

As a musician, she has developed some skill with the guitar. A childhood of percussive footwork opened up a rhythmic world that has given her a natural talent for percussion, which was developed further as she trained under middle eastern doumbek masters. She also composes electronic music on the computer.

She is now landed in L.A. where her interests have steered toward the fusion of electronics with intricate vocal arrangements and live instrumentation. she currently works with Scobra Productions out of Hollywood. Commander Dazzle can be found on Myspace.

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