About Madame Onça

Lauren 'Onça' O'Leary is a career entertainer, event producer, nationally touring performer, and internationally published author and artist.
She stages several major festivals annually, as well as myriad other events. Staged in Asheville, NC, her award-winning ABSfest: the Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival, is now is in its fifth year of bringing together artists from around the world to perform, study and network. Onça's annual festival TribOriginal: Tribal Dance, Music & Culture Camp has been nominated for Best Event, and her dance company Baraka Mundi as been nominated likewise for both Best Kept Secret and Best Dance Company. Onça currently travels the country teaching and performing song, dance and sultry antics of Luscious Cabaret & Balkan Ruckus with the Mezmer Society, and with the Accidental Circus, directed by Jester of England, Paolo Garbanzo. She illustrated and co-authored The World Spirit Tarot, an instant classic, which has been translated into Spanish.

It is her stalwart belief is that "The greatest expression of Rebellion is Joy."


NEXT APPEARANCE:

December 10. New Orleans, LA. Onça  performs with Ben Wisdom's Slow Burn Burlesque at The Howlin' Wolf.
December 15. Asheville, NC. Onça  hosts the ABSfest Holiday Cocktail Party Show with performance, venison, shmoozing and more at Royal Peasantry Boutique. More info tba.
December 18. Richmond, VA. Onca will be performing at The Bellydance Brunch Cabaret/Illumination Studio Holiday Party.
December 17. Virginia Beach, VA. Cabaret show, info tba.
December 30. Richmond, VA. The Accidental Circus does a hometown show with visiting dignitaries from around the East.
Accidental Circus and Friends Holiday ExtravaganzApolcalypse Tickets HERE

December 31. Richmond, VA. Private party.
January 15. Richmond, VA. Onça performs in Luminare, Illumination Studios annual world music showcase at the glorious Byrd Theater.
January 17-22. Accidental Circus Suncoast Tour! Stops in Asheville, Charleston, St. Pete FL, and more.  rocks out at the
SunCoast Burlesque Festival: workshops, shows, beach parties and more.
February 4. Raleigh, NC. Onça co-hosts and teaches workshops at The Purrlesque Follies.
February 17-19. Belleville, Michigan. Workshops and show with Trisha Miah.
February 23-26. Atlanta, GA. TribalCon! The Mezmers teach and perform at one of the best Tribal genre events in the country.
March 10-17, Saint Petersburg, FL. The Bellydance Cruise sails again! The Mezmers teach and perform on the high seas.
April 27-29, Richmond, VA. Private party.
May 4-6, Golden, CO. Onça MCs and teaches at the fantastic annual Elevation Dance Festival.
May 12-13. Fayetteville, NC. The Mezmer Society teaches and performs with Phoenix Avatar.  More Info TBA.
May 16-20. Accidental Circus MidWest Tour. Stops include Indianabpolis, Cinncinnatti, Lexignton, KY and more!  Info TBA.
May 25-28, Asheville, NC. Onça produces the 7th annual Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival, three days of workshops and performances.

Event Producer

Onça founded these events and continues to direct them as Future of Tradition Productions:

TribOriginal: Tribal Dance, Music & Culture Camp: 2006 - 2011. TribO is a national, four-day, family-friendly, full-service, total immersion arts camp held annually in the mounatins of western North Carolina. This event was nominated for Best Event in the 2007 National Golden Belly Awards. www.triboriginal.org

ABSFest: the Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival: 2007 - 2011. ABSfest offers three days of quality performance, workshops, vending and networking for international Neo-Vauedville artists in historic Asheville, the Old Paris of the South. Nominated for Best Performance in the People's Choice Awards, two thousand enthusiastic people have attended ABSfest events to date from as far abroad as Scotland and Japan. www.sideshowburlesque.org

Ongoing Local & Regional Events. Mardi Gras Moulin: Annual variety showcase. Bellydance Asheville Showcases: held four times annually.
Movement, Culture & Stagecraft workshops held throughout the year, 1999-2011. Dozens of events to date; highlights include hosting the Yard Dogs Traveling Road Show, Brazilian martial arts masters, Le Serpent Rouge, master drummers from West Africa, fetish events, providing facilities for the Asheville Circus School, and the 2010 multi-city tour 'Masters of Vaudeville' with Armitage Shanks.

Entertainer

Torch-singer, dancer, Mistress of Ceremonies, fire-eater, stage character.

Accidental Circus: 2002-present. "Old-Timey Fun in New-Timey Pants". Touring ensemble performance on the vanguard of the Neo-Vaudeville Revival, under the direction of Jester of England, Paolo Garbanzo. www.accidentalcircus.com

The Mezmer Society: Luscious Cabaret and Balkan Ruckus.
2007-present. Tours nationally to teach and perform soulful Eastern European party music in a spicy roulade of goodwill and bad behavior. The Mezmers are rewriting the book on appropriate uses of bellydance and live music, backwards, and with broken crayons. www.mezmersociety.com

Onça appears around the United States in bellydance, cabaret, burlesque and variety shows as Mistress of Ceremonies and performer.

Onça was the featured dancer for January 2010 at Under the Sun Light Belly Dance Bazaar and was the cover model for October's Zaghareet Magazine www.zaghareet.freeservers.com

Instructor

Baraka Mundi, the Bandit Queens of Bellydance: 2000-2009. Founder of Baraka Mundi Live Music & Dance Ensemble, which pioneered tribal bellydance in the Carolinas and have taught and performed for thousands. Nominated for Best Kept Secret in the National Golden Belly Awards. Baraka Mundi has a cd 'World Spirit Melody' and a perfomance dvd of full-length narrative theatre dance production 'The Secret of Ashes'. In 2008-2010, Baraka Mundi offered 'performance in the Park' through a grant from Arts2People.

Future of tradition Center for Folkloric Arts: 1999-2006. Co-founded and directed the 3600 square foot folk-art center as a hub for world performance traditions, as well as a birthing ground for the regional Neo-Vaudeville movement. FoT offered affordable Fine Art studios, movement and performance space.

World Spirit Studio: 2008-2011. Onca directed the Future of Tradition Center for Folkoric Arts, a cornerstone presence in the developing River Arts District of Asheville, for seven years before opening World Spirit Studio, which is now home to Baraka Mundi's ongoing classes.



Guest Instruction: Onca has taught bellydance in a broad variety of community settings from pre-schools to senior centers. She has taught and performed in many academic environments, including Isaac Dickson Elementary, Marion County Arts Association, Claxton School for the Humanities, Transylvania County Middle and High Schools, Canton High School, Artspace Charter School, UNC-Asheville, Clemson University, Western Carolina University, Warren Wilson College, AB Tech, Mars Hill College, Davidson College, Tusculum College, and Wake Forest University.

Illustrator & Author

World Spirit Tarot: Published in both English and Spanish 1999 by Llewelyn Worldwide. Described as 'an instant classic' upon release. Illustrated and co-authoured by Lauren O'Leary, with Jessica Godino. See them here. Numerous illustration cover credits through Llewellyn and related publications from 1999-present.

Numerous articles published in genre publications, including Tribal UK magazine, Big Top, and Zaghareet Magazine.