Tera Nova Zarra
Tera Nova Zarra is a performing strong woman, acrobat, vocalist, and aerialist. She is a core company member of Pelú Theatre, was a company member of DoJump! Extremely Physical Theatre, and is an associate company member of Imago Theatre, all based in Portland, Oregon. She has also worked with Circus Artemis, Night Flight Aerial, and Teatro Milagro.
Tera trained for six years under former Austrian sport acrobatics champion and national team coach, Stefan Furst. She holds a black belt in Aikido and Aiki Jujutsu from American Institute of the Martial Arts in Connecticut. Tera co-created and fronted the ninja rock band Fist of Dishonor. She is a trained opera singer, and an instructor at The Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls. Tera also teaches competition level gymnastics at Rose City Gym, acrobatics at Do Jump, and aerial dance at Night Flight.
(photo by Rebecca Bateman)
About Tera's Art:
Tera studied art under Polly Fiddler who drove around New Haven, CT in a
VW bug painted like a water mellon. As a child, Tera's father gave her
plethoras of art supplies. His motivation for this was both to encourage
her, and to prevent her from drawing on the walls with jam and milk
powder. He still has crates of her child hood art, which she feels honored
and touched that he kept. She once got in trouble in a grade school art
class (not Polly's) for holding her papers up to the window and using the
light coming through to trace an outline instead of the tracing paper
provided. It was a positive experience though, because the boy she had a
crush on said that he thought that was a better method. Ha!
Tera creates art much less frequently as an adult. After being placed,
literally, in a box ("distraction prevention shield") by her teachers,
after comparing her body to her barbie's, after being injured on her bike
by a two by four intentionally held out the window of a stolen car by a
group of laughing girls, she wonders how she can get back to the jam and
milk powder. She senses that the act of having written this may, in itself,
help. Yes. She will keep creating art, not because of the product, or even
because of the process, but because of the compulsion.
