By Lizette Byer
In collaboration with Dixie State University’s Trailblazers Summer Concert Series, the third annual Zion Matrix Live Benefit Concert will be held on Sept. 9 at the visually stunning O.C. Tanner Amphitheater. This year’s concert of community, awareness, philanthropy, dance, and music supports Girls on the Run of Southern Utah and features the freestyle-infused, inspirational music of world-renowned musical duo and band Aykanna. The general public is invited to purchase advance tickets at zion-matrix.com/booking.
Inspired in part by the massive dance party scene in the film “The Matrix,” Zion Matrix combines music, dance, landscape, spirituality, and philanthropy for a fun and transformative evening of sacred sound and consciousness raising. This year’s event experience, “Love Is The Answer,” celebrates the strength of our connectedness and community through the power of love.
“We believe, without love there can be no freedom and without freedom there can be no love,” said co-organizer Atonka. “When we are unbound from past and future, we can find true love in the world. It is our wish, to share a fragrance of this love, together with you.”
“In love, we experience unity as within the aura of love there are no boundaries,” said co-organizer Mandeep. “Love is indeed the solution and answer to a thriving, connected, and engaged global community.”
This third Zion Matrix supports Girls on the Run of Southern Utah, based in St. George and serving girls in Washington and Iron Counties. Joining Aykanna will be aerial silk dancers and a fusion of gongs and drums. Together, they will build up the energy for a grand finale under the starry night sky! This is a family-friendly event, and food and drink will be available for purchase.
Girls on the Run is a national nonprofit organization that has established 225 councils in 50 states. The southern Utah council is located in St. George and serves third- to eighth-grade girls in afterschool programs throughout Washington and Iron Counties. Girls on the Run inspires girls to recognize their inner strength and celebrate what makes them one of a kind, positively impacting their families, schools, and communities. For more information, please visit gotrsouthernutah.org.
As a husband and wife team, Aykanna has toured and taught all over the world, including Central America, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. Aykanna has performed for thousands at yoga festivals and other conscious gatherings including Sat Nam Fest, Wanderlust, Hanuman Festival, Yoga Journal Conference, and the Summer Solstice Sadhana Celebration. Sukhdev and Akahdahmah offer a joyous approach to yogic teachings rooted in love and faith. Aykanna’s music is positive and inviting, reaching out beyond the boundaries of kirtan and new age music genres and into the hearts of all people. For more information, please visit aykanna.com.
The organizers and vision holders of Zion Matrix are Atonka (Catrin Zambella) and Mandeep (Melanie Paulk Abderrahman). Zion Matrix is the fulfillment of their shared vision to create unifying and transformative experiential events in the magical and sacred sound location of Zion Canyon.
Atonka moved in 2001 from the Swiss Alps to the sacred water in the valley in Zion National Park to be with her beloved family, Jonathan and Massimo. Atonka believes everything should be done in a sacred manner with sincerity, love, and devotion and with a firm conviction that true living means virtually perfecting one’s soul, one’s spiritual existence in tune with life, people, animals, trees, water, rocks, and the universe. It is her dream that we all come to awaken the sense of our own divinity to bring the sacredness of being human to our everyday experience. It is her dream that we all feel inspired to awaken the living potential to expand awareness of who we are and where we are going by actualizing and achieving collaborative real efforts that bring benefit towards Earth and all life forms that depend upon her wellbeing. For more info, please visit nama-stay.com and zionguru.com. For inquiries, please email atonka@zionguru.com.
Mandeep is a visionary and philanthropist working tirelessly for a peaceful, thriving, global community by creating an active local focus in the southern Utah and Las Vegas communities. Her focus and methodology is inspired and shared through being a living, breathing modern yogi and a teacher of kundalini yoga and meditation. She is also passionate about music and sound vibrational healing. Her studio and home reflect this creativity, and she openly shares her home studio, Sage Hills 108, located at the Om Ranch in Cedar City, with anyone and everyone! For more information, please visit sagehills108.com. For inquiries, please call Mandeep at (435) 867-YOGA.
