Meet the Woman of VATRA

Reading time: 10 minutes
Greetings, my name is Teodora Porumb and I welcome you to my Heart, Vatra Touristic Holistic Center, my soulful business.I wrote this blog post for you to be able to take a look at my life journey and come into resonance with this project. Check out my professional studies and work experience, as well as my artistic visions about life and how I envision my future contributions to the world...well, at least to this heritage region and my growing online community :)  
I was born in Cluj and raised from the age of three in Toronto, Canada. Naturally, after graduating from the High School Theater Arts program, I chose to attend Glendon College bilingual campus of York University in order to explore my passion for diverse cultures and languages and to be surrounded by a dynamic multicultural environment. I began the Humanities Bachelor program with a broad scope of study, later specializing in Philosophy and attaining the Certificate in French Bilingualism, as well as a Certificate in Law & Social Thought. In my second last year of studies, I enrolled in the Community Arts Practice certificate program, which offered me the unique opportunity to explore the innovative field of arts-informed education and community building. I engaged in many volunteer activities and three internships related to the domain of study, I participated in many theatrical productions, and I worked at several jobs mainly in the domains of customer service and retail sales. After graduating, I decided to live in New York City where I studied theater and I worked as Hostess for the restaurant of a hotel beside the ocean, and then as hostess for a country golf club. In summer of 2015, I moved back to Romania where I now run my own souvenir shop and touristic holistic center in the Sarmizegetusa Regia UNESCO Heritage region; the heart of my country's ancestry. 

Art: Gabriel Tora

Upon moving back to Romania, I saw a great opportunity for offering an important service in the Sarmizegetusa Regia region where the field is as of yet unexploited let alone guided by strong visionary leaders.   I am now well connected to important resources, especially business collaborators, and to key stakeholders in the local and regional community, where I have gained support and respect for my work. I feel that I have now ‘traveled’ full circle and am honoured to share the beauty and unique attributes of this little portion of my homeland to international, as well as Romanian travelers.

Having been lucky enough to travel back to Romania many times and to explore many European cities during those journey’s layovers, the travel spark ignited not only my preoccupation with exploring large horizons of thought, but the love for my Romanian heritage. This country truly is like the Garden of Eden.
Indeed, I am well-traveled and thus experienced in the receiving-end of tourism services. This engenders in me many cross-cultural competencies and a natural inclination for hospitality; I am receptive to diverse peoples’ needs, I can communicate in many languages while embodying professionalism and
passion for offering quality services and Romanian-made souvenirs to my customers (many of whom are recurrent clients).

Plus, I consider myself a community-engaged healing artist!
What is that??
Read below...

COMMUNITY ARTIST STATEMENT
I am primarily a human being thus a visionary; secondly, a peace-maker as community-engaged artist.
I have been preoccupied with understanding the commonality between all contexts of struggle in this world throughout history: political, economic, social, religious, as well as spiritual issues within the individual Self.
Motivation has come from uncovering the underlying connection between the suppression of individual power and the repeated domination over peoples and land.  My definition of authentic power is the ability to harness total consciousness in the governance of one’s own life, for the purpose of discovering one’s meaning and sharing one's unique contributions to create harmony within the Self as well as the whole.
On the global stage, we are living an electrifying moment in history. As we emerge from the dysfunctional ego-centered paradigm- that has conditioned humanity for thousands of years and which has naturally culminated,- the mass consciousness is elevating. Individuals are releasing their inherited out-dated belief systems. We are all relearning to master self-awareness and personal responsibility for the purpose of co-creating our future.
Victor Hugo acknowledged that, “Greater than the force of mighty armies, is the power of an idea whose time has come”. The idea of a radical human transcendence has arrived and its force is unstoppable.
A deep-seated urge propels me to inspire others to find their power as this is the key to actualising a sustainable future.
Art, specifically theater, changed my life for it taught me to live in the moment, to listen to my instincts, to celebrate my originality and that of others, and to share my highest visions freely.
At the heart of social change lies the change within one's Self for we are all merely actors upon this stage. Art can and will earnestly change the world for we are free when we create from the heart.  My own life is a manifestation of this utopian ideal as I have discovered my power and alchemized my dream seeds.
My travels around the world, passion for theater, a bachelor degree in philosophy, as well as study/practice of Eastern spiritual traditions and contemporary Integral Philosophy, have had a profound influence on my quest.  
The emerging Community Arts field is at the forefront of this transition period. I am primarily interested in collective trauma healing and transformational theatre practices such as Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed and Jodorowsky’s Psychomagic. These modalities instigate contemplation about deep-seated emotions and inherited belief systems, and lead to the subsequent transcendence over them. Of particular interest to me is the facilitation of workshops geared towards community-engaged artists and other leaders of sustainable cultural production, to strengthen our collective ability to inspire widespread change.
I am also interested in writing/directing/producing and facilitating the communal creation of radical theater and performance art, to bring theater’s celebratory, ritualistic and healing potential of covert collective demechanization, into the public realm.
A complimentary interest lies in the healing arts. Various forms of energy healing modalities are conducive to the release of stagnating energy that hinder one from engaging life in fullest potential. Healing arts can be taught in an artistic, participatory manner and with the purpose of enabling participants to pass on these effective techniques.
Each individual is a work of art. I approach myself in this way as I strive to embody the power and joy of leading an authentic, creative life. Ultimately, the best form of art that anyone can offer is Thine Own Self. I humbly transmit this energy to all around me and hope to inspire you to believe in your own ability to create yourself in your highest good. The future cries out for this.