Born To Travel

I'm Niema Ash, author of the controversial Loreena McKennitt book

The major events of my life happened on the road. I was married on the road, conceived my daughter on the road, turned from girl to woman on the road. I learned about Buddhism in Tibet, about Islam in Morocco, Hinduism in India, and Judaism in Israel. The road was my university, my church, my love. I left Montreal to travel as an adolescent; I returned as an adult, with a husband, a baby and a career.

In the 60’s I formed my own dance group, having studied dance in New York with Martha Graham, the mother of modern dance, in my early teens. Between performances, I helped my then-husband, Shimon, run a folk music club (The Finjan) where famous musicians-to-be, including Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, performed. Much later, it was through friends from the Finjan that I met Loreena McKennitt whom my latest book, Travels with Loreena McKennitt is about. I also enrolled in a University course writing a masters thesis on The Dance Dramas of W.B. Yeats and was the assistant director and choreographer of three of these plays in Montreal’s main English speaking theatre, the Centaur.

In the 70’s, after Shimon and I separated, I received a Canadian Government grant to complete a doctorate on Yeats’s Dance Dramas. My ticket to ride was magically re-issued. I packed one suitcase for myself, one for my daughter, Ronit, and we flew to London. Not long after arriving in London I organized The Yeats Theatre Company. Yeats’s son, Michael, was one of the sponsors. I directed and choreographed two of Yeats’s dance plays which were also performed for BBC television. I liked living in London. Aside from its excellent theatre, London was also the perfect travel base. When Ronit was 15, we hitch-hiked through Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. This fascinating adventure became the basis of my book Travels with My Daughter

In the 80’s I was travelling in China when the door to Tibet - a country forbidden to foreigners for centuries - was briefly opened. I was able to live and travel with Tibetans, and experience a Tibet no longer available to travellers. My article The Sky Burial described one such now-prohibited experience. It later won a travel award in the London Sunday Times. Part of the award was lunch with the editor who encouraged me to incorporate the article into a book. Touching Tibet (previously called Flight of the Wind Horse) was the result . It is blessed with a treasured foreword by the Dalai Lama.

Many of the musicians from the Montreal Finjan days became close friends. Probably the closest was Loreena McKennitt whom I met in the early 80’s through the actor/musician Cedric Smith. My latest book, Travels with Loreena McKennitt combines our travel adventures with the story of an exceptional friendship. It describes the effects on friendship when one friend rises upon the wings of stardom, while the other is left on earth. It is also a behind-the-scenes vivid account of touring the world with her band; backstage glimpses into the perils and privileges of celebrity life; and a close look into the pitfalls inherent in the climb to fame and fortune.

Travel and friendship remain my two great passions.

 

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