Greetings & Welcome!

 

I'm often asked what Venus Geist means and how I came up with this name.

 

Venus Geist is the translation of my name: Van-Essa is an alternate spelling of Venus, the essence of the feminine around us & the anima within us. Tiegs is the anagram of German Geist, a spirit, genius or ghost. 

 

I was a performance artist during the first half of my life. My artistic career began at age 15 as the youngest corps de ballet dancer with The Zurich Ballet. I rehearsed & performed under the artistic direction of the world's greatest Russian ballet legend, Rudolf Nureyev. I performed on world-class stages: the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center NY & The Kennedy Center in D.C. I danced in numerous ballets: "Manfred," "Don Quixote," "Petrouchka," "Sleeping Beauty," "La Sylphide," and "La Conservatoire." I saw up close the most demanding standards of ballet technique & artistry practiced by the world's greatest ballet dancers. Ballet stories tell the mythological theme that always challenges humanity; spiritual pursuit at the highest cost - one's life. My training taught me a disciplined life devoted to pursuing quality. Whether its meaning turned into an embodied spirituality of enlightenment, I have doubts.

 

During my years at Smith College, I studied music theory & performed classical piano, which allowed me to express my passion for romantic music composed by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Schubert & Brahms. Later, in my 30s, my virtuosity led me to pioneer & name an avant-garde woman's art movement reframing the oldest most misunderstood "socially suicidal" taboo. No longer able to mold art with my body after fracturing my L1-S5 vertebrae attempting to dance again, I began to "paint the dance" of the spirits of my plasma. I published a Livejournal blog of "Spiraling Moon Pain-Things" in 2000. My collection of 88 Menstrala quickly fueled an army of ad hominem attacks, memes & harsh reactions from audiences whom I was never targeting. Nevertheless, my devotion to creating value continues. In 2024, I experimented with A.I. Enhancement, creating virtual fine art Venus Geist Portraits of women from their selfies, which made me recognize the meaning of my name.

Photography Was An Early Calling

 

When I was a 10, my father had a dark room & showed me how he developed photographs from negatives the good old-fashioned way.

 

In 2010, I opened my own photography studio. Using a state of the art Digital SLR (the Canon EOS 7D), I committed to photographing my dog Vivi for 365 consecutive days. In the following year, 2011, I published her hardcover book, a labor of love & attention to her joy in the age of innocence. Vivi was my soulmate. Thankfully, I froze moments in time with her through thousands of photographic memories published on Flickr.

 

Getty Images, Avanti Press, and a U.K. press licensed some of my photographs of Very Vivi.

By 2012, my photograph series, "Vivi's Ballerina Dream," became the campaign poster for Dancers Love Dogs, a not-for-profit organization in South Africa where dancers fundraise three times a year to sterilize homeless dogs on the streets of Cape Town, Durban & Johannesburg. In the DLD photograph, I wear the ballet pointe shoe that was worn by Gelsey Kirkland in her 1976 performance of "La Sylphide" at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, New York.

I visited Ms. Kirkland in her dressing room after her performance. She generously gifted me her magical pair of pointe shoes. As a little girl aspiring to become a ballerina, I said, "Thank you, Miss Kirkland, I promise, I'll take very good care of your pointe shoes." I saw a teardrop fall from her eye; her gift keeps on giving. Her memento is part of a loving mission to help thousands of homeless dogs throughout South Africa.

My Passion For Dance Photography

 

My mother had been a ballet & a belly dancer. My childhood was immersed in dancing, acting, music &. performance life. With an eye for detail, I enjoyed photographing dancers I coached. One of my students joined the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet in New York, another joined the Kirov Ballet Academy. 

 

Other Creative Pieces of My Life

 

 

I've also tried my hands at calligraphy & model building (interning at Robert A.M. Stern Architects & Skidmore Owings & Merrill in NYC before constructing & photographing my own set designs called Miniarcs). Another favorite self-taught interest is the language of the stars. Intrigued by mythology, I learned several astrology techniques. First, I found Hellenistic Astrology during the 10 years of my archaeological travels throughout Europe in the 90's. After returning to the States in 2000, I integrated Jeffrey Green's Evolutionary Astrology into my daily astrological practice. In June 2012, during the Venus Occultation, I met my mentor, a Transcendental Karmic Astrologer, Zsuzsanna Griga, from Budapest. Now, in my free time, I am learning Vedic Astrology, based on the sidereal night sky. My interpretation of the Moon is far from what we are taught. And, I invented Monthmatics, a clock face that tells phasal time and places a person's life within the context of any cycle. Now ready to be built, Monthmatics will be able to teach in real time, the energies of natal placements, transits, magnetic rays & lunar progressed cycles with automated timestamping.

 

Thank you sincerely for your valuable time. To learn more, please book a call.

 

Vanessa Tiegs, Masters of Women's Spirituality & Phi Beta Kappa Cum Laude

 

© Copyright 2000-2025 Vanessa Tiegs. All rights reserved.

If you wish to reproduce any photographs on this website a license must be obtained from Vanessa Tiegs. Multiple uses in derivatives, including A.I. generated digital renditions, require royalty fees.

 

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