Penni AlZayer, who lives in New Plymouth, Ohio, spreads her passion for the arts and culture as famed henna artist the Henna Faerie, director of a theater troupe Rough Magic and director of tribal fusion dance group Whiplash
After driving down a long and winding road surrounded by rows of trees and their autumn leaves, Penni AlZayer’s home comes into view. With a small moat and gargoyles adorning the entrance, it’s almost like stepping onto a film set.
Her home, dubbed “Woodfield Keep,” is filled with artwork from several countries including Syria and Egypt, stained-glass windows from old churches, Victorian era-looking furniture and iron chandeliers and Amish-made solid ash kitchen cabinets.
“If you really want to get to know Penni, you just have to walk into her house and see all the different kinds of influences and cultures,” said Meredith Jensen, AlZayer’s friend and artistic colleague. “It’s from all over the world and from all different time periods,”
Jensen is a member of all three of the different arts organizations that AlZayer directs: The Henna Faeries, who do henna body art; Whiplash Tribal Fusion Dancers; and Rough Magic, a theater group based in New Plymouth, Ohio.
“I move from theater costumes to faerie clothes to regular clothes — or as regular as I get. I don’t even own a pair of jeans,” said AlZayer, whose Victorian-like dress and feather-wrapped hair solidifies that statement.
Jensen praised AlZayer’s passion for the arts and these organizations, saying people appreciate the artistic opportunities she gives them.
“I think that’s her mission, to bring joy to other people through art and performance,” Jensen said. “However she can get it done. However she can bring a little bit of culture and global thinking to a place like Vinton County.”
Born in McArthur, Ohio, AlZayer has been a lover of the arts since she was a child. She said her family helped foster her passion, as her parents were naturally artistic.
“Art is an escape,” AlZayer, 62, said. “It absolutely enhances life. … It nurtures the heart and soul.”
AlZayer passed on a love for art to her four children, who specialize in different types of art from singing to theater to computer animation. She said she believes her children were predestined for a love of the arts not only because of her passion, but also because of her husband Saleh’s interests as well. Saleh AlZayer was a professor of art education at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.
Because he is a practicing Muslim from Saudi Arabia and she is a practicing Christian, she said she understood tradition could cause conflict, but they’ve managed to beat the odds in their 30 years of marriage.
In 1989, the AlZayers moved to Bahrain, an island just west of Saudi Arabia, and returned to America in 2001. AlZayer said living in the Saudi compound heavily influenced her worldview by showing her how the women in that country truly act and experience art.
It was in Saudi Arabia where she expanded her knowledge about henna and especially dance. Before, she said she was a cake decorator and mostly only knew how to do lace patterns. Now, AlZayer has had decades of experience in henna art, dance and theater and started the Henna Faeries, Whiplash and Rough Magic about five to seven years ago.
As the Henna Faerie, AlZayer dresses up — curly-toed shoes, wings and all — and designs henna art. Jensen called her “an encyclopedia of the ancient art,” adding AlZayer can discuss the roots of a henna style or image just by looking at it.
AlZayer has worked at many festivals in the area including the Nelsonville Music Festival, the Pawpaw Festival and the Steampunk Spectacle. Besides festivals, she said she has done henna art for proms, weddings, birthdays and more.
It’s a long ways from being a child who got in trouble repeatedly for drawing on herself and on others, AlZayer said.
Rough Magic typically performs William Shakespeare’s works, classic literature and poetry. Dance group Whiplash performs tribal fusion belly dancing, which mixes several styles of dance from different cultures.
“I think she recognizes it’s very important to people to have a creative outlet, so she wisely offers people these kinds of opportunities,” Jensen said. “You just don’t imagine (these groups) being in the hills of Appalachia, yet there they are because she made them work.”
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