Dance Teaching Statement

For me, teaching is more related to guiding; and as a guide, I offer what tools, tricks and insights I've collected from over 20 years of training and performing. Dance, like life, has a lot to do with perception. Through my own perception and research, I can truly appreciate the way ANY body moves. I perceive that movement expression is one of the most naturally poetic aspects of our humanity, therefore available to all to cultivate as an art form. That said, over the past 8 years, I have been teaching dance and movement to nearly every demographic.

I work with exposing the esoteric principles that are naturally occurring in our study of dance; the energetic bodies in dialogue with the physical body. Throughout each class, I add the information of our “known” bodies (the hemisphere coordination brain-body, physical cell to skin shell-body) to our secret “bodies;” our creative/spiritual rocketship-body, and heart-medicine-body. I take into account the individual and group needs/desires, and practice teaching from an technical as well as intuitive place. I find much joy as a teacher in offering a place to seek & reflect, search & research, encouraging presence and “being.” We aim to develope a practice of awareness that bleeds out into the world from what we discover in our bodies, in space and in class, together.

I have taught internationally throughout the United States and in Berlin, Germany, from University levels to community levels. My teaching technique comes from a vast and varied history: R.A.D. Ballet training and Modern dance, receiving a BFA in performance/choreography, studying both post modern and classical modern forms (Graham technique, Release Technique, Contact Improvisation and Improvisation). My teaching approach uses elements of other performance and bodywork forms I have studied, including Iyengar and Ashtanga Yoga, Alexander & Feldenkrais Techniques, Flamenco, Meyerhold, Meisner Method Acting, Peruvian Shamanism, and View Points. Playing between serious states & wild animalism...with a natural sense of humor.