I teach private movement sessions and group workshops that deepen your understanding of your moving body in your life.
I am a movement educator, scholar, author and choreographer. I direct Integrated Movement Studies and am an Assistant Professor of Dance at Alfred University. As a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst through Integrated Movement Studies, a Registered Master Somatic Movement Educator through ISMETA (International Somatic Movement Educators and Therapists Association) and Certified Personal Trainer through NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) the creative, moving body is at the forefront of my interests.
I believe in coming back to the body – continually and consciously being present with the sensate, physical self as a teacher of one’s life. I value the sensitive and subtle, as well as the exuberant and athletic.
My days are centered around the body, my own and others. Most of my moving is dancing and boxing and rock climbing, I also love to roll on balls – seeking the sensations of connectedness through my body, and sprint down the street – propelling my mass forward through the space with vigor and commitment.
I direct Integrated Movement Studies (IMS). IMS offers graduate certification programs and immersive education in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies. As a steward of that organization and lineage I am grounded in its history and unique wisdom and also excited the magnificent developments that keep it dynamic as it grows into the future.
I especially care about dance because it integrates expression and creativity with physical skill and virtuosity – whatever that means for each project. Making dances means making worlds that do not exist otherwise; researching something and coming to know it in a manner I otherwise could not come to know it. Through dance I get to physically design and develop relationships and understandings that are experienced and perceived by those who perform it and witness it. Dance appears at the same time it disappears, a quality that connects to ritual, spontaneity, and taking care of the moment. Dance is a movement mantra through which the moving body can momentarily make the world we want to inhabit.
I have a Masters in Fine Arts in Dance from SUNY Brockport, a Masters in Liberal Studies from SUNY Empire State College, and a Bachelors in Dance and Arts and Education from William Smith College, with high honors for my honors thesis “Cultivating Creative Bodies.” I am also a Simonson Certified Dance Teacher and in process with Z-Health education.