For over forty-five years I was a movement educator, dancer and choreographer devoted to the exploration of the expression of the mind through the body. I graduated from the Juilliard School in 1971 and my first professional job was working in dance pioneer Anna Sokolow’s Players’ Projects. I continued to dance and perform professionally until 1995. My creative work as a choreographer and dancer always focused on how movement could fully express the states and conditions of the mind and heart. The objectification of movement has never been my interest; rather my concerns were always about excavating and exposing the roots of the subjective
experience through my work. As a director of two dance companies and an independent
choreographer I received numerous grants from private foundations, the states of Indiana and Minnesota and a National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship. I was a dance teacher throughout my dance career and taught all over the United States and Canada. I was on the faculty at the University of Minnesota from 1980 –1988 and then again from 1996 through 2019.
In 1990 I began my transition from dancer, choreographer and dance teacher to body-worker and movement educator. I graduated from the School for Body-Mind Centering ® in 1994 and became a Certified Practitioner and Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator. As a bodyworker and movement educator I help individuals discover and use the body's intelligence as they journey towards health and balance. My practice served women and men who wanted to find fuller physical presence, compassion for themselves and freedom from movement or behavioral patterns that are recapitulations of past trauma. Although much of my practice concerned psychotherapeutic application, I also worked with individuals (lots of dancers)
recovering from physical injury, surgery or living with chronic pain. A small but important part of my practice included children who had developmental challenges.
An important dimension of my work in the world was and is my ongoing practice in Buddhist mindfulness meditation. I integrated the methodology of mindfulness both in my private practice and in my coursework at the University. Teaching clients and students how to clarify the direct experience of mental activity and body sensations through awareness lead to a much fuller embodied presence in the here and now, whether that was dancing, performing or just living your life.
I began teaching Body-Mind Centering at the University of Minnesota in 1996 first at the introductory level and advanced levels. These courses included an Introduction to Body-Mind Centering, graduate level courses covering a five-semester series, (the graduate level courses in Body-Mind Centering were discontinued in 2009 due to draconian budget cuts that affected the entire University) and The Articulate Body, a required course for Dance Majors enrolled in the BFA program.
In 2018 I retired from private practice and then in 2019 I taught my last class at the UM, mostly due to hearing loss and a reluctance to do so much driving. I have lived in the country north of Elk River for over twenty-five years, am an avid gardener with a large vegetable patch, perennial gardens and borders, growing food and flowers. I have three children, nine grandchildren and much beauty in my life for which I am deeply grateful.
For over forty-five years I was a movement educator, dancer and choreographer devoted to the exploration of the expression of the mind through the body. I graduated from the Juilliard School in 1971 and my first professional job was working in dance pioneer Anna Sokolow’s Players’ Projects. I continued to dance and perform professionally until 1995. My creative work as a choreographer and dancer always focused on how movement could fully express the states and conditions of the mind and heart. The objectification of movement has never been my interest; rather my concerns were always about excavating and exposing the roots of the subjective
experience through my work. As a director of two dance companies and an independent
choreographer I received numerous grants from private foundations, the states of Indiana and Minnesota and a National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship. I was a dance teacher throughout my dance career and taught all over the United States and Canada. I was on the faculty at the University of Minnesota from 1980 –1988 and then again from 1996 through 2019.
In 1990 I began my transition from dancer, choreographer and dance teacher to body-worker and movement educator. I graduated from the School for Body-Mind Centering ® in 1994 and became a Certified Practitioner and Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator. As a bodyworker and movement educator I help individuals discover and use the body's intelligence as they journey towards health and balance. My practice served women and men who wanted to find fuller physical presence, compassion for themselves and freedom from movement or behavioral patterns that are recapitulations of past trauma. Although much of my practice concerned psychotherapeutic application, I also worked with individuals (lots of dancers)
recovering from physical injury, surgery or living with chronic pain. A small but important part of my practice included children who had developmental challenges.
An important dimension of my work in the world was and is my ongoing practice in Buddhist mindfulness meditation. I integrated the methodology of mindfulness both in my private practice and in my coursework at the University. Teaching clients and students how to clarify the direct experience of mental activity and body sensations through awareness lead to a much fuller embodied presence in the here and now, whether that was dancing, performing or just living your life.
I began teaching Body-Mind Centering at the University of Minnesota in 1996 first at the introductory level and advanced levels. These courses included an Introduction to Body-Mind Centering, graduate level courses covering a five-semester series, (the graduate level courses in Body-Mind Centering were discontinued in 2009 due to draconian budget cuts that affected the entire University) and The Articulate Body, a required course for Dance Majors enrolled in the BFA program.
In 2018 I retired from private practice and then in 2019 I taught my last class at the UM, mostly due to hearing loss and a reluctance to do so much driving. I have lived in the country north of Elk River for over twenty-five years, am an avid gardener with a large vegetable patch, perennial gardens and borders, growing food and flowers. I have three children, nine grandchildren and much beauty in my life for which I am deeply grateful.