173. How Movement Heals - Embodied Dance as a Healing Practice with Allison Pagano

What if the healing you have been chasing through books, therapy, and doing all the right things has been waiting somewhere your mind cannot go?

Allison Pagano spent 25 years learning what the body knows that the mind cannot reach. She is a dancer, healer, and founder of Embodied Dance, and her own path began not with a calling but with a breaking point: an eating disorder in her twenties and a dance studio in Australia where she finally let herself be seen. This conversation goes into why so many purpose-driven women stay stuck even after years of inner work, and what shifts when you stop trying to heal from the neck up.

"There's this whole other stream of intelligence that I was never told about or never touched before. And here it is alive and speaking to me and really basically leading this healing process."

"I felt completely misunderstood by most people because I could see and feel things that they couldn't. It made me feel like I didn't belong anywhere. When you have this sort of aspect to yourself that you feel so different and it's not being acknowledged in a positive way, you start to shut it down."

"I think so much spirituality asks us to go up and out. What I've noticed is that the pathway to self-actualization is to come down and in."

The body holds intelligence the mind cannot access. Movement is one of the few ways to reach it.

Real healing asks the mental, emotional, and physical bodies to be present at once. Without the body, insight stays insight.

The gifts that got shut down because no one around you could hold them are often the ones you are here to offer.

Holding space for others begins with one question: how much of yourself can you accept right now?

The path forward is not always up. Sometimes it starts in the places you have not let yourself feel yet.

The part of you that has felt too much, seen too much, and quietly wondered if that is a flaw or a gift deserves an answer. This episode is a good place to start.

Bio

Allison is a dancer, former professor and performer with 25 years in the Healing Arts. She has spent her career exploring how people heal with and through movement as well as understanding how energy and quantum healing can combine with dance to provide transformative experiences for performers, audiences, clients and students.

Website: https://embodied-dance.com/ 

IG: https://www.instagram.com/embodied.dance/ 

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@embodieddance-allisonpagan3284 

@embodieddance-allisonpagan3284 

Her work centers on a simple truth that the body is not just something we carry around, it is an intelligent guidance system. She guides people beyond surface level expression into the root of their patterns, working with the body, psyche, and deeper energetic layers simultaneously. The work is about developing authorship over your body and your life, so that what you’ve healed is no longer a momentary insight, but something you can consciously embody and sustain.

She currently leads an online and in person teacher Certification using dance as a healing art and has certified teachers in over a dozen countries. Her greater mission is to support people coming 'home' to their inner body gnosis so that they can be led toward the highest future for humanity and not the AI dominant one we're seeing unravel.

JJ DiGeronimo is an award-winning author, speaker, and podcast host dedicated to helping women trust their inner wisdom, illuminate their gifts, and align with meaningful work. As the host of the Together We Seek Podcast, JJ creates sacred spaces to explore light, energy practices, and ancient wisdom with healers, mystics, and spiritual teachers. Through authentic conversations, she encourages listeners to embrace their unique gifts, deepen their self-trust, and remember the wisdom they already carry.

JJ is the author of four books, including her latest release, Illuminate Your Path: 6 Phases of Spiritual Awakening. Find Your Phase at: https://quiz.jjdigeronimo.com/

Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/JJ-DiGeronimo/author/B01INZ5GA2 

Website:  https://jjdigeronimo.com         
Together We Seek Community: https://www.togetherweseek.online/                                                               

Transcript

173. How Movement Heals - Embodied Dance as a Healing Practice with Allison Pagano

Hello. Hello. JJ DiGeronimo here. And today, we are talking about the body, about dance. We're gonna be talking about the spiritual instrument that really sits within us.

And I think that is such a powerful tool for so many women that have grown up dancing or have grown up doing sports, or any other type of movement with your body. I am with Allison Pagano today. Allison, thank you so much for joining me.

The thing that stuck out to me most about what you do is you call the body a spiritual instrument. Can you talk a little bit about where they…came forward for you? Absolutely. This was something I discovered early on, probably in my twenties, as I was on a bit of a healing journey.

Not not intentionally, but, I had a pretty intense eating disorder at that time in my life. I was about twenty years old. And I,

was actually here in Australia at the time doing part of an undergraduate degree, and…we had an incredible indigenous woman teach us about, there was this you know, we had a course called spiritual well-being, which was amazing to jump into in the late nineties when people weren't having that kind of conversation or so I thought. And she gave us these tools of exploring our inner world in a way that I had never had before. And the main thing that I appreciated about her was that she really had the capacity to hold big space. So you felt very like it's okay for me to bring all of my stuff here. And that was something also I hadn't seen before.

So, through that exploration and journey, I basically started seeding in what is now embodied dance, although that wasn't the intention back then. It was I'm gonna create a a leading a movement and no idea. I was just didn't wanna hate my life and body anymore. And I knew that I was needing a a different direction, and it wasn't gonna be found through a nutritionist, and it wasn't gonna be found through a typical counselor. So I really took it upon myself to use the tools that she gave us were which were very much energy based, chakra based, transcendental meditation…

and started really befriending these aspects of me that were a bit unaccessible…

And I did that through conscious choice because we had to present at the end of the semester what our concept of the divine was. So this was like, I better get in there, and I better I better understand what I'm doing here. know, I really respect this woman, and I wanna bring something true. So it was really through…exploring the body and…realizing that…the body held different information than my mind did. And that was the first time that I really got a sense of, oh, okay.

So there's this whole other stream of intelligence that I was never told about or never touched before. And here it is alive and speaking to me and really…basically leading…this healing process. And, of course, I couldn't articulate it like that back then, but that was exactly what was happening…

I love that. So I'm just curious, like, how was it because you were so quiet, or how did you tap into this other stream of information? Mhmm.

So I just got very curious about what was there and what was actually the roots. And this has always been my…

anchor in terms of the healing work that I do is…if you want long term healing, there's a couple of things that have to be present. The first thing is…really wanting to understand what the root is. Because if you don't get to the root, you're just doing Band Aid work. Right? And it's not always that you can touch into the root immediately.

Sometimes you do need to go through layers, especially if there's, some intense trauma there. But when you meet the root layer and you meet it with the mental body, the emotional body, and the physical body all at once, you have a greater capacity for neuroplasticity, for a new change, for something to be reactivated through you. these are things that I brought in and understood later on through body language and doing body work, but…it was really through the the curiosity of how do I meet these parts of myself that I've silenced. What is actually in there? And just listening and being with…

what I could feel and what I could sense. And I let myself move with and express what I could feel and what I can sense without words. And it allowed me to touch into something that felt so truthful that the truth of it began actually, reconfiguring my stories. And it gave me this greater sense of…

who I really was and the deeper essence of my own power, which I had never touched before. So it was really just, again, a lot of curiosity and a lot of being fed up with not having any other…understanding or support to really figure it out. So it was like, I'm gonna take it up and see what's here because I'm done. I'm done with this way of being right now. Mhmm.

I can understand that. And Absolutely.

I feel like the fact that you've gotten to the point where I'm just not doing this anymore. Like, I need a different route. I need a different path, but I still want to be part of this community.

Way back then, I wanna say God source, whatever word you use, provided a beautiful opportunity because, the our class was actually held in a dance studio. Because where else were you gonna put spiritual well-being on campus? It was held in a dance studio. So I just knew when I got asked to how do I how do I touch the divine, I knew that it had to be dance, and I knew that I was gonna be uncomfortable.

So I would just go into the studio. I found an epic piece of music that brought all of my feelings out, and I just got committed to being with the energy center. So, basically, I went in through the doorway of the chakra system, and I started to get really clear that, oh, this is what's going on in my solar plexus. My solar plexus feels all condensed and shut, and I can't even touch what's in there. And my throat feels the same way…

What, you know, what what do I how do I move how do I move what's in there? And I just started really being fully present with it and interacting with what I could sense…and the layers of emotional, suppression that were inside of that. And I started giving them a voice through movement. And sometime that looked like crying, and sometime that looked like being fiercely all over the room, and sometimes it was very slow and gentle. And the thing that about it that was so beautiful is I wasn't dictating a process through my mind, but I was following…the prompts of the body.

And this was something that I didn't, you know, have experience with before. it wasn't something that I knew how to do. I was just on the path of listening…and seeing what came and being committed to the truth of it. I think that's beautiful. To me, that screams mindfulness.

It screams meditation. It screams present moment. Like, you just were in the moment…

and in the movement…

Right. Right. And then so what ultimately ended up happening was that I showed this to the class. I was half choreographed, half improvised thing. I got so involved in it.

I actually sprained my ankle coming out of a turn because I was throwing myself into it so fully. But, what happened after that that moment was there was something about being seen in that vulnerability and that truth that I begin to accept myself in a different way where I was like, I I can be with others in this vulnerable place, and I could say I'm okay. Woah. That is a big leap for a person who was completely shut down before that. And it wasn't too long after that I my period came back.

I started learning how to eat again. and it was just like I never went really back fully into that place ever again after that. It was like a full recovery. So it was quite…

it was quite a monumental experience at that time. And there was a couple of other layers to it, you know, that were also simultaneously happening, but it was really through the dance and accessing that inner truth…and meeting something more courageously…than I ever thought I could and walking through the the flame of it and coming out the other side and saying, you know what? I'm stronger for doing that. I'm not worse off. I think there's more to this.

I think that I can…

find my, hunger for life again…

I can feel it. And I think it's so interesting because you were a dancer for so long, and it was like this pivotal point where you actually used your skills, your knowing to help you transform or walk through that doorway. Well, I actually didn't start dancing until I was in my, like, mid teens. So at that point, I had only been, you know, maybe six years into it. So I wasn't, like, one of those kids that started at five, and there were some reasons for that.

But I was always dancing in the backyard. I was always creating. I was always doing all of that. I just didn't really have the support of, you know, kind of like, well, we should put Allison in the dance classes. You know?

So I kinda had to figure that part out on my own. And I did get a lot of slack and pushback for starting too late, being told I was never gonna be anything or do anything, and I just didn't listen because I'm stubborn, and it's a good quality sometimes…

Yeah. So can you talk a little bit about the body and…just how you feel about it now in regards to this…

I think, initiation or this…

I feel like it's a tower moment for you in a lot of ways. So can you talk a little bit about how you view your body now and how you use it as a tool…

Yeah. So I feel like what happened after that, incident when I was in my twenties is I kinda spent the rest of my, adult life taking you know, learning different skills, doing massage therapy, doing, different forms of body work and healing and energy healing and learning a lot of different spiritual approaches, inner child work, shamanic shamanic work, alongside all of the dance training I was doing. So over time, I just ended up…

more or less applying what I was learning to dance kind of inwardly. I wasn't really talking to people about it. But in when I was in classes, I was kind of applying what was going on in my body and how could I actually do these different things. So what that ultimately resulted in for me now was finding a method and finding an approach that I can walk people through that's accessible, that allows them to…touch the things that they haven't said, to touch the things that they don't feel maybe even permission to touch, and to give them, the space and the permission to really become who they feel they are on the inside and allow that to come fully forward. And we do that very much through, warriors work.

You have to have a lot of courage to meet the things that you don't think are acceptable and to not only honor and see them, but integrate them and say that's part of me. That belongs to me, and that's okay. And I also found side note that that's actually,

I know you had mentioned something about holding space. For me, I realized that's the number one key of holding space is how much we can accept and integrate what is what what's here right now. And I feel that, that in itself has the capacity to shift things for people. Just someone holding space who says all of you is welcome. Whatever you bring forward right now is good, and I can handle it.

I can sit with it. I can cheer you on through it. And it's not just words, but they can feel it because they can feel that you…are in your own process. They can feel that you…

aren't afraid to acknowledge those things inside yourself. So that's really what I support inside the teacher training is helping women especially really walk through…what that kind of leadership looks like. You know? How do we hold ourselves so well by coming into the place of self acceptance and safety for all that's here first so that we can then say, hey. I've got you because I've been down the river, and I know what it's like…

I think that's so magical in the sense of creating the space where you're allowing women to…

accept, acknowledge appreciate everything about them because I feel like society sometimes…oh, they make us feel like only a portion of us is valid or worth it. And I feel like women have so much to offer the world that doing it in a place around dance, around women connecting, around the chakras is really so powerful, not just for one of us, but all of us. Absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing that. I feel so passionate about that for so many reasons because I feel that the feminine truly remembering who she is and what she has the capacity for is what this time is all about.

And I am on board, and I stand for it fully. So anyone…that feels that call in which I feel like there's a little bit of a wake up around women, especially these five, six years where people are just feeling really activated. Like, you know what? I feel like I've got something inside me, and it hasn't quite been named or nurtured before. I don't really know what to do with it or even how to touch it.

Society has told me that my value is in this, is in told my physical appearance and how I bring that forward to the world in the image, and there's a lot of…

ways that you can see that that's still true. And how do we override that once and for all and actually stand in the true power and vitality that we are and bring…the change that this this time is so asking us to to make? And it's not through the fallen systems that we've seen play out. So it's like, okay. All hands on deck.

I'm ready to support the women who feel that. So, yeah, I'm super excited about it. Yes. You too? Yes.

I think so many of our souls know why we're here. We might not know why we're here, but I think the fact that you're creating space to reclaim…

the energy, the intuition, the self trust, and the gifts that we came with. Because many of us here now have gifts that are untapped. Absolutely…

And it just takes curiosity and the right kind of holding to meet them, to just bring them give them permission, give them space, especially if you were a person like I was most of my life. I was told, like, oh, you know, I felt completely misunderstood by most people because I could see and feel things that they couldn't. And I'm not saying it was better. It made me feel like I didn't belong anywhere. Right?

So when you have this sort of aspect to yourself that you feel so different and it's not being acknowledged in a positive way, you start to shut it down. So, you know, how do we bring that back in an empowering way? How do we bring that back so, we can honor it and give it a full voice and say, you know what? It doesn't matter if everybody gets it. This is what I'm here to do, and that's gonna be the loudest thing that comes forward.

That feels so good, and you're in the right community. So many of the guests here together, we seek podcast. Amazing. Leaned into something that did not feel familiar or not familiar, but did not feel welcome in some of their lifestyles or their families, and they leaned in because they knew it was something really important. And I feel like that crossroads for you of being in that class when that indigenous woman was there and she sort of lit the light for you or she illuminated something within you that allowed you to really…

release…and create space for the work you're doing now is so transformational and so magical…

Absolutely. And I hope to even just give back a portion of that. You know? That's that's really what I feel is…That's so important to me is how do I create that environment so that people can access that so that they get permission to be inside of that fully. Allison, I think you're already doing that.

So tell our listeners what you do on a regular basis, how they find you. Absolutely. So I currently lead a global dance teacher training using dance as a healing artist called the embodied dance teacher training certification. We're starting our next cohort actually in a couple weeks in June. I run the, offer twice a year.

I work, online as well as, often locally. I live in, Northern New South Wales, Australia. And, the program is, in two phases. It's, four months. The first four months is all about embodiment…navigating through permission of your personal stories, your woundings, and bringing inside

your gifts. So the first four months is really to bring that fully in, and the next four months is all about how do you make a life and a living doing this. That's the thing that, you know, a lot of programs don't teach is…

how do you actually get out in the world and then navigate through all of the fears of being seen and being an imposter and putting yourself out there. so I try to give the things that I wish I had because at the end of the day, I wrote a graduate thesis on embodied dance, and I had no idea how to talk to people about what I did. So it's like even though I had these decades of stuff…

how do you put it out there? Right? So that's a art form that I help people with as well. So beautiful.

So just remind us again, what do you constitute as embodied dance…

So embodied dance in my, language is being able to source movement from your personal truth. And I have a lot of methods and approaches that we…

like, lead the trail of breadcrumbs so that you can find it. It's not about activating trauma. It's not about going to the most extreme thing. We work with what's present in the moment so that and all the years I've done this, I've never had somebody go to, like, a trauma that they were like, this is way too much. I can't handle it.

Because the nervous system is just showing you the layer that's ready. That's what I've seen in in the healing field. So, in embodied dance, we have a process and a practice where…we go in through a theme, say, for example, something about worthiness…And you would know we would have a dialogue. We would understand what the emotional components, our stories are, and then we find where is it activated in the body. How does it need to move to feel fully expressed?

These different perhaps there's grief there. Perhaps there's confusion. And we give…that a space to move to be to be allowed to be fully there. And then there's a second piece, which is the reclamation, which is what is the choice now? Now that you've given that part of you a full voice, what are you choosing?

So I'm choosing to have my own back. Great. How does that move? How does that express? And taking that on fully because

What I've studied in body language is that body language works both ways. So body language is the representation…

of our inner world. But when we put a new body language also, it begins to affect the mental and the emotional…

So this is why I love dance, and this is why I love even working with what I call personal choreography making because certain movements also activate certain inner states. So I love the interaction between those aspects…

Well, Allison, this has been so amazing because I feel like so many people think it has to be so linear, spirituality. And I love how you have embraced the knowing, the intuition through movement, through activities that you already do in a way that has helped you…

probably heal your nervous system in some respects, but also awaken the gifts within. And I feel like this is such a powerful story for people that are in different disciplines or different experiences and…may be worried that spirituality cannot come through those paths. Right. Well, this is a great topic because, just briefly, I think so much spirituality asks us to go up and out. What I've noticed that the pathway to whether you wanna call it ascension or self actualization is to come down and in.

It's all in the base. It's in the lower chakras. And if you can work through those, that's the prerequisite to going up. It's like we gotta do the the deeper the deeper inner belly. You know, we gotta get in there and and really love ourselves up.

That sounds like a book title, the prerequisites of spirituality.

Down and in. It…

Down and in. I love it, and I love that what you're doing. All your links are below for For people who are dancers or people who use their body in any capacity, I think it's just so activating for them to realize that their work comes from within and really working with the chakras and movement to activate that energy is so powerful. Thank you so much, and thank you for having me. It's been really great to just have a little chat.

Well, this is the essence of Together We Seek is to show everybody that each path is different, that we all get to spirituality and our inner gifts in different ways. Some of us have crossroads. Some of us have indigenous women that show up in our lives that awaken us in ways we can't imagine, and others have, you know, a variety of different…activities that happen. And I think I love showing the stories and the gifts and also the enlightenment. So, Allison, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me. To everyone listening, please reach out to Allison. All her links are below. I feel so inspired that she has crossed our path, and I just love the work that we're doing here. And I hope you will listen again and rate us and really share it with your friends.

I feel like so many of us really need to…

lean into the gifts that we brought down with us. So thank you, Allison, for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Wishing everybody a beautiful day.

Thank you, everyone. And thank you, Allison