FACULTY

WEST COAST PROGRAMS

Embodiment in Education: Professional Development for Dance/Movement Educators

Susan Bauer, MFA, MA

Somatic Education & Massage Training

Carol Swann
Peggy Hackney, MA
Susan Bauer, MFA, MA
Cathie Caraker, MFA
Alive & Well faculty

Somatics of Presence: Performance Intensive

Brenton Cheng
Vitali Kononov
Adam Kenyon Venker
Carol Swann

The Socially Conscious Body: Process Arts & Professional Facilitation Training

Carol Swann
Lane Arye, Ph.D.
Bill McCully, MA
Aryeh Shell, MA
Isoke Femi
Paul Delapa, MA

Improvisational Mind & Performance - please note that the faculty listed below are from our 2008 course - 2009 faculty will be announced soon

Jess Curtis
Cathie Caraker, MFA
Carol Swann
Brenton Cheng
Vitali Kononov
Ruth Zaporah
Susan Bauer, MFA, MA

Other Faculty

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
Diane Elliot
Bruce Fertman
Kevin Frank
Simone Forti
Deane Juhan
Caryn McHose
Denzil Meyers
Rashad Pridgen
Saliq Francis Savage
Jenny Schaffer
Rebecca Schultz
John Scott
Shelley Senter
Birgitta Sivander
Tiahna Skye
Rita Venturini, MD, CLMA

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EAST COAST PROGRAMS

SMTT

Ellen Barlow
Trisha Bauman
John Chanik, CMA, CTT^SM
Martha Eddy, Ed.D., MA, CMA
Lenore Grubinger, RMST, LMT
Susanne Kukies, RMT
Saliq Francis Savage
Rose Anne Spradlin
Linda Tumbarello
Gale Turner

SMTT Guest Faculty:

Nancy Zendora

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MOVING ON CENTER DIRECTORS

Carol Swann (Executive Director, Co-founder) is a teacher, performer, facilitator, private practitioner, and visionary. She has been teaching and performing dance and vocal related work for over twenty years in the U.S. and in Europe. She is co-founder, teacher, and Executive Director of Moving On Center, School of Participatory Arts and Somatic Research in California. She is an ex-member of Mandala International Folkdance Ensemble, Libana and Vocal Repercussions. She is a co-founding member/director and teacher of the workshops: Acappella Motion, Island Movement, New Forms Dance and Outfall. Other teaching venues have included Esalen Institute, Omega Institute, Stanford University, Tufts University, Theater School of Modern Dance (Holland), European Dance Development Center or EDDC (Holland), Bevegungs-Art (Germany), Tanzfabrik (Germany), Chisenhale (England), Alexander Technique Schools in: Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France and Movement Research where she was the director from 1983-1986. She has performed solo and in collaboration with performers such as Simone Forti, Andrew Harwood, Daniel Lepkoff, Kirstie Simpson, Nancy Stark Smith, Jess Curtis, Anna Halprin, Lisa Schmidt, Paul Langland and Angus Balbernie.

She is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique (AMSAT), has a certificate of study from the Process Work Institute of Portland, is a graduate of the Professional Hakomi Therapy Institute, is certified in massage and specializes in conflict facilitation. She maintains a private practice in somatic therapy and teaches Voice, Alexander Technique, Pilates, and Contact Improvisation. Additionally, she was a director/collaborator with a work-group of dance/artists committed to improvisational performance and investigation. Her studies and work have been greatly influenced by Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, Yvonne Rainer, Simone Forti, Anna Halprin, Andre Bernard, Ruth Zaporah, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Meredith Monk, Trisha Brown, Daniel Lepkoff, Release Technique, Roy Hart Theater, Process Work (Arnie Mindell) Aikido and numerous other artists and art forms, nature and politics.

Martha Eddy, Ed.D., MA, CMA (Director of Somatic Studies, Co-founder) is an exercise physiologist, Certified Massage Therapist, and Registered Movement Therapist who is in private practice in NYC. She studied with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Irmgard Bartenieff, and was on the certification program faculty for both the School for Body-Mind Centering® and the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies from 1984-1994. She founded the Somatic Movement Therapy Program (SMTT) in 1992. Eddy is particularly known for somatic-movement-based contributions in the fields of dance science, conflict resolution, and vision enhancement. She completed her doctorate in Movement Sciences and Education at Columbia University. She lives in New York City, and teaches twice yearly at Moving On Center. In her position as Founder and Director of the SMTT program she coordinates the SMTT curriculum and works closely with her faculty and mentors around the world. She has been involved with dance and performance since she was eight years old. She holds a part time position as the Coordinator of the Wellness Center at the Riverside Church. She is involved in research, arts-based educational program designs, and educational consulting nationally and internationally. She has published numerous articles on these subjects.

Susan Bauer, MFA, MA (Program Director and Core Faculty) is a dancer, choreographer, and dance/somatics educator who has taught at the secondary and university levels for over twenty years. Curriculum topics she has taught include Experiential Anatomy, Laban Movement Analysis, dance improvisation, dance and culture, and world dance. She currently serves as Adjunct Faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), John F. Kennedy University (JFKU), and Saint Mary’s College. She has taught Experiential Anatomy (based on extensive studies of Body Mind Centering®, Ideokinesis, and Bartenieff Fundamentals) at San Jose State University, UCLA, Denison University, and the Moon Ban Dek School in Thailand. She has practiced Authentic Movement since 1984, has studied with Janet Adler, and facilitates groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has also developed her own form of dance improvisation, called Moving-from-Within™, based on the philosophy of Authentic Movement. Susan has studied with renowned American improvisers Simone Forti, Anna Halprin, Nina Martin, and Richard Bull, as well as with Indonesian masters Sardono Kusumo and Prapto Suryadarmo. She is also a recent Fulbright scholar to Bali, Indonesia. Susan has several published articles on dance and somatics in such journals as Somatics Journal and Contact Quarterly. Her articles on Authentic Movement have appeared in Contact Quarterly, A Moving Journal, and Essays on Authentic Movement, Volume 2 (2007), edited by Patrizia Pallaro. She is also the author of A BodyMind Approach to Movement Education for Adolescents, which presents her unique curriculum in Experiential Anatomy for teens.

Peggy Hackney, MA (Curriculum Development) performed for many years in NYC as a dancer, and toured the USA with the Bill Evans Dance Co. She is internationally recognized for her work in Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and Bartenieff Fundamentals. She helped found the Intensive LMA Certification Programs in NYC, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Berlin. Currently she is President of Integrated Movement Studies, directs its SF Bay Area Laban/Bartenieff Certificate Program-Weekend Format, and is on the faculty of the Intensive summer program at the Univ. of Utah. She was a colleague of Irmgard Bartenieff for nearly 15 years. After a thorough grounding with Irmgard, Peggy continued to develop Fundamentals in her own work with dancers and in one-on-one work in Physical Therapy settings with her private clients. She currently teaches courses called "Becoming Embodied" in which she utilizes a stage-specific developmental progression of "Patterns of Total Body Connectivity" to foster Bodily Knowing. Peggy studied Authentic Movement with Janet Adler and Jeanne Castle. In her work at Moving On Center she fosters integration of all the diverse somatic therapies. She encourages participants to become more intelligent by actively engaging in movement, listening to its personal meaning, and incorporating that knowledge to creatively make their lives richer.

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MOVING ON CENTER FACULTY
(listed alphabetically)

Alive & Well faculty - more information on the specific faculty member who will be joining us this summer will come soon. For more information on all of Alive & Well's faculty, please see their faculty page here.

Lane Arye, Ph.D. is an internationally known Process Worker and Worldworker. In the Balkans, he co-led a UN funded project that brought together Serbs, Croats, and Muslims to work on ethnic tension, reconciliation, community building, and human rights. Lane has also worked with conflicts between high-caste and low-caste Hindus from India, anti-Semitism in Germany and Poland, as well as racism, sexism, nationalism, homophobia, and class issues in the US and Europe. He is the author of Unintentional Music: Releasing Your Deepest Creativity and “Transforming Conflict into Community: Post-war Reconciliation in Croatia” (part of a newly released book, The Politics of Psychotherapy). Lane lives with his wife, Lecia, and their son, Kai, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he maintains a private practice.

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s work with movement, touch and the body-mind relationship has influenced the fields of dance, yoga, bodywork and many other body-mind disciplines. She is the founder of the School for Body-Mind Centering® and the author of Sensing, Feeling and Action.

Ellen Barlow is a Registered Movement Therapist, Certified Practitioner and Teacher of Body-Mind Centering®, Certified Practitioner of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, Certified Personal Trainer, and Certified Yoga Teacher. Her 15 year professional teaching experience includes The George Washington University Department of Theater and Dance, the School for New Dance Development in the Netherlands, and the School for Body-Mind Centering®. Ellen is currently the acting president of ISMETA, The International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.

Trisha Bauman has danced and toured internationally in several U.S. companies, including Rose Anne Spradlin Dance, the Ken Peirce Baroque Dance Company and Paula Josa-Jones Performanceworks, and the French companies of Daniel Larrieu (Centre Choregraphique National de Tours), Christophe Haleb and Alain Buffard. She collaborates on touring performance projects with Swiss painter Mathias Schauwecker, French dance critic/historian Laurence Louppe and the choreographers Rahel Vonmoos (London/Zurich), Cecile Proust (Paris), and Susana Szperling (Buenos Aires). Her own solo and duo work has been presented in theaters and festivals throughout Europe, South America and in New York at The Kitchen, Movement Research at Judson Church and The Joyce/Soho.

Cathie Caraker, MFA is a dance performer and teacher who has been developing her unique approach to movement research, improvisation and performance for 25 years. She has been on the faculty of the School for New Dance Development / Theaterschool Dept of Choreography in Amsterdam since 1992 and is a certified Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering® (BMC). She has also taught world-wide at institutes including Movement Research in NYC, Omega Institute, Instituut del Teatre in Barcelona, Contredanse in Brussels, de Beweging in Antwerp, Tanzfabriek Berlin, Chisenhale Dance Space in London, Freiburg Contact Festival and various universities in the US. She is currently based in San Francisco. For more information, please see her website.

John Chanik CMA, CTT^SM has been on faculty since 1991 as well as a past coordinator in the Certification Programs in Laban Movement Analysis in NYC. Currently John also maintains a private practice in therapeutic fitness, movement coaching and Connective Tissue Therapy^SM John also teaches workshops applying LMA/BF to various subjects from body symmetry/asymmetry to phrasing. The scope of John's work has addressed a wide range of chronic injuries, body/movement imbalances and patterning and conditioning to improve performance in a wide range of activities from dance to horseback riding. John worked for seven years at Dr. Richard Bachrach's Center for Osteopathic Medicine with patients in neuromuscular patterning and re-education. John has taught in Connective Tissue Therapy ^SM training programs given by Theresa Lamb. John has been a movement specialist at Sports Training Institute, taught dance in NYC public schools and has been a guest instructor in movement for actors at Boston University. John has an extensive background in ballet and modern dance and a BFA from the University of Utah. John is also an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys gardening, hiking, biking and backpacking.

Brenton Cheng is a teacher, director, and performer of improvised and choreographed work, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to directing his own work, he has performed with internationally-acclaimed Contraband, Zaccho Dance Theater, Angus Balbernie, Kim Epifano, Jo Kreiter & Flyaway Productions, and many others, at such places as Jacobís Pillow, Bates Dance Festival, and the Festival díAvignon, France. He teaches on-going classes locally and gives workshops each year in various regions of France, as well as throughout Europe, Russia, and Taiwan. His training and inspirations include release technique, contemporary dance, contact improvisation, the martial arts, Laban Movement Analysis & Bartenieff Fundamentals, Body-Mind Centering®, bodywork, and acrobatics.

Jess Curtis is a director/choreographer and performer of interdisciplinary dance/performance. Working independently, and in the collective performance groups CAHIN-CAHA, Cirque Batard (France/USA‘98-2002) CORE (USA '94-98), and CONTRABAND (USA'85-'94), he has created and collaborated on numerous award-winning performance works known for their intense physicality, emotional honesty and athletic beauty. In 2000 he founded Jess Curtis/GRAVITY as a research and development vehicle for very live performance. He was a recipient of the prestigious 2001 California Dancemakers Fellowship, and was a Wattis Fellow at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2000. In August 2002, he received a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for fallen, which in 2003 was also awarded San Francisco’s Isadora Duncan Dance award for best company performance.

Paul Delapa, MA is an organizational development facilitator, who has been facilitating group effectiveness, learning, and change for over twenty years. He works with non-profit and public agencies, as well as with intentional communities and co-housing developments. He has worked in coaching individual leaders and working with a variety of groups in designing and facilitating meetings, workshops, and retreats for small and large numbers of participants. He specializes in helping people create healthy, sustainable, work and living environments, and teaches consensus agreement building and facilitation. As a staff member of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur for four years, Paul supervised the Landscape Department work-group, and studied with a wide range of human potential pioneers and spiritual teachers. Paul holds a Masters Degree in Organizational Development from California Institute of Integral Studies, in San Francisco, and is an Adjunct Professor at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California.

Diane Elliot, RSMT, has maintained a private practice in integrative somatic bodywork for over twenty years. Her background includes over 25 years as a professional modern dancer (Nikolais technique and others), choreographer, actress, and contact improviser. A certified practitioner of Body-Mind Centering® (the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen) since 1990, Diane has also trained in the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement, Elaine Summers’ Kinetic Awareness work, and Upledger Craniosacral Therapy. Based in the Bay Area, she has taught somatic movement and voice classes throughout the US and in Canada, France, and Hungary. From 1998-2005 she served as senior faculty at the School for Body-Mind Centering® in Berkeley, California and Amherst, Massachusetts. She is a longtime mediator and integrator of ritual and spirituality into movement / performance work, and was ordained last year as a rabbi after six years of study at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles. She currently serves the Aquarian Minyan, an innovative East Bay Jewish Renewal community.

Isoke Femi is a member of the anchor teaching team at the Institute of Imaginal Studies in Petaluma, California. She is working towards the completion of the Ph.D. in Imaginal Psychology. Isoke's primary area of interest is in ritualizing life's sorrows and joys. She brings to her leadership a strong connection to African American cultural style, which honors both the Dionysian and Hermetic energies that vivify and bring meaning to community. She is mother of six, and grandmother of six, and shares her life with her partner, Anne, of over twenty years.

Bruce Fertman is the Founding Director of the Alexander Alliance in Japan, Germany, Italy, and America and (as a student of Marjorie Barstow’s since 1976), Bruce has been a senior teacher for the Alliance. Bruce embodies 45 years of personal study of numerous movement disciplines, among them gymnastics, ballet, modern dance, contact improvisation, T’ai Chi Chu’an, Aikido, Japanese Tea Ceremony, and Argentine Tango. Bruce brings a worldly wisdom to the Alexander Technique, to its relation to art, nature, and culture—as well as to the formidable task of being human.

Simone Forti began her journey in dance improvisation and the workshop process in 1955 with Anna Halprin who was doing pioneering work in this field. She then studied composition at the Merce Cunningham Studio with Robert Dunn who was introducing dancers to the scores of composer John Cage, and thus she began her association with the Judson Dance Theater group which revolutionized dance in New York in the 1960s. From her early minimalist dance-constructions through her animal studies, news animations and land portraits, Forti has focused on creating idioms for supporting exploration of natural forms and behaviors. For the past fifteen years she has been developing Logomotion, a practice and performance mode wherein words and movement spontaneously weave together. Her book Handbook in Motion was published by the press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1974, and her book Oh,Tongue was published by Beyond Baroque Books in 2003. Forti's articles have appeared in the Contact Quarterly Biannual Journal of Dance and Improvisation, and the Movement Research Performance Journal. An article of hers is featured in Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader published in 2003 by Wesleyan University Press. She has received various grants including a "Bessie" New York Dance and Performance award for sustained achievement and a Dance Resource Center of Los Angeles Lester Horton award for Life Time Achievement. She is an adjunct professor at UCLA and continues to teach and perform world wide.

Kevin Frank is a Certified Advanced Rolfer and Rolf® Movement Teacher. He has practiced structural integration and movement education since 1987. He is the co-author (with Caryn McHose) of How Life Moves, Explorations in Meaning and Body Awareness, has written numerous articles on perception and somatic education, and teaches courses for embodying the functional principles of Ida Rolf’s work. He and Caryn have a website that can be found here: www.resourcesinmovement.com.

Lenore Grubinger, RMST, LMT is a Developmental Movement Therapist who has been working with infants, children and adults for over 20 years. During those years she has trained continuously in Body-Mind Centering®, the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, OTR. Lenore is a senior teacher of BMC and a teacher and practitioner of CranioSacral Therapy. Originally a massage therapist, she also has training in counseling. She works with people of all ages, while specializing in working with infants and toddlers with special needs. She maintains a private practice in Western Massachusetts and teaches workshops for healing arts, movement artists and lay people in the United States and Europe. She is a member of International Association of Healthcare Practitioners and the International Somatic Movement Therapy and Education Association.

Deane Juhan has been a professional bodyworker for 30 years. He was a member of the Esalen massage crew from 1975 to 1989, and has been a Trager practitioner and instructor since 1980. He has designed and teaches a wide variety of anatomy and physiology workshops for bodyworkers of all kinds throughout the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. He is the author of Job's Body: A Handbook for Bodywork and Touched by the Goddess: The Physical, Psychological and Spiritual Powers of Bodywork. He maintains a private practice in Berkeley, California, and a webpage at www.jobsbody.com.

Vitali Kononov is a dancer, teacher, bodyworker, and improvisational performance artist. Born in Russia, Vitali is now based in San Francisco Bay Area. His studies have included contact improvisation, dance, physical theater, clowning, as well as various somatic disciplines and improvisation modalities in Russia, Europe and the U.S. He is a former member and co-director of the Forest House Physical Theater (St. Petersburg). He has also worked as a site-specific artist and collaborated with choreographers, dancers, improvisation artists, musicians, visual artists, poets and actors. Vitali is a graduate of the MOC Participatory Arts program and is now a teacher here. His teaching experience includes classes in physical theater and contact improvisation in Russia, Ukraine, Moldavia, Germany, and the U.S. He teaches regularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, and annually at the American Dance Festival.

Susanne Kukies is a Registered Movement Therapist and physical therapist in Berlin, Germany. She has been working in the field of movement and healing as a performer, dancer and practioner for 25 years. A member of the first class at Moving on Center, she opened up her own private practice as a somatic movement therapist more than seven years ago. After completing the program at MOC, she continued to assist Martha Eddy, and started to teach with the program in 2004. In groups, she develops her own mixure of body, sound, movement and energy/ healing work as well as successfully integrating bodywork into management trainings.

Bill McCully, MA has been studying, performing and choreographing dance for the past 15 years. He performed with the companies of Caitlin Corbett, Rozann Kraus, Killian Manning and Concert Dance Co. 11 in Boston. He has choreographed and performed his own work throughout the Northeast. For the past 9 years, his movement explorations have been focused on improvisational dance forms. He studied Contact Improvisation with K.J. Holmes and Andrew Harwood among many others, studied Authentic Movement with Susan Schell and Zoe Avstreih and continues to study with Janet Adler. As a teacher, he has taught classes and workshops in Contact Improvisation and Authentic Movement throughout the East Coast and in San Francisco. He has created several Authentic Movement groups for men on the East and West coasts. He has taught at Earthdance, Dance New England, the New Dance Space and the University of Maine at Farmington. He has a masters' degree in Dance/Movement Therapy from Antioch University. He has done therapeutic work using dance and yoga with adults and children experiencing acute and chronic psychological illness.

Caryn McHose has been a movement / somatics educator with people of all ages for over thirty-five years. She developed the experiential anatomy course at Middlebury College, which became the basis of Bodystories: A Guide to Experiential Anatomy, a book she collaborated on with Andrea Olsen. McHose co-founded the Resonant Kinesiology (RK) training in perceptual skills for somatic practitioners along with Susan Borg in Burlington, Vermont, and uses biodynamic cranial-sacral and Somatic Experiencing® techniques in her private practice. Caryn is the co-author, with Kevin Frank, of the forthcoming book, How Life Moves, Explorations in Meaning and Body Awareness (North Atlantic Books, May 2006). Caryn and Kevin co-founded Resources in Movement, a center for movement inquiry in Holderness, New Hampshire, where they live. Their website is www.resourcesinmovement.com.

Denzil J. Meyers has spent most of the past 15 years researching and designing creative processes for groups. He is a pioneer in applying theatrical improvisation, Contact Improvisation and Organization & Relationship Systems Coaching in working with organizations. He believes in developing relationships and ensembles.

Rashad Pridgen is an urban dance artist and creative facilitator who is native of the greater northwest and is now based in Oakland, California. He has been involved with urban dance culture on the west coast for fourteen years. He has engaged in two years of independent study in Process Work with a focus in innerwork, movement, and conflict resolution. Rashad recently performed with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in the San Francisco Premiere of Chapel/Chapter, as well as in Rennie Harris’s Illadelph Festival(“Hip-Hop Urban Aesthetic” 2007). He was an emerging artist recipient in the Black Choreographers Festival (2005), producing his solo “Black Ego.” As an independent creative facilitator/choreographer, Rashad provides beginning dance technique and urban dance inquiry in a variety of workshop forms. He was recently awarded a scholarship for study at Moving on Center, where he is involved in the Participatory Arts and Somatic Research Certificate Program.

Saliq Francis Savage is a Laban Movement Analyst, a teacher and practitioner at the School for Body-Mind Centering®, a registered movement therapist working with infants, children and adults, a certified GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® trainer, teacher of Contact Improvisation, AquaCranial practitioner and Developmental Water Dance facilitator. With this diverse background, Saliq helps clients reorient through movement. He is Artistic Director, choreographer and dancer for Wire Monkey Dance and has taught and toured internationally in Europe, China, Taiwan, Brazil and Argentina.

Jenny Schaffer is an international physical theater performer and teacher. Jenny performs regularly with the International Action Theater Ensemble and co-founded the improvisational performance group Pronto Theater /Wir Vier. She has performed throughout the Bay Area, as well as in Germany, the Netherlands and New Mexico. Jenny has been teaching improvisation in the Bay Area and Europe for the last five years and is co-editor of "Words on Action," a journal about Action Theater.

Rebecca Schultz, MA is a theater artist, activist, and educator. She holds a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design and an MA in Education, focusing upon arts-based community education, from San Francisco State University. Rebecca has worked in schools and community organizations throughout the Bay Area as an artist in residence and arts instructor, has directed several community-based theater projects, including the Play it LOUD! Project with LGBTQ youth, and helped found Bay Area Theatre of the Oppressed, a group of artists and activists who use theater as a tool for social justice. She has also written and performed several solo theater pieces in local venues, most recently an evening length work entitled "Passages." During the work week, Rebecca is the Associate Director of Education at Young Audiences of Northern California, an arts education organization serving Bay Area schools. In this capacity, she manages an artists-in-schools and professional development program.

John Scott is an Artist, Activist, Director, and Consultant, who for the past six years has performed a one-man show focusing on the Civil Rights Movement in America. John has performed this show all over the country in schools, non-profits, and private organizations. He has also worked as a director/facilitator for the past 5 years using Theatre of the Oppressed techniques and structures to help raise public awareness surrounding issues of homelessness, racism, systematic oppression, homophobia, and classism. Most recently, John has used Theatre of the Oppressed techniques in Johannesburg, South Africa, working with secondary students exploring issues of Peace Empowerment and Internalized Oppression. John has had further training in the Drama Therapy Masters Program at the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. John is passionate about integrating the arts with social, personal, and political change.

Shelley Senter has been involved with experimental and post-modern dance for more than 25 years, touring throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Russia as a performer, choreographer, and teacher. She has been recognized and awarded for her distinct approach to movement, both as an independent artist, and as a collaborator with many distinguished artists in the New York, West Coast and international dance communities. She was a principal dancer with the Trisha Brown Company, whose work she continues to stage worldwide. An internationally renowned teacher of the Alexander Technique, she has been written about in various arts and Alexander publications. She was recently awarded a Fellowship at Montalvo Arts Center and is a recipient of a San Francisco Bay Area Isadora Duncan (Izzy) Award.

Aryeh Shell, MA is a theater artist, popular educator and organizer. She is the founder of the Herstories Project, seeking to cultivate social transformation by examining our identities, telling our stories and taking action with the guidance of our ancestors. She has been a member of many organizations and coalitions including Direct Action to Stop the War, Art and Revolution, The Living Arts Playback Theatre Ensemble and the Institute for Deep Ecology. Aryeh has her M.A. in Education: Equity and Social Justice. She recently returned from El Salvador where she lived for a year as a resident artist, teaching popular theater and art with youth.

Birgitta Sivander is the faculty advisor for our CMT-SE students. Gitta grew up in a Physiotherapy family-business in Germany and decided to become a PT herself at age 17. She is now a German Physiotherapist, a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist (ISMETA, RSMT), a graduate from Moving On Center and Martha Eddy's SMTT, a graduate from Peggy Hackney's Integrated Movement Studies (CLMA), as well as a licensed Massage Therapist (CMT). She blends Massage and Somatic Integration in her hands-on work as well as in her movement sessions. Currently Gitta lives in the Bay Area, works out of her 'Spiralbody' private practice in Berkeley, and offers massage at the Nob Hill Spa in San Francisco. She returns to MOC every year to assist, supervise and teach students who go through the CMTSE and SMTT program. She travels extensively at the US West and East Coast, teaching movement, contact improvisation, acrobatics and body use to Physical Therapists, Massage Therapists, Dancers, Yogis and people interested in movement. Gitta is a member of Scott Wells and Dancers; she also dances for Brenton Cheng. Together with her acrobatic partner she performs at private events.

Tiahna Skye has been teaching and practicing bodywork and somatic counseling since 1980. She is the former owner and director of the Institute of Psycho - Structural balancing, and is currently a faculty member of Body Mind College, and the Alive and Well Institute of Conscious Bodywork. Tiahna has passion for exploring the relationship between the body, mind, emotions, and spirit is evident in her classes as she encourages students to use their whole body of knowledge in the learning process.

Rose Anne Spradlin is a certified Laban Movement Analyst and teaches in the certification program at the School for Body Mind Centering®. She has received numerous grants and a fellowship for her work as a choreographer in NYC.

Linda Tumbarello is a pioneer in the Body-Mind field, beginning her studies in 1970. She has been in private practice and teaching in the BMC Practitioner Training Program for the past 20 years. She has taught advanced hands-on skills, experiential anatomy of all the body systems, developmental movement and psychological aspects of body. Linda uses a sophisticated blend of touch, gentle movement, dialogue and experiential anatomy based on the client's needs and issues. Her work is especially effective for those recovering from injuries, abuse and trauma, body image issues, eating and digestive disorders, asthma, chronic pain, developmental and learning issues and stress related conditions. She works with all ages from infant to elderly. Along with individual work, she offers help with transitions with adopted infants and postnatal bonding especially after difficult births.

Gale Turner is a primary teacher of the School for Body-Mind Centering® on both the East and West coasts. She is the Director of In-Motion Training. She is a former member of Meredith Monk's collaborative group, The House.

Adam Kenyon Venker is a Bay Area actor, dancer, improvisor and clown. He is a graduate of the Clown Conservatory at the Circus Center of San Francisco and a member of Pacific Playback Theatre, an improvisational ensemble. Adam holds a Master's Degree in Philosophy and Religion from the California Institute of Integral Studies and is a certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst. Over the past two years, Adam has created, produced and performed three solo projects including "Dr.-In-A-Box" (solo clown entrée), "The Fever" (a one character play by Wallace Shawn) and "The Yellow Tunic" (an original piece of solo theater depicting the final days of famed Russian Futurist Vladimir Mayakovsky). Adam's performance training stretches from Europe to Indonesia and his dramaturgical influences center upon physical methods for actor training that deepen the performer's scenic presence. Adam is a faculty instructor at the Clown Conservatory and adjunct faculty at the Actor's Center of San Francisco.

Rita Venturini, MD, CLMA worked as a Neuroscientist until 1998, when she turned her life and attention to the body. Since graduating from MOC in 1999 she has been teaching and performing movement improvisation locally and internationally. She is very curious about body/mind interaction and its affect on our collective life.

Ruth Zaporah is a New Mexico based performance artist, director and teacher. She is internationally known for her innovative work in performance and performance training, particularly in the field of physical theater improvisation. Primarily a soloist, Zaporah has also collaborated with Bay Area artists, Leonard Pitt, Robert Ernst, Rinde Eckert, Rhiannon, Susan Griffin and Ellen Webb. Zaporah spends much of her time on tour, performing and leading trainings. Zaporah teaches and performs throughout the United States and regularly visits Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and Israel. She is a two time recipient of National Endowment Choreography Fellowships and was honored with a Sustained Achievement Award by the San Francisco Bay Area Dance Association. Ruth's articles on improvisation have been regularly published in Contact Quarterly, She is a contributor writer in Shambala Publications’ currently released book, Being Bodies, edited by Susan Moon and Lenore Freedman and her own book, Action Theater: The Improvisation of Presence, published by North Atlantic Books, is currently available in bookstores.

Nancy Zendora has been artistic director choreographer of the Zendora Dance company since 1977, performing both nationally in 12 states and internationally on 4 continents. Her work is a unique synthesis of eastern and western aesthetics . She is a Certified Movement Analyst and a graduate of the Center for Authentic Movement. She holds weekly authentic movement classes and workshops in the Poetics of Performance. This year she performed in Mongolia and Greece.

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