Education/Certification

Pacific College of Oriental Medicine
Chicago, Illinois
Certified Massage and Bodywork Practitioner

Mindful Practices, LLC
Chicago, Illinois Teacher, Curriculum Development, Administrator

Selected Solo and Collaborative Works

“Aligning the Fibers of Self”
Interdisciplinary Textile and Devised research and performance
Chicago, Illinois

“St. Home”
Home Performance
Solo, Dance Film
Chicago, Illinois

Hunter’s Moon Dance Happening
Residency and research
Solo performance with
Wilson Tanner Smith
ModFarm at Tryon Farm,
Michigan City, Indiana

J E L L O Performance Series
solo movement improvisation with musical collaboration by Wilson Tanner Smith and Julian Otis, Chicago Elastic Arts,
Chicago, IL

Dance-scape at the Ragdale Ring collaboration with Kristina Isabelle Dance, Ragdale Foundation,
Chicago, Illinois

Land Mass: Northpark
collaboration with Kristina Isabelle Dance site specific solo and group performance Northpark Village Nature Center, Chicago, Illinois

2018

“Building”
Evening-length inter-disciplinary work with Amelia Charter and Adam Kerbel Links Hall, Chicago, Illinois

“Lessons in Human Development as captured in Whales and Horses” 
Culminating Residency performance, Links Hall,
Chicago, Ilinois

“Re: Search in Performance” Precious Jennings with Hamid Drake, Tim Young
Link’s Hall, Chicago, Illinois

“Bennink, Oliver, Moore and Hosinger, Kato, Jennings and Marasa”
Constellation Chicago
Chicago, IL

“The Holding” Collaboration, Amelia Charter and Adam Kerbel Links Hall,
Chicago, Illinois

2015

“3on3”
Improvisation with musicians, dancers and visual artists
Constellation, Chicago, Illinois

“Writing on it All”
Collaboration, K.J. Holmes and guests, Governor’s Island,
New York City, NY

The Lighthouse Project: The Fourth Series”
Site-specific Collaboration - Helen Lee/Momentum Sensorium
Ludington Breakwater Lighthouse, Ludington, Michigan

“Conditions”
collaboration Amelia Charter and Adam Kerbel, Links Hall,
Chicago, Illinois

“Whale”
Solo Improvisation
The Attic, Chicago, Illinois

Teaching Experience

Columbia College Chicago, Theater Department
Chicago, Illinois
Teacher Courses taught: Body Movement for the Actor
Theater Foundations Course 1 & 2 Yoga Fundamentals

Mindful Practices, LLC
Chicago, Illinois
Teacher, Curriculum Development, Administrator Taught: After-school and In-school preK-12 grades yoga and mindfulness and Professional Development to faculty and staff, Mentor and train new hires

The Second City Chicago, Illinois
Teacher
Body Movement for the Actor

The Humans
Chicago, Illinois
Rehearsal Director, Collaborator, performer

Chicago Moving Company
Hamlin Park Park District, Chicago, Illinois Yoga Teacher

Nature Yoga Studio
Yoga Teacher
Chicago, Illinois

Professional Development and Workshops

“ A Movings View”
Earthdance,
Planinfield Massacusetts

“Begin”
Earthdance,
Plainfield, Massachusetts

“States of Grace”
Chicago, Illinois

“Acrobat of the Heart”
Earthdance,
Plainfield Massachusetts

“Dance Improvisation and Perfomance Intensive” Earthdance,
Plainfield, Massachusetts

OPEN sessions
AuBrana Cultural Centre,
Lectoure, France

Combining Disciplines for Performance
Bearnstow,
Mt. Vernon Maine

The Science and Art of Intelligent Practice
Tejas Yoga,
Chicago, Illinois

Liz Lerman Critical Response Workshop
Chicago, Illinois

Bartinieff Fundamentals Workshop
Chicago, Illinois

The Muscle of the Soul : Voice and Artist
Chicago, Illinois

Interests

-Cycling across the state of Iowa on R.A.G.B.R.A.I.
-Knitting and Spinning fiber, usable crafting, and making.
-Travel as means of meditation and connection to the nature of self
-Sustainable artistic practice as means of survival to create work and pleasure.
-Ongoing research of somatics of everyday living, cooking, and Ayurveda.
-Enjoying live music, and learning to sing and play it myself.

Teaching Philosophy

I began teaching at Columbia College Chicago Theater Department under the mentorship of Nana Shineflug in 2007. I teach the 7-center in body energy system, also known as the chakra system. Nana taught (as well as my yoga training) these centers through modern dance and the physics of moving in relation to gravity. Physically the centers are a set of nerve plexus that correlate to the nervous system and send signals to the mind and body to function and survive. The practices of Contact Improvisation and BMC® are the modalities I practice along with ancient practices of self-study (yoga and meditation/mindfulness). These practices are the foundations I use to lead students on their own journey of discovery. I offer tools to enter into ensemble-based practices which build to the work of Lucid Body physical acting practice, which utilizes the mind-body connection to effectively connect self and character.

Lucid Body continues to build on this knowledge utilizing the chakra system as a tool to assess the relationship to persona and shadow. Simply, the persona is how someone is seen and expressed as in their everyday life, shadow is the unknown or unexpressed parts of self.  In Lucid Body, we begin with getting to know our survival body (persona) and learn to widen the play between the sympathetic (fight, flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems. Understanding how the two systems activate, rest, and recover after taking on a character’s given circumstances (physical and energetic body) so one can return to a neutral body and authentically express from another center.  Actors may have a hard time playing an opposite character or know how to recover from authentically playing a character with an opposite persona. The actor has their own authentic experience, perception, values, morals, and movement patterns, this is called one’s survival body or persona. Assessing one’s own physicality and personality we begin to understand how the imagination may affect the actor and how to come back to oneself after playing the opposite, in some cases for weeks months or years. Our bodies hold our experiences, real and imagined, in the tissues and in the nervous system, learning to come back to the center and our own lives, not the circumstances of our characters.

My early physical training in classical ballet, tap, and jazz set the groundwork for my physical practice. In 2002 I attended Bates Dance Festival and began my journey of experimental performance, somatics, and bodywork. In 2003 I attended school for bodywork and massage where I studied Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Five Element Theory; how the elements physically manifest and express mind, body, spirit and personality. Rigorous dance techniques and the study of TCM, yoga, and Qi-gong inform my teaching practice to incorporate voice (seed sounds and vibration) to begin ensemble work…singular voices together create an ensemble through the vibration of matter, the first pattern in development. My curriculum combines my study, training, and ongoing practices to form an interdisciplinary performance study.  First and foremost, I teach those in front of me, with respect, consent, and gratitude to be in the classroom.