I am a Toronto-based Feldenkrais® Practitioner, teaching both group classes and private hands-on movement sessions. I became interested in mindful approaches to movement as many people do—after an injury in my mid-twenties. I had been a serious (amateur) dancer for years and wanted to keep on moving and dancing, without pain. From the early ‘80s, I explored gentle awareness-based dance at the Centre of Movement with Leslie French. In 1989 and ’90 I spent months of intensive full-time study at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York. After that, I began to teach integrative movement in college and university programs. I also took Feldenkrais classes ‘on the side’ as a student, and became increasingly impressed with this ingenious and practical approach to improving self- awareness, function and skill. Eventually, I decided to undertake the four-year professional Feldenkrais Practitioner training.
I’ve been teaching in post-secondary and public settings since 1990. I worked with physical education majors for twelve years at the University of Toronto, and have also taught movement in theatre programs at Humber College, George Brown College, University College (University of Toronto), and in the college program at the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts. I have been an invited guest teacher and workshop leader in the York University Dance Department, the Artists’ Health Centre Foundation, the Wagman Centre, the Shambhala Centre, and elsewhere. I taught public Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® classes at the Feldenkrais Centre for ten years, until it closed in 2012. Since then, I have continued to offer regular Feldenkrais classes and workshops in downtown Toronto.
I see a range of people in private Functional Integration® sessions, as well. Many of the people I work with are baby boomers, wanting to enjoy healthy activity into their middle age and beyond. In the last few years, a good part of my private practice has been with elderly people, including those with dementia. I find it exciting and gratifying to see how people can continue to learn to move with more ease, balance, coordination—and pleasure—at any age. I also work with highly skilled dancers and athletes to help them refine and improve their performance.
I have a B.A. in Communication (Dance minor) from Simon Fraser University, and an MFA in Dance History and Criticism from York University. I am a Certified Laban Movement Analyst, and a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner.