Mission

I will offer passionate vigor, unflinching, challenging, and sympathetic space. I will witness you. I will travel down roads in the body which are difficult to see and hard to navigate. I will move without apology. I will share the dangerous tasks. We will learn about limitations and resistance, about failure and insecurity, about the personal world and the universal world, about fire and water, about generosity and faith. We will learn about diligence and fatigue. We will traverse the fragile line between control and surrender, open the space between the inner and outer world and spin new identities. We will investigate the fertile, fecund information that resides in the body.

Class will be scalding, cleansing, startling and enervating. I will be safe. Class will be scary. You will move inside barometric tension. You will find a proper sleep and awakening. You will feel the tide of natural order, see bright and dark, move with absolute desire. You will be a miracle of information and I will witness you.

Philosophy

As a teacher, I like to take each class as a fresh start, taking in the needs and energy of the people in the room. I encourage noticing, without judgment, areas and actions that are difficult for the student, be they balance, release, control, or simplicity. I encourage risk taking, reminding myself, and others, that sometimes the greatest risk is to be still or small or quiet. I encourage people to notice their neighbors, dance with other people, use architecture as a guide for support, and free themselves to be in the present moment. |

I believe in releasing the mind from the constraints of past training, while harnessing the power of the body's wisdom and all that has been learned. I think we can use the information we have gleaned in our technical education as a stepping stone for more control, more release, more sensation, and greater willingness to take risks. Technique offered in class is designed to inspire the individual body towards its personal best, not towards a universal model of perfection. Task and content are stressed over shape and image. Students are encouraged to dance from the inside out, while developing a sense of relationship between the inside and outside in order to understand which internal actions create what noticeable actions. 

I believe that we are each our own best teacher, but sometimes we need help clearing the path to our own knowledge and wisdom. Sometimes we need a guide to remind us of what we know, demand something we believe we cannot do, and laugh off what we are unable to do. I think it is important for a teacher to create an atmosphere that reminds students of the importance of their work, but also to be able to let go, to laugh, to bring life, and its many energies, into the classroom.