Meet Melissa
Many years ago I found myself…
Lying in a hospital bed on the Upper East Side. A saline solution drips into my malnourished dancer’s body. Diagnosed with an unnamed viral infection and extreme exhaustion, (due to excessive competitive pushing, and goal-chasing), the doctors and nurses look worried.
Three weeks later, as I walk along gritty East Village Streets, unable to step up to the next curb, I rest on a stoop and listlessly watch the pigeons. In a trans-like stupor, I marvel at their idiosyncratic walk that effortlessly transforms into angelic flight.
At that moment I heard my body whisper, “I want to be friends”.
My life irrevocably turned course at that moment. I shifted from being a New York City competitive professional dancer with super-effortful willpower, towards a kinder and gentler being. I learned new ways of lovingly listening to my body. Together we (my conscious mind and body’s innate wisdom) creatively moved into collaboration.
Slowly I healed. I found amazing mentors, teachers, and guides. Today, every aspect of my life is enhanced by my body’s wisdom and innate intelligence, giving me the surety and confidence to get out of fear and into expressing myself, body, and soul.
My story is simple. I have always loved to dance.
After some uninteresting college years, I surrendered to the inevitable and moved to New York, to dance professionally.
Those years in New York were amazing– I had the good fortune to meet, socialize, study, and perform with postmodern legends in dance, painting, and music. My relationship with performance art and creativity blew wide open.
However, I was emotionally a wreck. Though I hardly stopped to notice. Over time my well-being and even my love of dance were gradually eroded by injuries, ruthless competition, stressful urban living, and the generally unhealthy lifestyle of an undernourished modern dancer in New York City, in the 1980s.
Not surprisingly, I became seriously ill and ended up in the hospital (as mentioned above). On my release, I felt shaken and confused. I was ripe for big changes.
Miraculously, I was reintroduced to my body’s innate wisdom. Through the Alexander Technique and somatic movement practices, I was gently guided back home into a healthy relationship with my body. These disciplines wove together my artistry, thirst for inner knowledge, an insatiable sense of curiousity, and wonder. I awakening to what I had known all along; that being in relationship with the ancient wisdom of the body is the key to self-realization!
That year, I hit the road on my body-based spiritual pilgrimage and I’ve never looked back. Today, I know and live one simple truth: the vehicle for all authentic growth and transformation is through the body’s innate ancient wisdom.
I am an embodiment expert. Certified in the Alexander Technique and trained in body-centered psychotherapy. I have studied Contact Improvisation with Steve Paxton, Continuum Movement with Emilie Conrad, Body-Mind Centering with Bonnie Cohen, Somatic Experiencing with Peter Levine, and trauma-informed body-centered psychotherapy with Pat Ogden. I’ve had the honor to learn from Hindu, Buddhist, and shamanic masters. All these paths have one profound commonality. The body.
For many years, my work has been evolving: teaching at international dance festivals, and universities in North America and Europe. I had the great honor of training Alexander Technique teachers and developing a curriculum at the Alexander Bewegung (Movement) Institute in Linz, Austria, from 1999 to 2016. For 20 years, I directed and educated young actors at Santa Fe University of Art and Design, in the theater department. Being a professor of movement arts, with specialties in Stage Presence and Applied Movement.
Over the years, I have guided students of all ages and disciplines – from established artists looking to maintain their creative edge – to young performing artists yearning to find their ‘special sauce’ – to burned-out business professionals in search of an effective reboot. They all have a few things in common: A desire to express from the heart and share their uniquely powerful presence in the world.
Today, my work is available in our online classroom and destination retreats. As a movement artist, educator, body-centered trauma-informed psychotherapist, and Embodied Living visionary; I am delighted to be sharing my life’s work with you.