Everything changed for me one day while I was on a walk, listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The Walk Home Podcast. Kayla Nielsen was interviewing Alisa Vitti, a women’s health expert who was discussing the mythology we’ve been told about our periods, when she said “It’s supposed to be painful, there’s nothing to be done, that it’s mysterious and unpredictable… all lies, flat-out lies.” My jaw hit the floor. I, like most people who bleed, have accepted PMS, cramps, and other menstrual-related symptoms as par for the course and something to suffer through or, at the very least, live with.

I am a freelance contemporary dance artist based in Berlin, which means I am jumping between a multitude of different jobs, from rehearsing, teaching, touring, conducting personal research sessions, giving massages, teaching private fitness classes, taking German classes, to navigating bureaucracy in a foreign country. My period mirrored this unpredictable chaotic rhythm. My cycle would change in length and duration, and included various symptoms over the years: cramps, headaches, moodiness, acne, ovarian cysts, as well as many symptoms I didn’t know were related such as anxiety, difficulty sleeping, migraines, IBS, and chronic bowel inflammation that my doctors were monitoring for possible Crohn’s disease. I had visited many doctors over the years as each of these issues surfaced but hadn’t found any lasting help. It seemed that the solution was to try to numb the symptoms with pain pills and wait for them to pass. I was so overwhelmed and frustrated, since it is my job as a dancer to understand and be in control of my body. It felt like my body was spiraling out of my control.

When I heard Alisa Vitti talk about menstrual health, I finally felt a bit of hope and a feeling that there was some underlying cause which might explain many of my health struggles. I wasn’t sure it would solve all my problems, but I knew I needed to learn more, not just for myself but also after witnessing all the fiercely strong colleagues around me suffer. I was fortunate to have received a grant from DIS-TANZEN des Dachverband Tanz Deutschland, Fonds Darstellende Künste and Neustadt Kultur Darstellende Kunst, to devote the past nine months to learn about the infradian (menstrual) cycle, how to live in relation to and support this cycle (also known as cycle syncing), and how to apply this knowledge to my dance practice as a performer and teacher.

I first addressed my pain and tried to correct my hormonal health by taking the “What’s your V-sign quiz” on the Flo Living website, where I entered my symptoms and information about my period, length, color, and regularity. It revealed that I had low progesterone levels resulting in estrogen dominance which was causing my symptoms. I learned that not only is my reproductive system affected by my infradian cycle but also my brain, immune system, metabolism, microbiome, and stress response, so it is important to support these systems as well. I began by adding two key supplements to my daily routine, a prebiotic/probiotic and a high-quality multivitamin which included key micronutrients and B vitamins, particularly B6, which is important for progesterone deficiency.

While supplements are extremely helpful, I learned it is also important to aid my cycle by getting these nutrients through food as well and recognizing that I need different nutrient support at different times in my cycle. For example, in the first half of my cycle (follicular and ovulatory), it’s important to focus on supporting my digestion with lots of fiber, light grains, and fermented foods, while in the second half (luteal and menstrual), my metabolism rises, and I need more slow-burning carbohydrates, cruciferous vegetables, and healthy fats. There is much more information regarding nutrition and specific vitamins and nutrients that aid in each phase. Both Berrion Berry and Flo Living provide sample grocery lists and recipes that can help you learn more about which foods to eat throughout the different phases of your cycle. Lastly, I began to put more of an emphasis on regulating my stress levels, which impact my hormonal system, by building a more regular meditation practice. With these minor lifestyle and nutritional changes, I was able to reduce my period-related problems in just a few months. I am not a medical professional or an expert in this field. These solutions worked for me, but each individual’s health needs are different. For more information, please see the resources at the end of this article.

Through this process of learning about my infradian cycle, and once my symptoms reduced, I began to understand the shifts in energy levels, brain function, and physical changes that were happening throughout my cycle. Not only did this help me feel more connected to my body but it also changed my perspective. I went from viewing my infradian cycle as a hindrance, a deterrent from achieving my goals, to a driving force that offers specific strengths at different times throughout my cycle. It became a superpower, a lens to deepen my understanding of myself and thus my artistic practice.

I tailored not only my physical training regimen and nutrition but also my approach to tasks given by a choreographer, and how I organize my freelance administrative tasks around each specific phase of my cycle. For example, I learned that in my ovulatory phase, my energy levels are at their peak, and I can push intensity and cardio training. During this phase, my verbal skills are also at their highest point. I use this time to write applications, ask for feedback, network, and negotiate contracts. Whereas in my menstrual phase, when my energy levels are lower, I honor my body’s desire for recovery and rely on outside forces such as music to drive and support my performance or training, a hot tip I received from integrative health practitioner Berrion Berry. This is also the time when my brain is primed for evaluation and reflection, so I lean into my intuition. This tailored approach has allowed me to work optimally and get the best results for my efforts.

Here is a brief overview of each phase and how it can be utilized specifically in a dance practice. Note that the number of days are approximations as healthy cycle length can vary.

Follicular Phase: Creativity and Exploration

Duration: 7-10 days after your period ends. Metabolism and reproductive hormones are at their lowest. Estrogen increases later in this phase as the ovaries prepare to release an egg.

Focus: Experiment with different approaches to choreography, try new classes, brainstorm ideas for classes/workshops, explore collateral research, and watch performances.

Training: Energy increases throughout this phase so gradually push intensity and cardio while focusing on creativity (exs: connect to imagery, ideas, conceptual approaches).

Ovulatory Phase: Community and Communication:

Duration: 3-4 days. Estrogen and luteinizing hormone peak during this phase. The uterus releases an egg into the fallopian tubes.

Focus: Utilize your heightened verbal skills. Write applications, class descriptions, letters of intent, ask for feedback, negotiate contracts, network, discuss processes, and watch new performances.

Training: Energy peaks during this phase, so push intensity and cardio training while connecting with and taking inspiration from others.

Luteal Phase: Focus and Deep Work

Duration: 10-14 days. Metabolism increases and progesterone levels rise. Later in the phase estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone peak and then drop to their lowest levels.

Focus: Utilize your task-oriented focus during this phase to organize your work, book studio space, send invoices, and plan the next month. In the second half of this phase, focus on self-care, recovery, and nourishing yourself.

Training: Energy levels begin to decrease so continue higher-intensity training at the beginning and taper it later in the phase. As your bleed approaches, focus on strength training and recovery while thinking analytically and focusing on details.

Menstrual Phase: Reflection and Integration

Duration: 3-7 days. Progesterone levels decrease and the uterus sheds its lining.

Focus: As Vitti states in her book In the FLO, during this phase is when the right and left hemispheres of your brain communicate most (Vitti, p 75). Utilize this to evaluate, assess, visualize, listen to your intuition, and journal. Your energy levels are at their lowest, so sleep, nourish, and treat your body.

Training: Look inward, listen to yourself, and prioritize your needs and energy levels. When performing and during intense work periods, choose self warm-up when possible. Focus on rest and recovery.

Throughout my time dancing, teachers and choreographers have told me to listen to my body. I really felt that I had honored this and was in tune with myself, but I had never considered the hormonal aspect of my body, although it has such a tremendous impact on my physical and mental condition. In today’s Western patriarchal society, there is still a stigma around menstrual cycles. Hormones are blamed for causing women and people who bleed to be unstable, moody, or emotional. On the contrary, because our bodies are not the same from day to day, we can provide an enormous range of strengths, dynamics, and understanding to an artistic process. I used to think it was incredible and that we were making progress in the field when I would work with a director who had understanding for the pain I experienced during my cycle and would give me some leeway or pity. But what if it didn’t need to be like this at all? What if we didn’t have to suffer and push our pain aside? What if all dancers had the knowledge to transform and utilize menstrual health information in order to thrive the way we are meant to?

Cycle syncing and information about menstrual health are critical for taking charge of health and well-being. I would be lying if I said that all my problems magically went away and never returned. I’ve strayed from my regimen and had flare-ups from time to time. I have no shame in this either, as bodies and lives are always changing and adapting, but now I have the knowledge and a toolkit to return to, to get back on track.

To learn more, I’d suggest some of my favorite experts in the field:

Alissa Vitti – www.floliving.com @floliving

Alissa Vitti is a functional nutritionist, women’s health expert, and pioneer in the field. Her website contains great online information, articles, quizzes and more on menstrual health.

Berrion Berry – www.optimizeyourflo.com @optimizeyourflo @berrionlberry

Berrion Berry is an integrative health practitioner who offers online courses. She provides some of the easiest-to-understand information about cycle syncing and easy ways to integrate it into your life, including recipes and product suggestions.

Hana Miller – www.thebalancedwomansystem.com @thebalancedhealer

Hana is a certified holistic health practitioner and acupuncturist.

You can also find helpful information about cycle syncing and its relation to dance on my Instagram story highlights titled Cycle Syncing @sley_poldt.

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References:

Nielsen, Kayla, host. “Alisa Vitti of In The Flo: Biohacking, Infradian Rhythm & Balancing – Hormonal Health.” The Walk Home Podcast, iTunes app, 6 October 2020.

Vitti, Alisa. In the FLO: Unlock Your Hormonal Advantage and Revolutionize Your Life. HarperOne, 2020.

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Shannon Leypoldt (she/her) is a dance artist, teacher, and sports massage therapist based in Berlin. Shannon received her BFA from the University of California, Irvine and studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance under the direction of Summer Lee Rhatigan. Shannon has performed with wee dance company at the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater, Görlitz-Zittau, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Dorky Park, Theater Bielefeld, Itinerant Dance Ensemble, and the KDV Dance Ensemble. She has performed choreography by Shlomi Bitton, Hillel Cogen, Maxine Doyle, Lisi Estarás, Constanza Macras, Kiani Del Valle, and Sommer Ulrickson.

The post Harnessing the Infradian Cycle to Enhance Artistic Practice appeared first on Stance on Dance.

Happy 11^th birthday to Stance on Dance! When I started Stance on Dance in 2012, I had no idea I’d be continuing it more than a decade later, or that it would grow into its present iteration as a nonprofit and print publication. As Stance on Dance reaches its third print issue, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to continue publishing the perspectives of myriad dance artists and sharing those perspectives with Stance on Dance’s donors as well as with students of dance around the country. I’m honored to be able to send a copy of each issue to folks who donate at least $25 a year to support Stance on Dance’s arts journalism nonprofit.

The spring/summer 2023 print issue features movement artist breana’s poignant poem about their history in ballet and subsequent trauma; Liz Duran Boubion’s meditation on how her residency in the desert has influenced her thoughts on death; Julia Cost’s sumptuous paintings of people in motion; Micaela Gardner’s reflections on making Resuenen, an interpretive dance film that explores the US-Mexico border; Mary Elizabeth Lenahan’s story of former dancer Adelaide and her son, Preston, who is on the autism spectrum and dances with Dance Express; Shannon Leypoldt’s intriguing look at the link between artistic practice and the menstrual cycle; Kevin O’Connor’s ode to his “dancestor” Billy and his suggestions for scores to improvise with one’s ancestors; and longtime dance teacher Diana Turner-Forte’s account of her experience facilitating a group of students with intellectual disabilities. This issue also includes my interviews with Maggie Bridger, a choreographer and PhD candidate who explores the relationship between pain, dance, and disability; and Wonyoung Kim, a choreographer, dancer, and lawyer who views choreography as metaphorically similar to law. If you’d like to receive a copy, please consider donating to Stance on Dance. Otherwise, all the articles and interviews will eventually be published online and will be free and accessible to anyone interested.

A big component of Stance on Dance is to not only create a platform for dance writers but also to send free copies of Stance on Dance to colleges and other dance learning spaces with the hope that the next generation of dance artists will become excited by the possibilities of dance journalism. To date, Stance on Dance has sent free copies to 20 dance programs around the country. If you work with a college dance program or other dance learning space and are interested in receiving free copies of Stance on Dance, please reach out to me at emmaly@stanceondance.com. And if you’re reading this and thinking, “I have a stance on dance!” don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Cover by Julia Cost
“Betty Ann’s Hula” (2014)
Oil on canvas, 16” x 12”

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As a performer, I am an interpreter of others’ visions and ideas. Most of the work I have performed within the Berlin contemporary dance scene is intensely collaborative and personal. Dancers are asked to contribute not only to movement generation but also by sharing our personal narrative and dramaturgical ideas. I love collaborating in this way. However, I had reached a point where I was constantly drained and felt mined of my creative resources. I knew it was no longer sustainable, and I needed to focus on feeding myself artistically without needing to create for someone else. In 2021, I received funding which allowed me to explore this personal research and chose to focus on movement exploration and generation through improvisation, outside the framework of creation for an audience.

In my training and in workshops, I had occasionally experienced an “ideal state” while improvising. However, I found it much more difficult to replicate when I was alone. While I feel confident I can enter a peak performance state for an actual performance and had honed this skill in my Towards Vivencia training, I wasn’t able to apply this consistently in improvisation. In the context of improvising, this is the state where I am allowing things to happen to me, where movement is generated from listening to the body and physical sensations, while I am simultaneously able to make conscious artistic choices and direct the movement. While in this generative flow state, I can observe and follow my body’s impulses without my mind taking over and judging or trying to create something “interesting” and worth watching. It is in this state where I feel most creative and connected with myself. This is where I wanted to research, as I knew it was here I had the most room to grow artistically.

During the course of my research stipend, I specifically focused on how mental, emotional, and physical states impact states of flow, and how I could use memory, imagery, and sensations to direct these states. Current neuroscience research tells us that states of flow occur when both our sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (heal and digest) nervous systems are activated. In my research, I pulled from resources such as Levine’s “In an Unspoken Voice” and Suzuki’s “Healthy Brain, Happy Life” as well as countless other inspirations and reflections I had from previous classes and workshops, including but not limited to Malinda LaVelle, Christian Burns, and Sita Ostheimer, as well as Gaga and other somatic practices. I also applied the three phases of the Towards Vivencia Designing Presence Training methodology as a working format for my practice: entering-designing your experience, staying-inhabiting presence, exiting-integration towards a purpose.

Throughout my research in the dance studio, I experimented with different somatic techniques to enter states of flow including meditation, repetition, whirling, shaking, exhaustion, EFT tapping, and periods of deprivation from external input. While each of these induced an interesting and specific state, they were complete experiences in and of themselves and I felt there was a missing link to applying these experiences directly to movement research.

While I don’t believe there is any one “right” way or method to improvise, dance, or enter states of flow (or really anything else for that matter), I wanted to share some of the ideas and structures which were helpful for me throughout this process.

Photo by Julia Maria Klotz

Ritualization: I practiced arriving in the space, the body, and the mind as I was, in that moment. This took many different forms. One example was walking the perimeter of the room and then in progressively smaller circles until I arrived in stillness. While doing this I focused my attention first on the space and then eventually connected to a grounding exercise of the senses (the 5-4-3-2-1 method for example.) Instead of simply preparing the body to move, it was important to take time to consciously acknowledge and connect to all parts of myself: my senses, my body, my emotional and mental state. I also created a conscious exiting and integration of the practice. This most often took the form of practicing a moment of stillness, reflecting on what I discovered, and making notes for future sessions. I knew this reflection was important in order to integrate my insights from these sessions and be able to apply them in my daily life and other work. By creating a clear pathway into and out of improvisation sessions, I became more aware and committed, as well as had a clearer purpose during the sessions.

Tuning: In this practice, the particular exercise mattered less than the intention and format. It was important that I focused on both activating my body while simultaneously releasing unnecessary tension and keeping my internal state calm. The purpose was to awaken and prepare the body but also maintain a sense of attention and focus. It was as much of a training for the brain as for the body.

In one version of this practice, I would systematically warm up each part of my body through improvisation, using as many exercises, imagery, sensations, and tasks as I found helpful. For example, I would practice a big toe grounding Toega exercise I learned from osteopath David Thunder during a Towards Vivencia workshop (more of his resources here.) During this exercise I listened to the way it engaged my toe and also the entire inner line of muscles in my legs. I would then continue improvising, striving to maintain this activation, before moving on to activating the rest of my foot.

I found that if I maintained one very broad task as a base, such as this systematic scanning which I would follow the entire time, it kept my mind from drifting into the questioning and evaluating state. Inevitably, each time in repeating this process a new inspiration would arise and I would allow my mind to follow my curiosity, finding new tasks for further research. I could dive into creative exploration, let excitement and momentum take over, and when the new curiosity had run its course it was easy to plug back into the original task. In this way, I accumulated new ideas and tasks for future research. This practice was important for setting the right mental and physical state for movement research but, most importantly, it served to train my creativity and curiosity by constantly searching for new interests or tasks to explore.

One of the areas I focused on in the tuning process was postural adjustments. This did not come from a place of fixing my alignment to have “ideal posture” but, rather, to balance states of tension. I found that deep and subtle adjustments to my spine, head, and face, their placement and the muscular tension surrounding them, made the largest difference in my felt state and therefore had an impact on the movement generated thereafter. This was inspired by Levine’s research on trauma and how it is expressed in the body:

“Behavior occurs on different levels of awareness, ranging from most conscious voluntary movements to the most unconscious involuntary patterns… behaviors that occur in the following subsystems: gestures, emotion and posture, as well as autonomic, visceral and archetypal… postures are the platforms from which intrinsic movement is initiated. In the words of A. E. Gisell, “the requisite motor equipment for behavior is established well in advance of the behavior itself.”

Through attention to my posture, I was able to observe my emotional state more clearly through its physical expression in the body, then also change that state by making physical adjustments and observing its effects.

Emotional States:

At the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, I regularly took Malinda LaVelle’s “Jam Class,” where we used memory and imagination to cultivate joy and express it physically. Inspired by this practice, I experimented with cultivating various emotions and feelings while allowing them to manifest physically. While the above practices were mostly about creating as Jorge Crecis says “the right container” and staying in an ideal state for improvisation and movement generation, I also experimented with directing these states. I was searching to find more nuance within states of flow. Instead of simply “in flow or not” or “good or bad,” I wanted to find contours of feeling and color: reflection, empowerment, excitement, melancholy, grief, etc.

Levine states that “One’s posture and facial muscles signal emotional states, not only to others, but to oneself as well.” Attempting to utilize this by using memories, imagination, and tailored music, I worked to create an emotion or feeling and thus a physical change in my movement. Then by listening to that physical feedback, I allowed the sensations to deepen this state. This felt like a constant feedback loop of conjuring memories, imagination, and felt senses that affect the body and its movement, then listening to those physical sensations and allowing them to further feed my memory, imagination, and felt sense. Sometimes these emotional states were categorical feelings (anger, sadness, fear, etc.) and sometimes they were what Eugene Gendlin called “felt senses,” something that is felt and cannot be defined but is rather sensed through embodied awareness. Some days, I used this practice as an attempt to change my emotional state and other days it was more about listening to what feeling was most present within me and allowing it to expand and develop physically. Joy was by far the easiest emotion to pursue, perhaps because it was one I constantly desired, and also one I had the most experience tapping into. This is by far the most difficult part of my research to articulate and it’s a practice I would like to continue pursuing and refining.

The time spent in the studio by myself was challenging and enriching and I know that my performance and teaching practice has benefited immensely. It became extremely clear how essential it is for me, as an artist, to have time to research movement, exhaust physical ideas and explore simply for the sake of exploring. Cultivating this type of practice has built artistic resilience, mental stamina, creative fortitude, and a more intimate relationship with myself. Regardless of what I chose to research, I know the biggest lesson I learned was actually the importance of doing it, of prioritizing my own creative process, especially as a performer who is not also a choreographer. What I really learned by experimenting with these different techniques was to create an environment where I felt safe, grounded, and supported so that I could take risks, be daring, and fail as much as I needed to. The most difficult yet most beneficial aspect of this was the effort to constantly feed my own creativity and learn to drive my own process.

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This project was funded by Dachverband Tanz Deutschland’s program Dis-tanz-solo.

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I felt I would never be taken seriously as a dancer until it was the only thing I did. I freelanced in San Francisco for three years. I was hungry for experience and accepted every opportunity that came my way. However, after a few years it became a lifestyle I couldn’t sustain. I realized no matter how many projects I did, I would always need to support myself through jobs in restaurants and by doing administrative work. I truly enjoyed all my jobs, but I was working seven days a week, sometimes for more than 12 hours a day. I performed often, and even toured to Russia, but it seemed the work I did outside of dance to support my career diminished my credibility. I longed to spend all of my day in the studio, focusing entirely on my craft.

Realizing the limited opportunities in San Francisco, I quit all my jobs and spent a few months in Europe pursuing fulltime employment. European dance jobs are revered for their fulltime salaries, health insurance, retirement, paid vacation, and a supportive community that actively attends dance performances. Currently, I am in my second season as a member of Wee Dance Company, the resident company of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz-Zittau. I am grateful to be working within a German theater – a system that affords me these benefits even as a foreigner.

It is the first time in almost 10 years I am not juggling multiple jobs, dance and school. I enjoy the work and am excited to go to the studio each morning. I expected to feel more relief in the security of my new fulltime job, but I couldn’t help this lurking feeling I should be doing more. For the first year, I told myself I needed time to wind down and adjust to working shorter days – this is what I fought for, right? Friends even suggested it is merely my ‘American workaholic mentality’.

I, like many of my friends who have written for Stance on Dance, believe in never wanting to ‘make it’ as a dancer – always fighting to be better, to discover new things and to keep rediscovering things I ‘know.’ I knew this work was my own to drive and maintain. I never adjusted to the routine lifestyle and the unsettling feeling continued. I invested myself in as much dance outside the company as possible, taking workshops and classes. I also contemplated online study and looked into teaching English.

It wasn’t until I was given opportunities to do projects outside my normal theater work that I realized what I was still searching for: the ability to do something new and unknown, something that terrified me. It started when I was asked to choreograph and stage musical numbers for a concert evening for three singers. I’ve never identified as a choreographer and instantly wanted to say NO. With no legitimate excuse and my directors encouraging me to take on the challenge, I put away my trepidations and agreed. I enjoyed it tremendously and it excited me because I discovered new interests and new ideas.

I now actively seek the very challenges I once resented for hindering my growth as a dancer. I’ve missed overcoming incredibly difficult barriers because they forced me to adapt and to make changes. This was a fundamental principal of my training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance – to constantly put myself under the most difficult physical parameters, and I loved training in this way. I was excited by challenges in the studio, but I didn’t accept as willingly the practical challenges I faced in order to be a dancer in San Francisco.

Saying YES to every opportunity can be an easy way to discovery and growth, regardless of the outcome. I recently participated in a dance battle between ballet dancers, break dancers and contemporary dancers. Even though I was incredibly unsuccessful and was eliminated early, I would jump at the opportunity to do it again. I learned that battling isn’t my strength, and also that it doesn’t interest me as a way of expressing artistry through dance. Even so, I had a wonderful time performing on a stage where I had seen so many artists I admire perform, and was able to collaborate with talented dancers from different backgrounds.

Everyone faces challenges, whether it’s time, money, language barriers or bureaucratic restrictions; they all afford ways for us to be creative, to find new solutions, and to keep growing. The work we do outside the studio isn’t disconnected. Whether I’m working in restaurants or writing this article, I bring these experiences into the studio, the same way I bring the lessons I have learned through dance into my daily life. I was no less of a dancer or an artist when I was freelancing, and I will continue to be a dancer even after my performing career ends. Being comfortable is not my goal.  For me, the process of discovering solutions to challenges is satisfying, not their nonexistence.

After receiving her BFA in dance performance from the University of California, Irvine, Shannon Leypoldt trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance under the direction of Summer Lee Rhatigan. In the Bay Area, she was a member of burnsWORK, FACT/SF, Sharp & Fine, and Nine Shards Dance Theater Collective. This is Shannon’s second season with Wee Dance Company in the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz-Zittau.

The post A New Understanding of Challenges appeared first on Stance on Dance.

Meet our director and editor:

Emmaly Wiederholt is a dance artist and arts journalist based in Albuquerque, NM. She founded Stance on Dance in 2012. Emmaly earned her MA in Arts Journalism from the University of Southern California and her BFA in Ballet and BS in Political Science from the University of Utah. She further trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and performed extensively around the Bay Area. Her first book, Beauty is Experience: Dancing 50 and Beyond, was published in 2017, and her second book, Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance, was published in 2022. Emmaly is also a master DanceAbility instructor and facilitates movement groups at the UNM Hospital adult psychiatric ward, as well as is a founding member of the dance advocacy nonprofit ABQ Dance Connect. She continues to perform throughout the Southwest.

Photo by Allen Winston

Our contributors have included:

Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert, a performance artist and organizer in the Bay Area.

Gregory Bartning, a photographer in Portland, OR.

Liz Duran Boubion, the director of the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers in the Bay Area.

Liz Brent-Maldonado, an artist, writer, educator, and producer in San Francisco, CA.

Michelle Chaviano, a ballet dancer with Ballet North Texas.

Bradford Chin, a disabled dance artist and accessibility consultant in Chicago, IL, and San Francisco, CA.

Shebana Coelho, a writer and performer currently studying flamenco in Spain.

breana connor, an interdisciplinary artist, facilitator + healer in Albuquerque, NM.

Lauren Coons, an interdisciplinary artist, performer, healer and educator in Albuquerque, NM.

Julia Cost, a painter, textile designer, sewist, and dancer in Maui, HI.

Sophia Diehl, a dancer in New York City.

Bonnie Eissner, a writer in New York City.

Katie Flashner, a.k.a. The Girl with the Tree Tattoo, a World Champion ballroom dancer and author in ME.

Micaela Gardner, a dancer and choreographer in Baja, Mexico.

Sarah Groth, an interdisciplinary artist from Albuquerque, NM.

Cherie Hill, a dance educator and choreographer based in the Bay Area.

Lorie House, a dancer, choreographer, and lawyer in NM.

Silva Laukkanen, a dance educator and disability advocate in Austin, TX.

Mary Elizabeth Lenahan, the director of Dance Express in Fort Collins, CO.

Shannon Leypoldt, a dance artist, teacher, and sports massage therapist in Berlin.

Erin Malley, a dance artist and tango teacher based in West Michigan.

Julianna Massa, a dance artist in Albuquerque, NM.

Aiano Nakagawa, a dance artist, educator, facilitator, writer, and event producer in the Bay Area.

Jessie Nowak, a dance artist and filmmaker in Portland, OR.

Kevin O’Connor, a multidisciplinary artist in London, Ontario, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bhumi B Patel, an artist/activist based in the Bay Area.

Stephanie Potreck, a sports nutritionist and health advocate who currently resides in Germany.

Jill Randall, artistic director of Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley, CA.

Kathryn Roszak, a choreographer, filmmaker, educator, and activist in the Bay Area.

Donna Schoenherr, director of Ballet4Life and Move into Wellbeing in London, UK.

Maggie Stack, a dancer and teacher in Reno, NV.

Camille Taft, a CO front range-based mover and visual artist.

Mary Trunk, a filmmaker, choreographer, and multimedia artist in Altadena, CA.

Diana Turner-Forte, a teaching artist, healing arts coach, and writer in NC.

Ana Vrbaski, a body music practitioner in Serbia.

Nikhita Winkler, a dancer, choreographer, and teacher from Namibia who currently resides in Spain.

Erica Pisarchuk Wilson, a dance artist, visual artist and poet in Albuquerque, NM.

Rebecca Zeh, an interdisciplinary artist in Sarasota Springs, NY.

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Our board:

Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert

Cathy Intemann

Alana Isiguen

Courtney King

Malinda LaVelle

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