For twenty-five years I have explored movement as a choreographer, performer, teacher, and professional movement therapist. I bring all of who I am into expression when I work– genetics, experience, and ways of perceiving. 

The first seven itinerant years of my life were spent in Burma and Japan (my mother’s ancestral home); my first language was Japanese. Although caucasoid in appearance, genetically and experientially, I am a hybrid of both cultures. I spent the next ten years in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn Friends School. My self-directed open classroom education blurred the distinction between work and play and any subject matter became an excuse to discover my world (I remember growing crawfish in a child’s inflatable pool and recording the results).

My interest in science led me to Johns Hopkins University as a pre-med student where, strangely enough, I discovered dance. I returned to New York City to study dance and began my quest in the art and science of perception through choreography.

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After studying various downtown dance techniques for ten years in New York City, I started exploring altered space and Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) with Karen Studd at George Mason University. There I realized the importance of intention in choreographic work and LMA provided a foundation for both my teaching of modern dance and analyzing intention and movement. When I studied Butoh with Maureen Fleming in New York, I became interested in warping time and states of being. In the tradition of Butoh, I began manipulating chi (energy) to create physical actions. I was first introduced to the concepts of Body Mind Centering (BMC) in studying vocal dance with Amsterdam-based Patricia Bardi. Resonating the body through sounding and other BMC techniques, movement became more authentic and articulate. The movement concepts of Eugenio Barba of the International School of Theater Anthropology (ISTA) introduced me to the underlying principles of movement in both eastern and western theater and dance traditions. In addition, to creating movement design for various stage productions, I learned various movement theater techniques such as Margolis Brown Method.

The GYROTONIC® Expansion System furthered my knowledge in spiraling movements that open, restore and strengthen the body. And as a Global Somatics™ practitioner, I am integrating all the systems (nervous, lymph, etc.) and structures (organs, muscles, bones, etc.) in my understanding of movement.  Currently, I am a registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Movement Educator (ISMETA). Learn more about my somatics practice here.