Dancing Rivers

Dancer, scholar, and writer ~ I am currently a  doctoral student at Antioch’s Graduate School of Leadership & Change.

I am bringing my passions together; Dance, Nature and an embodied inquiry into the process of recreating a healing relationship between ourselves and our planet.

My first career as a professional ballet dancer enveloped me in a world of beauty made more profound by the act of sharing it with others. An severe injury put me on another path, which I found in animal health and rehabilitation with non-human beings. I became a Veterinary Technician, apprentice falconer and wildlife rehabilitator, followed by Certification as a Veterinary Practice Manager. My work with wild and endangered species illustrated, to me, the fragility of our environment and our responsibility to be accountable to our planet, our Kin.

My Interdisciplinary degree was driven by three areas of study; Embodied Movement, Critical Inquiry and Environmental Healing.

I am also studying Druidism, which, as an earth based spiritual study resonates with my Celtic roots. My desire is to align my passion for dance, animals and all nature through a lens of embodied inquiry into our positionality in the universe. Focusing on the healing potential of our relationship with dance, and our connection to animals and nature. What do we gain when we remember how to dance? Dance is healing, for ourselves and for the planet.  I want to explore the ways we can express this relationship and design curriculum that will encourage others to join this endeavor. I campaigned to have Ki/Kin added to the list of available pronouns for students and faculty at Western Washington University. This introduction of pronouns inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer, is a metaphoric beginning to this path of reconciliation. Words are powerful, and this is an acknowledgement of our relationship with the environment, and our commitment to healing that relationship.

"Dance is union and communion with ourselves, with others, and with the environment”-so'neill