I equate being fully present in one’s body with being fully present in life. The greater the freedom and mobility in my joints and tissues, the greater my freedom and mobility in thought, the greater my freedom and mobility in this world.

Want to schedule a session?
email roel@zipporah.dance
text/call 360-451-0074
$70/hour, quantity discounts available

I want my clients to experience full presence in their bodies and their lives. I am a certified GYROTONIC® trainer and chose this modality specifically because it aligns with my way of thinking about joint expansion and mobility. Besides focusing first and foremost on a whole, supple body, the GYROTONIC® system was developed by a dancer and shares the aesthetic and potential for expression that I know and appreciate from years of dancing myself.

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Gerard de Lairesse for Govard Bidloo, Anatomia Humani Corporis, 1685.

I have a degree in physics, which hints at my tendency toward the geometric and analytical. I spend a lot of time thinking about the skeleton, because it has an almost mathematical, engineered quality that can provide both the literal and figurative framework for balanced movement all around.

My favorite work is helping clients in recovery from physical trauma like accidents, surgery, or strokes. My client’s knowledge of their “normal” mobility helps create clear goals, and there is a tangible sense of success when we recover (or change!) those norms together.

Another favorite topic is the aging body. It’s tempting to resign oneself to an ever-narrowing experience, but that isn’t how you have to look at it! The GYROTONIC® equipment is a multifaceted, safe playground for exploring what your changing body can do, and how it does it. Exploring the different ways you can route your movement around osteoarthritis, sciatica, or muscle tremors can, amazingly, build new skills of proprioception, mobility, posture, and mindfulness. There is one thing that age almost never seems to impede: curiosity.

Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur, 1904

I aspire for us all to be more like octopi, who have neurons throughout their bodies, simultaneously thinking and moving with their infinitely sensing arms.