Sepora
Well here goes: I am the third daughter of Eastern European Jews who survived the Holocaust & immigrated to Boston in 1950, where I was born. Freedom has always been very important, crucial somehow to my story. In 1968, at age 17, I went off to UNI in Western Massachusetts,. I loved school, loved learning. It was also when I was first introduced to Hatha yoga, which changed my life forever. Classes were taught in my dorm by the wife of faculty. I had definitely picked up a lot of body tension & emotional trauma living in my “Child of Survivors” world. Learning how to breathe & move to release tension was phenomenal. I took all the classes I could. I studied Archaeology & Yoga, my 3rd year abroad in Israel. I loved living there, the Mediterranean climate, the fab food, and the ancient relics & places. It helped that I had family there & was fluent in Hebrew & could converse with both Arabs & Jews since Israeli Arabs speak Hebrew.
The year was 1971; I turned 20. Returning to Uni, as a 4th year student, I was hired to teach Hatha Yoga for the Physical Ed.Dept. There was very little Yoga in 1971, & I was tickled to be one of the first Yoga instructors in North America. Yoga was my first love; but I went on to study & teach many movement disciplines, including Tai Chi, Creative Dance, Contact Improv, and African Dance. Yoga is still at the base & informs all the other movement & dance expressions.
In Grad school, I submitted my thesis proposal entitled: Physiology of Yoga; why Westerners find relief & joy from yoga. I thought it was a great proposal; I was just way ahead of my time. However, it was unacceptable; so I quit the program with a MS in Physical Anthropology. I quickly rebooted off to UCLA and enrolled in a Dance Therapy Summer Program. Needless to say it was a blast & a dream was set. The year was 1974; I was 23. Dance Therapy became my vocation of choice, & it took 30 years to reach my goal. I spent those years dancing & teaching, & exploring many movement & healing modalities. Finally settling down, in Oregon, getting married, raising 2 beautiful daughters, owning land & gardening. There was a lot of world travel Israel, Asia, Africa, Australia, NZ, Costa Rica, Mexico etc. Along the way, I got my massage license & worked about 15 yrs. as a massage therapist. The body has always fascinated me. Finally just before 9/11,
I moved to Colorado where both daughters were going to University and I joined them at age 50, to receive my MA in Somatic Psychology: Dance/Movement Therapy at Naropa Univ. Boulder, CO. My dream realized, I quickly set up a private practice as a dance therapist. People often ask if I dance with my clients & I say, indeed I do.
I immigrated to Victoria, BC. in 2007 and became a citizen 5 years later. A great move, & timely. I was hoping my daughters & their families would follow me up here; but they love where they live in the Colorado Rockies. We don’t see each other enough. I miss them very much; my grands growing up so fast, Neve is turning 5 in a few weeks & her brother Koa is 2.5.
About 10 yrs ago I was diagnosed with a stroke which was later changed to PD. Losing mobility really scares me. It feels like such an insult. Movement is my life, my freedom. When my neurologist heard I was a dance therapist, he told me dance would be the best thing I could do for PD- and indeed it has been. When I’m dancing is now the only time I feel like myself pre-PD. Dance gives me incredible joy & I love sharing my joy with students or co-conspirators at PWP. I focus a lot on rhythm which is so critical & really helps when we freeze or feel unsteady. Balance another key component & exercising the brain, by following movement patterns. Voice comes in as well as we learn chants to go with the dances. Dopamine is released from the joy that comes from dancing to great music, moving to the beat, laughing & engaging. And we always begin with some Yoga stretches. Please join me when we get over the Covid, & can meet in person again at our PWP gym.
I’d like to end with a huge shout out of gratitude to Jillian Carson & the whole PWP community. What a huge role you have played in my growing belief that PD is not just degenerative; but that we with our movement & exercise choices can effect real change & diminishment of symptoms. We must look below the symptoms & engage in healing practices. And it is so crucial to have friends with whom to share this journey. I give thanks!!
Sepora (Bird) Mayim (Water) My Hebrew Names WaterBird
