Now Enrolling RYT 200

Sondra Fraleigh is an international leader in dance, yoga, and somatic healing arts, renowned for her visionary contributions to the field. A Registered Feldenkrais® teacher and RYT 1000 yoga instructor, she certifies Registered Somatic Movement Educators and Therapists through ISMETA. With over 40 years of teaching experience, including her role as professor and department chair at the State University of New York at Brockport, Sondra has shaped countless lives through her expertise and mentorship. A Fulbright Scholar, acclaimed author, and innovative choreographer, she developed Shin Somatics®, a transformative approach to healing and personal growth. Her influence extends worldwide, inspiring movement practitioners across the USA, Europe, Japan, Mexico, and India.

Christina Marie Sears is a yogi, and a performing, literary, and interdisciplinary artist who began dancing at the age of three and hasn't stopped yet. She earned an MFA in Choreography from the State University of New York and later earned an MA in Creative Writing. She is a yoga instructor 200/500 RYT and a Somatic Movement Educator from the East West Somatics Institute.

Christina has served as Dance or Theatre faculty at Wayne State, Eastern Michigan, the University of Toledo, and the University of Michigan Flint Campus. Her dance "Dollhouse, revisited" won Best New Choreography in the State of Michigan, and shortly after, she accepted the prize of Touchstone Dance Educator of the Year from the Michigan Youth Arts Festival. Christina has toured her concert and salon works in Barbados, Italy, Poland, and Scotland. Her research on somatics, eco-arts, and the impact of conscious breathing has been published or presented at Wayne State University, Somatic Dance Conference by Bill Evans and Hobart, William and Smith, and the University of West Indies. She is a regular contributor to EWSNAC and has danced with Terpsichore's Collective, locally, with Detroit Dance Exchange, regionally, and with other ensembles. She has been a featured artist with the international Global Water Dances for over 10 years. She has performed and taught butoh, ballet, tap, contemporary jazz, and world dance forms in professional and community settings.

Christina Marie writes, makes art, and teaches through her home studio (linked below), and with other groups, schools, and organizations.

http://www.maplestreetstudios.org

Michelle Iklé (MFA; RSMT/RSME) is Associate Professor in the Department of Dance and Movement Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. She is on the faculty at Eastwest Somatics Institute and a certification instructor of Shin Somatics® methods. Iklé specializes in modern and jazz dance pedagogy, contemporary partnering, somatic education, kinesiology, and performance. Passionate about jazz dance pedagogy, she has shared her historically rooted, inclusive methodologies at national dance and somatic education conference venues for more than fifteen years. Iklé continues to perform as an independent artist and has recently enjoyed performance opportunities in parks, along rivers, at art galleries, in parking lots, on grass, in water, in fields, on bridges, at wineries, and even cemeteries! Her resume includes more than forty choreographed works, including work commissioned or selected for regional and national performance venues. Her current choreographic pursuits explore contemporary perspectives on modern dance and jazz choreography, expressions of embodied memory, and place dances in the environment.