About Mandy

Mandy is a Somatic Movement Therapist (SMT), Global Somatics™ Practitioner, Movement Educator, Prenatal Yoga Practitioner, Dance Artist and Mother.   She has been a student and a teacher of many different somatic modalities - Global Somatics,™ BodyMind Centering,™ Craniosacral Therapy, Reiki, Contact Improvisation, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Yoga. Mandy also brings 3 decades of dancing, performing and embodied movement to her practice.

Credentials/Trainings/Education

•  Psoas Workshop with Liz Koch of Core Awareness (12 hrs),  Madison, WI, 2017
• Emotional Freedom Technique workshop (4 hrs), Centerpoint School of Massage and Shiatsu, 2013
• Registered with ISMETA (International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association), 2013
• CranioSacral Therapy 1, Upledger Institute, 2013
• Special Populations: Pregnancy (16 hrs), Centerpoint School of Massage and Shiatsu, 2013
• Prenatal Yoga Teacher Certification (45 hrs), Blooma,  2012
•  Shiatsu Basics (8 hrs), Massage Basics (8 hrs), Anatomy (60 hrs), Kinesiology (60 hrs), Traditional Chinese Medicine (60 hrs),  Centerpoint School of Massage and Shiatsu, 2010, 2012

• Global Somatics™ Practitioner Certification (1,452 hrs), Green River Dance for Global Somatics™, 2008                                  
• Extensive training and embodiment of body systems: Skeletal, Muscular, Organ, Fluid, Fascia, Ligamentous, Endocrine, Nervous, Energy, Celllular                    
• Training in body processes: Breath, Voice, Perception & Senses
  Training in Developmental Movement: Reflexes/Righting Reactions/Equilibrium Responses, Embryology (within womb), Vertebrate Patterns (out of womb)              
• Training in Craniosacral Therapy, Vibrational Aspects™, Reiki I and II
• B.A. Theatre/Dance & English, Cum Laude, Luther College, 2002
  Movement Fundamentals Curriculum - Studied Bartenieff Fundamentals, Contact Improvisation,  exposure to many somatic modalities: Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, Skinner Release Technique, Body-Mind Centering™

Recent Dance Performance Works

• Still/Awake - 2017, Co-Creator and Performer with AnnaJo Doerr                                                      Site-specific performance  in downtown Viroqua, WI, May 2017
  
• Within An Acre – 2012 Co-Creator and Performer with Denise Gagner
  Performed at 9x22 Dance Lab, Bryant Lake Bowl, June 2012
  Performed at Rabbit Show, Bryant Lake Bowl, October 2012

Mandy has worked with many types of people: those with Cerebral Palsy, those with Downs Syndrome, 35 weeks and pregnant with twins, pregnant and attempting a Vaginal Birth after Cesarean (VBAC), pre-walking babies, and professional dancers needing alignment integration. She is honored to work with each unique body.

As a Dance Artist, Mandy has been performing, choreographing and teaching through the lens of Contact Improvisation and Somatic explorations for over 16 years through the Midwest and East coast.  For 6 years in the Twin Cities she has shown work or performed at the MN Fringe Festival, Colonial Warehouse Building, The Soap Factory, The Bottling House, Bryant Lake Bowl, Walker Art Center, Southern Theater, Cinema Revolutions Dance Film Project, and at Knox College, IL.  She co-founded the Ready At Will Dance Collective (RAW), a site-based dance group who performs everywhere but the stage. Mandy has worked with mixed ability populations through dance and art making for 4 years through the Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts. And with Young Dance, a youth-based modern dance company both located in Minneapolis, MN.

She currently teaches movement and dance in Viroqua, WI, which is
 a thriving community of holistic healers, community arts, and a landscape ripe with sustainable agriculture and local living. Along with her spouse and 3 young children, she loves moving, dancing, eating and growing her own food and supporting the arts.