About Mandy (she/her)




Mandy is a dance/movement artist, a Somatic Movement Educator, and a Global Somatics™ Practitioner with a B.A. in Theatre/Dance from Luther College who makes art with her moving body.  Her passion to investigate the body in relation to wild/public landscapes continues to open new spaces and places within herself.   She has her roots in many different modalities - Global Somatics,™ Body-Mind Centering,™ Craniosacral Therapy, Contact Improvisation and Contemporary Dance. Mandy brings over 4 decades of dancing, performing and embodiment to her work.

As a dance artist, Mandy has been performing, choreographing and teaching through the lens of Contact Improvisation and somatic explorations for over 20 years primarily throughout the midwestern states of the U.S .  For 6 years in the Twin Cities she has collaboratively 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 a residency at Knox College, IL. She has performed with Black Earth Collaborative Arts, Rosy Simas Danse,  and the BodyCartography Project among others.  She was a founding member of The Red Herrings based in Madison, WI, the Ready At Will Dance Collective (RAW) in Minneapolis and the WEdances Movement Collaborative in Viroqua WI, all site-based dance ensembles performing everywhere but the stage. Mandy 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 contemporary dance company both located in Minneapolis, MN.

She currently teaches creative dance and somatic movement classes children and adults through Bodies of Water Movement Arts while creating site-responsive dance works with the WEdances Movement Collaborative in Viroqua, WI. She lives on the ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk Nations, where she resides with her family, her garden and two guinea pigs.

Recent Dance Performance/Film Work
  • bodies of water, 2023, performance with WMC (WEdances Movement Collaborative) on Lake Superior with Herbster Studio Art Tour, Herbster, WI
  • Controlled Flow, 2023, commission by Springboard for the Arts with WMC, Ottertail River, Fergus Falls, MN
  • (m)omentum: wrapping the gutscape, 2023, multidisciplinary site-specific performance with WMC, Magpie Gelato Cafe, Viroqua, WI
  • The End - 2022, performance with ExTempo Orchestra, The Commons, Viroqua, WI
  • The Farmer of Plain, 2022, collaboration with Chris Lutter gardella and WMC for WormFarm Institute's Farm/ArtDTour, Plain, WI
  • Lake Effect - 2022, dance film - collection of dance studies exploring the body in relation to Lake Superior and it's surrounding waters.
    • Premier with The Bodycartography Project's “a collection of fluid spaces” at the Teknisk Museum, Oslo, Norway, 2022
    • Premier at the Herbster Studio Art Tour, Herbster, WI, 2021
  • Here/Now/Feel - 2021, performance with WEdances, VIVA Gallery, Viroqua, WI
  • Runescore 22//Dagaz & Runescore 25//Odin - 2021,  dance film collaboration with Callous Physical Theatre
  • siteSee - 2020, Multi-location/multi-happening performance, August-September in Viroqua, WI with WEdances Movement Collabortive
  • Parking Lot Project - 2020, Performance project in downtown parking lot, March-August in Viroqua, WI with AnnaJo Doerr and Rufus  Jupiter and community members
  • Time - 2019, The Commons, Viroqua, WI
  • Still/Awake - 2017, Co-Director and Performer with AnnaJo Doerr, site-specific performance, downtown Viroqua, WI,
  • Within An Acre – 2012, Collaboration with Denise Gagner
    Performed at 9x22 Dance Lab, curated by Laurie Van Weiren, Bryant Lake Bowl, Minneapolis, MN
    Performed at Rabbit Show, curated by John Munger, Bryant Lake Bowl, Minneapolis, MN
  • Re:Trace - 2009. Collaboration with Ready At Will Dance Collective (Denise Gagner, Laura Grant, Taja Will, Erin Drummond, MaryClare Lindsley). MN Fringe Festival, Colonial Warehouse Building, Minneapolis, MN
  • Ripple, 2006, with Young Dance performers, Ritz Theatre, Minnapolis, MN
  • Berserker, 2007, Zenon Block E Program, Minneapolis, MN

Recent Teaching/Presentations
  • Somatic-based Creative Dance classes for children, Viroqua, WI, 2014-current
  • Dance mentorship for student performances, Viroqua, WI 2023
  • Somatics + Contact Improvisation monthly workshops for adults, Feb-May 2023
  • PauseConnect, somatic movement series for adults, Viroqua, WI 2023
  • Guest Teaching Artist, Creative Dance. Grades 1st-5th. Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School, Viroqua, WI, 2021-2022
  • Guest Teaching Artist, Thoreau College, Viroqua, WI 2021
  • Guest Teaching Artist, 1st-3rd grade, Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School, Viroqua, WI, 2017-2020
  • WI Peer Recovery Conference - Somatic Movement workshop for attendees, Onalaska, WI, 2019
  • MN Prison Doula Project Training - Contact Improvisation and Somatics workshop for conference attendees, Minneapolis, MN, 2018
  • Guest Teaching Artist, Theatre/Dance Dept, Luther College, Decorah, IA. April 2016
  • Guest Teaching Artist, Movement/Dance, Youth Initiative High School, Viroqua, WI 2015
  • Guest Artist Residency with Ready At Will Dance Collective, Knox College, IL, 2010
Recent Publications Trainings/Education
  • Early Childhood Dance and Social-Emotional Learning, Luna Dance Institute, 3 hr online class, 2023
  • Springboard for the Arts Rural Creative Leadership Summit, invited guest artist, Fergus Falls, MN 2023
  • Senses and Perceptions, Body-Mind Centering™ workshop with MaryLou Seiter, Lorane, Oregon, 2023
  • Composing Emergence Mentorship with Nita Little, 2022
  • Body-Mind Centering™ online class with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen,  2021
  • Body-Mind Centering™ online classes: "Embryology," "Nervous System,"  "Basic Neurocellular Patterns" with Olive Bieringa, 2020
  • Tree Land Sky: site-responsive listening & practice, on-line workshop with Esther Baker-Tarpaga & Deirdre Morris
  • 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), 2013-2015
  • 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, Invertabrate patterns (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  with dance scholar Jane Hawley- Studied Bartenieff Fundamentals, Contact Improvisation,  exposure to many somatic modalities: Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, Skinner Release Technique, Body-Mind Centering™
Radio Interviews