About Mandy



Mandy is a Somatic Movement Therapist (SMT), Global Somatics™ Practitioner, Movement Educator and Dance Artist.   She has her roots in many different somatic modalities - Global Somatics,™ Body-Mind Centering,™ Craniosacral Therapy, Reiki, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Contact Improvisation and Contemporary Dance.

Mandy brings over 3 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 through the Midwest and East coast.  For 6 years in the Twin Cities she has shown work and 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 residency at Knox College, IL. She has performed with Black Earth Collaborative Arts, Rosy Simas Danse, the BodyCartography Project among others.  She co-founded the Ready At Will Dance Collective (RAW), a site-based dance ensemble that 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 contemporary dance company both located in Minneapolis, MN.

She currently teaches somatic-based movement/dance and creates site-responsive dance works in Viroqua, WI. Her passion to investigate the body in relation to rural/urban landscapes continues to open new spaces and places within herself.

Recent Teaching/Presentations
  • Guest Teaching Artist, Thoreau College, Viroqua, WI 2021
  • Ongoing somatic-based classes for children and adults, Viroqua, WI, 2014-2020
  • 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, Luther College, Decorah, IA. April 2016

Credentials/Trainings/Education
  • Body-Mind Centering online classes: "Embryology," "Nervous System,"  "Basic Neurocellular Patterns" with Olive Bieringa, 2020
  • 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, 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 - Studied Bartenieff Fundamentals, Contact Improvisation,  exposure to many somatic modalities: Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, Skinner Release Technique, Body-Mind Centering™

Recent Dance Performance Works
  • siteSee - 2020, Multi-location/multi-happening performance, August-September in Viroqua, WI with AnnaJo Doerr and Buho
  • Parking Lot Project - 2020, Performative project in downtown parking lot, March-August in Viroqua, WI with AnnaJo Doerr and Buhó
  • Time - 2019, Creator and Performer within a multi-media concert.
                 The Commons, Viroqua, WI
  • 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, Minneapolis, MN June 2012
    Performed at Rabbit Show, Bryant Lake Bowl, Minneapolis, MN October 2012