About Mandy (she/her)
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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 with wild or public landscapes (bike paths, junk yards, parking lots, cafe floors, art galleries, natural environments), materializing these forgotten and unnoticed spaces . She believes movement is a pathway in re-wilding the mind, body and the collective more-than-human realms. Inspired by the approaches of Global Somatics ®, Body-Mind Centering ® and Contact Improvisation, Mandy brings over 4 decades of dancing, performing and embodiment to her work.
For 6 years in the Twin Cities she collaboratively showed work or performed at many different venues: 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 worked with Black Earth Collaborative Arts, Rosy Simas Danse, the BodyCartography Project and Erin Drummond 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.
Now based in rural Wisconsin, Mandy delights in experiementing with somatic forms through performance and teaching and encouraging new dance perspectives in rural spaces. In 2024 and 2023, Mandy was invited to Springboard for the Art's Rural Futures Summit for creative leadership in Fergus Falls, MN where she performed and co-directed Controlled Flow/The Peony Project along the Ottertail River. She completed the Composing Emergence mentorship with Nita Little in 2022 and prior to that, in 2021, she was a research cohort member of Olive Bieringa's a collection of fluid spaces. As part of this project, she created Lake Effect, a short film illuminating connections between our gut embodiment and open lake spaces, showing during the live premiere at the National Medical Museum at Norway Teknisk Museum in Oslo, Norway in 2022.
Her recent collabortive work with WEdances has been shown at Wormfarm Institute's FarmArt DTour (2024) and before that the Minnesota Marine Museum in Winona, MN (2024). In 2023, WEdances performed on the south shore of Lake Superior performing as a guest with the Herbster Studio Art Tour.
She currently teaches dance and somatic movement classes with children and adults through Bodies of Water Movement Arts, based in the driftless area of Wisconsin. She lives on the ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk Nations, where she resides with her family, her garden and two guinea pigs.
Dance Performance/Film Work
Directing/Mentoring
Teaching/Presentations
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 with wild or public landscapes (bike paths, junk yards, parking lots, cafe floors, art galleries, natural environments), materializing these forgotten and unnoticed spaces . She believes movement is a pathway in re-wilding the mind, body and the collective more-than-human realms. Inspired by the approaches of Global Somatics ®, Body-Mind Centering ® and Contact Improvisation, Mandy brings over 4 decades of dancing, performing and embodiment to her work.
For 6 years in the Twin Cities she collaboratively showed work or performed at many different venues: 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 worked with Black Earth Collaborative Arts, Rosy Simas Danse, the BodyCartography Project and Erin Drummond 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.
Now based in rural Wisconsin, Mandy delights in experiementing with somatic forms through performance and teaching and encouraging new dance perspectives in rural spaces. In 2024 and 2023, Mandy was invited to Springboard for the Art's Rural Futures Summit for creative leadership in Fergus Falls, MN where she performed and co-directed Controlled Flow/The Peony Project along the Ottertail River. She completed the Composing Emergence mentorship with Nita Little in 2022 and prior to that, in 2021, she was a research cohort member of Olive Bieringa's a collection of fluid spaces. As part of this project, she created Lake Effect, a short film illuminating connections between our gut embodiment and open lake spaces, showing during the live premiere at the National Medical Museum at Norway Teknisk Museum in Oslo, Norway in 2022.
Her recent collabortive work with WEdances has been shown at Wormfarm Institute's FarmArt DTour (2024) and before that the Minnesota Marine Museum in Winona, MN (2024). In 2023, WEdances performed on the south shore of Lake Superior performing as a guest with the Herbster Studio Art Tour.
She currently teaches dance and somatic movement classes with children and adults through Bodies of Water Movement Arts, based in the driftless area of Wisconsin. She lives on the ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk Nations, where she resides with her family, her garden and two guinea pigs.
Dance Performance/Film Work
- Damp Edges, 2024, with WMC (WEdances Movement Collaborative), Witwen Park wetland, Witwen, WI as part of Wormfarm Institute's FarmArt D'Tour
- Backspace, 2024-ongoing, with WMC
- MN Marine Art Museum, Winona MN
- Site-specific spaces in Viroqua,WI
- bodies of water, 2023, performance with WMC on Lake Superior with Herbster Studio Art Tour, Herbster, WI
- Controlled Flow/The Peony Project, 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
- Appearance in Black Mountain College Studies Journal, vol 13. April 2022
- Virtual premiere of Runescores 22/Dagaz
- Virtual premiere of Runescores 25//Odin
- 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
Directing/Mentoring
- S. Gunter Klause and the Story Before, Director of Movement, Viroqua Community Theatre, Viroqua, WI 2023
- Choreographic Mentorships for community student dance works, Viroqua, WI 2023
- The Farmer of Plain, Co-director of dance, collaboration with Chris Lutter Gardella for WormFarm Institue's Farm/Art D'Tour, Plain, WI 2022
Teaching/Presentations
- BodyEcology: Spring, an eco-somatics workshop, Kickapoo Valley Reserve, La Farge, WI 2024
- PauseConnect, somatic movement series for adults, Viroqua, WI 2023-2024
- Creative Dance classes for children, Viroqua, WI, 2014-current
- Somatics + Contact Improvisation monthly workshops for adults, Feb-May 2023
- Guest Teaching Artist, Creative Dance. Grades 1st-5th. Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School, Viroqua, WI, 2021-2022
- 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
- The Space In-Between, Contact Quarterly Rolling Edition, May 2020 https://contactquarterly.com/cq/rolling-edition/index.php#view=the-space-in-between
- Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities, peer-led online discussions with Intercultural Roots, based in the UK
- Ecosomatics practice for living on a damaged earth, with BodyCartography Project, Movement Research, 10 hr zoom online class
- 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™
- Women's Fire with Michelle Thomas, Part 1 (2021) & Part 2 (2022)
