About Me
Check out my company website for
Octavia Cup Dance Theatre |
I am a dancer, choreographer, registered somatic movement educator, and Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst. I’ve been working in New York City since 1994. As the artistic director of Laura Ward/Octavia Cup Dance Theatre (founded 1998), a multi-generational contemporary ballet company, my work has been performed regularly in NYC and in festivals from Edinburgh, Scotland to Speightstown, Barbados. Rate Your Burn pegged me at one of NYC’s top 20 Pilates instructors in 2012. I have taught movement in venues from elementary school kids to corporate teams. I hold a BA from SUNY Empire State in Dance, Theatre, and Movement Studies and have studied with Irene Dowd, Liz Koch, Lisa Lockwood, Sara Neece , Mary Abrams, and Kelly Kane. I trained in Connective Tissue Therapy (Bindegewebsmassage) under Theresa Lamb and John Chanek and completed Gyrokinesis teacher training. I have been featured in Shape, Self and Bust Magazines and served on a panel for New York City Ballet’s Annual Wellness Weekend. My teaching experience includes Wagner College, Gina Gibney, Dance New Amsterdam, Equinox and Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. In addition to Octavia Cup my choreography credits include Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Earth Celebrations and Ramapo College for which I won a KCACTF award. In my private practice clientele range from hedge fund CEOs to real estate developers, opera singers to aspiring dancers. Currently I am most excited about my work with TONUS MAXIMUS creating and performing with the Glam Rock Cabaret and teaching somatics and dance at Manhattan School of Music.
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About my work in this moment
Freedom and Form in Movement, Life and Making Art
The flame that ignited and spread like a wild fire for me during my education at the Laban Institute was the integration of seemingly opposite concepts within a framework of process-oriented learning. As my career has developed within the fields of dance, theater, somatic movement and fitness I continue to find this spark of life (Shakti) with other edge-walkers on the borders between the worlds of form and formlessness.
There are so many things to say and so many ways to say them. This is both the blessing and the curse of LMA/BF. It is hard to distill the multi-layered engagement of all the aspects of the work into any simple bite size elevator speech. For this reason I call myself a Maximalist. In my work, in my art, in my life, there are many things operating on many levels at all times. This complexity keeps me interested. Whether I am delving into the occult, taking a ballet class, or making a painting of a cube, I seem to keep orbiting around different elements of the same material like an ouroborus. In essence I am looking for ways to express and engage in a wholeness pattern. I am currently grappling with striking a nourishing balance between energies that embody serpentine creative freedom (improvisation, open movement, dare I say Indulging Efforts...) with those of rigid structural form (ballet, yoga, Laban's scales). In symbolic terms I am talking about the Yin and the Yang of the Tao and/or the relationship of spirit and matter within the tree of life in the Kabbalah. I might also say it is a balance between being in the Question and being in the Answer.
A big question I think we all must consider is how do we give and receive enough support so that the somatics community can grow and thrive spreading our branches and roots. We have a lot to offer the larger field of human existence. We are at a crucial point in world history that requires us to work together to bring our brightest and most creative spirit to the table if we are to move forward and begin to solve the problems we face today.
Freedom and Form in Movement, Life and Making Art
The flame that ignited and spread like a wild fire for me during my education at the Laban Institute was the integration of seemingly opposite concepts within a framework of process-oriented learning. As my career has developed within the fields of dance, theater, somatic movement and fitness I continue to find this spark of life (Shakti) with other edge-walkers on the borders between the worlds of form and formlessness.
There are so many things to say and so many ways to say them. This is both the blessing and the curse of LMA/BF. It is hard to distill the multi-layered engagement of all the aspects of the work into any simple bite size elevator speech. For this reason I call myself a Maximalist. In my work, in my art, in my life, there are many things operating on many levels at all times. This complexity keeps me interested. Whether I am delving into the occult, taking a ballet class, or making a painting of a cube, I seem to keep orbiting around different elements of the same material like an ouroborus. In essence I am looking for ways to express and engage in a wholeness pattern. I am currently grappling with striking a nourishing balance between energies that embody serpentine creative freedom (improvisation, open movement, dare I say Indulging Efforts...) with those of rigid structural form (ballet, yoga, Laban's scales). In symbolic terms I am talking about the Yin and the Yang of the Tao and/or the relationship of spirit and matter within the tree of life in the Kabbalah. I might also say it is a balance between being in the Question and being in the Answer.
A big question I think we all must consider is how do we give and receive enough support so that the somatics community can grow and thrive spreading our branches and roots. We have a lot to offer the larger field of human existence. We are at a crucial point in world history that requires us to work together to bring our brightest and most creative spirit to the table if we are to move forward and begin to solve the problems we face today.