I have always had a fascination with the human body and the ways in which it moves. 

As a contemporary dancer, I worked with many different training systems to find technical expertise and physical expression.  Whilst undertaking this training at The Laban Centre, I studied the teachings of the centre’s founder, Rudolph Laban.  
 
Laban believed that our emotional body is reflected in the way we move and the way that we move affects our emotional state. They are continually feeding in and out of each other and that there should be no separation. He believed that when this cycle is interrupted then physical and/or emotional dysfunction can occur.  This philosophy underpins all my work.
 
In our modern world this interruption is starting at a younger and younger age as we become less active, less aware of our physicality, less able to recognise the stresses that we are putting on ourselves, and more enslaved to external stimuli via technology.  The circuit becomes broken and we lose our flow – the feeling of being at home in ourselves.
 
As a dance performer/teacher and choreographer I had the privilege of working with people of varied ages and experiences. Whether it was with pre-school children, young mums, professional dancers, opera singers, the elder and more frail, young offenders, office workers, ex-coalminers, people with physical disabilities or emotional challenges, my aim was always the same – to find a way to get each individual to move with as much freedom and confidence as possible, in order to allow their body to express something of their own life experience and/or imagination. Whether in daily tasks or in performance I wanted them to feel fully connected to themselves through their movement.
 
This motivation has continued with me over the past 25 years. In 2001, towards the end of my dancing career I qualified as a Personal Trainer and then as a Pilates instructor in 2010, whilst bringing up my two young children.  During these years I have tried many avenues to explore my own physicality – running, swimming, cycling, yoga, interval training, resistance work, aikido, squash, circuit training and numerous other fitness-based classes.  The disciplines may be different but the motivation is the same – to release tension, to clear my mind and to find a deeper connection to myself through the movement of my body. It is an ever-changing and creative challenge which takes commitment and positivity. 

I love to move and I aim to inspire that in others.