The Power of Movement: Legacy Motion's Story
The Power of Movement: Legacy Motion’s Story
When people hear about Legacy Motion for the first time, their initial question is usually the same…what is your story?
I have finally taken a moment to write a condensed version of how Legacy Motion came to be…
As a professional ballerina for over 10 years the cells in my body already knew the power that dance possessed. However, after a horrible car accident with life changing injuries that essentially ended my professional career, I knew that my life in dance could not be over. I went to Graduate School earlier than I had anticipated and got a Masters Degree in Dance and Research. My focus was on dance documentation, a small and rare aspect of the dancing world. But preserving traditional dance forms had become my passion during my studies and my time working at the Library of Congress.
I noticed a gap that needed to be filled. So much cultural heritage was being lost to war, terror, displacement, political unrest, forced migration, climate change, and popular culture take over. And so few organizations were focusing on the loss of dance specifically. So in 2016 I officially started Dance Legacies Worldwide. I was fortunate enough to document dance in Kashmir, Northern India, the Middle East, and the Dakotas of North America, always focusing on ensuring the sustainability of the traditions and the access to the physical items that accompanied the dances within the community.
Each time I witnessed a festival, performance, or ritual the performers and witnesses would come alive with smiles, reference, and compassion towards each other and the universe in such profound ways.
Also during this time I was physically and emotionally doing my own restoration of body and soul after my accident through my yoga practice and eventually culminating in my yoga teacher certification. I found great strength in my personal practice and eventually decided to teach whenever I was near my home studio.
In 2017 things started to shift. I took a Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher Training in Chicago by the late Catherine Ashton. Honestly, I don’t remember what drew me to her or TIY, but I was working in Venezuela at the time. The suffering, corruption by government, and hopelessness that I witnessed there was bone chilling. I clung to my yoga and dance practices, teaching in the community, but knew that I could do more.
In 2018, after a trip to Honduras to teach yoga and dance to girls impacted by trauma, I knew that the path was clear. The coupling of mental healthcare and movement was the next step for DLW. Our mission expanded, our name changed, and here I am today telling you this story!
The joy and community that is invoked during collective and expressive movement, whether it be dance, yoga, qi gong, breath work, tapping, somatic therapy, or any other modality where the mind/body connection is repaired is awe-inspiring.
Legacy Motion’s story is still being written. We have many heroes to meet and many castle walls to scale. But, as I continue to learn from each human that I work alongside that has been impacted by trauma, I still cling to the knowing that is in my own cells; movement is a powerful unifier and will bring us all home to ourselves as we shift our own body narrative to include restoration, community, compassion, and collective wellbeing.