Amherst Portrait by Tasha Robbins
In 2010, Dana was attending graduate school at New York University when serendipity led her to a deep intensive study in Somatic Movement Therapy and Education with Dr. Martha Eddy. During her training, she began working in private sessions with individuals who presented with Piriformis Syndrome and drop-foot, spinal and knee injuries, chronic migraine headaches, speech and motor impairment due to stroke, and back and hip pain. She also began assisting Moving for Life® group dance classes for cancer recovery, as part of a research study at NYU Langone Medical Center. In 2013, Dana taught BodyMind Dancing®, Breathing Anatomy Labs, and The Body in Translation at Dance New Amsterdam, Moving for Life at Gilda’s Club and the Jewish Community Center, and yoga and meditation at New Visions Charter High School. She co-teaches the workshops “Somatic Anatomy: The Breathing Series” and “Somatic Anatomy: The Organ Series” with Lissa Michalak, “Wellness for the Joints” and “Developmental Movement” with Mandy Chan, and “Yoga through the Endocrine System” with Shakti Smith, as well as offering private sessions as a Dynamic Embodiment® practitioner. In 2015, she began teaching BodyMind Dancing and Moving for Life at Brooklyn Arts Exchange and NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center.
Born in upstate New York in 1968, Dana studied classical ballet with Sher Marie Farrell (Farrell Ballet Theatre) and Sir William Martin-Viscount (Fort Worth City Ballet) before graduating from University of Texas in Russian Studies and Journalism. She co-founded and published a weekly arts magazine in Kiev, Ukraine called Dossier Dosuga (The Leisure Files), as well as a literary magazine (Goodie) and small press book imprint (Panther Books) in New York City. She worked as a contributing writer and designer for books and magazines, including Jews, A People’s History of the Lower East Side, Gig: Americans and Their Jobs, Interior Design, Photo District News, Publishers Weekly and The New Yorker. She continues to work as an editor and translator on projects such as Vintage Film Club (subtitles for Watch Out, Grandma!) and the National Art Museum of Ukraine (Alexander Gnilitsky: Exquisite Corpse exhibition catalog).
by Johanna Bartelt
With heartfelt appreciation for my main DE teachers, Martha, Talia Shafir and Linda Tumbarello, my ballet teacher Sarah Pope, and my yoga teacher Grace Grochowski. And an extra special thanks to Susan Sinclair for tuning me into the Somatic world.
