My childhood love of skiing ultimately propelled me toward a lifetime of teaching people how to move more efficiently, powerfully, joyfully and safely. In college and then law school, the seeds were planted: Analyzing the composition of a painting as an art history major was my apprenticeship in learning how to read a body. In law school, finding the issue in legal cases was my tutelage in learning to get to the point and solve logical puzzles, critical ingredients in reading a body. This combination of visual, logical and legal learning carried over into kinesthetic work, step by step, as I studied, practiced and gained certifications in a range of movement modalities, starting with skiing.

 

On a ski vacation in my twenties, an instructor asked me if I’d ever consider teaching skiing. That question literally changed the trajectory of my life. I changed careers, from lawyer to ski instructor and have never looked back, spending the last thirty five years refining my skills as a movement teacher.

 

My immersion in the ski world led me to Pilates when I married a New York based federal anti-trust lawyer; I needed something to teach that no longer required snow and mountains. After witnessing the U.S. Ski Team using Pilates in Vail, Co., where I was teaching skiing, I set out to study the method (with Romana Kryzanowska, a direct disciple of Joseph Pilates). I incorporated what I learned about biomechanics, teaching and learning styles from the ski industry to a growing Pilates and Yoga practice of my own in New York.

 

Later, after my third child was born, my practice expanded to incorporate yoga, specifically the Katonah Yoga Method, which resonated with my understanding of biomechanics from the ski world. When my own kids started to row competitively in their teens, in addition to my private practice, I started helping their teams with yoga and pilates classes. My kids grew up and moved on; I stayed with the rowing coaches. Years of teaching athletes culminated in my work with several different segments of the national rowing teams. It was the intensity of the national teams' punishing training schedules that ultimately helped me hone and define my own method of teaching body mechanics to rowers, other athletes and to the general population.

 

Through my experience in sports, movement and certification processes, the common thread has been my quest to refine my understanding of body mechanics and to define my own teaching language - to help people, as they say in the horse world, become better movers. But more than that, my goal has been and still is, to inspire and teach skills for optimal health, success and well-being .