Join us as we talk with Nicole Perry about how her work as a intimacy director and choreographer has inspired the way she works with consent as a pedagogical practice. Learn to find an embodied YES, and an embodied NO in your own body. Learn how to translate this into activating the teaching and learning context.

Nicole has a new book coming out, published through Routledge. Care-full Creativity in Theatre and Dance Education: Consent-Forward, Trauma-Informed, Psychologically Safe Movement Pedagogy

Care-full Creativity in Theatre and Dance Education: Consent-Forward, Trauma-Informed, Psychologically Safe Movement Pedagogy is an interactive text that provides theory and tools for practice on creating a movement pedagogy of care.

This book brings together theories and tools of consent-forward, trauma-informed, and psychologically safe pedagogies and pedagogies of care, specifically for dance and movement teachers. It begins with power assessments for educators, then offers insights on the ripple effects of those powers in the classroom on students’ consent, agency, and psychological well-being. Each chapter includes reflective prompts for educators to examine their current classroom practices, as well as imagine new possibilities. Specifically in the second half of the book, chapters include multiple tools and/or templates for movement educators to use in incorporating new pedagogic practices into their classroom, including their syllabus, class design, and assessment. Reminders of the big ideas or highlight concepts conclude each chapter.

What is embodiment? How do we teach it and know what we know? This special episode is a discussion between Sarah and Colleen as they discuss embodiment and the practice of teaching embodiment.

We also discuss teaching L/BMA in different cultures and how the material translates and how it may not. This is the beginning of a conversation we should have more and more of.

Embodied People is co-hosted by Sarah Donohue and Colleen Wahl

and sponsored by Integrated Movement Studies.

In this insightful episode, we’re joined by Dr. Melanie French to explore the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP)—a groundbreaking system for understanding human development through movement. Developed by Dr. Judith Kestenberg, the KMP integrates psychodynamic theory with movement analysis, offering a lens into how early motor patterns reflect and shape emotional and psychological growth.

Dr. French unpacks the core elements of the KMP and its close relationship to Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis, illuminating how, especially how the frameworks of tension flow rhythms, tension flow attributes, and pre-efforts reveal the deep interplay between body and psyche.

Whether you're a clinician, movement professional, or simply curious about the inner workings of human development, this conversation offers rich insights into how movement patterns can inform therapeutic practice, self-understanding, and holistic wellbeing.

Learn more about Dr. Melanie French

Learn more about Kestenberg Movement Profile

Study KMP with Dr. French

Bio for Dr. Melanie French

Dr. French brings a wealth of knowledge to her work, including 10 years of working in both inpatient and outpatient settings as a clinician and dance/movement psychotherapist as well as a graduate-level educator in clinical training programs.

With a dedication to holistic healing, Dr. French holds expertise in mind-body approaches to wellness. Her lifelong interest in healing from trauma, anxiety, depression, and social phobias led her to professional training in multiple modalities, from Western academic approaches to Eastern medicine, as well as cross-cultural perspectives on health and wellness.

Dr. French has special expertise in developmental psychology and how we can understand what children need through observing their nonverbal behavior, and how what happens in our first 5 years of life is remembered by our bodies long after our conscious mind has forgotten! Her doctoral research explored the profound impact of rhythmic movements on emotional states and early childhood memories.

As a master trainer and educator in the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) Body Movement Analysis System, Dr. French shares her expertise with a wide international audience, empowering others to understand how to support child development and healing of developmental traumas or difficulties at any stage of life.

She brings extensive training in an array of mind-body modalities, including hypnotherapy, dance/movement therapy, hatha yoga, energy psychology, EFT/tapping, kinesiology, mindfulness, meditation, Usui Reiki II, and creative arts therapies.

Embodied People is sponsored by Integrated Movement Studies and co-hosted by Sarah Donohue and Colleen Wahl

This is another extra special interview session with Jeremy Devins of QuietMind Astrology and QuietMind Yoga.

Jeremy's work stands out for his remarkable skill of bringing inner wisdom to the surface through Yoga and Astrology. His life choices model following one's inner life. And his teaching, both yoga and astrology teach students to do the same.

In this interview learn about connecting to the body, and about philosphical connections between yoga and astrology.

He has a new mentorship program starting at the end of the month. ANd if you want a great online yoga resource QuietMind Yoga is FULL of classes and learning opportunities.

Bio: Jeremy Devens, founder of Quietmind Astrology. After 19 years of study, what began as a personal search for clarity became a calling to help others align with their true path. He created this workshop because he remembers how overwhelming it was to look at his chart and not know where to begin.

Embodied People is co-hosted by Sarah Donohue and Colleen Wahl

Embodied People is sponsored by Integrated Movement Studies

In this extra special episode learn about Rosemarie Onvlee. We first met Rosemarie via the beautiful motif cards she created. From there we became fascinated with her work and path. As a physiotherapist in the Netherlands she integrates Laban/Bartenieff methods into working with her clients towards healing.

Biography for Rosemarie Onvlee:

Rosemarie is a is physiotherapist based in the Netherlands. She teaches dance and movement classes to adults and 50+ people. She created Motif Symbols cards.

Buy cards at her website

Follow her in IG

Embodied People is sponsored by Integrated Movement Studies and co-hosted by Sarah Donohue and Colleen Wahl

Art by Erin Law

Join us for this gold star episode with special guest Pam Oatis, MD. Pam is a pediatrician who works with Hand in Hand parenting - a special program focusing on the cultivating of listening. In Hand in Hand, listening is practiced with children, ourselves and one another to form networks of presence. Pam is writing the book 'What Babies Wish We Knew'.

Pam discusses the basic practices of Hand in Hand and the impact it has had on the lives around her.

What Pam makes possible in writing, medicine and community models ways to practice being with each other and connecting to our deepest human wisdom within each of us.

To find out more about Pam, check out her website here.

Embodied People is sponsored by Integrated Movement Studies

and co-hosted by Sarah Donohue and Colleen Wahl

Art by Erin Law

This solo cast is a reflection and movement meditation on the core of the body, and connecting into the core of your body as a way of connecting into an enduring image of the self. Perhaps exploring this image inwardly and in movement, we strengthen our sense of who we are at our deepest center.

Embodied People is sponsored by Integrated Movement Studies

Co-hosted by Sarah Donohue and Colleen Wahl

Art by Erin Law

Music by Jordan Rosen

Jeffrey Peterson began his life as a movement professional in marching bands before making his way to jazz dance and Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis. In this interview with Jeffrey we discuss the ecstasy of large group unison and the push towards perfectionism.

We also discuss how Jeffrey has worked with personal uniqueness as an antidote to perfectionism and to a way to find yourself in group unison. This beautiful conversation has connections to teaching dance, developing as an artist and how we find ourselves again and again in the movement arts.

Bio: Jeffrey Peterson received his CLMA from Integrated Movement Studies in 2013 and also holds an MFA in dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and aBFA in dance from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.

Peterson is the Program Director and Assistant Professor of Dance at Winona State University in Winona, MN. With 17 years of experience in higher education, he’s previously taught at Gustavus Adolphus, St. Olaf, and Muhlenberg Colleges, among others. His research on the intersections of L/BMA and jazz dance pedagogy has twice been presented at NDEO, in addition to the Somatic Dance Conference (NY) and the Moving From Within Conference in southern Germany.

Embodied People is sponsored by Integrated Movement Studies

Embodied People is co-hosted by Sarah Donohue and Colleen Wahl

Art by Erin Law

Sound by Jordan Rosen