Summer Somatics Series 2026

Full access allows participants to attend all six (6) somatic movement classes offered in the Summer Somatic Series for a discounted price.

MEISA: movement-exploration-imagination-sensation-awareness is a developing somatic, contemplative, creative practice (in its 10th year) that revitalizes mind, body and spirit. A lifetime in somatic, contemplative movement practice and dance have informed the development of MEISA. The practice invites embodied presence through sensory connection and a questing need to know, move, and live more deeply in the authenticity of the body. Familiar patterns emerge, and transform through conscious investigation. New territories of movement potential unfold. All levels welcomed. 

Melissa Rolnick is Professor Emerita at Gustavus Adolphus College. BFA SUNY Purchase, MFA Mills College. New York studies: Andre Eglevsky, Maggie Black, Valentina Pereyaslavec, Zena Rommett, Merce Cunningham, Mel Wong, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Carol Fried, Aaron Osborne, Louis Falco, Jennifer Muller, Dan Wagoner. San Francisco studies: Margaret Jenkins, Aaron Osborne, Alonzo King. Performed in SF with Joe Goode, Emily Keeler, Elina Mooney, in the companies of SF Moving Company, Cliff Keuter, Margaret Jenkins. Other studies: Iyengar yoga: Judith Lasater, Authentic Movement : Janet Adler, Dani Riggs, Gaga: Ohad Naharin, Batsheva Dancers. Former faculty member at Sonoma State, Western WA, Arizona State, Fresno State, Gustavus Adolphus College. Choreography presented in California, Arizona, Minnesota, Wyoming Florida, British Columbia, Texas. In 2015 Melissa was awarded a Lenz Residential Fellowship Buddhist Studies at Naropa University.  During this time, she began developing MEISA:movement-exploration-imagination-sensation-awareness, a somatic/contemplative/creative practice. 

Basic Neurocellular Patterns (BNP) are a series of automatic movement sequences that progress from simple to complex in humans.  These normally and naturally emerge and integrate through infancy creating patterns which inform and build our movement, physical, perceptual, emotional and cognitive processes our whole lifetime. This foundation not only guides our interactions with gravity and space, particularly important to dancers and movement-oriented folks, but supports the discovery and rediscovery of our sense of self, our relationship to others and our environment.

This workshop will explore the vertebrate (spinal) patterns which develop innately after the pre-spinal patterns.  They are: spinal, homologous, homolateral, contralateral and brachiation/climbing.  These patterns will then be combined into two developmental movement sequences.  Experiencing first as internal movement, then external movement and finally as locomotive, we will work as individuals and possibly with partners to reconnect with and embody these underlying patterns which provide us with richness and fullness of being, as internal sensation and connection leading to outward expression. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of Body-Mind Centering® says, “BNP form the underlying words and phrases in the language of human movement.”

Mary Ann Rund (aka Reis) has taught dance and somatic movement for several decades in St. Louis.  Former performer and choreographer, Mary Ann is intrigued by the potential for expression in all ages and stages of life.  With a BS in Biology and a BA and MFA in dance, she decided to indulge her curiosity of somatic disciplines and chose Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) as a focus of study and practice, completing certifications in Somatic Movement Education (SME) and Infant Development Movement Education (IDME).  Mary Ann currently sees private clients, is a co-teacher for the Saturday Community Modern Dance class, and indulges in the experiences of movement in varied environments such as river and  ocean, field and forest, mountain and mudbank.  Feel free to contact her at marund@att.net

Drawing from the principles of the Alexander Technique, this workshop invites participants to explore the subtleties of communication and expression through the awakening of the senses and the power of gentle touch. What do we share and receive through touch? How do we listen, respond, and communicate without words?

Participants will be guided to experience the body not only through physical sensation but also through mindful awareness and thoughtful intention. We will integrate AT skills of inhibition - such as pausing, non-doing, and deep listening - with directed attention, personal expression, and relational awareness. Through playful exploration, we will awaken our senses and deepen our connections, discovering the harmony of a responsive, expressive body in dynamic relationship with others.

Dawn Karlovsky is the Founder and Director of Karlovsky & Company Dance. Her choreography has been commissioned and presented by universities and companies both nationally and internationally, with credits including Le Théatre du Rouret and Cie Haute Tension in France, Tsinghua University in Beijing, New World Dance Theatre in South Africa, Divadlo Štúdio tanca in Banka Bystrica, Slovakia. She has also been an Artist in Residence at Moulin Belle in France.

Dawn is a nationally certified teaching member of the American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT). Certified in 2004, she currently serves as Chair of AmSAT’s Committee for the Alexander Technique in the Performing Arts (CATPA). Her teaching fosters a holistic approach to movement and creative practice through Alexander Technique courses at Washington University as part of the Somatic Studies Certificate Program and as faculty at Webster University’s Department of Dance in St. Louis. Dawn is a recipient of an Artist Fellowship in Dance from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis.  www.karlovskydance.org

What if our mindset to fix a problem undermines our ability to improve and get better? What if connecting with yourself is more powerful than judging? What if creative and novel variations are more effective than repetitions? What if failing is succeeding? Join me as we explore these questions through the Feldenkrais Method® of Awareness Through Movement®. 

Kelly Feder has always been interested in human potential and how we create and move beyond our limitations in both moving and thinking. She is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and has been learning and exploring with this method for almost 20 years.

Connect to the Energy Centers in Your Body! 

How do I manifest change/innovation in my life?  There are swirling vortices of energy connecting me to the “outside world”, which also allow access to a deeper sense of ‘knowing’ in my “inner world”.  Through playing with breath, color, imagery, movement, and sensation I may access and explore these windows, these moving, subtle energy portals.  Where will they lead me? Allow limitless possibilities to unfold, with the invitation to embody the chakras and energy fields. Beckah guides a time of personal experimentation, inviting transformation.  There is no previous experience necessary, simply be in the moment, come with an openness to what unfolds with each breath.  Be the observer and the participant in your journey.  Do you have an intention of what you would like to manifest or change?  Come Create Your Universe!

Beckah Reed taught in the Department of Dance at Webster University for over 37 years and served as artistic director of ANNONYArts, Wishbone Dance Theatre and co-artistic director of GASH/VOIGT Dance Theatre. Her love of movement has taken her to communities across the globe, focusing on connection, expression and humanistic issues.  Beckah’s decades of international modern dance performance, choreography, improvisation, meditation, qigong, taiji, reiki, Continuum Movement® and somatics research, provide her with a passionate perspective of life and health.  She finds joy in the dance of subtle energy!  beckahreed.com