My movement practice has developed through an accumulation of teachers, traditions, and artistic encounters that continue to shape how I teach dance today. Rather than emerging from a single technique, my work reflects an embodied lineage formed through many mentors who opened different ways of sensing, structuring, and imagining movement.

My earliest training began in Naperville, Illinois with Joshua Manculich, who instilled in me a lasting passion for the arts. During my teenage years, Barb Conley nurtured my love of ballet and modeled the care and dedication that dance teaching can embody.

My formal training expanded at Indiana University Bloomington, where I studied across modern, ballet, somatic, and non-western movement traditions. There I worked with Selene Carter, studying Labanotation and Bartenieff Fundamentals, which shaped my understanding of movement analysis and the body as a site of knowledge. Elizabeth Shea guided my work in choreography and Limón Technique, while Stephanie Nugent deeply influenced my release-based movement, floorwork, and compositional practice. My training at Indiana also included work with Roberta Wong in Graham Technique, Nyama McCarthy-Brown in West African dance, and Ben Wegman, whose teaching emphasized structural strength and alignment.

I also had the opportunity to work with artists and companies outside of Indiana University, including Terry Marling at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Marlayna Locklear of DCDC, as well as with Larry Keigwin and Bill Evans, among other visiting artists whose perspectives expanded my understanding of contemporary dance practice.

Internationally, I studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where I worked with Aya Israeli in Gaga movement language and Moran Dekel in Cunningham Technique.

I later continued training with Visceral Dance Chicago, where I engaged with Nick Pupillo in contemporary jazz and ballet, Becca Lemme in release-based movement and inversion practices, and Ben Wardell in Flying Low Technique.

My movement education in Chicago was further shaped through work with Joel Hall in urban jazz and William Gill in Horton Technique.

Alongside this physical lineage, my academic work has shaped how I think about dance as a concept. My master’s thesis examined the ambiguity of the word “dance” within Western higher education, tracing how the discipline developed through early pioneers such as Margaret H'Doubler. This research continues to inform my teaching, reminding me that dance is never a singular or stable category but a shifting field shaped by culture, pedagogy, and history.

While it is impossible to isolate the pure formation of any individual teacher or tradition, naming these influences acknowledges the many artists whose knowledge continues to live within my movement and pedagogy.