Movement Collage
Mary Poxon, Harris Ferris, Nikki Semeniuk, Lee Brewster, and Samantha Legassie 4-25-2021
Back by popular demand, this movement class will be a collage of movements led by several people. In “round one”, each presenter will guide us in a movement of their choice. In “round two”, each presenter will guide us in a different movement. We may even have time for a “round three”! Each movement will be complete in itself. There is no particular theme or connection between the movements—just favorite or particularly effective movements from each presenter’s clients and students.
Lee Brewster is a strength trainer, yoga teacher, and somatic educator (graduating in January 2021). Her special interest is in teaching how deep relaxation through movement leads to connecting with states of consciousness outside the boundaries of tension and habituated patterns.
The Novato Institute for Research and Training
422 Bonnardel Ave.,
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Lee.Brewster2@gmail.com
(707) 217-8064
Harris Ferris began his training in dance and movement with masters of the postmodern movement including Dan Wagoner, Eric Hawkins, and Aileen Passloff, before focusing exclusively on ballet where, following his training, he enjoyed a 13-year career as principal dancer with Buffalo’s Empire State Ballet. Moving onto a career in non-profit performing arts management, Harris has led several ballet companies and is currently Executive Director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Harris has continued his lifelong interest in dance and movement as both expression and personal growth, studying Skinner Releasing, Alexander Technique, Developmental Neuromuscular Stabilization, and ballroom dancing, and has taught dance technique in numerous settings. In 2014, Harris became inspired by the teachings of Thomas Hanna and subsequently earned his HSE certification in Novato California as part of Wave 19. Harris holds a BA in Sociology from SUNY Buffalo and an MBA from Rutgers University.
710 N. St. Clair St.,
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
hferris@pittsburghballet.org
(412) 728-7136
Suresha Hill, CHSE, Ed.S. (Educational Specialist), D.O.M.T.P. (Diplomate in Osteopathic Manipulative Theory and Practice) Suresha began her career in holistic health and education in the 1970s when a graduate advisor presented his unique theories in Systems Intervention and Prevention, her specialty curriculum in the field school psychology at Kent State University. Along the way she became an avid martial arts student, instructor, athlete, meditator, and dancer. Having sustained countless injuries, she was motivated to learn how to help rejuvenate her own system, while learning to facilitate the rehabilitation of her clients. Keeping the perspective of how to gently intervene into the body in a holistic way to help rebalance the system, she began numerous courses of study for the body, its nervous system, its energetic structures, breath therapy, then eventually Hanna Somatics and other osteopathic approaches that went in depth with the body’s fluid, visceral, and bony layers.
P.O Box 150954,
San Rafael, CA 94915
sureshahill@gmail.com
(415) 339-8196
Samantha Legassie, CHSE lives and works in Toronto, Canada. She graduated in 2017 from the Novato Institute and has worked with many clients since that time, but feels strongly that she has been her own best client! She found Somatics in 2014 when she was told that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Since then she has maintained a daily Somatics practice and her life is dramatically different than was predicted. Samantha has a background in nursing, instructing ballroom dance, teaching yoga, and is co-author of the International Best Selling Book Ignite Your Health and Wellness. She is currently writing a book about Somatics and her experience of it.
3 Greystone Walk Dr.,
Unit 2118, Scarborough,
Ontario M1K5J4,
Canada
samantha@rejuvinagesomatics.ca.com
(416) 807-9307
Deborah McCusker LMT, CHSE was certified by the Novato Institute in wave 18. She maintains a private massage therapy and HSE practice in Kodiak, Alaska.
2561 Beaver Lake Drive
Kodiak, AK, 99615
debmccusker@yahoo.com
(907) 539-1461
Mary Poxon, CHSE was a general dentist in private practice for 30 years before becoming a certified yoga therapist, C-IAYT. She has a special interest in helping people with chronic pain. She has studied several types of yoga, including Loyola Marymount UniversityYoga RX program, YTRx-500C & POLY-500, iRest Yoga Nidra, and is a Viniyoga Wellness instructor. Mary is a graduate of wave 19 at the Novato Institute, where she immensely enjoys being a teaching assistant. She practices Canine Somatics daily with her dog Mimi.
646 Middle Rincon Rd.,
Santa Rosa, CA 95409
mpoxon@mac.com
(707) 321-2542
Nikki Semeniuk, CHSE graduated from the Novato Institute in 2018, with wave 19. Nikki has been teaching dance for over 30 years, and is a body development, coordination & movement specialist. She holds certification through the Canadian Dance Teachers Association (CDTA), and is a Certified Acrobatic Arts instructor. Nikki discovered Hanna Somatic Education after suffering a hip injury in 2013. Unfortunately this injury led to chronic pain, and ultimately to her having to sell her very successful studio. Nikki continues her education with Hanna Somatics by returning to the Novato Institute as a teaching assistant, and teaches Somatic Education through her business Serenity Somatics.
Evansburg, Alberta,
T0E 0T0, Canada
nikki@serenitysomatics.com
(780) 542-8550