Thank you Rhia~I appreciate you and your loving expression of faith and encouragement! Your reflection is accurate and I appreciate your perspective and clarity. Since I did my homework for you for June 4th, I’ve been having (mostly) *Gold Star Days* since our visit.  I’m working on my different projects, seeing that I feel best when I’ve done a lot of work by 3pm.  Then I feel free to exercise, garden, and go to the beach!

Rhia, I want to thank you for holding a safe space for me, you were wonderful.  I’ll do my best to be more alive and with a positive attitude to support Dance in the Wilderness.

I met Rhia earlier this year through mutual friends and immediately noticed her calm, grounded way of being in the world. Our work together has included expressive arts and movement therapy and hypnotherapy. Additionally, Rhia has given me information about resources that are available to support myself outside of our sessions. Examples of this include peer co-counseling groups and other movement therapy groups. Rhia has given me insight and advice about business planning and budgeting, and she has set up a schedule for weekly check-ins to monitor our progress as we work together. I appreciate that Rhia is punctual and organized. She clearly explains what we are going to do during a session and why. Having an understanding of her approach allows us to communicate directly and accomplish more during our time together.

Rhia’s voice is like liquid light… soothing, nurturing and inspiring.  She leads with gentle strength and deep compassion.

MFT

I enjoy the ability to relax into my body and play with breath and movement; focus on core and contact; practicing connecting and disconnecting … making connection with others in more physical, playful, embodied ways!

Therapist

Thanks so much Rhia! The class was great! The meditation in the beginning of class really worked for me and made me feel really connected with my body.

I really enjoyed how the class was free-form. It was very peaceful..I loved it and had an amazing time!

I was curiously surprised by each next tool that Rhia pulled out of her bag — the breadth of variety was interesting. I enjoyed the Balinese dance and the Butoh. She created a safe, nurturing space… solid listening skills, and willingness to play and discover.

Accountant

I enjoyed being on the beach, on the sand, exploring, learning about dance from other cultures like Japan and Bali , and finding out just how hard it is! I enjoyed the Contact dance…

Rhia, you have such a great “tool-box”, so many things to share!

Hi Rhia  thank you for your kind words, I enjoyed the class very much!  I got some very important insights – relaxation – movement – seeing and understanding the relationship between this two energies. I would love to dance more and more…

The warm-up exercises were playful and profound in their ability to immediately bring me into my body. The exercises invited me to have fun and quickly let go of stored-up tension. I especially remember the balloon exercise where I puffed up my cheeks and was introduced on a subtle level to my first mask. Well, not so subtle! It was helpful from the beginning to break my movement patterns and play with new shapes. I remember one move from the Balinese dance that I still practice to strengthen my hips; balancing on one leg and rotating the hip joint left and right of the leg in the air. Practicing creatures was liberating and primal.
In the Radiant Heart workshop, I enjoyed my journey and remember it often to give me confidence and remind me of my allies. I enjoyed dancing different emotions and practicing our masks.
In the Sat/Sun afternoon classes, I especially liked the sitting to lying
movement (pouring sand). Preparing for the performance was the theme of these classes, and I was glad to be prodded a little to perform.
My own dance teaching has been effortless since attending your workshops and
performing in the dance theater. Thank you, dear Rhia.

Iowa

What I liked the best about your classes and what makes your approach so unique, is that you allowed us to breathe in and explore within ourselves the meaning and feeling of the movements and then let them surface and manifest through our bodies in a way that expresses our individuality and creativity, but still within the particular form of dance. I enjoyed all the dances that you presented, but my favorite dance was Balinese. It has the tribal and ritual appeal, but layered with subtleties and refinement.

I also appreciated your composure and calmness, as well as the ability to provide a very comfortable and secure learning environment where we were working in synergy and not competing with each other. For all of us who use dance as a tool of self-discovery this was truly a very special time.
Undoubtedly, your magic is still at work!

Eastern Europe

And in retrospect, though I felt very alone, dancing with my eyes closed, I think I enjoyed that process as well. The audience being there, non-judgmentally observing changed the experience, and it may have helped me with my horrid stage-fright, which I didn’t really feel much at all when we got up to perform.

Des Moines

I enjoyed seeing your demo and hearing your explanation. The tangled hair/tangled heart blew me away the most. Very stirring. You have imbibed all the styles totally and I think everyone was impressed with your depth and sincerity.

Workshop: I enjoyed the way you gave us a brief taste and then went more deeply the following days. Learning male and female parts was a stretch. The masks was a stretch and good for me. The expressive arts was all helpful, though I think I would like more guidance on authentic movement technique. I liked rolling around on the floor and interacting with other dancers. One of my favorite parts was contact improv, back to back sitting and free dance to variety of music. I liked the tiger move – those kinds of very ethnic tastes were especially fascinating. I loved the seaweed and the wave, etc.

Iowa

The warm-up exercises were playful and profound in their ability to immediately bring me into my body. The exercises invited me to have fun and quickly let go of stored-up tension. I especially remember the balloon exercise where I puffed up my cheeks and was introduced on a subtle level to my first mask. Well, not so subtle! It was helpful from the beginning to break my movement patterns and play with new shapes. I remember one move from the Balinese dance that I still practice to strengthen my hips; balancing on one leg and rotating the hip joint left and right of the leg in the air. Practicing creatures was liberating and primal.
In the Radiant Heart workshop, I enjoyed my journey and remember it often to give me confidence and remind me of my allies. I enjoyed dancing different emotions and practicing our masks.
In the Sat/Sun afternoon classes, I especially liked the sitting to lying
movement (pouring sand). Preparing for the performance was the theme of these classes, and I was glad to be prodded a little to perform.
My own dance teaching has been effortless since attending your workshops and
performing in the dance theater. Thank you, dear Rhia.

Iowa

About the show, the energy on the stage was incredible. All dancers seemed
to be in a trance. We just danced to the music, spontaneously, expressing
ourselves freely, just like what we did in the class. It was wonderful.

For me, Butoh is a dance of total surrender to your body. Let the mind
takes over and puts ego aside, then I listen to my inner voice and
interpret the voice that speaks to me through facial expression and body
movements. Butoh lets me radiant the energy from the earth out from my body
and I give my all to express the inner image that I have in my mind.
Rhia, you are an inspiration.

Taiwan

All my life, I’ve had trouble with commitment and sticking to schedules. Messy house, dropping exercise regimes, forgetting appointments, always running behind, procrastinating in my business. (In addition, while) I love my mother, I felt nervous and on guard whenever I talked to her on the phone, as she usually found a way to slip in some put-downs and sneak attacks.

In just one session with Rhia, I tackled and resolved the inner conflict that led to these troubles! The combination of movement and art is awesome! When I got stuck and entrenched, Rhia supported me with gentle tenacity and superior skill to bring in just the right resource to get things moving. Since that session, just three weeks ago, I am almost caught up with chores, I am much better at keeping my commitments, exercise daily (a little bit at least), and it’s fun and easy! My mother and I have friendly, relaxed conversations. I am much more comfortable about making mistakes, and nicer with myself.

Also, as if the universe was pitching in once the issue was out in the open, I got support and “tests” of my newfound ability to work with flexible, playful structures from all kinds of unexpected sides. And the next opportunity to grow is popping up—my reluctance to be truly successful. I will schedule several sessions, to keep myself commited and keep the momentum going! You rock, Rhia!

Germany

Rhia is a wise, grounded and compassionate woman who created a very supportive space for me to prepare for birthing my first child. She offered me many options of how to use the visual, expressive and movement arts to explore and express my inner world in our sessions together. Her support helped me to further trust myself and my intuition and to identify the weak points in my self-concept and support network. I would highly recommend her as a life coach or birthing mentor.