Tiago Martins holds a degree in Fine Arts (painting), and is a former world level gymnast (tumbler).  He is a contemporary circus performer and co-founder of Movement Lisboa.  As a movement student and educator, he is interested in exploring the body in it’s totality. He considers himself a spectator of the body as a vehicle of functionality, intellect and artistic expression,

Samantha is a Leeway Movement Coach, an Inspire by FM Instructor, Pilates mat qualified and holds a BPJEPS Pro Sports Instructor Diploma. She has travelled the globe as a professional belly dancer with a Hollywood company and taught workshops internationally for 20 years. A mother of 2 girls, one currently 6 weeks old and the other 6 years old, she works in collaboration with physiotherapists at a local clinic. She brings non linear pedagogy into a clinical setting for patients and clients, through playful movement exploration and dance as therapy. This month she launches a sold out collaborative project with Luke Davies of Back to Roots, an online 12 week long internship designed to merge the art and science of movement in order to create the alternative we would all like to see in current healthcare systems. @samanthaemanuel23 www.samanthaemanuel.com www.dancesynthesis.com https://backtoroots.community/b2r-internship-2022 https://www.leewaymovement.com/staff https://fightingmonkey.net/about

Traci has been a competitive life-long athlete. She has dabbled in soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, and Crossfit. She has experienced both sides of the coin: being an athlete and being a coach. After several crippling back injuries, she transitioned from a competitive athlete to a Coach, and focused more on the quality of movement rather than the intensity. Slowing down to coach helped her realize her passion, she has a deep drive for helping others move and feel better. Her chronic injuries eventually led her to find Functional Range Conditioning (FRC) and Kinstretch. These systems gave her the thought processes to assess her current state, and how to improve upon her limitations and train her injuries safely back to health. She wants to help people move and FEEL better, setting them up for success with knowledge and tools to empower them to full body freedom!

Roser graduated in Bachelor of Dance at Artez DansAcademie in Arnhem (Holland), in Journalism at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and just finished a Masters in design and space production in Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. She worked for choreographers like Anouk van Dijk, Giulio d’Anna, Anouke de Groot and Erik Kaiel, Maria Rovira or Pere Faura. From 2014 to 2019, she danced and performed internationally with the dance company Guy Nader and Maria Campos. Since the beginning of her career as a dancer, she felt the need and the curiosity to create her own work. She has created solo performances like “Simun” and “Tecnologías del yo”, which she performed in several venues in and around Catalonia. And also collaborated with different artist like the circus/dance artist Joan Català, with whom she created a street duet called “Menar”. This piece was awarded ‘best street piece of the year’ by the Catalan critics in 2016. Since 2017, she collaborates artistically and pedagogically with Tom Weksler. In 2019, they formed the performance arts company Wonderground. As Wonderground, they created a street piece called “RISE”, which is being touring in street Festivals around Europe. They also created several works for dance professional Schools like CODARTS (Rotterdam) and SEAD (Salzburg). Currently, Wonderground is in the process of finalizing the creation of a stage duo called “Tears in the Rain”, which Tom and Roser direct and perform and “Shadows of the mind”, another stage duo, which they choreograph for two finish dancers. Roser writes articles about movement and the relationship with culture, history, economics, geography or the political situation of the different places and countries she has the opportunity to visit when she teaches. They are all collected in the blog www.waysofmoving.net

Roya Carreras is an Iranian-Hispanic artist, choreographer, and educator who works within commercial, film, and theatrical settings from New York City to Los Angeles. On stage, Carreras' work has been presented at the CURRENT SESSIONS, Dixon Place, Baruch Performing Arts Center, and The Green Building in New York City; in California, she has presented at The Odyssey, Highways Performance Space, Electric Lodge Theater, Glenn Wallichs Theatre, Diavolo, Brockus Project Space, and BRAVA. She was a resident choreographer for Columbia Ballet Collaborative of Columbia University in 2015 and in 2018 participated in the MANCC residency funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. She has taught ballet, contemporary, and improvisation at Harlem School of the Arts, New Canaan Dance Academy, American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Peridance, Riverside Ballet Arts, Riverside City College, Pasadena Dance Theater, Norwalk Metropolitan Youth Ballet, East Pointe Dance, and Brockus Conservatory. As a performer, she has worked closely with Barak Marshall at BodyTraffic, Bryan Arias, Danielle Russo Performance Project, and Lux Boreal Danza Contemporanea in Tijuana, Mexico. Carreras holds a BFA in Dance with Honors from UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts, with additional training from The Ailey School and Springboard Danse Montreal. Her most recent work "Naneh," premiered inJanuary 2020, set on the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company.

Nil has been involved in various physical disciplines since childhood and passes on his experiences and ideas for a holistic, long-lasting, fulfilling and joyful movement practice in his work. His interest in working with the body and in the second step with the mind began early on. With an academic study in sports science in Munich, educational program to become a massage therapist and many seminar visits on a wide variety of topics, he then began his professional work as a teacher. Nil sees continuous further education, open-mindedness and a constant curiosity towards life as the foundation of his work. His teaching is characterized by his interest and practice of many systems and disciplines, including dance, rehabilitation & health training, parkour, acrobatics / artistry, bouldering/climbing, weight training, gymnastics, combat, yoga, meditation, bodywork, didactics, pedagogy, etc. The way of working is and remains dynamic: new experiences are integrated into the work, obsolete material is discarded. The teaching goes beyond the physical: aspects such as learning experiences and processes, exploration of the self, trust in one’s own body or fear management are an integral part of the approach. Over the years, Nil has attended numerous seminars with various teachers, studied for himself with the help of books, articles, interviews/podcasts and maintains exchanges with various teachers. 

Jason C. Brown has been working professionally in the fitness/athletic development field since 1999 and training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since 1996. Jiu-Jitsu (The Gentle Art) is a huge part of his life. The art influences him greatly in the formation of his character and ideas. He practices Jiu-Jitsu as a physical culture and a physical art form, as well as a form of mental training, a method of self- defense and a way of life. He is also fascinated with human movement and nature, and is a father of three vibrant boys that keep him and his wife Jeniffer very busy. Teaching movement, play and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu are his main focuses, and he spends his days helping others create performance rituals to refine & cultivate their beautiful practice.

Wendy (She/Her) delights in finding connections between people and connections between modalities/concepts: poetry and martial arts, rhythm and partner work, ritual and strength training, comedy and circus. She is a clown (theatrical and healthcare settings), a musician, a mover-dancer, and currently holds a purple belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu. Her other explorations have included Xin Yi Liu He Quan, capoeira, boxing and kickboxing, contact improv, parkour, rock climbing, aerial arts and more. As a flying trapeze instructor and catcher in a recreational setting for a number of years, she learned to move through her fear of free fall (which she still has). Wendy created a Master of Arts Degree at Lesley University whose official title was MA in Play: Clowning, Ritual, and Transformation. Her performance thesis was a collaboration with other artists that looked at the rituals across the lifespan through the eyes of a clown. Stay tuned for her burgeoning work combining play, movement, vocal work and empowerment-based practical self-defense. Wendy has moved through the world with Crohn’s Disease for 30+ years and hopes to add more to discussions of mental health, disability, and chronic illness, especially in movement circles. Link to episode transcript: https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/YUca9yMC1EUxY0_6SzMsa993cTeNudNN4uYmzf0GuCOCbqBvODfRBJZ6D2m_hm94Qw-iFoSQt-AKuSUe4yvU3vwlS0g?loadFrom=SharedLink

Jenn fell into the movement industry over nineteen years ago as a personal trainer. She quickly realized there was something missing, a piece she couldn't quite put her finger on. This led her down a never-ending rabbit hole of exploration and study of all things movement, including yoga, mobility, strength and conditioning, motor control, bodyweight training, and dance. She takes a holistic view to movement training and has a strong interest in how movement affects the whole person. Jenn likes to read research about movement, psychology, motor control, and anatomy and write about the things she thinks are so interesting they are worth sharing. She is the author of the book, "Body, Mind, Movement: An evidence based approach to mindful movement," and two as yet unpublished books. She regularly teaches workshops and leads retreats. More information about Jenn can be found at https://www.jennpilotti.com.

Simon Thakur is based in New South Wales, Australia.  Ancestral Movement is his project, his “big idea” that has come from more than twenty years of practice and research across a wide range of fields.  He has studied the natural sciences since he was in high school and through university – covering the basics of physics and mathematics and going deeper into chemistry, biology, physiology and anatomy (including a year of weekly cadaver studies), exercise science, nutrition, biochemistry, molecular cell biology and molecular genetics, immunology, and neuroscience, as well as psychology, anthropology, archaeology, sociology, history and religious studies.  During all of this time he has also been learning and practicing predominantly Eastern traditions of martial arts and mind-body transformation. He was obsessed with Yoga and martial arts as a child and read everything he could find in the public library (back in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he grew up). He did some Judo as a kid, some boxing and kickboxing as a teenager, then went on a year-long student exchange to Thailand when he was 17, knowing only that he wanted to practice Muay Thai and learn about Buddhism and meditation. He ended up living with his Muay Thai teacher, and ordained as a monk during by the end of his time there at the age of 18, staying for a wonderful month at Wat Tong Pai near Chumphon in south Thailand, and a beautiful couple of weeks at Suan Mokh forest retreat centre near Surat Thani. He was introduced to Buddhism through the works of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, whose incredible 550 page translation and commentary on the Buddha’s Anapanasati Sutta (discourse on mindfulness based in the in- and out-breaths) is still his most treasured meditation manual, which he returns to every year for further study. Since then he has studied Japanese Jujitsu, Capoeira, Chinese internal martial arts and Qigong, Yoga and Yoga therapy, Feldenkrais, Butoh, Contact Improvisation, Pilates, Kit Laughlin’s Stretch Therapy and Monkey Gym, parkour, smatterings of Russian Systema and Mixed Martial Arts, and more recently Brazilian Jujitsu, freestyle wrestling, and Filipino Eskrima (also called Kali, or Arnis). He has lived for close to ten years in Asia – in Thailand, India, Japan, China and Taiwan – and six months in Brazil, studying and learning from the best people he could find, always trying to get as close as he could to the source of the arts and traditions that he found most interesting.