Movements Afoot’s Blog

by Michelle Cohen

Martha Eddy’s SMTT program truly reflects her movement experience, in depth knowledge of the body, and responsiveness to connecting to community. Using her creativity, compassion, and intellect she weaves a dynamic system that is accessible for learning and provides a strong foundation from which practitioners can then layer their own movement perspective.

As a movement specialist and dancer, I fuse Pilates, Yoga, and Gyrotonics along with the Bartenieff Fundamentals to create a movement vocabulary. I tend to work from a sensing/listening approach which can sometimes be challenging to contain and shape from exploration into pro-movement action. The SMTT program gave me a structure and a tangible way of assessing movement, listening and perceiving the nervous system, organs, and glands as well as taping into movement expression along with movement function. This focus on motion and emotion helped me recognize how I can better support and hold the space for my clients so awareness and change can manifest from within the client. This work helps me create more on point custom programs for each client where I can address their specific needs.

Martha is a natural community builder and the program is truly a moving community that functions in the same way as we work. I feel we are all participating and energetically adding to thus huge web of movement approaches and communication. We are truly creating a support system not only for our clients but for us practitioners as well.

Michelle Cohen, a professional modern dancer, is a Pilates and movement instructor. She is a senior teacher at Movements Afoot as well as a senior teacher and teacher trainer of Pilates at the Kane School. She has conducted international teacher training workshops for the Kane School in Brighton, England and Tokyo, Japan as well as nationally in Indiana, New York, and Florida. Michelle’s own workshops in nutrition, dance, yoga, and Pilates have been received in places like California, New York, and Belgrade, Serbia. She initially received her Pilates certification with Kelly Kane through the PhysicalMind Institute in 1998 and has been a certified Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® instructor since 2001. Michelle is also a Kettlebell Concepts™ Level I Instructor and integrates momentum training into her teaching practice. Michelle has studied anatomy with Irene Dowd and continues to study Pilates and Bartenieff Fundamentals with Lesley Powell. She has been studying the Alexander Technique with Nancy Wechter since 2001. Michelle has expertise in working with professional dancers and has worked with company members from American Ballet Theater, Limon Dance Company, Royal Danish Ballet, and Merce Cunningham Dance Company. She has been quoted in Pilates Style Magazine (July 2005) in the article ‘Healing Practice’ for her work with clients with disc herniations. As a dancer, Michelle continues to perform locally and internationally with several New York based dance companies. She holds a BA from the American University in Washington, DC and a dance certificate from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She is presently receiving her yoga certification at Laughing Lotus in New York City. As a teacher, Michelle uses her listening skills to hear the body and then fuses her movement sensibilities with sound biomechanics to create customized programs and classes.