room to move

Recognizing that, in March 2020, the world stopped moving and that we subsequently lost many beloved movement spaces and that many great facilitators lost venues and students, Room to Move was conceived as a worker-owned cooperative to offer movers and teaching artists a collaborative place to incubate, heal and rebirth following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The mission is to promote movement to build individual and community wellness as we address the disembodiment, immobility and disconnection of a technological society. Room to Move will advance the well-proven potential for simple physical movement, self-expression through dance, technique mastery, relational group improvisation and sociocultural dance traditions to build connection and joy.

Goals for the coop members are to harness collective marketing power, develop a shared state-of-the-art technology platform, explore aggregate tax and insurance advantages, and envision and search for physical space that could accommodate groups that need room for unfettered movement. Benefits of the coop structure include teacher autonomy with supportive collaboration, democratic leadership, distributed risk, and shared success.

Another goal is to address the economic challenges inherent in maintaining these large spaces in an urban environment. The fact that movement is traditionally a lower-margin industry in both its wellness and artistic form, conflicts with premium urban rents.

An initial group is currently in the “discovery phase” defined by the effort to identify potential members. If you are interested in learning more about or joining this effort, please use → this form ← to reach out. Potential members include facilitators of:

Dance training and performance
Therapeutic and adaptive dance classes/groups
Dance/Movement Therapy and Somatic Psychology session and groups
Tai-chi and Qigong
Improvisational and conscious dance groups
Moving bodywork (i.e. Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method)
Mindfulness
Allied fields, i.e. nutrition, massage