Program Overview

Table of Contents

Program Basics
Curriculum Overview 
Structure and Logistics
Vision for our app 
How to support us/app fundraiser
How to register
How we will use the funds 
Questions and values
Details about each phase
Mission Statement and 3 Orientations
Dae’s bio and past projects
Leah’s bio and past projects

Program Basics

• Flexible time commitment: engage at your own pace, from daily short practices to a more immersive experience. We’ll each be hosting live recorded weekly sessions. Drop in and out any time. Pop-up sessions and guest teachers are in the works. You get access to the material for life.

• Inclusivity and accessibility: We strive to accommodate all bodies, abilities, ages, and backgrounds as well as all financial situations with sliding scale pricing and scholarships.

• Partner options available: almost every online movement program we’ve seen is for solo practice. We want to also support you in having fulfilling sessions with a friend or a group.

• Active participation and coaching: providing you feedback and support, form checks, accountability, and regular discussions and Q&As.

• The program will start simple with a Google Drive, YouTube videos, an optional WhatsApp thread, and email communication until we launch our Mixed Movement Arts App!

Overview of the Curriculum

The Mixed Movement Art School curriculum is organized into 5 phases over 10 months, with each phase lasting 1 to 3 lunar cycles (about a month) as we encourage moving in relationship with the seasonal changes. This will start with a ‘warm-up’ phase so people can start practicing as soon as they sign up. This will lead us to March 10th when the program officially begins.  Here’s what we have planned:

Warm-up 
Phase 0:  Up until March 9th 
Join us any time as we release previews of Phase 1 and 2 material.

Mixed Movement Arts Foundations
Phase 1:  March 10-April 8th  
Somatic movement entry points, releasing tension methods, nervous system restorative/regulation/priming practices, breathing, centering circulation, chill yin movement, recovery principles, and techniques, reimagining the “basics” of movement, winter movement practices, sea creature dance, self/partner massage & bodywork, restorative contact improv, physical preparations for Phase 2.

The Mobility Project
Phase 2: April 9th-July 5th 
The mobility project is about learning the most effective ways to develop strong, usable flexibility. We’ll teach you high-yield exercises and drills, as well as play our favorite mobility games as part of our approach to injury recovery and prevention. There will be an optional track to work on hand-balancing, from total beginner to intermediate level.

The Movement Complexity Project
Phase 3:  September 28th-November 9th
Movement skill building, locomotion/quadrupedal vocabulary, moving in/out/on/across the floor, strength basics, non-linear “organic” strength development, optional intermediate track for soft acrobatics, continued practice with Phase 2 mobility and hand-balancing material.

The Movement Expression Project
Phase 4: TBA!
Improvisational entry points, dance, movement research, tasks, puzzles, games-both solo and partnering/group options. Contemporary partnering and contact improvisation.  Bringing it all together from the first 3 phases.

The Winter Movement Project
Phase 5:  December 2024
Review and additional layers with the material from Phase 1, strength and mobility maintenance strategies, adapting the movement practice to the winter.

What the structure and logistics will look like:

• Weekly zoom classes (returning in September from summer break).

• All classes and sessions will be recorded.  

• We have many hours of pre-recorded material that will be distributed throughout the year, starting with a 100+ minute workshop and multiple tutorials on our most foundational practices.

• We plan to have pop-up sessions, special workshops, regular tutorials, and guided practices in video and audio form.

• We have many friends doing incredible work and plan to have them contribute as guest teachers.

• The material is all available to download and keep for life: none of the “this material expires after x time” nonsense.

*Scheduled sessions are subject to change, especially when we travel.  We will do our best to give as much advanced notice as possible.  We apologize in advance if there are any late notice cancellations–thank you for your understanding, we will make it up to you.

We are asking for support to bring the App into existence!

Our vision with the Mixed Movement Arts App (which is already in the works) is to have a high-quality body of work representing our best, most beneficial material available and accessible for everyone.

• We want to help people enjoy moving and feel better in their bodies.

• We want people to know how to best recover and take care of themselves.

• We want to share our process for developing skills, flexibility, and strength, and support your specific goals.

• We want to expand your options to enjoy improvisation, creative movement, and dance.

• We want this to be something doctors and therapists can offer to their patients.

• We want this to be helpful for those with chronic illnesses and mental health struggles.

• We want this material to become integrated into addiction recovery communities.

• We want this to support people who have been discouraged or burned out by other movement/ fitness approaches.

• We want this to support people’s healing journeys.

*We are planning to move the Mixed Movement Art School from Google Drive onto our app within the first half of 2024 to host this project all in one place.

How to support us

• Contribute a donation to our fundraiser to help this project launch

• Join us for our 10-month program 

• Sign up for specific phase(s) 

• Drop in for weekly sessions 

• Purchase recordings

• Give on of our Phases a try to see if our style resonates

• Share this fundraiser and our posts on social media

• Invite a friend or family member to join you in this program

When you register for our full program, Phase 1, or make a donation over $100, we will send you our Mixed Movement Art School Foundations-Resources document.  This contains the links to 30+ downloadable videos totaling 10 hours of movement material from Dae on subjects including Mixed Movement Arts Foundations, somatics, nervous system health, mobility, improvisation, warm-ups, movement self-care, and more.

Registration - coming soon!

Donations gladly accepted:
Venmo:  @david-gallina (last 4 of phone number= 4756)
PayPal:  info@mixedmovementarts.com 

Sign up for ongoing options:

• Zoom Class Drop-ins (live/recorded):  $20 ($10-40 sliding scale)

• Workshops and special sessions to be announced

• Students including Ape Co Movement Students:  Financial need scholarships are available. We don’t want money to be what holds you back from joining us.  Pay What You Can is an option. 

What will the fundraiser donations and program registration go towards?

• The Mixed Movement Arts App 

• Creation of a body of work freely available on the app and social media with some of our most high-yield material

• A new computer to handle recording the live weekly online sessions and video editing

• Basic filming/recording equipment

• Hiring some support for video editing/design

• Initial administrative build-out 

• Supporting our capacity to offer NOTAFLOF (No One Turned Away For Lack of Funds) for all of our projects

Questions we will keep present throughout the program:

• How does movement practice fit into the ecosystem of our lives?  

• How does this practice support relationships, land connection, social justice, grief, and healing journeys?

• How do we center our humanity?

• How do we support a diversity of learning styles?

• How do we break down the separation of our bodies from the Earth/lands we are on?

• How do we acknowledge and embrace the paradox of enoughness and improvement?  How to feel complete and whole, AND want to be better?

• How do we approach this practice with more acceptance/less judgment, more self-kindness, more artistically, more creatively, more pleasurably, more effortlessly?

• How do we move/dance/make art right now, with the body we have, the people we are with, and the place we are in?

• How can we be aware of and avoid the potential abuses of movement?  examples: consistent health-damaging overtraining, harm in relationships, promoting narcissism/dissociation/elitism/insecurity. 

The values we want to embody and promote throughout the program: 

Play-based practice, leading with curiosity, self-kindness/anti-perfectionism, harm reduction and self-responsibility, realistic sustainable practice, inclusivity, accessibility, and consent.

More details about each phase:

Phase 0 & 1 will be focused on feeling good and taking good care of our bodies.  How do we build/deepen the habits of recovery, rest, and movement self-care?  Perhaps a goal to take on is to accumulate about 30 minutes per day for a month.  We will include a discussion on ethics and harm reduction in movement programs and communities.

Phase 2 is focused on developing mobility, aka strong usable flexibility, and preparing/rehabbing the joints of the body for more complex movements.  Injury recovery and prevention is a major theme.  Alongside mobility training, people will have the option to work on hand-balancing.  For some, this might mean simply getting used to pouring weight into the hands (planks and crawls) and working towards a simple crow pose.  For others, this could be working towards a 30-60 second handstand.  Continued practice with Phase 1 material will be built in and encouraged.  

Phase 3 is about developing movement complexity, which includes skill building and basic strength development.  This phase will continue hand balancing options and mobility training as we explore quadrupedal locomotion vocabulary, moving in/out/across the floor, rolling technique, and non-linear “organic” strength.  All of these areas of practice are scalable with multiple progressions- we’ll discuss strategies for building strength for people with chronic illness as well as offer intermediate options with soft acrobatics. We will start to work towards more integration and improvisation in the practice.

Phase 4 is going deeper into improvisation, creativity, and play. Deepening the work from the previous phases, we continue to explore the many ways we can enjoy moving our bodies in different scenarios- games, movement research, tasks, puzzles, partnering interactions, dance, and more.  How do we create the conditions for more nourishing, more resourcing, more enjoyable, more interesting, most novel, creative improvisation?

Phase 5 is revisiting and deepening into the Mixed Movement Arts Foundations and everything we did in Phase 1 as we come full circle for the year.  

Mission Statement and Movement Practice Orientations

Mixed Movement Arts is committed to improving people’s quality of life through the practice of movement, mobility, dance, play, somatics, and functional neurology in a trauma-informed way that is inclusive and accessible to all bodies.
The top three orientations of our approach for developing a healthy movement practice:

• Feeling good (enough) in our bodies

• Playing/moving well with other humans

• Enjoying the process of being a life-long learner  

This is a non-linear process. Our intention is that this work will allow you to enjoy the things that matter to you.  For more on our approach, you can read Dae’s movement manifesto on the Introduction tab of our website.

For more details about these 3 guiding orientations: https://www.mixedmovementarts.com/3orientations 

About the Instructors

Dae Gallina

My name is Dae (David) Gallina (they/them).  I’ve been teaching for 10+ years, and am committed to improving people’s quality of life through the practice of movement, mobility, dance & play, somatics, and functional neurology in a trauma-informed way that is inclusive and accessible to all bodies. 

I’ve studied extensively with Movement Culture and numerous movement/dance modalities. I love contact improvisation, freeform dance/authentic movement, qi gong, circus arts, Gaga dance, Continuum, as well as weaving in somatics and nervous system education. I am currently interested in how wisdom traditions relate to movement practice.

In addition to teaching in Seattle, WA, and Boulder/Denver, CO, I’ve taught workshops at the International Association of Functional Neurology and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, UCSF Medical School, and Bastyr University.  I am a Functional Range Conditioning certified Mobility Specialist and engaged in continuing education in neuroscience, anatomy, trauma healing, and somatic-based movement. I enjoy singing and playing music, being in nature any chance I get, playing with poetry, and spending time with my community.

To read more about my influences and inspirations, check out the Acknowledgments tab on our website:  

List of previous workshops, classes, and projects that will inspire and be woven into the Mixed Movement Art School curriculum:

• Introduction to Movement Practice

• Movement Tools for Healthcare Practitioners

• The Mobility Project:  Most Effective Ways to Get Strong, Usable Flexibility

• Reset:  Movement Tools for Nervous System Resourcing

• Winter Movement Practices

• Novelty and Neurological PRE-Habilitation

• Intentionality in Ecstatic Dance

• Structured Improvisation in Movement series (solo + partnering versions)

• Partnering Practice: Movement Games + Contact Improv

• Sea Creature Dance:  Exploratory Restorative Somatic Movement

• Locomotion and Movement Complexity

• Getting your first Handstand

• Getting your first Press Handstand

I’ve taught weekly classes in Movement, Partner Games, Contact Improvisation, Nervous System Health, Handstands, Mobility, Strength, Somatic Movement, Spine, Floorwork, and Fitness Circuit Training.

Leah Woods

Hi! My name is Leah (she/they), and I am a movement artist and educator who is deeply committed to accessibility, creativity, and developing communities through movement practice. I hold an M.F.A. in Dance and Performance from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where I earned my emphasis in Somatics, with a somatic secondary emphasis focusing on the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, and BodyMind Centering, which informs my multifaceted approach to movement. My dance background spans West African Guinean dance, Flamenco, and Middle Eastern dance from my youth, and later modern, contemporary, and ballet, nurtured during my undergraduate studies in dance at Mills College, Oakland.

For over 11 years, I enjoyed an extensive performance career in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I not only performed but also taught fitness and yoga professionally. I've been an enthusiastic student of Tom Weksler since 2016, and I combine my influences from Contemporary dance, Soft Acrobatics, Martial Arts, and Contact Improvisation in my practice. I was first introduced to Ido Portal's movement culture in 2018 at the Boulder Movement Collective and have been hooked on it ever since. I have been teaching full-time for 13+ years and I draw influence and inspiration from my extensive background in Pilates, GYROTONIC®, Yoga, my movement studies, and dance in my classes. I hold certifications as a GYROKINESIS® Pre-trainer & GYROTONIC® trainer, specializing in the Jump Stretch Board, Gyrotoner, and Archway equipment, and as an Yoga Teacher at the 300-hr.

In January 2023, I began the Fighting Monkey 10-month mentorship program, furthering my commitment to exploring the depths of movement arts. This January 2024, I proudly joined the inaugural cohort of Marcello Palozzo's 5-year Human Movement studies program, to continue my pursuit of knowledge in the field of movement

I am thrilled to join the Mixed Movement Arts project, and I look forward to contributing my experience and passion to this new venture.

List of previous workshops, classes, and projects that will inspire and be woven into the Mixed Movement Art School curriculum:

• Produced Kinetic Playground - A Dance/Movement Festival 2022 & 2023

• Floorigins: The Rebellious Roots of Contemporary Floorwork

• Introduction to GYROKINESIS® & GYROTONICS® Workshops

• GYROTONICS® 101 6-week series 

• Transnational Fusion Dance Master Classes

• Contemporary Floorwork Master Classes

• Semester-long Beginning Contemporary Dance courses at CU Boulder

• Semester-long Transnational Fusion Dance courses at CU Boulder

• Facilitated multiple 30-hr Gyrokinesis Pre training

• Dance Teaching Artist for STEAM afterschool program in Philadelphia, PA

• 4-week Master Class Series: Floorwork, Micro-acrobatics, & Movement Research 

• Guest dance teacher at the ACDA Conference, University of Utah

• Movement Research Master Class as a guest teacher for Naropa University 

I’ve taught weekly classes in Strength and Conditioning, Active Flexibility, All Levels Movement, Advanced Movement Practice, Hatha Yoga, Gyrokinesis Classes, Gyrotonic, Tower Classes, Handstand Classes, Contemporary Dance, Contemporary Floorwork, Movement 101, Transnational Fusion dance, and adult group fitness.