Find Your Center Wellness Arts

By Kate Feinberg Robins Creativity improves brain plasticity. When we improvise dance or capoeira movements, we create and strengthen neural pathways in our brains. This conditions our brains to learn and process new information more readily. It makes us better learners and more skilled at coping with new situations. A growing number of scientific studies show that engaging in artistic endeavors physically changes the brain structure. Art helps with focus, memory, and creativity, as well as reducing stress and anxiety. Read more at npr.org and neuroartsblueprint.org .

By Kate Feinberg Robins If you've never taken a movement-based class on Zoom, it can sound intimidating, and maybe even impossible. After a year and a half of teaching adult ballet, capoeira, flamenco, and Pilates on Zoom, we have a few tips to share: 1. Decide who to watch. Pin your teacher's video  to keep it large on your screen in  Speaker View . Switch to  Gallery View  to see your classmates, yourself, and your instructor at the same time. Switch back and forth as desired throughout class. ​2. Shift your position and your gaze. If your screen is small,  come close to watch , then go back to your space to try the movement. Stay close to your screen while you move if you need to follow the instructor closely. Once you understand the exercise,  look in front of you at eye level  instead of at your camera. 3. Position yourself for feedback or privacy. If you want feedback,  place your camera & yourself so your instructor can see yo...

By Kate Feinberg Robins, PhD Not Enough Racial equity within ballet and capoeira has always been an important part of our mission at Find Your Center. It is implicit in everything we do. The events of the past few weeks have led us to realize that we need to make this work more explicit:  ​ It is not enough to welcome students of color into our classrooms. We also need to talk with  all  of our students about  why most American ballet schools are so overwhelmingly white .   It is not enough to teach a martial art with African origins. We also need to teach our students how those origins have been  obscured and appropriated by white institutions .   It is not enough to  be  a Black- and woman-owned business. We also need to show our students  Black dancers and capoeira masters who they can look up to . ​ It is not enough for me to use my skills as a cultural anthropolog...