Samantha Cameron

To be a dancer, especially a modern dancer, is to step outside bounds of epistemology, research, and intellectualism—not that you cannot be or do those things as a dancer. Choosing movement as your prime voice is iconoclastic, leading to all manner of rogue results. Instead of delving into the past, the work is to be totally present. Rather than research, the task is to listen, learning trust through the emotional body. Balancing out the power of intellectual knowledge is power rising through the body to persuade and affect. Working with the counterpoint of stillness and motion can lead to mindfulness, and levels of transformational energy to be shared with students and audiences.

I hope by instruction and osmosis to pass on and create some of these possibilities, as well as the mundane talent of pointing one’s toes. Through ancient rituals of dance we, like our ancestors, share who we are, what we hope for, question the gods, and open to greater possibility. Igniting students to this level of excitement and creativity by blowing hot air on their coals of potential is… Nirvana. Besides teaching Modern I & II, Jazz I & II, and Dance for Musical Theatre, I am a choreographer and multimedia artist creating campus events, such as “Black Womanhood: Images, Icons & Ideology of the African Body” at the Davis Museum, Brigadoon for the Theatre Department, and choreographies for Wellesley College Dancers, for whom I act as advisor.

Building creative relationships for dance with Wellesley’s many arts and philosophies is the territory that calls me at this time. Collaborations amongst colleagues, departments, students, and community fuel tremendously exciting possibility. Diverse creative layers fire my own imaginative-will: Writing feeds new story lines for a dance, Yoga leads toward Eastern spiritual traditions that instruct greater openness and inner stillness. Working with poetry reminds me "less is more," and that succinctness enlivens dancers and audience.

Dance contributes to my artistry as a Vinyasa Flow Yoga instructor. From this layering I have created monthly yoga/dances combining music, poses, mudra, chant, breath and poetry. As yoga/dances are grown from seasonal energies, so too are original rituals celebrating solstice and equinox. These quadrants of change bring together many people wanting to create a community more connected to the earth, and to one another. Dance enlivens my writing practice, and keeps my butt from chair spread. A novel and a small book of poetry are two voices of my writing idiom, the third is weekly "Breaths" for my website DailyBreathJournal . These Breaths are short, dense explorations on the weirdly iconoclastic qualities of being human. I have turned 52 selections from the past four years into a Yoga book of inspiration, poses, and health notes, titled… Daily Breath Journal .

Education

• B.A., San Jose State University
• M.A., University of California (Los Angeles)
• Yoga credential of E-RYT-500