Ray Eliot Schwartz

I am a movement artist and educator who has spent the last 38 years committed to consciously developing an experiential understanding of the body. I am interested in supporting people in attuning themselves towards a greater clarity of intention in technical and improvisational dancing, as well as in the practices of everyday life. My interests lie in dance, movement, and body-work, as well as the philosophical, political, and aesthetic concerns of a Somatic approach to embodiment. I graduated high school from the North Carolina School of the Arts, received my BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University and his MFA in Dance from University of Texas- Austin. I was the Head of the Dance Program of the University of the Americas-Puebla in México from 2008-2018, founder of Performática: Foro Internacional de Danza Contemporánea y Artes del Movimiento, a research associate at the Center for Mind Body Movement, and a consultant and teaching artist for ArcDanz International Dance Workshop. I co-founded four contemporary dance projects in the southern U.S.: Sheep Army,The Zen Monkey Project, Steve’s House Dance Collective and THEM. I have worked with diverse populations in the U.S., South East Asia, South America, and Mexico and has served on the faculty of the American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, MELT, the ZMP Summer Dance Intensive, the Colorado College Summer Dance Festival and SFADI, among others. I am a published scholar who writes in Spanish and English about the interface of somatic movement education and contemporary dance practice. My somatic studies include certifications in Body-Mind Centering® and the Feldenkrais Method®. Additional studies include Zero-Balancing®, Gross Anatomy (Dissection), Biomechanics of Sport, Molecular Cell Biology, Craniosacral Therapy, and Traditional Thai Massage. By early October 2020, I will most likely be a new member of the board of ISMETA, the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.