We are breathing from moment we are born—our steady inhale and exhale is a “given.” But as we age or if we are stressed or ill, our breathing may suffer.

This class will provide, not just respite, but tools and skills to enhance and improve our breathing throughout our lives.

Qi means “life force”/gong means “work.”

Prana means “life force”/yama means “directed.”

Judith Sachs, a 20-year practitioner of qigong (from the Chinese tai chi tradition) and a 30-year practitioner of pranayama (from the Indian yogic tradition), gives us options from movement to stillness to improve the structure, volume and duration of the breath.

The class begins with a rudimentary physiological explanation of lung function as well as a picture of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which regulate the stress response. We work with the breath to change “fight or flight” to “feed and breed” –

with emphasis on the exhalation.

The movement of a simple standing qigong set contrasts with the quiet of a seated pranayama. These two forms give us insight into how to use not just the “in” and “out” but the pauses in between breaths.

Most students feel released and relaxed after just one class. From there, they are able to build their own practice at home.

Who gets to dance? asks my mentor, Liz Lerman, McArthur Genius Fellow and a creative innovator in the field of movement. We all do! If we move our bodies, we can delight in them, and be surprised by the things it can do—and can’t yet do!

Dance classes from AnyoneCanDance are patterned on the Dance for Parkinsons classes. They are in a chair or supported at the back of a chair, they use music from every culture and every century, and they are fun. If you have never danced before, these classes will surprise and delight you! If you are a veteran dancer, you will be amazed as you look at movement all over again with beginner’s mind.

Movement can do a variety of wonderful things for the dancer:

1. It improves your breathing – in order to move effectively, you have to know when and how to inhale and exhale – and how to conserve your breath.

2. It gives you self-confidence. Although in the first few classes, everyone feels awkward, many students say that they suddenly see themselves as graceful after a month or two of dancing.

3. It gives you rhythm, which you need for simple things like crossing the street and getting on an escalator. When you can find the first beat in a musical phrase, you’re halfway there!

4. It gives you the opportunity to move with others. Choreography of these classes is usually for many people performing a “solo” at the same time. Or, they can perform their dance in a “wave,” where they start a phrase a few beats after the dancer beside them.

5. Singing and dancing at the same time improves coordination and accentuates rhythm.

6. You get your fitness programmed in without having to do sit-ups and crunches! Some of the exercises involve basic bicep curls, shoulder presses and lunges, turned into patterns that resemble cheerleader routines. Even without using weights, students get stronger from the repeated intervals.

The medical community acknowledges the potential benefits of dance for persons with restricted movement, movement disorders or chronic illness on social life, health, body-feeling and mobility, and on activities of daily living.

As partnered couples change with age and with the considerations of their various medical conditions, they need to collaborate on movement. This workshop teaches better partnered communication and new ways to trust and touch. We’ll explore the activities of daily living and experiment with different ways of assisting one another from bed to chair, chair to floor and down the street, making movement and collaboration easier and safer for both of you.

We rarely think about how our movement patterns change over time, but we’re certainly aware of them as we age. Now we can share this experience with a partner and learn to communicate with physical, verbal and auditory cues.