Nope. You don’t need any dance or performance experience to participate. Truly, truly, true. You simply need to be alive. To be a human. And have a desire – even if it scares the living daylight outs of you! – to be SEEN … as YOU.   

And if you do have dance and performance experience, you are also welcome to join us!  I have noticed it can take some extra unlearning for experienced performers to begin to use their own feeling as the guide for creating their solo, rather than outer expectations, but the rewards of doing so are immense.

Whether you’ve never performed, or have decades of experience, the gift of BIO is the felt-sense of being ‘all here,’ present in your body, savoring the moment, creating and inhabiting *you.* 

Immersive BIO Immersive Retreat is limited to 5 participants to ensure each participant receives ample individual attention.

Most of the women I work with identify as HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) and introverted (I identify as an extroverted HSP myself).  BIO is a rare group setting where those who normally shy away from groups have had nourishing  experiences.  

You are not only free to, but encouraged to track how you really feel and what you really need, moment-to-moment.  This is what BIO is founded on, and we practice it not only during our acts, but all the time we spend together, and we begin to use that same calibration in all the other minutes of our lives!

We actively practice resonating with each other, and genuinely affirming each others’ existences. Your experience is paramount. 

This may be your first time of feeling held in a group setting, of being comfortable in your own skin … with others.

We practice seeing each other through a lens of relationship, a right hemisphere-leaning lens, rather than an instrumental brain, or left-hemisphere leaning lens.

Your authenticity AND your felt-sense of belonging, dovetailing *finally*!“When I say I’m not a group person, I swear it’s true. I’ve done a lot of things; I’m old. And I never felt as held and comfortable … I never felt like I fit in until now in this space.”

Simply put, NO. You do NOT need to end your act in pasties.

And don’t worry if you don’t know what the word “pasties” even means yet!  They are bejeweled nipple covers, by the way :)  They are typical in burlesque as a final “reveal,” after a costume bra is removed. 

The byline of my book, How To Create A Burlesque Solo From The Inside Out – which ended up on the back cover, but is nevertheless a byline  – is: Never Ever Ever Show A Disembodied Boob.

What do I mean by that? If the prospect of removing your bra during your act causes you to dissociate at all, then, DO NOT remove it!  We are working with deep levels of consent in BIO, and you tracking your genuine desire and moving from that place is KEY to the good magic we’re up to of cultivating your own self-trust and self-sovereignty.

You absolutely do NOT need to wear heels.  Over 50% of Burlesque from the Inside Out solos are barefoot. And if you choose to wear shoes, they can be heels, tennis shoes, combat boots … whatever both serves your aesthetic and concept. What is key is that you are comfortable and present in your body, not having your attention on not falling over!

BIO is not a dance class, per se. It’s a group coaching program in which we use the creation of a self- and soul-sourced solo as the vehicle through which we arrive home … home in our bodies.  And you do end with a real solo!  That you can perform again and again.  They are living acts, which give new medicine every time we perform them.

Except for the first Act Creation day, it’s unlikely you’ll sweat, as we spend much of our time witnessing each other (and being genuinely in AWE at what we see). We exercise our people-seeing muscles more than our physical muscles ;).

I will not choreograph your solo for you ;)  But I will coach you directly on how to discover your own signature movements that you may not have even known were yours. And I’ll help you craft them into a piece that both gives you the experience you’d like to have in your body AND expresses it to the loving, sacred circle who will witness you.

BIO is not intended to be the first place that you address your trauma.

While BIO can be incredibly healing for a lot of people, it is not a space for specific trauma processing.  It is therapeutic, but not therapy.

BIO is deep embodiment work.  If feeling yourself in your body may cause you great distress, please begin with therapy.  If you have any questions about this, let’s chat.

An ideal spot in your healing journey to do BIO is after you’ve done a fair amount of self-inquiry and healing and growth work.  BIO is intended to build on that foundation and take you by hand, straight to the center of YOU.

Women of all races and all sexual orientations are welcome in BIO. And by women I mean cisgender, transgender and non-binary. 

Creating self- and soul-sourced solos as we are, we are dismantling patriarchy and systems of oppression within our very bodies, from the inside out.

I’ve been a performing and teaching artist for over 20 years, with burlesque dance as my primary medium. I’m a 5-time finalist at the Burlesque Hall of Fame, 5-time international festival headliner (Chicago, Austin, Toronto, Munich and Osaka), and Queen of Carnaval San Francisco 2008. I’ve won whimsical awards like ‘Little Miss Aftershock’ – for my outstanding shimmy-shake.✨

I’ve always approached art making and art sharing relationally.  And have cared for the whole person in each of my students, whether they were with me for an hour, a season, or years.

Over the last 14 years, I’ve supplemented my coaching and space holding with advanced certifications in EFT, Transformational NLP, Systemic and Family Constellations and Interpersonal Neurobiology, to name a few.

My main learning has been in holding space for actual humans in intimate circles, as it becomes safe for them to become more and more of who they are.

I’ve been leading BIO circles for more than a decade now.  And am both surprised – and quite delighted – that the transition to online circles has only deepened the work, if anything.

BIO is the thing I needed that I couldn’t find in the world.  So I created it.

I honestly don’t know when I’ll be offering another live, in-person BIO Immersive Retreat, as our home base is closing. I am offering 3-month BIO online beginning in September 2023 (Thursdays 5-8PM PT or Mondays 10AM-1PM PT). When you reserve your spot for the fall now, you have the option of an extended payment plan and you receive complimentary spots in Being SEEN on your own terms :: Burlesque as a PsychoSpiritual Practice between now and then!