Accept.Express.Release.

About Express & Release

Express & Release Therapeutic Dance creates safe space for Kids, Adults, and Seniors to learn how to recognize and release emotions in the body through movement.

We help communities learn how to accept the emotions that they feel, express these emotions through safe movements that do not harm the self, others, or the environment, and if desired, to then release them from the self.

Vision

Through this space we can cultivate healthier societies that foster relationships with self and the community.

Our hope is for dance to be normalized in being used for stress relief and coping with life’s daily transitions.

We long for the people of our community to freely express themselves through an emotion release and not be afraid to feel the overwhelming emotions.

Story

The idea of this company began when I helped my 4-year-old toddler go from full rage to communicating his feelings in one minute.

He was feeling overwhelmed and was expressing anger and rage and became a danger to himself and his environment. But, instead of scolding him for how he was processing his emotions, I guided him through dance movements to help him accept, express, and release his emotions.

In that moment, I realized that dance that allows you to slow down, pause, consciously breathe, and feel your skin and move in ways that are not just routinized but are instead endlessly authentic should not just be available to my family but should be accessible to all families.

Community

Our groups are designed to provide the people of the community a space to gather inspiration, gain support, to self-disclose, feel valued, push past shame, and take risk in a safe environment.

Through this movement we will provide a pathway to express emotions, experiences, and responses so that they are not stifled or truncated but are able to freely flow; allowing you to fully feel.

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Adult Workshops

We offer 6-week therapeutic dance series intended for people interested in exploring and developing their body-mind-heart relationship through embodied movement practices, to provide an emotion release, self-love, and community-acceptance.

Kids Classes

Classes designed for kids to move, stomp, wiggle, and jump to guide kids in finding ways to listen to their bodies and move in response to them. This therapeutic dance class is not focused on dance technique but rather on expression of self and the emotions within the self.

One-on-One Sessions

Together we create an individualized plan to help you reconnect to your body. Through our one-on-one sessions we create movement together to explore how to feel the sensations and emotions living in the body to express them, and then release them from the self, or accept them as a part of the self.

Our philosophy for the emotions was developed from the ideology of the poem Guest House by Rumi, a 13th Century Persian poet.

At Express & Release we are creating space within our bodies to be a good host to every emotion that comes knowing that it will soon go.

Rumi, The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Heather Dooley

Lead Movement Kids Instructor

& Marketing

Tatiana Johnson

Assistant Movement Kids Instructor

Our Instructors

Our classes provide opportunities for people to express and release difficult emotions and daily stressors which can sometimes feel overwhelming and taxing, so at Express & Release all workshops and retreats are led with by certified Lenae Release Method Providers, who are not typically therapist but who are trained in guiding participants through their own emotional release journey and when necessary, can connect you to a licensed therapist in your area.

This partnership with mental health counselors ensures that all emotions that are felt are contained within our safe space, as our movement practices do not replace therapy but rather works alongside therapy!