How did this all come about? What’s the backstory of Center Studio
Sam: Center Studio came about serendipitously through a need and a chance meeting between Jeffrey and Jon (of JBird Coffee). I had been teaching weekly movement classes in the Charlottesville Ballet Annex studio (previously next door to Studio IX) with the caveat that the space was available until June 2023 before changing lessors. That left a familiar feeling of dread about going through the process of searching for another suitable studio in the area.
One day in the spring, Jon popped his head into Jeffrey’s Studio IX office and mentioned that he was moving his roasting equipment out of Suite 306 in the next couple of months, leaving that space available for a new renter in June. Jeffrey walked down the hall with Jon to check it out and called me right away to let me know that there was a potential space to build out a studio with a June opening.
In the following weeks, we created our business plan and began mapping out what was needed to move forward.
Jeffrey: Center Studio is the result of a years long unfulfilled need and a chance encounter. The need being a space in which to offer our embodiment classes in Charlottesville that had certain qualities. We had been looking for space to create a space of our own for some time. The existing spaces with the right amenities often had no room in their schedules to incorporate our offerings at times that would be successful, so we had arrived at the conclusion that we needed to build out our own space even before the pandemic shrunk the number of available spaces and opportunities. We grew used to being ignored by real estate agents whenever we called with interest in certain spaces that came available downtown and were told at times that we would never find what we were looking for in Charlottesville. We held firm in our belief that our work needed an intimate home to support the small groups that were gathering to work with us and saw the need for more space to be available for yoga, movement, and other embodied healing practices in Cville. The Charlottesville Ballet had been renting a space in IX that was known to be temporary and we were offering our classes there with a known end date of June 2023. That set the stage for the chance encounter, the day Jon of JBird Coffee casually stopped in for conversation at Jeffrey’s Lighting Virginia office in Studio IX and mentioned JBird was moving part of their operations to another facility. Jeffrey went and took a look at Suite 306 and saw the potential immediately. The timing was surprising, but feasible. A call to Samantha started the conversation and discussions with Greg and James were positive and supportive, so we moved forward with developing a business plan and creating the space, and eventually with the support of a CIC loan, support from the Charlottesville Ballet, and a lot of sweat and family labor, Center Studio was mostly built out over Memorial Day weekend 2023. We started offering classes in June.
How did you both arrive at this place in your work? Could you tell us a bit of your own backstory?
The love of movement!
Sam: I was introduced to an embodiment class led by Chris Dourif (formally Friedman) called Nia in 1998. It blew me away and opened up inner doors and windows that I didn’t know existed. I began to kinesthetically understand the toll that the trauma and violence that I had experienced in my life had created. That’s where my healing journey began.
I knew rather quickly that I wanted to train to become a Nia teacher and share the potential of healing with others. I immersed myself in the practice and began teaching at Chris’s infamous Studio 206 (now Common House) for years to come. Within that time, I assisted Chris in operations of the business and taught as often as possible. Fast forward ten years and I was introduced to another embodiment practice called 5Rhythms®. I began to shift my attention towards this free-form movement meditation practice while working and teaching at another colleague-owned (Jeanne Catherine) studio downtown in the former Glass Building, called Divine Play. A committed community of movers developed and eventually grew into what is now the Cville Dance Co-op after I moved with my sons to Los Angeles.
While there, Jeffrey and I went through the 5Rhythms Teacher Training and began teaching on the west coast.
After a couple of years in LA, we decided to move back to Charlottesville and the search for studio space began (Studio 206 had unfortunately closed). We went through a variety of different spaces, while looking for one that comprised our desired criteria (ie- a sprung floor, professional sound equipment, accessibility, well ventilated, aesthetically pleasing, available). After eight years, we have created that space! Center Studio Is an intimate new incubator of embodied presence.
Jeffrey: As a lighting designer, my journey with movement and dance began on the stage. Designing lighting for dance is powerful and deeply linked with the choreography. Lighting in dance has a voice, it defines the space and context. This is how I found myself immersed in the dance dept at Arizona State University after completing most of the core requirements of my BFA in technical theatre.
Curiosity about the choreographic process landed me in choreography classes, on stage as a performer, and ultimately submitting and producing dance performances that I also illuminated. As a late comer to dance, I had no ballet training, no jazz technique or years of practice in the modern dance lanes. I gravitated to the improvisational and dance theatre collaborators and discovered contact improvisation, used by many to generate interesting, dynamic, and present focused honest movement between dancers. My love of contact improvisation and the presence and focus it required on the energy and weight moving between two or more bodies led me eventually to the Judson Church jams in NYC as I began a new career in Architectural Lighting Design in midtown Manhattan in 2001.
It was here someone told me about Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms and I went to a class the following week. I had found my native language at last. All the stress of living in the city, starting in a new expression of my design interests - applied now to the permanence of architecture, the horror and trauma of living through 9/11 as a witness to the destruction and to the long recovery; it all softened and rolled back to the earth as the sweat poured from my body releasing into the power of the Wave. I left almost every class renewed, refreshed, emptied of what normally weighed me down and consumed my energy and fed my controlling and fearful mind.
After a decade of practice of the 5Rhythms, both as a movement modality and as a core philosophy in my design approach, I started taking workshops and week-long immersions and quickly realized that the impact of this practice was something I needed and wanted to share. I trained over 2013-2014 with the first group of teachers after Gabrielle’s death in 2012. I find myself now 22 years into a practice and still fascinated by the possibilities contained in living and moving the moment. I met my partner and wife Samantha on the journey to becoming a teacher and we trained together. Arriving at a place in time and space where we now have a studio that prioritizes the work we want to share in the way we want to offer it feels like the end of one journey of seeking and the beginning of an even more exciting one of discovery. The desire to share and to show up for this practice, to be fascinated by all of life’s expressions is how I have arrived at this version of my work in the world.
Was there a light switch moment along the way? A turning point, professionally and / or personally?
Jeffrey: Professionally, there was a moment when I was at a workshop in Asheville and feeling the pressure, the density of the dancefloor and remembering the years of dancing on packed floors with dozens of people. This is a very different energy from the dancefloors in Charlottesville which have typically been very large with only a handful of participants. The idea then for an intimate venue, a place for the dozen or so seekers that were showing up to practice to be able to feel that intimacy of connection and the closeness of the energy of the dance between us and the way our embodied presence creates a field of energy that holds different possibilities - that became very exciting to me and also, more achievable than some alternate path that would pack dozens into a larger facility with unrealistic expenses.
What are your sources of inspiration and guidance in what you do each day?
Jeffrey: Lately, my main source of inspiration has been derived from personal practice. The awareness that comes from a commitment to move through a Wave of energy every morning has given me a wealth of inspiration and reconnected me with the WHY of the 5Rhythms practice for me, which has been helping me to articulate its benefits when talking to others. I am also inspired by the deep curiosity of Gabrielle Roth (creator of 5Rhythms) and those that supported her bringing these embodied maps into something that could be followed and yet are so open and contain so much freedom and possibility. On a macro scale, the main source of guidance in my every day is the question “How may I be of service?”
Samantha: My main source of inspiration is the practice of presence. I believe that presence, or heightened awareness, is the greatest gift that we can give ourselves, and others. I feel my best when I am congruent with what I am thinking, feeling, and actually doing or saying. There is a sense of freedom in that… and a particular physical resonance that feels meaningful. There are numerous practices that I employ to ignite that state of presence: spending time in nature; conscious breathing; authenticity in connections; and of course, both movement meditation practices - 5Rhythms and The 360 Emergence. Each offers maps and a lexicon that are based on the vast wisdom that we all possess in our own SOMA (our entire being). The body is the most direct route to the truth and can bypass a lot of the noise and bullshit that our minds construct to make sense of the nonsensical. Therefore, by putting the body in motion, tapping into a 360 degree perspective, and dissolving into something bigger than the mind, the inspiration is first and foremost to be found within.
What are you currently working on, excited about?
Jeffrey: I have been offering weekend workshops at the major planetary turning points of our year (equinoxes and solstices), working with the energy of aligning embodied polarities and using the 5Rhythms as a map to finding our way into balance. The next one is just before the winter solstice and I look forward to gathering a small group together to explore this brave space. For Center Studio, I am also hard at work on the many details and embellishments that will bring us closer to completing our vision for the physical space and environment.
Samantha: There are a number of things that I’m working on and excited about. In addition to offering my weekly The 360 Movement Labs, I’ve started teaching online, along with The 360 Emergence newest Facilitators. I’ll be heading to Menla Retreat Center in upstate NY in November to assist in The 360’s most in-depth material, The Circle Work; and will continue to support The 360 organization with guest teaching and mentorship for The Apprenticeship Program.
Closer to home, I’m in the midst of preparing to launch Center Studio’s Boutique, where we’ll offer items that inspire presence, movement, and/or meditation. There will be a selection of all gender movement apparel; high vibration skin care; jewelry, cards, books, meaningful gifts and novelty items. All products have a standard of sustainability, being small batch made, and small-business run. It’ll be so convenient for Studio IX members to pop over to pick up a special something for yourself or a loved one!
I’m developing a weekly siesta drop-in session for Studio IX members to be able to use as a way to resource and reset midday and midweek. That might look like a 30 minute savasana (sleep); a self-guided seated meditation or yoga practice; or another quiet restorative practice that is intended to cleanse the palate and offer some self-care during the workday.
What do you love most about the work you're doing?
Jeffrey: It is about the present moment, presence in the moment, expressed in a language that can bypass the thinking mind and connect one another across really different lived experiences. The 5Rhythms bring out a vibration of Unity from all the unique energies that show up to move. It only begins on the dance floor, it can continue out into our lives on the street, in the home, within our professions.
Samantha: I love helping people feel more at home in their bodies. I honestly find being human rather challenging, so when I’m able to co-create a container for a loving connection to self that includes the radically diverse experiences of being awake and alive, I feel that I am in alignment with my life’s mission.
What do you hope that people take away from their experience at Center Studio?
We hope, first and foremost, that people take away a new awareness of themselves. That in the intimate cauldron of energy that is Center Studio and our offerings and those of our partners, that a spell of self love and curiosity about what may unfold within newfound possibilities may unfurl into their lives and interactions. The world around us moves and it changes, the practices offered at Center Studio help us to move with and through these changes, welcoming an embodied awareness of these currents mirrored within us and giving us the information we need to take action in our lives.
And what should they know?
They should know that nothing is required to try out something at Center Studio. All offers are geared toward the participant beginning where they are and getting into the room is the only prerequisite. Because the guiding principle in all we offer is that you follow the ease and what is possible, people can participate and gain understanding even while moving with injury, hesitation, or judgment (whether of the self or others). If you can move with it, it is welcome.
Last but not least, what are you reading?
Jeffrey: How not to Die, Michael Greger M.D. FACLM & Gene Stone; Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor.
Samantha: Taking The Leap by Pema Chödron; Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness by David Trelleven; and on the docket, The Luminous Self: Sacred Yogic Practices and Rituals to Remember Who You Are by Tracee Stanley
Anything we missed? (closing thoughts)?
If you are still reading and we’ve piqued your interest, please join Samantha or Jeffrey for one of their regular classes at 50% off - use the code IXSPOTLIGHT when registering.
