Behind the Movement

Tamara “Cuchira” Levinson was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved to the United States of America at age five. She represented the USA Rhythmic Gymnastics team at the 1992 Olympic Games just ten years later. Growing up an athlete gave her great discipline though her nature has always been raw, wild and free! Once her athletic career came to an end at 18 years of age, she made her way to New York City to explore who she was beyond the athlete.

She found her-SELF through dance, freeing all parts of her that had been put on hold up thill then. First by way of underground clubs that attracted the most eccentric of beings, later through professional dance theatre, Broadway and the NYC underground scene. Her love of free movement, individualism and eMOTIONal exploration eventually led her to a successful and ongoing 20+ year professional dance, aerial arts and choreography career that spanned from New York City, to Hollywood and throughout the world. She eventually finds herself touring with Madonna on three world tours, along with handfuls of other huge pop icons. This gave Tamara unique experiences few ever get a chance to have, seeing the world and performing in front of hundreds and thousands of screaming fans worldwide!

Her next big artistic venture came by way of her roots through a well-known avant-garde aerial group called ‘De La Guarda’. She co-choreographed and performed in the shows “Villa Villa” and Fuerzabruta. Think rave meets aerial theatre, but Tamara is curious about all forms of physical expression so she made her way across the movement world and got to work with many iconic people such as the legendary Twyla Tharp on Broadway's “The Times Are A CHANGIN’” and choreographed some scenes in the movie “The Greatest Showman” with Hugh Jackman. Gaining such production and creation knowledge throughout her time being in the thick of Broadway and Hollywood, Tamara naturally transitioned into directing many of her own pieces of work on stage and film.

With a bag full of movement expertise, Tamara’s underlying success always came from the fact that she moves through RAW E-MOTION that everyone can CONNECT to, so it only be natural that her work organically led into guiding others to their own freedom through the body's wisdom. She began teaching workshops and masterclasses about tapping into the language of the body. Once we understand BodyTalk we can begin having real conversations with ourselves and there is where true healing can begin. MovMEANT took off and a whole new inspired world opened up for Tamara. She has now been teaching MovMEANT for almost three decades all over the world and this has changed her life and of those who have incorporated the practice into their lifestyle.

What does MovMEANT practically look like? Think ecstatic dance à la the most breakthrough therapy session you’ve ever had! Or an Ayahuasca ceremony where dance is the “drug” that transcends the here and now. The mover returns anew, cleansed, with vast knowledge of their inner world. This kind of clarity heals and transforms. That is the power of MovMEANT! Tamara continues to grow in the infinite space of somatic healing and the work continues to evolve to find more and more of an audience everyday.

From Olympian, to professional dancer, choreographer, artist, director, healer… Tamara is fascinated by the infinite world of E-motions and how they speak to us. She does retreats and workshops all over the world. If you’re interested to learn more go to MovMEANT.com. You can also find her on Instagram @cuchira

David Kam is a London-based movement specialist, yoga teacher and speaker exploring mindful mo(ve)ments in playful situations. His degrees in architecture and dance have shaped his interest in discovering what it means to feel at home in our bodies, and at peace with our actions. For David, it’s never from achieving the best technique, but the reclaiming of function and freedom of expression. Perhaps making some new friends along the way. It’s about self dare and collective care.

David activates communities around the world, holding brave spaces for others to embody the wonder in wellbeing by queering the practices of movement. He works regularly with charities like besea.n and WECREATESPACE to advocate for joyful activism and culturally sensitive wellbeing amongst underprivileged communities. David is also founder of  kindredpacket, a grassroots organisation raising joy, care and connection amongst East and South East Asian communities in London and beyond.

On this special episode, Kyle shares an in person conversation while in Berlin with Joseph Bartz to discuss the economics of movement.   

From a young age, I was very interested in all kinds of sports. From soccer to, over different kind of martial arts I found my way to skateboarding and through my teenager's wish of becoming strong and buff, into the world of strength training.

Marcello is known for his studies of movement in a relationship with the environment. His interest and investigations of different artistic and scientific dimensions brought him far and wide. Notably, he helped shape the face of Parkour in Europe, got his Master of Science degree in strength and conditioning at St. Mary university in London, and was part of Ido Portal’s team for three years.

Currently his body of work continues to develop integrating in a coherent philosophy movement dexterity, dance, urban practices, the science of strength & conditioning and athletic principles. Through his teachings Marcello wishes to improve other people’s quality of life, allowing them to find their individuation and identity through deep transformative work.

Recently he started releasing a lot of free practical materials to help everyone fuel their movement journey under his vision and school of practice. So here follow ten protocols that can get you busy for months:

1. Climbing – wall riddles

Bruno Caverna is a pioneer in creating authentic multidisciplinary practices sustained by an embodied movement philosophy drawn from over 35 years of studying movement devottedly. Bruno’s background amalgamates various disciplines from Capoeira through Acrobatics, Contemporary Dance, Contact-improvisation, Qi-Gong, Russian Systema, Watsu, Buteyko Method, Oxygen Advantage all the way to Freediving. Bruno began teaching in 1995 as a capoeira project leader at a psychiatric hospital. The highly demanding context ignited his auto-didactic nature to flourish whilst the teaching processes were becoming over the years more and more consolidated as self-exploratory in its essence. This first highly transformative teaching experience became his pedagogical ground for all his others artistic, pedagogical and psychosocial projects, regardless the context. Being constantly confronted with adversities was vital to related to people in most humane manners. This ever-evolving impulse would manifest inas much as horizons would organically expand beyond the conventional body-mind frameworks. In the past 27 years Bruno has been teaching people from all walks of life over 33 countries worldwide. In 2012 Bruno created Play-Fight and Liquid Body, body-mind practices that coalesced out of professional and personal maturity to assume and pursue an original path while at the same time honoring his vast background and teachers. In 2016 Bruno gave another decisive step by founding Formless Arts, a cross-disciplinary hub that foments a community of self-responsible movers from eclectic backgrounds. The current Formless Arts team is committed to explore movement from a larger dimension that includes a vasgt array of interests such as in ontological philosophy, somatics, neuroscience, various forms of psychotherapies, somatics as well as studies in human biomechanics, biotensegrity, science or water flow, just to mention a few.

You can subscribe to host of Behind the Movement Kyle Fincham's Movesletter by clicking here.  

Born in Romania, Cluj-Napoca. I started my physical education at the age of 5, as a swimmer. Along the years I practiced various sports, focusing mainly on capoeira. My interest in arts was cultivated while studying music during my first 10 years of education. 

I studied medicine for 4 years. Afterwards I quit and decided to take education in my own hands. In present I am studying with Fighting Monkey, applying the principles and philosophy in my practice and in the way I move in the world. 

My plans for the future are to spread the love for movement and educate people towards a more artistic engagement with life and their practice.

Lucía Toker is a dancer and acrobat dedicated to movement and pedagogical research.

She has been developing her teaching for more than 15 years. Her work concept is to constantly update and search for essencial technical tools and methodological strategies to facilitate the connection and development of the movement practice for people with all levels of experience.

Originally from Buenos Aires, Lucía works regularly giving classes in professional dance programs, workshops and seminars throughout argentina and europe. her training started from a really young age and crossed through different disciplines and techniques, such as gymnastics, floor acrobatics, tango, flamenco, contemporary dance, improvisation, rehabilitation techniques, physical therapies, physical training and theoretical studies related to the human body. she participated in the residency bows & arrows 2018, in Italy, invited by Tom Weksler, with whom she thereafter performed a mentorship program. as a performer, she worked several years dedicated to scenic creation but in the last few years, she decided to dedicated exclusively to research and teaching.

Some of her latest works are “Collision”, developed in the artistic residency Circo Futuro, together with the group “OM” in Fortaleza, Brazil, July 2019. “lo que queda” and “mar arriba”, both solo pieces, developed in co-production with Paz Ladrón de Guevara, were performed in different festivals and theatres in Buenos Aires.

Jesse Danger loves jumping into things so much he's been doing nothing but for the past decade. He leads the team at The Movement Creative to help people turn their city into a playground and find a group of friends that love to explore. He credits novel movement experiences as being the core of his education. He sees movement as a way to explore the world physically while connecting socially. Those novel movement moments have led to most of the conversations that have helped him grow.

Born in Wild East. Based in North West.

Soul coordinates 22°25'00.0"N 12°00'00.0"W

She got married somewhere in Switzerland with a man who can carry on his shoulders more than 100kg. She can cook a whole dinner for 17 persons and she can have 3 espressos in a row. A collector of: animal bones - especially golden dragons - complex fragrances, aromatic herbs, stones and rocks.

She has knowledge in: how to grow a plant from a single leaf, hip hop music from 1992 to 2010, inner and outer order, anthropology of culture.

Believes in the logic of the universe. Likes to walk slowly, terribly slowly since it reminds her that time doesn’t exist and that presence is to be somewhere.

Performer, dancer, teacher, also known as the “polish hammer”. Rooted herself with FM practice, and in SEAD, graduating with a double diploma in choreography and performance. Since 2006, she has been following the Fighting Monkey path. This gave an axis to her teaching and life. As a pedagogue, she is motivated by an urge for movement as a consequence of being alive and by an endless and necessary will to share.

Her teaching reaches people from various grounds - dancers, actors, circus and sports people - everyone willing to “try”.

Natalia is currently busy with FM, TCM, stillness&motherhood, collaboration with Voetvolk- Lisbeth Gruwez.

Natalia would not mind being a bird or an ocean –but she is the happiest when she can be herself. If she would be asked to close with a quote she would say:

“All I ask is that you step with me into the boundlessness, where constancy, quietude and peace, infinite emptiness reign.”