Lucia Rich is a SomaSource Practitioner, Yoga Instructor, and Performing Arts Educator deeply devoted to the practice of embodiment through her personal practice, performing and teaching of the Sacred and Expressive Arts.  A lifelong lover of movement, Lucia has trained professionally in contemporary, classical, improvisational and somatic dance forms. She has worked as a choreographer and movement director, has taught dance, movement and physical theater to all ages, including at The New School, Hunter College and Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan, Perry-Mansfield School and Camp in Steamboat Springs, Rocky Mountain Theatre for Kids in Boulder and Actors Academy in Denver, CO, UConn in Storrs-Mansfield, CT.  Lucia completed an MFA in Lecoq-Based Physical Theater from London International School of Performing Arts in 2005. Since then her collaborations in dance and physical theater have taken her across the US and internationally to Canada, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria and of course New York City where she is a long-time member of Clowns Ex Machina, an all female clown troupe led by Kendal Cornell. Lucia has  collaborated with companies such as Margarita Blush Productions, Now or Never Theatre, Claire Patton Productions, A.O. Movement Collective, Helander Dance-Theater, Kim Robards Dance and The Octopus League, among others. For more about Lucia and theater click here.  ​ In 2005 Lucia was introduced to the work of Melissa Michaels Ed.D (founder of Golden Bridge and SomaSource in Boulder, CO). For the first time in her life, she began to use dance as a tool for personal and spiritual growth and began to discern the difference between dance for performance and dancing for herself. Lucia studied 5RhythmsTM dance and somatic movement extensively with Melissa over a 7 year training and mentorship period and more recently she returned to Boulder to complete her SomaSource LifeCyles Practitioner training.  ​ Lucia began teaching Dancing Home classes, a free-form somatic movement process in the lineage of SomaSource in the Spring of 2023. For more about Dancing Home, click here.  As a child, Lucia studied improvisational dance for 13 years Juliette Daley, former All American gymnast, dancer and visual artist. This shaped her tremendously in the way she teaches, which is process based and experimental in nature.  Lucia is committed to taking back children's movement education to a place of  non-sensationalized, developmentally appropriate and improvisational in nature. Movement for the sake of movement, because when the body is in motion, the whole nervous system and brain are happier! ​ Yoga has been a touchstone practice for Lucia since she was a child. She first experienced yoga asanas as part of her practice of Transcendental Meditation (both her parents were teachers of TM). Sun Salutations were also included as part of her school's physical education program. As a teenager Lucia practiced along with her Mother in their living room to videos of various teachers and used these sequences as warm-up before her dalce classes. This led her to seek out teachers in her hometown and later in Boulder, CO where she met Blythe Massey, student of Sophia Diaz, that has been a primary teacher for her. Lucia formally completed her 200 hr teacher training in 2012 with Lisa Bennet and Charles Matkin in Garrison, NY. Since then she has taught  in studios, corporate and private settings in Manhattan, Queens, Riverdale, Wall Street and Westchester and has taught in many creative settings such as Manhattan School of Music's Summer Program and Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School in Steamboat Springs, CO. Her relationship with Yoga has changed over time to focus mainly on gentle, slow flow, yin/yang and yin inspired classes. Lucia currently teaches at Club Fit and All Saints Artist collective in Briarcliff, the Senior Center in Elmsford and privately in Ossining/Westchester.  ​ Embodied Arts & Wellness was established in Spring of 2023 as a way to bring somatic education, movement and embodied creative experiences to all ages through the sacred and expressive arts.  ​ Grounding ever more into her creative Flow, Lucia strives to surrender to the beat of her own heart whether in the rehearsal studio, on stage, the dance floor, on the mat or at home. After 10 years in NYC, Lucia relocated to Ossining in 2020,  where she lives with her husband, (his piano), and their two beautiful children.   ​ ​