Vic Cooper
Be useful, unique, updated – and keep moving.
I am curious about what the source code of movement is. What is possible on the dance floor if we keep opening to what is happening rather than what we want to happen? Movement is spirit made manifest. It is intersection of what never changes with what always changes. I’m fascinated with dancing this most primary relationship.
My journey into movement practice and teaching began with a harebrained idea in 1986 to drive across the country in a little white truck from Oklahoma to Big Sur, California to wash dishes at Esalen Institute. Here I met Andrea, fell in love with her, started dancing the 5Rhythms® (mostly for the staccato and chaos, I have to admit) and immersed myself in the therapeutic community there centered around Gestalt Awareness Practice. I followed Andrea to Mill Valley, CA in 1991. We got married and with very little idea of what I was doing or why I spent the next 12 years going to countless 5Rhythms® classes and workshops with Kathy, Lori, Gabrielle and Andrea.
To my surprise the dance changed me in a good way and I grew to love the discipline of movement practice. I trained in 5Rhythms® with Gabrielle Roth in 2005 and with the support and partnership of Andrea over the years I have come to feel at home in the group field.
I am also a man of many other interests. I am a playful technocrat. I own my own consulting business. I am a father, an artist, and have built my own “super green” house off the grid in the Big Sur mountains. I have learned to welcome every aspect of myself to the dance. The crazy creative expression of this is my greatest teaching tool\support\asset. I find my versatility well met by so many of the students I meet on the floor.
I am an early adopter. I love what’s new and finding the edge of what’s possible. That’s what I do in my tech business and that’s what I like about Open Floor practice. I enjoy the challenge of being out on the cutting edge. I want to bring dance into all aspects of the life and my whole life into the dance.
