There is only one you in all time...unique,
if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost ...
It is yours clearly and directly... keep the channel open.
-Martha Graham
TEACHERS
Laura Hoffman co-founder, teacher, maker
"Nimbl is possibility and potential.
A place to explore your edges and your core;
to play, to make, to breathe."
The core intentions of Laura’s 40 years experience as a movement artist, somatic educator and dance movement therapist are embodied emotional intelligence and authenticity. She believes developing keen awareness of how we move, and how we are still, and the accompanying mindset, allows us to make choices that enhance personal and expressive possibilities, as well as physical emotional well being.
With classical training in ballet and various modern/contemporary and post modern techniques, she incorporates additional movement practices into her work such as contact improvisation, authentic movement, Alexander Technique, yoga, and Laban/Bartenieff.
After graduating from Hampshire College, she travelled and worked in Europe training with members of Jerzy Grotowski’s Teatr Laboratorium before returning to the US to work with theater director Anne Bogart and other experimental dance/theater companies. She received her masters in Dance Movement Therapy from Antioch/NE and went on to help develop a specialized program for acute care using expressive arts therapy in Chicago at Michael Reese HMO. Concurrently, Laura continued to choreograph, perform, and study Alexander Technique at the Philadelphia Foundation, and with master teachers including Marjorie Barstow.
Ever experimenting, she began incorporating video and film in her artistic and therapeutic work which led to some time as a producer in Santa Fe, NYC and LA, and a brief stint with Slamdance Film Festival. She continued a private practice while expanding her movement practice to include Tai chi, Kung Fu and yoga; A perpetual student with a throughline of curiosity regarding somatic and emotional intelligence, and applications to creative forms and daily living.
Laura moved to Athens GA with her husband Michael Oliveri in 2001, gave birth to daughter Bianca in 2003, and graduated UGA’s MLA program. She studied Mindfulness in Schools (SF), and mindfulness stress reduction. She maintains a private practice. Laura is fascinated with the complexity and simplicity of humans. Sharing the exploration is her joy.
Maryn Whitmore co-founder, teacher, maker
"Nimbl is my sanctuary, where I connect, where I explore the space between."
Maryn Whitmore is a performance artist and movement educator with over 20 years experience devoted to shaping space for humans of all ages, giving them an outlet to express themselves on and off stage, and feel better in their bodies. Through art making, self discovery, and staying curious, Maryn is committed to a creative life. After graduating from the University of Georgia in 2001 with a degree in Dance Education, Maryn earned a 600-hour comprehensive certification in the Pilates Method of Body Conditioning. From 2003 to 2009, Maryn toured the United States as a musician and performance artist,
living on and off the road in a converted school bus. Through this experience, Maryn shaped and honed her creative process rooted in storytelling and discovered narrative. In late 2009 Maryn and her partner Matt created Tiny Neighbors, a children’s album exploring the connectivity of nature and creative inspiration.
After the birth of their first daughter, Maryn developed Skwhirlhaus, a backyard stage in Atlanta where creatives gathered to present work and experience community. The space featured over 50 performances from 2012 to 2016. Through her work with Skwhirlhaus, Maryn was commissioned by the High Museum of Art to create a piece for the opening of the Jaime Hayon large-scale interactive installation, Tiovivo. This work, Over The Moon!, was performed at the High in June and July of 2016. Maryn also presented a talk on the development of Skwhirlhaus and Skwhirlhaus Kids at the 2016 Southeast Regional ACDA conference. At the end of 2016, Maryn, Matt, and their two girls, made the move to Athens GA to continue their adventures.
Maryn is a part-time faculty member in the Department of Dance at the University of Georgia where she teaches Pilates, Mindfulness, and Yoga. Maryn performs regularly as a part of the Small Box Series here in Athens. "I feel most alive and connected to the universe when performing. Sharing this energy and love with others is my passion."
Lisa Yaconelli co-founder, teacher, maker
"Nimbl is fierce, humble, and life giving."
“Kids have a way of moving that is authentic and true to themselves; how do I protect that while at the same time challenge them to push past what they already know?” Lisa Yaconelli received her BFA in dance from Temple University and has performed and choreographed in Athens for fifteen years. Her choreography has been featured at Atlanta’s 7 Stages Theater and the Underground Dance Society’s “Hidden in Plain Sight,” The Fringe Festival, Canopy Studio, Skwhirlhaus, and Floorspace. She’s performed in Philadelphia, San Diego, and in many community events in Georgia.
A founding member of Warehouse Collective and Underground Dance Society, in most recent years she has co-directed the Small Box Series; a quarterly performance series that invites artists from different genres to perform in intimate spaces. She also introduced her Making Dances class at Center City Ballet in 2016. Throughout her life, she has always remained dedicated to creating, from choreographing in her backyard to Billie Jean, to performing her work at Small Box Series. Teaching children has given her the opportunity to make sure their experience of dance is positive and fulfilling like it always has been for her. At home, she is surrounded by live music by her husband, David Zwart, and two sons Holland and Milo.
Rebecca Gose teacher, maker
Rebecca Gose (BSEd, MFA) Associate Professor of Dance, was a principal dancer with Garth Fagan Dance from 1988-1993, with whom she toured extensively across the US and abroad, including such venues as Jacob’s Pillow, The Joyce Theatre, The Spoleto Festival (Italy), Israel Festival of the Arts, Internationales Tansfest (Germany), the Carlton Dance Festival (Brazil), as well as Brooklyn Academy of Music (NY), for the 1992 premiere of Griot, New York, Fagan’s evening length collaboration with musician Wynton Marsalis and sculptor Martin Puryear. Gose’s work as a performer and choreographer has been ongoing from 1993 to the present.
Rebecca has worked extensively in arts/dance education as a teaching artist, arts consultant, and educator, including as a selected artistic design consultant with the Leonard Bernstein Center for the Arts. While earning her MFA from the University of Washington (1999-2001), she performed in the Chamber Dance Company, including the classic modern dance repertory of Ruth St. Denis, David Parsons, Bill Evans, Eric Hawkins, Moses Pendleton, and others. Since arriving at the University of Georgia Department of Dance in 2001, Rebecca has developed dance classes that are intended to be a joyful and challenging experience, informed by a range of inspiring artist/teachers from Jane Hawley (Movement Fundamentals) and Ann Gilbert (Brain-Compatible Dance Education), and Garth Fagan, emphasizing a mélange of dynamic polyrhythms, a persistent relationship to off-verticality, momentum, and floorwork in a positive and creative setting that hopes to empower students’ individual autonomy and artistry. She has set choreographic works on students of all ages including the University School of Nashville, SCAPA (Lexington, KY) and The Baylor School and Girls Preparatory School (Chattanooga, TN), and has taught in numerous schools and select festivals in the US.
Her scholarly work, focusing on the scientific and somatic investigations that work to improve the learning environment for dancers and teachers, has been published in such scholarly journals as The Journal of Dance Education, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, and International Journal of the Arts in Society, and the International Journal of Education and the Arts, among others. She has been invited to give numerous papers and workshops at annual meetings of the National Dance Education Organization, as well as IADMS (International Association for Dance Medicine and Science), the International Conference of the Arts in Society, and at the University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm, Sweden. One of her more recent projects in partnership with researcher Amit Abraham, involves investigating the effects of dance imagery (the Franklin Method™) on dance performance.
Jennifer Tweed Morlock teacher, maker
Jennifer Tweed Morlock graduated from UGA in 1998. She enjoyed performing as a member of CORE repertory company from 1995 to 1998 after which she went on to complete her Masters of Physical Therapy at East Tennessee State University. She moved back to Athens to marry a most amazing man and they have been blessed with two most amazing children. She continues her practice of physical therapy specializing in chronic back pain at Athens Orthopedic Clinic as well as her practice of dance currently through Underground Dance Society, Canopy Aerial Studio, Center City Ballet life longand Movement Arts, nimbl, and anywhere else that will let her come play.
Chet Thomas Iyengar Yoga teacher CIYT
Chet Thomas is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher at the Intermediate Junior I level with over 20 years as a student in the Iyengar method. The Iyengar certification process requires several years of yoga practice, study and teaching, as well as a rigorous examination process with demonstrated teaching, asana, and pranayama, and written testing on asana sequencing, anatomy, and yoga sutras.
Chet has attended workshops with several senior level Iyengar instructors including Manouso Manos, Patricia Walden, Joan White, and Laurie Blakeney. He continues to study with senior teacher Kathleen Pringle at Stillwater Yoga in Atlanta. In May, 2010, he attended the Iyengar yoga teachers conference in Portland, which focused on therapeutics and was led by Geeta Iyengar. In May, 2015, Chet was in
Denver for a teachers workshop on yoga and the lower back led by Manouso Manos. In December, 2015, he attended Geeta Iyengar's Yoganusasanam, an 8 day yoga intensive in Pune, India. Visit Chet Thomas Yoga Instruction on Facebook or email chet@chetthomasyoga.com
Introductory I Certification - 2008
Introductory II Certification - 2009
Intermediate Junior I Certification - 2017
Andrea Trombetta teacher, maker
Artist and educator, Andrea Trombetta, is originally from Chicago, where she began studying visual and moving arts, later receiving her BA in Studio Art & her MFA in Fabric Design from the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art. She currently teaches Art Appreciation, 3-D Design and Fabric Design at UGA and also leads movement practices at local art studios. Andrea has taught children's art programming at the Lyndon House Arts Center, Good Dirt and Canopy studio, and is now delighted to co-facilitate WhirliGIG creative camps for kids at Nimbl. Trombetta exhibits her work both nationally and internationally, producing art that reflects connections, observations and inevitable transitions of the human condition. Her most recent artwork involves collaborations with her daughter, Isabella Rose.