In another time and place, Elaine Colandrea would be a temple dancer. In this world, she is a movement artist, Continuum teacher, somatic educator and bodyworker. Elaine’s primary interests have always been the transformational aspects of moving, sounding and breathing, the connection with the natural world and a belief that an artful, embodied presence creates a more humane society.
Based in the Hudson Valley, Elaine is a regular presenter at Omega Institute, Dharmakaya Center for Wellbeing, and Shantigar Foundation. She has been a keynote presenter for ISMETA and at somatic dance conferences. Elaine also teaches annually in Italy. As Artistic Director of Watermark Arts, she brings together her two passions – somatic awareness and art.
Elaine shared an intimate involvement with Continuum founder Emilie Conrad from 1993 until Emilie’s passing in 2014. Other influential teachers include Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Susan Harper, Robert Ellis Dunn, Lenore Latimer, Irene Dowd, as well as study of numerous therapeutic exercise systems. Her clients and students as well as health challenges have also served as teachers.
Elaine has a M.A. in dance from Columbia University (1982) and was certified as a massage therapist by the Muscular Therapy Institute (1988.) In 2022, she co-authored The Elemental Body: A Movement Guide to Kinship with Ourselves and the Natural World.
An independent choreographer, she has created several evening-length dance works and numerous short dance films. She has been described as an “alchemist of the human body” and “a wizard of new dance forms.”
