FACULTY

Faculty of the BMC® training programs in Italy is coordinated by Gloria Desideri. It includes experienced certified teachers from Italy and other countries. In addition, teachers who certified in 2019 and with year long experience as BMC® Practitioners, are in turn invited to teach and contribute to the ongoing research about teaching methodology in BMC®.

Gloria Desideri is Certified Teacher/Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering®, Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME) and IDME teacher. Since 2006, she has been directing BMC® training programs in Italy, organized by Leben nuova, and over the years has trained several generations of BMC® educators and practitioners, promoting networking activities and supporting students and colleagues personally and professionally in applying their BMC® experience in various fields. A Certified Teacher of Kinetic Awareness™ and Practitioner of Somatic Experiencing®, with a background as a professional dancer and choreographer (1977 – 1992), Gloria integrates numerous somatic and movement practices, and studies of the body-mind continuum. She has extensive experience working in the field of childhood disability and with adults with post-traumatic stress symptoms. She has collaborated with the Public Health Service of Viterbo directing projects aimed at children with severe disabilities, their families and caregivers. Gloria teaches in Italy and abroad and carries out educational, therapeutic and consulting activities for adults and children. In Tuscania she has created CasaNave Alle Mura, an experiential space for educational, training, artistic and social activities.

Jeanette Engler was born in Solothurn and graduated in dance and gymnastics in Zurich from Ursula Kasics. She moved to New York in 1986 to work on Postmodern Dance, Releasing Technique, Conctact Improvisation, body composition and work, Tai Chi Chuan and Aikido. In the USA she graduated in Body-Mind Centering®, collaborated with Susan Rethorst & Company, performed in a series of ‘a solo’. It was with this background of important experiences that he returned to Zurich in 1993. Since 1987 she has been working in dance steps, solo-preformance and in collaboration with dancers, musicians and film-video artists. In 1996 he was awarded the Dance Prize of the canton of Solothurn. Jeanette Engler teaches Body-Mind Centering® at authorized BMC® centres, and in workshops and courses in improvisation and dance, experiential anatomy, body work, early childhood movement development, organized independently and in training and further education schools, in Switzerland and abroad. It also gives individual sessions to adults, children and babies, based on BMC®, craniosacral therapy, Somatic Experiencing® and osteopathy practice.

She is a Certified Teacher of Body-Mind Centering® (BMC®), a registered (by ISMETA) Somatic Movement Therapist and Educa­tor™ and an Infant Developmental Movement Educator™ (IDME™). She has further trainings in Cranio-Sacral-Therapy and Lymphatic Drainage, in different techniques of New Dance, Action Theatre, Butoh, T’ai Chi, and Tango Argentino. Before becoming fully dedicated to BMC® her career was in law with a PhD in Law. She lives in Berlin (Germany), teaches internationally, mainly in BMC® Certification Programs around the world, and is the director of three licensed BMC® and IDME Programs – two in Europe (Slovakia and Spain) and one in South America (Argentina). In her work both with adults and children, the concrete freedom of non-judgemental exploration and the philosophy and poetry of the body have become her focus. For more information on Walburga see www.walburgaglatz.com.

Thomas Greil is a certified teacher of BMC®️ and a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist (RSMT). He is teaching BMC in certification programs in Europe and the US since 2003, and the co-founder of SOMA, the French licensed organization. His passion for research of movement, touch and body expression has led him to become interested in neuromotor development in infancy, in the ways in which gesture and perception are built in emotional, social, cultural environments of life. His work is particularly dedicated to the accompaniment of families with children with fragilities. He created the project “Making Connections” to support families with children with special needs, including individual sessions for the children as well as for the parents, workshops for parents, professionals and therapists in the field of care. He is currently in training as a JKA practitioner (Jeremy Krauss Approach). Together with Carla Bottiglieri he has founded minima somatica, a nucleus of research and somatic practice, which investigates forms of circulation and sharing of knowledge of the body.

Piera Teatini from the time she was born – at the end of the 1950s, one Sunday at noon, there was sunshine and bells rang – follows and serves the intuition that creativity, for a sapiens or a healthy system, is a simple natural secretion. First a copywriter, then a trainer on issues of communication and emotional intelligence, a somatic oriented consultant and coach, she studied architecture and design, she has been a Trainer at NLP since 1992, a BMC Teacher since 1998, a Lichtenberger Methode teacher for Applied Vocal Physiology since 2009. She is now approaching retirement age with the project of a Foundation for the diffusion of Arts and Sciences in the evolutionary age. She sings as soon as she can, loves Tunisian double-point crochet, lives in the greenest niche in Milan with a beautiful tenor, a very young cellist, three cats and too many, too many snails.

Anne Expert Certified Teacher/Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering®, Somatic Movement Educator (ISMETA).
Since 2003 she has been developing and promoting embodiment processes through art projects, professional training and clinical practice. He works with several theatre and dance companies and has conducted Contact Improvisation performance projects in Lyon, France. Since 2013, Anne has been teaching in European BMC® certification programs. In France, she has developed her own training based on somatic practices and BMC®, in addition to the Authentic Movement and Contact Improvisation: “Matières, Arte Somatique” is aimed at professionals in the art, education and health sectors. It also integrates its experience with Aikido studies and meditation practices. He has developed a particular sensitivity and deep interest in the study of embryology and biodynamic approaches.

Federica Antonelli is BMC® Practitioner/Teacher, dancer and artist of the movement, lives and works in Milan and Brussels.
She trained in Italy, United States and Belgium, specializing in contemporary dance, improvisation, dance-theatre. She cultivates a deep interest in pedagogy, inter-generational encounter, and work on social and psychophysical fragility. With dance and somatic education, she intervenes in various art and education projects, collaborating with schools, nursing homes and associations that deal with children and special needs. In Brussels she co-founded the EMOVERE Association – expèriences en mouvement – for the creation of early childhood performances, the promotion of perinatal activities, child massage, breastfeeding counselling, as well as inter-generational projects involving children and the elderly.

After an initial training in ballet, he studied and practiced contemporary dance, contact-improvisation, release techniques and voice approach according to the Roy Hart method, in Italy and Paris. She has worked with Michele Di Stefano, Lucia Latour, Kinkaleri, Claudia Castellucci/Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, Jools Gilson-Ellis, Gaëlle Bourges, and collaborated with various collectives of artists and activists (Nanopolitics, presque ruines, the Brazilian theatre company Ueinzz). Besides being trained as a Body-Mind Centering® Teacher, she has experience of various somatic practices: Feldenkrais, Rolfing, Continuum, Ideokinesis, and movement analysis according to Hubert Godard. Carla has a degree in Classical Literature and Philosophy and a Master’s degree in Performing Arts from the Dance Department of Paris 8 University. She has been a member of the “Somatiques et Politiques” research team, of the Dance Department of Paris 8, and has worked on the development of critical and epistemological tools to analyze somatic in close comparison with the philosophy of subjectification and norms. He collaborates as BMC® Teacher with various authorized training centers.

Marcella Fanzaga is a Body-Mind Centering® Teacher/Practitioner and Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME), Occupational Therapist, Dance Therapist, Dance Educator®, choreographer and independent performer. She has been practicing expressive research, contemporary dance, butoh and improvisation for many years. She integrates this experience with Body-Mind Centering® proposing experiential paths and sensory-motor practices to children, teenagers, adults and seniors, also with special needs and psycho-physical fragility. In support of artistic, educational and care professions, she collaborates with schools and professional training institutions in the arts (Artemente-Milano, Biennale College di Venezia, C.I.M.D. Progetto Incubatore, Oscar Teatro-Milano) and high-training and continuing education institutions for educators and health professions (Assonidi, Percorsi Formativi06-Milano, Sperling-Uniateneo, Non self-sufficiency-Fund Regione Molise, Istituto Cortivo-Padova). In Milan, she leads the Bimbinforma Project of which she is the creator, aimed at parenting and early childhood and carries out individual and personalized sessions and consulting activities. She is also the artistic director of ArgommBIMBI-Creare l’Incanto and The Meeting Point-Under the Roof at Argòmm Teatro, collaborating with artists and experts of different disciplines. As a teacher and coordination assistant, she collaborates with Leben nuova, the only Italian centre authorized for training in Body-Mind Centering®. She is a professional member of the BMCA and is enrolled in the Register of Occupational Therapists (order TSRM PSTRP year 2019 n° 174).

Emanuela Passerini is BMC® Practitioner and Somatic Movement Educator, she is president and teacher for the association Studio Bhumi that has been offering Yoga, BMC®, Gyrotonic®, Pilates in Milan for ten years.
She teaches Dance-BMC® at ZonaK Spazio Teatrale and is a trainer for actors and movement teachers in different cities in Italy. She has a background in ballet, contemporary dance, theatre-dance, Danza Sensibile®, Orissi, Katak, acrobatics, Shaolin.
After her master’s studies she graduated at the Civica Scuola Teatrale Pedagogica-sociale in Milan and then at the Teatro Tascabile in Bergamo. For several years she collaborated as an actress/dancer in international companies, and taught Dance and Theatre in public facilities in Milan.
She continues with curiosity and passion her research on the creative and expressive resources of the movement in the artistic and pedagogical field.

Maria Martinez Peñalba is Certified Teacher/Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering®, Somatic Movement Educator. Choreographer and dance and yoga teacher. She graduated in dance and creative composition in Amsterdam at SNDO (School for New Dance Development). She also has a degree in Aesthetic Philosophy.
She collaborates in various training programs for dancers, teaching the principles of somatic movement and its application to creative research. Interested in Middle Eastern forms of dance and energy practices of the East, she has created her own method integrating somatic aspects and contemporary expressions with the forms of ancient traditions. Maria integrates the principles of BMC in the various disciplines (dance, yoga and body work) which she teaches at a professional level in dance and yoga and in the educational fields

She collaborates with Leben nuova and teaches in the certification programs directed by Gloria Desideri at CasaNave Alle Mura in Tuscania.

Eleonora Parrello graduated in Languages and Social Communications in Milan, trained in theatre and contemporary dance in Italy, London and New York, after a decade of training in Sensitive Dance® with Cinzia DeLorenzi in 2009 she met the somatic approach of Body-Mind Centering®, graduating as a Somatic Movement Educator (SME) in 2012, BMC® Practitioner in 2016 at Leben Nuova and BMC® Teacher in 2019. She has worked with directors and choreographers in the fields of dance theatre, children’s theatre, opera, as an author of performances in open spaces and in nature. Since 2014 she has been the creator and leader of a project for the integration of somatic movement in aquatic and marine environments. She integrates a path that through research reconciles the somatic, artistic, educational and intercultural environment, both with adults and children.

In her life path she engages in processes in which spirit and embodiment, Eastern and Western culture merge. Born in India, she is deeply connected to her roots. She studied Buddhism with Ponlop Rinpoche for over 15 years and Ayurvedic Medicine with Dr. Lad at the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico. Passionate about the work with touch, she graduated in Massage Therapy. Her search for profound and subtle experiences led her to train in CranioSacral with Michael Dunning, while the study of embryology connects her to ancient Indian practices. She came to BMC® through Yoga practice with Genny Kapuler in New York. But it was Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen who was fundamental in her awakening. Nisha is a Practitioner and Teacher of Body-Mind Centering®, and an Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME). She has taught BMC® in Italy, and in New York at the Breathing Projec and the Marymount High School. He resides in New York City, where she holds a private practice.

CONSECUTIVE TRANSLATION

All courses organized by Leben are in two languages, Italian and English, with consecutive translation.

Marcella Fanzaga is a Body-Mind Centering® Teacher/Practitioner and Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME), Occupational Therapist, Dance Therapist, Dance Educator®, choreographer and independent performer. She has been practicing expressive research, contemporary dance, butoh and improvisation for many years. She integrates this experience with Body-Mind Centering® proposing experiential paths and sensory-motor practices to children, teenagers, adults and seniors, also with special needs and psycho-physical fragility. In support of artistic, educational and care professions, she collaborates with schools and professional training institutions in the arts (Artemente-Milano, Biennale College di Venezia, C.I.M.D. Progetto Incubatore, Oscar Teatro-Milano) and high-training and continuing education institutions for educators and health professions (Assonidi, Percorsi Formativi06-Milano, Sperling-Uniateneo, Non self-sufficiency-Fund Regione Molise, Istituto Cortivo-Padova). In Milan, she leads the Bimbinforma Project of which she is the creator, aimed at parenting and early childhood and carries out individual and personalized sessions and consulting activities. She is also the artistic director of ArgommBIMBI-Creare l’Incanto and The Meeting Point-Under the Roof at Argòmm Teatro, collaborating with artists and experts of different disciplines. As a teacher and coordination assistant, she collaborates with Leben nuova, the only Italian centre authorized for training in Body-Mind Centering®. She is a professional member of the BMCA and is enrolled in the Register of Occupational Therapists (order TSRM PSTRP year 2019 n° 174).

Carol Berenyi was born in Akron, Ohio, USA; of Hungarian origin, she has lived in Italy since 1971. A painter by profession, she has exhibited in various galleries in Italy, Germany and Switzerland. A linguist by nature, she graduated in modern languages from the universities of Pittsburgh and Aix-en-Provence. Her interest in body-oriented psychotherapy led her to meet Silja Wendelstadt and to collaborate with her in founding the Eva Reich Study Centre in Rome in the 1990s. For several years, Carol then translated in Thomas Harms’ Emotional First Aid training program, a Reichian-oriented method to help mothers and infants in crisis; and since 2010 she has worked as a translator in Matthew Appleton’s Conscious Embodiment Trainings. In 2006 she started working with Leben nuova for the consecutive translation of the BMC® training courses in Italy. Carol’s commitment and enthusiasm in supporting Leben’s development throughout the years up to this day makes her an important reference figure, and not only as a translator, for the national and international BMC®-Leben community.