Jen Taylor
“My goal in life is to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.”—Anonymous
When I was a little girl, James Cameron’s epic cinematic spectacle, the Titanic, had not yet hit the screen. But the story of the Titanic was as big in the cultural dialogue and collective subconscious of the time as walking on the moon. The human spirit soared that high and sank that low. At age eight, I saw a made for television documentary about the sinking. One image would haunt me for years. The women who fell overboard couldn’t lift their own body weight up out of the ocean and back onto the ship or life rafts. Unless someone helped them, many women drowned because they couldn’t do one pull-up.
The implications ran deep. On a personal level, I looked around at the women in my life. There was no doubt about it. My mother, my aunts, my grandmothers, my favorite teachers were all going to die on a sinking ship. And I would too. I was a girl. And that I was biologically doomed to the same fate terrified me. My own body felt like a death trap.
I practice joy and trapeze, and more recently circus and yoga, as my own personal antidote. It works. I have been described as a limitless fountain of joy by my teacher, fellow yogi and clown friend, Kevin O’Keefe. And I share my practice with as many as I can.
Because if you’re sinking on the Titanic, you don’t need to do twenty pull-up’s to save your life. You need to do one.
CYTT: Level 3
hometowns: Brooklyn, NY
current residence: Deep River, CT
teaching area(s): SE Connecticut
current teaching: trapeze, chinese acrobatics, yoga, flying yoga, partner yoga, embodied philosophy, engaged physicalness and circus skills
education/training/experience:
BA Philosophy (Vassar), CircusYoga certification, studies in circus acrobatics and trapeze at LAVA
influential teachers: Erin Maile O’Keefe, Xena Warrior Princess, Mitch Miller
current studies/adventures: permaculture, Body-Mind Centering, neolithic/partnership societies
contact me:
Jen Taylor
Hula Hoop Ranch
8 Elm Street
Deep River, CT 06412
(860) 526-9186
www.chestermindbody.wordpress.com
my teaching schedule
weekly classes:
Acrobatics, Yoga & Trapeze for Kids
Spring 2008 starting March 31st (10 weeks)
The Children’s Tree Montessori School
96 Essex Road, Old Saybrook, CT
-
Mondays @ 4:00 p.m. (ages 7-12) -
Tuesdays @ 4:00 p.m. (ages 8-14)
-
Wednesdays @ 11:30 a.m. (ages 3-6)
workshops:
location
-
workshop
-
workshop
spring vacation programs:
Tree of Life
-
Seasonal Trapeze Camps
summer programs:
Hula Hoop Ranch
-
Trapeze Camp
private instruction:
Various
-
Yoga
-
Trapeze
-
Circus Skills
-
Handstands
My Story
