Associate Professor of Dance E.E. Balcos been certified as a Registered Somatic Dance Educator (RSDE) by the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA). This international designation comes after 250 hours of professional training in somatic practice and 20 years as a professor of dance.
His first introduction to somatic movement practice began in 1988 with Body-Mind Centering-based dance classes and sessions in Alexander Technique. Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is a holistic movement practice. Founded by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, BMC uses movement, touch, and vocalization to deepen awareness of the whole body and its complex systems.
In 2014, Balcos began professional training, working towards a certification in Body-Mind Centering as a Somatic Movement Educator (SME) at the Kinesthetic Learning Center in Durham, with additional studies at Espirit en Mouvement in Montreal, Quebec.
Balcos’s current research includes somatic movement practice and its application to performance, choreography, collaboration, and pedagogy in artistic and social contexts. He is becoming recognized internationally for his work in this field and is on the review board for the international Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, Coventry University, UK.
In 2018, Balcos taught a workshop at the 33rd Annual North American Body-Mind Centering Association Conference at Smith College in Northampton, MA and performed at the 6th Annual Somatic Dance Conference at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. In 2019, he gave presentations at the North Carolina Dance Educators Organization conference, the American College Dance Association conference, and attended the NDEO/ISMETA Somatic Movement and Dance Education Conference in NYC. The biggest highlights of 2019 include presentations at the C-DaRe 2019 Dance and Somatic Practices Conference in Coventry, United Kingdom; the 34th Annual Body-Mind Centering Conference in Santa Barbara, California; and the 2019 Body IQ Festival in Berlin, Germany.
In March, Balcos will present a workshop and participate in two panels for the ISMETA conference, Engaging Embodiment 2021: Somatic Applications for Health, Education & Social Justice.
Top photo by Zoe Litaker Photography, courtesy of NC Dance Festival.