DREAMTEAM FEATURE // Ja'miil Millar
Ja'miil Millar (she/her) is a writer and student and teacher of movement living in Hamilton on Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, Attiwonderonk (Neutral), Haudenosaunee, Mississauga, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation land. She is constantly reflecting on the spaces she takes up and relies on expression through words, movement, and creativity to sustain her capacity for community work. Ja'miil started working with GBF at the beginning of this year and if she had to dream of labour, this job would be it. Haha! Catch her love notes and GBF community updates in your inbox the last Monday of every month.
DREAMTEAM FEATURE // Daya Williams
Daya (she/her/queen) was born and raised in #hamont (though she left a couple of times)! She's our body movin', table shakin', Client Relations Manager here at GOODBODYFEEL! She's the face behind hello@goodbodyfeel.com, and loves connecting with our community through the inbox. She was introduced to the studio as a member of the 2020 GBFTT cohort, and has been a member of the Admin Dream Team since last summer. Her passion for dreaming up (and making small steps towards) a deconlonized society built upon community care has only been amplified since joining the admin team. She has learned the body's role in the revolution, and is excited to encourage others to use their bodies as entities of care, compassion, and creation.
DREAMTEAM FEATURE // Mel Chau
Mel (she/her) is a Hong Kong born, Chinese raised Canadian of immigrants. The arts has been a part of her life since youth, and over the last 5 years, integrating more design thinking + empathy into her work has helped broaden and inform her current career in product design + tech. Currently helping out with the *GBF Dream Team* as the designer for the social feed, GBF came into Mel's life in the heat of the pandemic, and she took the Sharing Privilege course. It has opened up her thinking about systems of opression, her own privileges and also how to reconcile and heal with the Asian community, specifically with the recent (and ongoing) targetted hate crimes toward – not a "visible minority" – but a *global majority* that's been difficult to process. She admires the mission that GFB stands for in their classes, the open inclusivity towards all human forms, body shapes and invitations to partake, scream, take up space, or rest within the broad definitions of "movement".
TEACHER FEATURE // Robin Lacambra
Robin Lacambra (she/her) is a thinker, feeler, speaker, creator and the founder of GOODBODYFEEL Movement Studio and Movement Method. She is an empowered embodiment educator - blending practices like Pilates, yoga and mindfulness and sharing them from anti-oppression, trauma aware and eating disorder informed frameworks. Robin is also a somatic coach, host of the Empowered Embodiment Podcast, social justice advocate and eager student of diverse movement practices. Her aim as a movement educator is to help facilitate others to move mindfully and feel good in their bodies as well as recognize the intersection of physical practice and social politics.
TEACHER FEATURE // Bea Palanca
Bea, co-creator of WHAT_TIME, is a movement facilitator and student of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Bea values embodied action and rest by connecting with the energies of the space in which we find ourselves, in right relationship with the beings around us. Her/their classes are 3 parts grounding, 1 part playful, a sprinkle mystical, folded into yoga, pilates, dance. Bea is an artist and is working towards a Diploma in Acupuncture and Moxibustion. Connect with Bea's creations and offerings at bybeapalanca.com
TEACHER FEATURE // Brittany Rose
Britt is a movement teacher based in Hamilton, trained here at GBF and continuing movement education with Yoga Detour and ISSA. A classically trained dancer at heart, she is passionate about sharing the joy of movement with you in classes (often involving a quick dance break) that focus on cultivating strength and mobility with flow and grace. Her aim is to connect with you through sweating and smiling, terrible jokes and feelgood playlists balancing playfulness with deep feels. Off the mat, she is a hospitality ninja for @otherbirdfeedsyou baking sweets and recommending you a good cocktail.
TEACHER FEATURE // Dee de Lara
Dee aims to co-create spaces for humans to share stories and connect by: teaching MOVEMENT that aims to inspire curiosity, facilitating CONVERSATIONS that spark reflection and action with @dinner.confidential and @insightsincolor, making @deedelarajewelry that reframes context and expectations, co-running @WHAT_TIME___, a hub to aggregate and amplify independent, emerging and BIPOC movement teachers' offerings. Dee asks QUESTIONS to critically interrogate existing systems and to learn widely and deeply from others. One of Dee’s core values is disruption: interrupting patterns and behaviour to foster abundance and growth.
TEACHER FEATURE // Jo Gale
Jo Gale (she/her)is a movement educator, a body liberation advocate and a community organizer.She aims to help humans shift their relationships with their body through joyful movement. She sequences her classes, workshops and other offerings with the ideas of a yoga practice, the mechanics of contemporary Pilates, and the expression and freedom of dance.
TEACHER FEATURE // Jasmine Smikle
Jasmine is a movement teacher from Hamilton, now based in rural Nova Scotia. Her love of movement started at a young age in ballet classes, then intensified in her teens as she learned just how movement can heal. Jasmine’s sequences are progressive, dynamic, and fun. She brings her passions—food (check out her musings @wmhands), technology (she’s a product manager by day), and nature—into her teachings.
TEACHER FEATURE // Rochelle Miller
Rochelle is a multi disciplinary movement coach and facilitator. she has worked with New Leaf Foundation for over 7 years and has experience with trauma informed movement and mindfulness practices for variety of diverse and marginalized groups. She is Inspired by the ethical teachings of Yoga and if there was a “goal” she’d say its liberation, for a all, a little bit idealistic maybe optimistic… but a practice. Her classes are a mix of modalities, incorporating traditional asana posture, functional mobility, strength, coordination and play! At the core of her sharing she hopes that everyone can find a safe space within themselves, if not safe, then brave. Together she believe we can build and grow a tool belt to support resilience in all aspects of our lives.
TEACHER FEATURE // Simone Aziga
Having studied ballet from her childhood until her late teens, Simone (she/her) is now a movement teacher based in the Hamilton and Toronto area. Simone's classes blend contemporary Pilates with some dance-like sequences sprinkled in from the outset and throughout. Using a mindful balance between high intensity, strength and grace, Simone hopes that those who join her classes feel empowered in their own bodies. In addition to her background in dance, Simone is informed by GOODBODYFEEL's 200HR Teacher Training program.
TEACHER FEATURE // Stylo Starr
Stylo Starr is a visual alchemist and movement facilitator based in Hamilton, Ontario. As a visual artist, Stylo finds voice and movement in both digital and hand-cut collage as primary mediums, and leads various workshops for all ages and levels of creative practice. Stylo completed the Goodbodyfeel Movement Teacher Training in early 2019 and found a passionate intersection between ‘making’ and ‘moving’. Teaching out of the GBF Studio, Stylo leads classes focused on grounding, breathing, mindful awareness of the body and radical rest while experimenting with sound bath meditations.
Across the Ocean and Home Again
GOODBODYFEEL is home because they encourage you to come home to yourself - version of you who was told to shrink by white supremacy, by capitalism, by homophobia, by the patriarchy, by all of the systems that stay alive by draining us all of the things that make us, US! At GOODBODYFEEL, you can leave all the systems at the door, and be the fiercest, loudest, biggest, Blackest version of you.
In Jamaica, there is an old proverb - “who cyaah hear muss feel” (who can’t hear, must feel). Essentially, it means that I can tell you all these things, but you’re probably going to want to see (read: feel) for yourself. I get it.
This is why I am inviting you, my fellow Black movers, to join us for 12 free classes this month.
Black History Month aside, February is often the coldest and one of the most emotionally taxing months for Black people (as white-owned organizations scramble to throw last minute workshops together to prove that they’re “doing the work”). As we come up on the twelfth month of this pandemic, I want to ensure that we are doing whatever we can to encourage Black people in particular to take care as we continue to move through this wild, exhausting, challenging time. Robin taught me that the body is political. In order to prepare for the revolution, we need to feel connected to our minds, our spirits, and our bodies. I hope that you can carve out some time for self-care so that you have the strength to carry on.
Running Towards Softness : Black Queer Living with Chronic Pain
Accepting that I live with chronic pain was not an easy place to get to. Experiencing dismissal from doctors who didn’t listen to my concerns, made it hard to even be in conversation with myself and how I was feeling in my body. Watching my mother struggle to be a mom, homemaker, provider all at once at the expense of her rest, well being, reflection made it all the harder to hear my needs. I watched her not realizing that it had made an impression. Not knowing that it made it almost impossible to imagine what rest would like for me.
TEACHER FEATURE // Clairandean
Clair(andean) they/them is a Queer Artist, Tarot Reader and Movement Instructor. They released a lofi EP in 2020 entitled Moving in the Dark. Working from a developing trauma informed framework and a gender inclusive framework to facilitate acessiblity and self compassion in a movement practice. They are currently writing another EP and making art videos.
An Anti-Diet New Year
January can feel like a sticky month for your relationship to food. It’s hard to shut yourself off from the constant stream of dieting messages, detoxing the holidays or ~*sTaRtInG FrEsH*~ programs and advertisements. It’s all really negative and harmful, but pervasive and enticing nonetheless.
TEACHER FEATURE // Michelle Cordeiro
Learn more about Michelle! Check out a 20min video and fun music playlist by our affectionately known Mich Mich. Michelle is a Movement Teacher and Intuitive Eating Counsellor. She believes in the power of defining and persuing our individualized versions of what it means to feel well, from an anti-diet and weight neutral perspective. Michelle hopes to empower others to find their flow when it comes to food, movement and community.
TEACHER FEATURE // Christopher Bourke
Learn more about Christopher Bourke, mental health professional and one of the founding instructors of GBF. Read through Chris’ get-to-know-me survey and check out one of his signature playlists for ultimate chill.
Finding Home
Community is like a missing puzzle piece I have been searching for all my life. While we are capable of going through life alone, it feels so much sweeter with a supportive community by your side. We all deserve a space where you can hang up the baggage you’ve been carrying for a moment and sit with community. GoodBodyFeel is this place for me, and perhaps it is for you too. I know I deserve this space, and that you deserve it too.
TEACHER FEATURE // Caitlin Molony
Learn more about Caitlin Molony, new teacher to the schedule and graduate of GBFTT2019. This profile includes a curated playlist and 20min standing sequence by Cait.