ABOUT NADIA
Background
Nadia is originally from Argentina, and grew up in Panama City, Panama. She has been dancing ballet, modern, jazz, belly dance and Latin dances since childhood. She holds a Doctorate in Education, focused on higher education, non-profit and organizational leadership, multicultural education, and community engagement. In 2010 she completed a Master's in Folklore, with a Public Sector track (museums, education, cultural sustainability, etc.), focusing on dance ethnology; as well as a graduate certificate in Women's Studies, focused on music, dance, identity, and postcolonialism. She also holds a B.A. Integrated Arts Education with emphasis in Dance Education, for which she completed a thesis on Belly Dance as a means of Dance Therapy for Survivors of Sexual Assault, and implemented a Hispanic Arts & Humanities Educational Program titled Raices - Identity in Motion. She has studied, performed, taught, and produced shows in Kentucky, Miami, and Panama.
She works with Ethnic Dances (mainly Middle Eastern Dances, and Latin Dances such as Salsa, Merengue and Tango), Dance and Integrated Arts Education, and Dance Therapy. She currently teaches Zumba, Salsa, Tango, Latin Dances, Belly Dance, Yogalates (a gentle and relaxing stretch & tone Wellness work-out mixing pilates and yoga) and Ballroom Dance (from foxtrot and waltz, to swing and cha-cha). Additionally, she teaches Mind-Body Connection Awareness workshops and consults on therapeutic and educational applications of dance, movement, arts, and culture. She is also available for workshops at events, weddings, bridal showers, and other activities.
Her dance productions in Panama (Bricolage at Teatro La Quadra on January 22 and 23, 2010 and Impromptu Tribal Belly Dance at La Casona on June 7th, 2008) have been sold-out smashing successes. Nadia also initiated Impromptu Dance Company in Bowling Green Kentucky to include belly dance and other forms of ethnic dances, such as tango. There, she was the co-founder and director of InMotion Dance & Yoga Studio and Multicultural Center. Her troupe and students have recurrently performed at the Glasgow Global Fest, Bowling Green International Festival, and numerous WKU International events. She is also co-founder of Kali Collective for the application of dance and other movement disciplines to social activism.
You can also follow her writings on sociocultural, political, gender and identity issues in Latin music and dance on her blog: Moving While Brown
Certifications:
Group Fitness Instructor (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America)
Advanced Zumba Instructor (Beto Perez, creator)
American Tribal Style Belly Dance (Carolena Nericcio, creator)
Interests
• Experiential education, international education, service-learning and multicultural education.
• Community-based participatory research, global citizenship, social justice, social responsibility, public scholarship, and public problem solving.
• Community Development, Cultural Sustainability, Folklore and Anthropology.• Dance Therapy. Exploring bthe use of dance as psychotherapy to deal with troubles such as anxiety, stress, and trauma, and to improve self-image, self-esteem, self-awareness, and concept and acceptance of body image. She teaches a Belly Dance for Emotional Wellbeing course and a Mind-Body Connection Awareness workshop, all based on the principle that the way we move reflects and affects the way we feel.
• Raices - Identity in Motion, a Hispanic Arts and Culture identity-development educational program for Hispanic children and teenagers. The program integrates leadership skills, literature, visual and performing arts, as well as social sciences.
• Dance Ethnology. Tango, Salsa, Merengue, and other Latin-American rhythms. Caribbean African-diaspora dances. North-African and Middle Eastern dances. Roma (Gypsy) dances. Indian classical dance.
• Leadership and Administration. Non-profit Management, arts and cultural administration, museum education, higher education.
• Arts Activism, Social Justice, and Feminism.
Besides dance, Nadia is generally interested in the performing arts and literary arts, writing, acting, music, singing and playing guitar. Formerly, she was singer for South of the Border in Bowling Green, Kentucky. You can find some of her personal writings (poems and opinion essays) in her blog, as well as informational articles on her Associated Content site.
Other areas of interest for her are religious studies, nature-based spirituality, alternative life styles, mythology, environmental sustainability, ethnomusicology, international affairs, and radical/liberal political activism.
Her day-time professional work involves program administration. research, and teaching related to service-learning in higher education.