What experiences and practices shape the transition from structured movement disciplines to embodied, intuitive forms of movement and healing?

Weena Pauly-Tarr shares her history of dance, her brief encounter with parkour, and how those experiences have led to where she is now. She unpacks her work with somatic therapy, and the profound changes motherhood has brought to her life and practice. Weena reflects on her current interests in embodiment and impulse, and discusses her search for what is next.

“The only thing I’ve ever wanted in my life—clearly and said out loud—was to be a mom. not to be a dancer, or not to move to New York… none of that was the thing. It was to be a mom. […] And so when I became pregnant, it was like the biggest gift I’ve ever been given. It was like getting the one thing you’ve always wanted, your whole life. It’s terrifying. Because what if it gets taken away, all that starts to come up. So I think what happened is, I had to grapple with receiving the thing I’ve always wanted.” ~ Weena Pauly-Tarr (30:31)

The conversation covers how personal experiences with dance, Parkour, and somatic therapy intersect in a lifelong exploration of movement and healing. Weena’s dance background, including work with impactful movement styles like Streb’s Pop Action, shaped her understanding of strength, fear, and embodiment. Parkour later emerged as a natural extension of this interest, allowing for further exploration of dynamic movement in unconventional settings.

Motherhood significantly shifted her perspective, introducing new layers of vulnerability and embodiment. This experience influenced her shift from performance-based movement to therapeutic and somatic practices. She discusses her evolving approach to working with clients, focusing on impulse, somatic healing, and authentic movement. Her exploration of trauma through somatic experiencing highlighted the connections between past injuries and subconscious movement patterns.

Takeaways

Impact and strength — Early dance experiences emphasized the importance of using strength and physicality in movement.

Embodiment through trauma — Somatic experiences can reveal how unresolved trauma manifests in physical patterns.

Motherhood’s transformation — Motherhood shifted priorities and expanded the practice of vulnerability and authenticity.

Parkour as extension — Parkour became a natural extension of visceral, impact-based dance forms.

Healing through movement — Movement serves as a method for personal and emotional healing.

Impulse as guidance — Allowing movement to arise from impulse promotes deeper embodiment and awareness.

Reframing fear — Both Parkour and somatic practices teach reframing fear and failure as growth.

Resources

Weena Pauly-Tarr @weenapaulytarr

Elizabeth Streb’s TED Talk — Discusses Pop Action and the concepts of impact-based movement.

Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy — A form of somatic healing that bridges bodywork and talk therapy.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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— Hello👋 I’m Craig Constantine.

In the Movers Mindset podcast, I talk with movement enthusiasts to learn who they are, what they do, and why they do it. I’m interested in the nature and philosophy of movement and in exploring themes like independence, self-direction, and human excellence. My interests color each conversation and provide some structure to Movers Mindset. But since I like to take the scenic route, every conversation ends up going somewhere unique.

The purpose of Movers Mindset is to create and share great conversations with movement enthusiasts. Each conversation feeds my insatiable curiosity, but I share them to turn on a light for someone else, to inspire them, or to give them their next question.

I appreciate your time and attention, and I don’t take it for granted.

— Thank you!

My personal mission is creating better conversations to spread understanding and compassion. And Movers Mindset is one of the things I do in service of my mission. Drop by https://craigconstantine.com/ for my weekly email, my other podcasts, writing and more.

The Movers Mindset project grew from conversations I started having as part of my personal journey rediscovering movement. The project started late in 2015, and it was initially simply a web site that shared others’ writing. The project grew, and in 2017 I started the podcast. I’ve worked extremely hard, but none of this would have been possible without so much help from so many people.

Thanks for listening!

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