1161 foster road, iowa city, iowa
Movement for All
Studio and Offices
We offer welcoming, accessible yoga, ballet, dance, art, and children's classes, taught live in the studio and over Zoom, to help you get fit, express yourself, and feel better. Our class sizes are capped to ensure small groups and individualized attention.
All classes include a video, sent to you so that you can practice between classes, as well as download it and keep it.
We are an ideal place to try out something you've never done before, because our teachers make sure every student has support to succeed and has fun in each class. Adaptations are given whenever necessary. In Movement for All classes, movement and art go beyond the forms we teach to become a form of physical meditation. When we use body and soul together, peace surrounds us for that hour.
Classes are taught in/from our beautiful studio, using our state-of-the-art huge-screen panoramic Zooming system, so teachers can see every detail of how your body moves or how your artwork is coming together. And we open the Zoom room fifteen minutes early to allow the socialization and casual chats. New friends get made in our classes!
Classes can be prorated if you plan to miss one session.
Click here to hear from individuals who implemented Movement for All classes with success!
Read about our current classes:
BeMoved® DANCE
with Beth Troutman
Wednesdays at 4:30 PM
$95 for six weeks, or $20 drop in.
Capped at 8 participants.
BeMoved is a dance class for everyone, with great music and style. It's about joy, and even bliss, and with small class sizes of only 8 people, our class will be an individualized, close-knit experience. Read more about BeMoved:
At BeMoved, we are passionate about sharing the joy of dance with people of all movement abilities. BeMoved is an established dance experience designed by Sherry Zunker, the internationally renowned dancer, director and choreographer... We believe that movement, expressed through dance and music, has a transformative power that enriches a person’s wellbeing above and beyond the well-known physical benefits. In a full class, you will experience BeMoved's Warm-Up, Genre, and Cool-Down. The Warm-Up infuses breath and movement in artistically choreographed sequences that activate core strength and balance while improving flexibility and coordination. The Genre section of class uses continuous and engaging dance combinations to inspire anyone from first-time dancers to professionals. Finally, the Cool Down brings your workout full circle, leaving you balanced in mind, body and soul – feeling rejuvenated.
Beth Troutman has a lifelong love of dance. She invites you to find your inner dancer by joining her for virtual BeMoved dance classes. When not dancing, Beth enjoys working with children and families in her position as a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, training the next generation of mental health providers, hanging out with her husband and dogs, and reading.
BALLET FOR ALL
with Meg Eginton
We have two separate series of Ballet for All running simultaneously:
$95 for six classes, or $20 drop in.
$95 for six classes, or $20 drop in.
Both capped at 8 participants.
This class is about getting back in shape and feeling beautiful while you do it. You will learn essential ballet fundamentals that will shape your body and make you more graceful and skillful in your everyday movement. And we will build bonds with one another at every class. Everyone is welcome, whether you're returning or joining us for the first time, and regardless of your level of physical conditioning. Our ballet classes will be small, ensuring that everyone can easily be seen, and guided, on our huge Zooming screen. For your barre, you can use a kitchen island, a kitchen chair, or even the refrigerator handle, which is what Meg always used when home on breaks from tour. Or you can order a portable barre!
Meg Eginton is a somatic movement therapist who also teaches theater and dance. She was a professional modern dancer in New York City and Europe for twenty years, dancing with Mary Overlie, Merce Cunningham, and Stephen Petronio, running her own dance company, and winning the Bessie Award. She had an active career in the New York theater, starred in a Tony-nominated Broadway play, and acted in film and commercials. While simultaneously beginning her somatic movement therapy practice in the late eighties, she transitioned from performance to teaching, becoming a conservatory professor of movement for actors, and holding teaching appointments for more than 25 years at Harvard, Moscow Art Theatre, NYU, and FSU. In 2014, desiring to return to her hometown of Iowa City to enjoy her "third act," and passionate about helping people with biopsychosocial challenges and introducing the joy of dance to adults, she left academia, and began doing somatic movement therapy full time. In 2018, she founded Movement for All.
FUNDAMENTAL YOGA
with Wendy Stokesbary
$95 for six weeks, or $20 drop in.
Capped at 8 participants.
This class teaches the foundational elements of connecting to your body and your breath through the postures of yoga. This class is designed for ALL bodies and is a good place to start a new yoga practice, but it can also offer a gentle hatha flow for winding down at the end of your day. The focus on yoga essentials will also support participants in understanding the role of yoga in everyday wellness, with encouragement to become comfortable practicing breath and postures in your own personal practice.
Wendy has been a student of mindfulness for more than 20 years, and a student of yoga for the past 10 years. Wendy completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training in 2019 and finds yoga to be a vital tool for her primary occupation as a psychotherapist. After 30 years of experience as a mental health provider, Wendy has learned that body practices like yoga are necessary to address everyday and extraordinary life challenges and pressures in a deep and lasting way. Through yoga, Wendy has also experienced her own transformation of body acceptance, improved mobility, improved mood, and enhanced connections through community. One of Wendy’s greatest desires is to help make yoga principles and movements (asanas) accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
BALANCE AND FLEXIBILITY
with Meg Eginton
Price Information
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VIEWPOINTS/LABAN/AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT PROJECT
with Meg Eginton
To find out more contact meg@movementforall.com!
An intergenerational movement project using three seminal forms of movement improvisation plus prompts.
A socially motivated movement work will be created collaboratively. Supported by a grant from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs Arts Council.
AN APPLE A DAY
with Nancy Purington
$100 for six weeks, or $20 drop in.
Capped at 8 participants.
The AN APPLE A DAY course introduces the practices of drawing, painting, and collage to students of all ages. We begin by studying an apple in color, line, light, shadow, texture and tone. Within this process we expand our powers of observation and concentration. Creative practice is a form of meditation, a journey of self-expression and personal transformation. Within that realm we will compose everyday works of art using pencils, papers, paints, brushes, scissors and glue. As there is a lot to adjust to in Zoom studios on both sides of the screen, we will all do our best as Zooming Art Teacher and Zooming Art Classmates. Welcome!
Nancy Purington is a painter, textile designer and compassionate teacher whose work is informed by the way of water. She holds BFA, MA and Master of Fine Arts degrees. While teaching textile arts at the University of Iowa, Nancy was awarded University of Iowa Council on Teaching grants and selected to receive a UI Women in Research grant. She was awarded two Iowa Arts Council grants for her work inspired by the Mississippi River experience. Both grants were supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Nancy’s classroom approach focuses on learning-by-doing and collaborative discovery of essential principles, and draws inspiration from The Montessori Method (Maria Montessori), Summerhill School (A.S. Neill), Waldorf School (R. Steiner), and J. Itten’s Basic Course at the Bauhaus. Nancy works from her studio in Iowa City. (www.nancypurington.com)
MOMMY, DADDY, GRANDMA & ME:
CREATIVE MOVEMENT
with Meg Eginton & Demetra Chiafos
$80 for six weeks
Sliding scale is available!
Capped at 6 participants.
Suitable for ages 3-5.
In Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, & Me, your child will gain confidence in exploring their world the best way children learn: through a fun, playful experience of movement and music. Of course, there are physical benefits, too, such as improved coordination, balance, and spatial awareness. As the parent or grandparent, you will love the bonding time, joyful movement, and laughter you get to share with your little one!
Demetra Chiafos is a young dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. For six years she has taught ballet, pointe, tap, and jazz to students between the ages of 3 and 60 years old at the Pointe School of Dance in Cedar Rapids, IA, and is now also teaching creative movement classes at Movement for All in Iowa City, IA. Demetra holds the YPAD certification in age appropriate pedagogy and safety measures for young children and adolescents. She recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from Ohio State University with her BA in Japanese.and BFA in Dance, with a focus in Performance and Composition, for which she achieved Research Distinction. During this Zoom year, in addition to teaching virtually, Demetra is pursuing a Masters in Japanese translation at SOAS University of London.
Image Credits:
Photograph of Movement for All Studio courtesy Meg Eginton
BeMoved dancers courtesy bemoveddance.com
Photo of Betty Bang Mather, age 91, by Meg Eginton
"Dancing" courtesy MiikaS, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0
Black-and-white dancer courtesy University of Texas at Arlington News Service Photograph Collection, licensed CC BY 4.0
Laban dancers still from Living Architecture: Rudolf Laban and the Geometry of Dance courtesy Iwona Wojnicka, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)