Introduction to B2R Internship Co-Host Samantha Emanuel: Part 1

B2R clinician Sam Ogilvie spoke with Samantha Emanuel, co-host of the upcoming B2R Create Your Alternative Internship. Here’s what she had to say!

How did you get into movement and dance?

I came to movement late in life having been traumatized, as an eight-year-old by a ballet teacher who had issues with me, saying I would never be a dancer. That put me off anything dance-related until I was in my early twenties when I joined a local Kung Fu class. I got very into Praying Mantis Style for a couple of years: the weaponry, competing, and the beautiful forms. Then some friends started going to a local belly dance class and I tagged along. I loved it. I left the martial arts behind (apart from the weaponry, which I continued, adding fire wicking to Kung Fu weapons and performing at festivals).

Samantha is greatly inspired by belly dancing

I dove deep into Tribal Style Belly Dance. In tandem, I was working in construction as a labourer. The hard physical work made my upper body very muscular (not the body type of a belly dancer!) so I needed to choose which way to go professionally, eventually deciding to take the rather risky performing artist route, leaving the construction work behind (aside from self-building 2 eco houses since that time with my partner).

I joined a Hollywood-based dance troupe and toured the world for four years by bus and planes with 15 glamorous performers. It was quite the culture shock being the first time I’d ever worked with women in my life - previous to that, in construction, I’d always been the only woman on site. I learned a lot through this experience and developed my teaching skills at international workshops/dance festivals.

How did the movement practices get you involved with patients and clinical practice?

Three years ago I was in a serious accident. A 900kg wall unit came down on myself and my students during a Pilates class. Four of us were hospitalised with very serious injuries. As my injuries were mainly to my pelvis, this threw everything into question. Of all the things that could have broken, why my pelvis? Was it time to change my career completely and quit dancing and do something else? I wondered whether I should go back to school (having left school and home very young) to retrain in a new domain.

During the year or so of rehab (wheelchair to Zimmer frame, to crutches, to performing live on stage again) I had weekly sessions with a physio and the rest was my own knowledge base using my dance background and Pilates training. As I was already certified in mat Pilates, I was mixing Pilates and dance together, which is very common because the two complement each other well, but I felt the Pilates wasn't enough.

That led me to open up my research and I found the Online Movement University. Through them, I found Marlo Fisken, Luke Davies and Back to Roots, Fighting Monkey, FRC, and all sorts of weaponry, which took me back to my martial arts roots from my early twenties. I felt like I’d gone full circle, going back to my original movement roots, but with a totally different viewpoint. Using a broad spectrum of movement practice helped me recover from my injuries very quickly and I found I could empathise with others on a whole new level, having been through this trauma and injury journey. Having thought that perhaps I should quit and do something else, I realized I didn't want to do anything else, that moving is what makes me happy, and teaching is what brings me joy.

“Using a broad spectrum of movement practice helped me recover from my injuries very quickly. ”

I built a good relationship with my physiotherapist. He is very rare in that he’s very open to new ideas and is multidisciplinary in his approach. I consider myself lucky to have found him. We talked a lot about dance and movement in rehab settings and this led me to work there as a collaborator with him. I work with patients who will benefit from exploring coordination, balance, rhythm, and movement: basically everything I'm into!

Our work compliments very well and this is shown through the positive results we are seeing with patients and clients. I've been working there for a couple of years now and it's going really well. The patients are pleasantly surprised, they have no idea what to expect in each session. Some of them have been in chronic pain for years and felt uninspired by their exercises. Every week we explore, play, and dance to music (but I don't call it dance - because if I did they would run a mile!)

Samantha Emanuel is the co-host of the upcoming B2R Internship, Create Your Alternative, implementing a playful evidence-based approach to clinical practice. To find out more about the internship, click here. To find out more about Samantha and her practice, check out her website and follow her on social media.