CHAPTER III
THE EXPANSION
What else could movement be? What was I still blind to? Where was I under-trained in mind, in body, in presence?
I followed that curiosity.
Into adult gymnastics where I encountered precision, control, humility. I trained under the framework of Gymnastics Bodies by Coach Sommers at Awaken Gymnastics in Denver. No shortcuts. No applause. Just deep, patient work that rewired my nervous system. It wasn’t about tricks it was about quality. And quality changes everything.
I studied the work of Ido Portal first from a distance, and then directly. His lens was sharp. Unforgiving. His work and perspective invited me to question everything I thought I knew about strength, discipline, beauty, and practice. And I accepted that invitation — fully.
From there, my life paths began to merge: Engineering. Design. Martial arts. Exercise science. Somatics. Psychology. Art.
Discipline met poetry. Science met ritual. And I met myself in a new way.
Not as someone trying to master a method. But as someone inadvertently creating one — through experience, through repetition, through reflection.
I began teaching at a higher level. I opened my own school/studio when I received the title of Professor in Capoeira. I joined Boulder Movement Collective (later Ape Co Movement School) and eventually became a lead teacher. Together, we nurtured a rigorous, communal space for training and transformation.
Through it all, I kept returning to the same question: How do we move in a way that reflects the life we want to live?
The answer wasn’t a single technique. It was a language. It was a practice. And eventually it became a way of offering something real to others.
Not as performance. Not as product. But as presence.