• Embodied Movement

    Our body is energy. Energy moves in many ways and in many rhythms. If you’re not moving, your stagnating that energy. Come join a group class – live or online. I’m also available for privates. Just move your body!

Would You like to Move with Me?

  • The body is made to move, in many ways and in many directions.  If you don’t use it, you lose it. 

  • It’s often not about being strong, but being responsive and adaptable. 

  • Pain is not a problem it’s a teacher.

  • The body belongs to life.  It is life.  Body awareness is how we tap into life. 

Am I the right fit?

Largely self-taught, my movement classes have been born from my own experimental and experiential process, as is everything I do.

Tracing the origin of my love of movement would be difficult.  As a young girl I was in love with dance, as many are.  I wanted to be either a dancer or a teacher “when I grew up.”

With groups of friends I was often dubbed “the dancing queen.”  If there was good music, my body moved.   Originally, I had only minimal dance instruction, but there was always some instinctive talent for dance and movement within me.  Later, when I began introducing swing dances in Portugal, I found out I had a knack with teaching others how to learn and improve movement.

My investigative trial and error process was also how I healed myself from chronic pain.  However, rather than just getting back to normal, I actually have surpassed the freedom and mobility in my body which I previously had.  My first impulse was then to share and teach others how to do better than me: stay out of chronic pain!

All of these experiences make me the teacher I am, as well as my spontaneous and instinctual way of recognizing logical patterns.  People have sometimes felt me as demanding in my classes, because I bring the frequency of perfecting the patterns.

I can recognize the potential in each person, regardless of body shape or supposed limitations, and my aura pushes you to accomplish what you may not have thought possible.  At the same time, I am adaptable to each person and I create space for your body to choose exactly which experience it wants in class.

You are the expert on you.  My teaching is for you to use in your own personal way.  If you resonate with my focus and guidance, I may be the teacher for you.

The church says: the body is a sin.  Science says: the body is a machine.  Advertising says: the body is a business.  The body says: I am a fiesta.  

Obstacles don’t block the path, they are the path.

What’s my Movement Background?

I’ve worked in the area of dance and movement since 2007, helping students find their center and understand the mechanics of movements, aligning their bodies to be more efficient.

In the 1990s, swing dances went through a revival in the USA and Lindy Hop began to become a fad again.  I fell in love and began learning around 2000 with Paul Overton and Sharon Ashe.  From there I began learning from teachers around the world in international festivals and private classes.

In parallel I took modern jazz classes from Rosália Passinhas (Backstage Escola de Dança, Braga) for three years, as well as tap dance, with Michel in Portugal and a number of international teachers both in Los Angeles and in festivals in Europe.

In 2020 I finished my certificate in Classical Pilates at Shift You with Bruno Rodrigues – a 250-hour course certified by DGERT and IPDJ which included work on the Mat and the equipment: Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda Chair, High Chair, Spine Corrector and Ladder Barrel.  Also included was a study of anatomy, physiology and kinesiology.

In 2021 I did my certification as a teacher in training in the Gyrokinesis® method from Bernarndo Gama in Lisbon.

All of these experiences have been integral to my understanding of movement, though the majority of my learning has been from teaching myself by simply working with my own body, the best teacher imaginable.

Here I am telling the story of how swing dancing got started in Portugal.

With Abeth’s classes, I’ve been letting my body decide how far it wants to go that day, in that circumstance. It sounds contradictory, but it’s this way of listening to my body that has allowed me to explore and challenge myself more, not to get stuck in the aches and pains that come with it, to breathe and work with that breath control.  This last point is a personal victory after several years of trying: breathing is an incredible lever for improving our movement.

Abeth’s classes are a place where all bodies are (really!) welcome, in a weekly exercise of challenge, motivation and self-discovery. It feels great after a day’s work… even if your abs are complaining a bit ;).

~ Embody Strength ~

Most of us experience life almost outside the body, with very little sense of where we are in space (proprioception) and our own inner map (interoception). Through Classical Pilates and other stretching and functional exercises we connect into the body and find our personal strength: physical, emotional and spiritual, through conscious movement!

~ Embody Jazz ~

Jazz dance from the 20s, 30s and 40s was the authentic expression of an oppressed people. Finding freedom in the body when there was no true freedom in their life conditions, African-Americans gave us this way to move that connects viscerally to jazz music – music that was born to make you dance to the swing beat of your heart, the center of your being.