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Massage & Bodywork Education
Northampton/Amherst, Massachusetts. 1970s. Anora started training in massage in 1977 in the Connecticut River Valley around the 5 College Area in Western Massachusetts. She took a course in full body massage and several workshops. People said she had the touch, and she definitely had the interest in the powerful field of practice that is therapeutic bodywork.
In that area, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen held The School for Body Mind Centering, and Anora attended a number of classes, both with Bonnie and with her students. The depth, the clarity of the call to sensation and awareness and integration that is the work of Body Mind Centering is utterly compelling. We are beings, many of us, walking around with a shadow for a body - unable to see inside with our inner eye, with our inner sensation; unknowing where our organs are, how they feel, what they are responding to; the depth of our disembodiment is hard to even fathom.
Anora studied dance in the Merce Cunningham tradition at Smith College with Susan Waltner, and Tai Chi with Paul Gallagher. Anora also began learning about sitting meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, as well as getting exposure to chanting with Siddhi Yoga and Muktananda students. At the time Kundalini yoga was getting attention, and Anora took a class.
Taiwan and China
In Taiwan and China she learned more about Tai Chi, and studied Chinese language, speaking, reading and writing. She attended the Taipei Language Institute, Tunghai University in Tai Chung, and Beijing Normal University, in Beijing, China. Chinese language was the path into the wisdom from their ancient culture, still passed down through family members, in the art, sayings and body practices of Tai Chi, and healing practices of herbal medicine and Acupuncture.
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