About Lavinia Magliocco
Enthralled with movement, music, and the human body from a early age, I embarked on a career as a professional ballerina and was derailed by illness at age 18, when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. For decades I struggled with debilitating symptoms, underwent two surgeries, and was given allopathic drugs and treatments which simply created a roller-coaster of remission and illness. Forced to give up dancing, broken-hearted, I took up my other, love, writing, in university.
My first breakthrough was when I discovered the work of Joe Pilates in 1990. With the help of both my ballet teacher and Pilates therapist I was able to make a full comeback to the stage at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. My second breakthrough was in 2004, when I met an extraordinary teacher of QiGong, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and literature. After practicing QiGong for two months, I stopped taking any drugs for the Crohn’s, and I have been well since, though I am careful and conscious in living around the possibility of illness. Perhaps the most important opportunity this illness afforded me was an exploration of the meaning of physicality. How, though diminished by illness, does one continue to express fully one’s essence in the world? What does illness mean, if anything? how is our connection to others and the Divine shaped by illness? And finally, how do we continue to live in hope with the attendant grief and consciousness of our fragility?
I am passionately interested in how we express our essence through our bodies, from dis-ease to health, from incapacity to extraordinary achievement. Early in my life, through exploring the challenges of teaching ballet technique, and later through the challenge of retraining my own body from complete collapse to health, I found ways to connect to our deepest sensations and wisdom, a process I continue to explore and learn. I feel a deep conviction that our bodies are Divine; that we are imbued with the capacity to awaken health at a cellular level, and that through our evolution as human beings, we will eventually know this. Most of us are not quite there yet. Thus it is all the more important that we embark upon the journey of exploration towards consciousness and intelligence on every level.
I teach dancers and non-dancers at my studio called Equipoise – enlightened exercise here in Portland, OR where I combine various disciplines and a holistic approach to encourage body awareness, integrated movement, and well-being. I am a certified Pilates instructor and specialize in chronic injuries and pre-and-post-op rehabilitation and conditioning.