One does not have to look far to understand that we are living in a culture that worships disembodiment. We are taught that success equals a bestowal of blessings from gods that we have little control over: money, status, power, a large number of people that you do not know following your every move. Nearly every system of survival in our modern, Western lives prioritizes the intellect over the body, image over being, output over care, and individual excellence over community. We often find ourselves setting and working toward goals that seem to come from somewhere outside of us, desires dictated by an invisible cultural puppeteer that leave us with a sense of dissonance, that we are not in the right place, that we are not sure of the lives we are building for ourselves. The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual ramifications of this way of living have led many of us to lack a sense of place, belonging, optimism, fulfillment, community, and passion for each moment that we get to be alive. It has caused us to be fractured from the very things that make us most human: connecting to ourselves, to each other and the lands that we live on, and to the stories that continue to animate us into passionate ways of being. 

Luckily, we are also living in a time where people are recognizing that there must be alternative ways of thinking, feeling, connecting, and being in the world, and are actively taking steps through which to do so. That world is full of storytelling, new myths, authentic relationships, singing, dancing, an intimate understanding of the language of the body, and the ability to process the range of our emotions, alone and together. It feels like belonging here - in the body and on the Earth, with the ability to recognize that we are but one important part of a larger whole to which we contribute, and which also conspires to help us. It is finding our purpose in our kindness and our joy, in our ability to help each other and to be empowered to help ourselves. It is up to us to figure out what that looks like, as we do not currently have a readily available blueprint for it. I deeply believe that the path toward belonging walks through the body, through the living intelligence of our physical stories, that everything we need to create a home ourselves is already something we carry around with us each day. We just need to learn to listen. 

Devotion to movement, herbal medicine, ritual practice, and breathwork has changed my life and helped me to restore balance and harmony to my experience of living countless times. I have found them to be my most important allies in moments of challenge - in very long-term chronic conditions, as well as navigating the nuanced balance of the everyday.  It is my goal to share the seeds of these practices with anyone who is looking for further empowerment and care in their own lives and bodies.

Whether you are looking to address a physical symptom, emotional/mental harmony, spiritual practice, or are just curious about the benefit of weaving these practices into your life, I hope that you find something here that sparks your inquiry, lights your fire, and holds your hand on your path of curiosity.

ABOUT AMANDA

Known for insightful performance that renegotiates the audience/performer relationship, Amanda Krische is an interdisciplinary movement artist, writer, educator, herbalist, and practitioner of the healing arts, creating socially-engaged performance at the intersection of ritual practice, gender studies, surrealism, mythopoetics, neuroscience, and ecology. Through the prism of dance and multidisciplinary performance, she creates transformative ritual experiences that tell spectacular stories of the everyday while imagining new possibilities of individual and collective healing. 

A graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY, her work has been shown nationally at such venues as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, Moody Performance Hall, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, and The Kitchen, as well as in public spaces such as shopping malls, public parks, and gallery spaces. Her work has been supported by such notable institutions as the National YoungArts Foundation, Grace Farms Foundation, and New York Foundation for the Arts. Amanda has conducted residencies at Art:Omi, Keshet Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Center, Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, and the Camargo Foundation. She has completed choreographic research at the University of Cambridge (UK), to research mental time travel and the subjective experience of embodied thinking for a long-term movement methodology and performance practice with women who have experienced sexual violence, through grant support from the Jerome Foundation. 

As a practitioner of herbalism and somatic healing, Amanda has received extensive training in both community and clinical herbalism through apprenticeships with notable herbalists Robin Rose Bennett, Marysia Miernowska, and Sajah Popham. She has received additional certifications in facilitating trauma-informed holotropic breathwork. She has her own private practice and small-batch apothecary, called Amphora Healing Arts, where she conducts 1:1 healing sessions, community gatherings, and shares seasonal herbal formula.

She has been on faculty at LaGuardia Arts High School, MOVENYC, and has taught workshops at Gibney, NYU, and Cooper Union School of Art. She teaches open movement classes to the general public in NYC and nationally to negotiate ecosystems of care and healing through the body. She has created interdisciplinary movement curricula in collaborations with the Louis Armstrong House Museum (Queens, NY), the Pina Bausch Foundation (Wuppertal, Germany), and Queens College. Amanda is a YoungArts Winner in Modern Dance and a United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts.