With an attendance of over 400 people, this was a site of rest, joy and celebration through a deeply trying time.
Everything that I know about pleasure I've learned through food first. The patient way I have to wait for Haitian mangoes in the summer and white raspberries in the fall when they're in season.
It has been a lesson in labor and reaping the harvest of your own hard work.
A short video snap shot of what I have been cultivating over the years in my work and life. A labor of love.
This is a process and reflection on the work and journey of creating the ‘ We Can Breathe’ Series in collaboration with NoMAA and Bread & Yoga.
Join us for a FREE 9-video series of inspirational videos centered around Black, Indigenous, people of color in collaboration with artists from the Uptown community.
A dance short film on the full spectrum of humanity that is a black woman. Movement director, writer, yoga teacher and activist Tanya Birl-Torres bears her soul in the tale of two viruses (COVID and Racism) and what it means for a black body to heal and be witnessed.
A Trip of a lifetime to the rolling hills of Italy. Get lost in the expansion of nature, food and yoga while we explore the inward journey of refining the heart and creating a change from the inside out.
An exploration of movement, yoga, theory U and Presencing', Our goal for this series is to cultivate a movement of individuals who will take these practices into their homes, work lives and communities by nature of being.
What question lies at the heart of who I am? This pilot program is a brand new three part integrative approach that incorporates the principals of Theory U (curiosity, compassion, courage).
"I don't believe a play should give you answers. It should lead you to more questions and energize you to find your own answers." - Anna Deavere Smith
What I am coming to learn about back body leadership is that it is a remembering of what women do best. A strong and supported back with an open and often vulnerable front. A strong back signifies a quiet holding power. A power that will secure the safety of a space, of self and of others at all costs while modeling what true presence and openness looks like.
Read MoreNow I can say that I have entered the flow. It's doesn't mean that it's easy, but it does mean that I feel as if I am in constant communion with the divine. Like water, my life shape shifts and moves in many directions, but the more space I allow to be created, the more my cup expands and the more the spirit has room to MOVE!
Read MoreWhen people look at me and say "Wow! you have a lot going on, now", my response is usually, "No, I have a lot of movement." I make choices, I make mistakes, I make another choice, I move forward in faith.
Read More"We are not looking for freedom for ourselves, but a freedom from ourselves." This is my story of traveling to Africa with my dad. Siting in the paradox and gaining a glimpse at freedom.
Read MoreDon't you love it when someone says to you "just relax and go with the flow", like it's the easiest and most natural thing to do? In today's fast paced society, going with the flow is the exact opposite of our first reaction to change or discomfort, but its crucial.
Read More" Because we have never been on the other side, we largely do not recognize the structural access we enjoy, the trust we think we deserve, the assumption that we always belong and do not have to earn our belonging. All this we take for granted as normal. Only the outsider can spot these attitudes in us." - Richard Rohr
Read More"By allowing our pain to be seen, we mirrored it back with compassion. Our vulnerability transformed our fear into love."
Read More"Yoga to me is connection. More than finding it physically, but a beautiful meeting in the middle. A divine meeting at the heart center."
Read More"I had one expectation of Italy. To see lots and lots of Sunflowers. They are my favorite flower and I didn't think it was too much to ask..."
Read MoreA 4 part blog series documenting my time in Italy. Teaching yoga, meeting great people and learning how to love. Through this series I will recount a transformation that took place beyond the spoken or written word piercing straight to the heart of who I am.
Read MoreThe lotus grows in the darkness, in the mud and the mirky waters of forgetfulness, but grows it must in the midst of its environment.
Read MoreFear is maybe the most talked about thing in the world. We all have it, take comfort in it, fight with it and embrace it...
Much like a mother.
Read MoreThere are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~Edith Wharton
Ive been journeying way back lately. Realizing my growth upward is strongly tethered to something both wide and deep...
Read More"The tension that we feel in life is only the sun trying to reach the seed."
Read MoreWhat happens when you don't want to speak? Use your voice?
Read MoreWhat will become of this seed?
Read More
Tanya Birl-Torres is the Choreographer, Intimacy Director and Cultural Consultant for the World Premiere Musical of ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. Watch her discuss her inspiration for the work and what drives and inspires her to bring this story to the stage.