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ACE Faculty

NAME: Rachel Van Dessel

COLLEGE: Cabrillo College    

TITLE: Instructor

DEPARTMENT: Dance

EMAIL: ravandes@cabrillo.edu

WEBSITE: http://babyface.cabrillo.edu/salsa/listing.jsp?staffId=1567

INVOLVED WITH ACE SINCE: 2008

ACE COURSES TAUGHT/TEACHING:
Body/Mind Balance: Movement Awareness
Team-Self Management 1

REASON FOR BECOMING INVOLVED WITH ACE:
I am very interested in helping students discover the connection between the body and the mind and to help light the fire for self exploration and expression of this amazing vehicle, the combined power of our body and mind, that carries us through life time.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND:
My interest in the field of Somatics and the mind/body connection led me to study Psychology, graduating with honors from the Masters Program at SSU and Dance with an MFA from New York University.

I have researched, studied and taught somatics, dance and psychology for many years, refining my exploration of mind/body balancing with a variety of holistic healing modalities. I teach dance, mind/body balancing, and Team-Self Management at Cabrillo College and psychology on-line in the graduate transpersonal psychology department at San Diego University for Integrative Studies.

As a professional dancer, I toured and performed dance and choreography across the United States, Canada and Japan.  After presenting qi gong and dance at the International Qi Gong Conference in Kyoto, I was delighted to be invited to teach, dance and perform in numerous venues throughout Japan.