Inspiring Conversations with Gabrielle Rivero of Express & Release Therapeutic Dance

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabrielle Rivero.

Hi Gabrielle, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I began my dance career in 2005, learning lyrical and hip-hop dance in religious spaces. After performing and training in Florida, I started my non-profit organization, Heartbeat of the Arts, teaching the arts to at-risk youth while simultaneously receiving my Bachelor’s in Recreation and Event Management and a double minor in dance and non-profit leadership. While leading Heartbeat of The Arts, I saw how the children used to dance to find healing, safety, and refuge from their constantly changing world.

After serving as the Founder and President of this organization, I moved out to Los Angeles to train in my craft as a dancer and to research societal perceptions of the body and movement. In LA, I trained with Athletic Garage Dance Center in the styles of ballet, salsa, hip-hop, and contemporary dance while also pursuing a Master’s degree in Theology focusing on the Euro-American rejection of movement and the body to understand better how we can embrace and embody movement within our American culture. We use movement to cultivate healthier societies that foster relationships with the self and the community. I hoped to create spaces in the community where the dance was normalized, used for stress relief, and coping with life’s daily transitions. I wanted the people of my community to express themselves freely and not be afraid to feel overwhelming emotions.

Until last Spring, my 4-year-old toddler, who is generally a passive child, came home from school and became fully enraged. He was feeling overwhelmed and expressing his anger in unsafe ways, and he became a danger to himself, others, and his environment. But I needed to figure out how this could practically work. I needed him to re-engage his prefrontal cortex while not scolding him for expressing anger. I wanted him to know that the emotion of anger was not bad but rather needed to be expressed in safe ways that did not harm the self, others, or the environment.

With all my dance knowledge and experience, I began calling out different ways for him to release his emotions. With uncertainty, I stated, “shake the anger from your head,” With hesitancy, he stopped and began to shake. I continued, “throw off the anger from your shoulders,” with awkwardness, he threw. I continued, “now throw it off from the belly,” eagerness he threw. We continued together, releasing his overwhelming anger from within his body into our safe space. But his movement was not technical or routinized. It was authentic and beautiful. He was fully and freely expressing himself with no dance background or training but moving beautifully, eager to express everything entangling him. He began to look lighter, calmer, and happier. While I was surprised that my dance release technique worked, I was more surprised by what came next. He began to communicate the feelings from before that verbally he felt too overwhelmed to say, and he was able to receive the help he needed. After doing this guided dance practice with my children and myself, I have found that our moods were better, our tantrums were smaller, and we became more willing to invite each emotion in as they came because we are fully able to express and release them to go. Watching the benefits for myself and my family, I wanted to offer this type of experience to others, so in the Fall of 2022, I created my first movement workshop, where the participants were invited to learn how to accept their emotions, express the emotions through movement, and ultimately release these emotions from the self.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Sometimes our journeys feel pointless because we cannot see the destination, but let me tell you, every closed door and every “no” is pointing you towards your eventual yes. For 12 years, I have been asking how to accept and normalize dance within the culture. I needed to learn the past extensively to get these answers, so I went to Fuller to learn more about the rejection of dance throughout the Euro-American church, but I left with more questions than answers. As a black female, I thought the only way to create real change in our culture was to receive a Ph.D. because black women are often overlooked and under-heard within our American society. But the entrance requirements to get into the Ph.D. program kept changing for me. At first, I needed to clearly state and define my thesis question before entering the program. After extensive research and much guidance from Fuller professors and a UNC professor, I did that.

Then, I needed to know Latin and preferably German before getting into the program, so I learned that while already knowing Hebrew, Greek, and Spanish. But even after learning all the languages and doing extensive research on my topic, I still was met with maybes and uncertainty by the school. Was it my race that prohibited my entrance? Was it my gender that blocked me? Or was it purely a lack of interest in my research topic? Regardless, I decided I was done trying to become enough in the eyes of academia, and I let go of my dream to pursue academia. But it is funny how that works; while I was lamenting the loss of academia and the potential Ph.D., I found myself moving from theoretical to practical.

I began dreaming of dance spaces that were not based on dance technique but rather on the self and the expression of the self. I started dreaming of spaces where we collectively grieve and lament through movement. I began dreaming of emotion-based dance classes that gave space for people to be angry, sad, joyful, and free. I began dreaming of spaces where people felt free to Express & Release. I say all this to say I did not know my destination and the journey sucked, but I would not have it any other way. I hit every “no,” closed door, and roadblock over the last 10 years, and I have felt devastated with each loss. But today, I am reminded that my “no’s” were preparing me for my “yes’s.” Now I have a company creating workshops, training, and classes for kids and adults to learn how to accept, express, and release their emotions.

We’ve been impressed with Express & Release Therapeutic Dance, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
In our culture today, there is a common misconception that avoiding negative experiences and compartmentalizing ourselves to separate from what we dislike is easier. This is often why we see a rise in addiction, self-medication, avoidance of true feelings, and lack of emotional connection with self and others.

Studies have increased significantly since 2020 as the covid pandemic created a crucible of intense emotions and forced researchers to look for novel ways to manage the significant increases in anxiety and depression. But the side effects of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication can be significant, so we offer a movement modality as an alternative treatment for connecting and communicating with the self.

At Express & Release Therapeutic Dance, we offer workshops, classes, retreats, and one-on-one emotion release sessions where we guide you through movement practices that you can use to move away from “stressing about things” and instead practice movements that help relieve stress and encourage your well-being. In our classes, we slow down and pause. Consciously breathe. Feel our skin and move in not just routinized but endlessly authentic ways. This type of movement focuses on exploring the emotions living in our bodies to ease stress, reduce anxiety and bridge the gap between our mind, body, and emotions in an embodied way.

Our goal as a therapeutic dance space is to help clients move through a space of dysregulation and dissociation to full embodiment and loving and accepting the self. Over six weeks, we watch participants move through disconnection from the body and an uncomfortableness of movement to engaging with movement practices that connect them back to their bodies. Participants find hope, healing, and restoration in the body as they engage with the emotions and sensations within the body through movement. I hope people find hope and healing through movement to foster a better relationship with the self and their community.

One day I hope to have Express & Release spaces all over America where people of all social, economic, and religious backgrounds can come together to move through grief, sadness, joy, and hope. I long to provide spaces for people of color to engage in movement practices that allow them to express and release the anger, sadness, and frustrations of being black in America. I want to help adults learn to use dance for self-expression, emotional regulation, and stress relief. I desire to offer spaces for kids to express the big emotions they are navigating every day safely. I want to show the world that movement is available for trained and non-trained dancers because I hope that one day, all people will find hope and healing through movement.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I am a Professional dancer serving as a 2911 Contemporary Dance Company member. We perform at different venues across North Carolina and in New York.

Pricing:

• At Express & Release, we want everyone to have access to these movement practices to help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, so we offer sliding-scale payments.
• At various times before our workshops and classes, we offer a Pay What You Can Campaign, at which everyone is invited to sign-up for our workshops and series paying any amount that meets their current financial need with $50 as the minimum price.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.expressnrelease.com/
• Instagram: @Expressnrelease
• Facebook: @Expressnrelease
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielle-l-rivero/

Image Credits
Photographer: William Argueta, Movers in the photos: Susan Hart, Andre Rivero, Erin Nguyen, Shanna Fenu, Tanika Bunbury, Shalanda Celeste