Feeling, Honoring, and Releasing our Stories of Grief

This workshop focuses on introspection as it relates to static energy of the body, mind, and spirit. We’ll bring awareness to stored tension and the manifestations of grief in the body by exploring breath work, gestures, physical shapes, movement pathways, and verbal expression.

This workshop is part of Story House Ithaca's series on Breaking Our Silence: Storytelling for Mental Health.

Kathy Lucas, the founder and coach of Kathy Lucas Movement, has over 30 years of experience as a dancer, Pilates instructor and unconventional fitness coach. Kathy graduated with a theatre and dance focus from SUNY Brockport. The approach to her work has been informed by her time, travels and healing in NY, West Africa and Japan. With a passion for cultural connections through traditions, healing, and movement, Kathy has spent more than a decade pioneering and developing a series of programs that fuse various styles of dance to Steel Club strength training.

She is an Onnit Academy Foundations trainer, Durability Coach, and Steel Club Specialist. The Ithaca Times awarded her “Best Personal Trainer” in 2015 and 2019. Whether it be individual sessions, group classes, or intensives, she guides students to express strength, beauty, grace, and grit. Her teaching is centered in compassion for each unique journey. She has a deep understanding of wellness, persistence, and restorative healing. Kathy is committed to building a community focused on authentic, creative, and empowering experiences of wellbeing and vitality for all.

Megan Omohundro is a professional choreographer, dancer, and educator based in Ithaca. She began dancing at 16 and founded the hip-hop dance team "Battle Breakers," which launched her professional career. In 2007, she became a dance instructor for Virginia’s 21st-century learning program and choreographed and toured with the hip hop group "6-Way Street”. In 2011 she was accepted as a company member for Dunamis Dance Theater under founder and artistic director Yolanda Franklin and began training with the American Society of Capoeira Arts from Brazil under Mestre Doutour.

Megan went on to obtain her B.A.  with a concentration in dance from Hollins University. Since then, she has choreographed and danced on national recording artist Matisyahu's hit song, "Shade from the Sun," and is a regular guest artist for Radford Universities' Virginia Governor's School program for Visual and Performing Arts. Megan can be found teaching, practicing capoeira and engaging the community with movement that heals and refreshes the soul.

“Breaking Our Silence” explores the power of storytelling to increase empathy, build understanding, and help lift the shroud of secrecy around mental illness. The series is organized by Story House Ithaca and sponsored by The Sophie Fund. Additional support comes from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County and the National Alliance on Mental Illness Finger Lakes.