Shannon Lee Jones

Awareness Through Movement® Teacher

Shannon currently teaches at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She is an Associate Professor of Dance where she teaches the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method Awareness Through Movement.

Before moving to Boston in 2005, Shannon lived in New York City, where she worked professionally as an actress, appearing on Broadway in the original La Cage aux Folles at the Palace Theatre. National tours include Hello Dolly with Carol Channing, first national La Cage aux Folles, Funny Girl with Juliet Prowse and the European tour of A Chorus Line (Cassie). She was affiliated with the Drama Desk Award-winning Barrow Group Theatre in New York City, starting in 1991. There, she would produce, direct, act, and teach for their Tops educational program, in association with the New York Board of Education. Regionally, she has performed at The MUNY, Theater Under the Stars (Atlanta), Long Wharf Theatre (New Haven, CT), Barrington Stage (MA), Riverside Theater (Florida), North Shore Music Theatre, Arts Center of Coastal Carolina (SC), Gateway Playhouse (NY), Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, and Ocean State Theatre (Rhode Island). Boston theaters where she has performed include Wheelock Theatre, Lyric Stage Company, Gloucester Stage, New Rep, Greater Boston Theater, Reagle Music Theatre, and Foothills Theater. In Television, she has worked on All My Children, Guiding Light, Irving Berlin’s 100 Birthday at Carnegie Hall and Saturday Night Live.

Shannon discovered the Alexander Technique in 2003. She was experiencing chronic back pain as a result of her dancing career. The pain became so severe that she considered the possibility of no longer being able to work in theater. Eventually, she went to see a back surgeon at Beth Israel Hospital in New York who told her about Alexander Technique. The work would forever change her life and allow her to perform again, pain free. She became committed to sharing the work, especially with young dancers.

When the pandemic came she was reading to go deeper with her work and begin taking Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons. Finding the lessons most rewarding and a wonderful creative way to learn how your are design she decided to take the Feldenkrais Method ATM teacher Training Program.

Shannon is dedicated to keep learning more about the power of the body/mind connection and sharing the work along the way.

Sharon Knieper

Awareness Through Movement® Teacher

Over a decade ago Sharon came to the Feldenkrais Method seeking to avoid surgery. It wasn't the first time she faced surgeries and this time she knew she wanted to do it differently, so she popped into some classes. Fast forward and while the surgeries still happened and challenges with pain continued, she discovered a method that helped unwind the creaks, bends and odd habits that had accumulated over the years. The ways of being - physically, mentally, emotionally - that had made her feel less like herself were exposed as things that could drop away. They were not permanent. And after each ATM practice she felt less stuck, more calm, open and quite simply - better. Knowing the path to self-discovery and learning is never a straight line; she has recently become an ATM teacher with the hopes of giving others an opportunity to explore the method while also deepening her own practice.

Shekinah-Glory Beepat

Work/Education: Movement Instructor and Facilitator; B.S. in Marketing Communications from Emerson College

Movement Background: Life-long student of Isshin Shorinji Ryu Okinawa Te (Okinawan Karate); Aikido; bike commuter, open water swimmer, trail runner, tree climber.

About: Shekinah-Glory began studying 5 Lines Fitness and the Feldenkrais Method in 2017. She was immediately caught off-guard by her improved physical insight and coordination and the resulting increase in her strength, speed, and stamina. Since then, Shekinah-Glory has embraced the Method to deconstruct patterns of movement and thought and to cultivate a nurturing learning environment within herself. She practices 5 Lines Fitness as a daily reminder that we are our most powerful when we enable and employ our full selves.

Motivation: “I have always sought to challenge the boundaries of my own capabilities. With 5 Lines Fitness and the Feldenkrais Method, I have learned that I can exceed my limitations when I am not repeatedly pushing against them.”

Taylor Mitchell

Awareness Through Movement® Teacher

Taylor Mitchell is a Chicago-based choreographer, performance artist, and dance educator. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of Arizona (2014) where he received the Creative Achievement Award for numerous works of choreography presented by the UA Dance Ensemble and also worked with the Department of Theater. Taylor has performed/choreographed/taught professionally across the city of Chicago, as well as other national and international projects. He has presented work at the Kieler Woche Festival (2017) - one of the largest summer festivals in Northern Germany and the Harvest Contemporary Dance Festival in Chicago (2018, 2019, 2022). He has also served as an Artist in Residence with Washington and Lee University (2019), Southeast Missouri State University (2018, 2021), The University of Louisiana Lafayette (2019), and Keshet Center for the Arts (2018). He currently serves as Artistic Director of MitchellMovement, his own project, while fusing his unique voice of contemporary dance with aspects of physical theatre/clowning technique. Currently, Taylor enjoys integrating Feldenkrais® ATM® as an exciting new part of his offerings in creation and movement.

Molly Schaffner

Molly Schaffner

Practitioner 

“Working with Molly I have noticed changes in how my body feels and moves that have given me new options and have gone well beyond what I had hoped I might achieve”
– Richard Shaw, Certified Advanced Rolfer

Education:
B.A. in Art History from Oberlin College

Movement Background:
Dance

Certification:
Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner (CM)
Feldenkrais Guild of North America, 2017

About:
Molly discovered the power of the Feldenkrais Method for herself after years of hearing about it, when a single Feldenkrais class helped her out of chronic hip pain. Bewildered, she decided to dive in deeper. She is now dedicated to deepening her understanding about her own health and how to help others utilize the brain’s ability to learn and change to address the various challenges that life can present. She loves to work with people in a wide range of age and experience, and feels privileged when she can tailor her expertise about movement to each person she meets with curiosity, compassion, and a practical understanding of what is most important to them.

Motivation:
Molly says, "There is something very powerful in having the tools to know how to help yourself. I believe that for each of us, those tools are always closer by than we have imagined. My job is to provide the leadership necessary for you to have them at hand."