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Reconnect with yourself, your child, and the eternal life pulse of nature, nestled in the trees with the birds and butterflies of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Experience family-friendly embodiment infused with art and pure magic with some of the most outstanding teaching artists in NYC!

Classical Theatrical Dance (Pre-ballet)

Yoga & Meditation

Sufi Whirling • Storytelling

Drawing & Painting • Mandalas

Indian Head & Face Massage

Astrology Readings • Ayurvedic Treats

Dowsing

Nature Dance™ is a program that combines dance, creative movement, ritual, and play in the great outdoors.   Freed from the confines of the studio, dancers of all ages may experience a deeper connection with Mother Nature in all Her glory.  

Nature Dance 2024-25 explores Brooklyn Bridge Park as a magical, fairytale world where the inner child is free to feel and to embody the virtues of intelligence, beauty, kindness, generosity, wonder, grace, laughter, peace, stillness, and heartfelt joy.

Participants leave with a treasury of natural wonders, artworks, and friends.  

 

To Marisol and Justin, my greatest inspiration.

~ M.L.P.

“I don’t want to do ballet, Mommy, that’s your thing,” my daughter Marisol said, ever so defiantly.

I had promised myself never to push my daughter into ballet.  Seven years later, I was beginning to worry that she might never develop the grace, strength, and agility that only ballet can offer.  Where had I gone wrong?

“And what is that?” I asked. (At that point, I would have said yes to anything.)

“Nature dance,” she said, and the ballet school of our dreams was born.  

Our goal is to provide specialized dance training regardless of income, so that everybody can know the joy of dancing.  For pricing, please contact miranda@joyauxmarisol.com.

Miranda Leigh Pildes

 
 

Faculty

 
 

Miranda Leigh Pildes

Pre-ballet

Mandala Therapy

Indian Face & Head Massage

Miranda brings a unique fusion of artistic prowess and holistic healing to the educational landscape through her innovative program, NatureDance™.  This program seamlessly integrates her lifelong passion for ballet with her deep commitment to the transformative power of art.

Miranda’s journey in dance began at age three, influenced by her first teacher Carolyn Martin Santonicola, a former soloist with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Her formal training includes esteemed institutions such as the Margot Fonteyn Academy, Mark Morris Dance Center, The Bolshoi Academy, and the Open World Dance Foundation, under the guidance of renowned Vaganova faculty members like Lyudmila Safronova and Irina Kolpakova.

In March 2024, Miranda and her daughter Marisol celebrated their professional debut in the Open World Dance Foundation’s production of Cinderella, featuring ABT principal dancers Isabella Boylston and Aran Bell. Currently, Miranda is continuing her studies with Carolyn Martin Santonicola and is expanding her expertise at Eurythmy Spring Valley, NY.

Beyond her dance accomplishments, Miranda’s exploration of sacred rituals and healing practices, including chakra meditation, mandala therapy, and Indian Face & Head Massage (champissage), underscores her commitment to holistic development.

Miranda’s multidimensional approach makes her an inspiring partner for schools seeking to enrich their students’ artistic and personal growth. Her blend of technical excellence and holistic healing offers a transformative experience that fosters creativity, self-awareness, and resilience in young learners.

Katie Cercone

Yoga

Meditation

Astrology

Katie is a yogini priestess, astro-feminist & spiritual gangsta hailing from the blessed coast. She received her 200-hour yoga and reiki certification in 2011 with Deborah Hanekamp @Mamamedicine and has led classes in studios, gardens, women’s shelters and arts venues throughout the US, UK and Asia. In 2019, she completed a Trauma-Sensitive YTT with the Lineage Project. A long-time student of Siri Rishi, her practice fuses Hatha-Vinyasa, Kundalini and shamanic styles of yoga; encompassing the sacred alchemy of asana, mantra and pranayama breath work. A pioneer of Hip Hop Yoga, Katie’s transformational work lies under a sacred canopy of co-created ritual and magic to align with higher consciousness. To learn more about her yoga and astro-oracle offerings, follow @parvati_slice on Instagram

Veronica Santiago Moniello

Improvisation

Body-Mind Centering

Alexander Technique

is a NY-based dance maker exploring how the body can interpret absence as a transformative challenge. Born in Venezuela, she was recently Artist-in-Residence at The Momentary, in Arkansas. She holds an MFA in Fine Arts from the Theatre & Dance program at UC San Diego, California and a BA in Dance from Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen, Germany, where she experienced Pina Bausch’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” repertoire. Her artistic practice spans dispossession, viscerality, and poetry, as well as body-offerings. Since 2010, she has developed a pedagogical approach that creates safe space and that values methodology and experimentation, drawing from somatic techniques like Body-Mind Centering, Alexander Technique. In 2017 she created habitual, a platform studio based on collaborations and process-oriented choreographies across various countries. 

Fanny Pérez Gutiérrez

Whirling

Dowsing

Brain-Heart Coherence Meditation

A visual and movement creator and facilitator, Fanny is an instructor of practices to reach altered states and connect to the divine such as Ritual Body Postures and Sacred Whirling. She has been invited to perform and work with local and international artists and organizations such as West Chelsea Festival of Art, International LitFest, NOoSPHERE Arts, Center for Remembering and Sharing, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Brooklyn Nomads, Stanley Love Performance Group, Culture Push, Dance to the People, Harlem Dance Club, Gaia NoMaya, Nancy Azara, Katie Cercone, Universidad Iberoamericana (MEX), Colectivo Tarantula (MEX), El Otro Mono (MEX), Sinestesia (MEX), Laura Ríos (MEX), among others.

Fanny’s work with children spans over 15 years. She has been a caretaker as well as instructor of movement for children across NYC in diverse settings from public school to private lessons at people’s homes, etc. She is certified to teach Yoga to children and she currently is a teaching artist at BAX.