Instructor Lora Labaree gives a thumbs up during a somatic movement class for the Ski Town Media staff. Photo by Kenny McCarthy.

Overwhelmed. Annoyed. Anxious. Those were a few of the words that my colleagues and I shared, describing how we were feeling at the beginning of our somatic movement class. We were in the hallway of our office, with the lights out, on a Thursday morning in November, waiting for our teacher, Lora Labaree, to tell us how to rid ourselves of the – clearly mutual – tension. 

The class was slow and focused, with gentle movements and intentional breathing. Lora wanted us to let go of expectations, move without judgment and notice what was happening in our bodies. That made it easier to relax into the process instead of worrying about doing anything “right.”     

As we continued, I felt myself gradually releasing some of the stress I’d brought in. By the end of the session, the shift in the room was clear.

That shift is exactly what Steamboat Dance Theatre’s executive director, Lori Biagi, hopes people experience through somatic movement. “It’s about paying attention to how your body feels from the inside,” she explains, “instead of how it looks from the outside.” Unlike traditional exercise, where a leader tells you what to do – lift your arm, bend your knee, stretch this way – somatic movement focuses on how you do it. “You’re noticing breath, tension, ease, comfort,” Lori says. “You’re letting your own body guide the movement.”

This inside-out approach is the foundation of Dance Vitality: The Movement Experience, a new Steamboat Dance Theatre program that blends somatic movement with dance/movement therapy. Free to the community and funded by the LOR Foundation, Lori developed the program in collaboration with trained dance therapist and somatic psychotherapist Hillary Sinn, co-founder of the CORAL Lab at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, which studied the effects of arts therapies on burnout in healthcare workers.

“We wanted to give our community another tool,” Lori says. “DMT has been clinically shown to reduce symptoms of depression more than antidepressants alone. At its core, it’s about rewiring the pathways in your brain – learning to get out of your head and back into your body.”     

Eight local “guides” completed Hillary’s facilitator training and now offer both community sessions at Old Town Hot Springs and one-on-one movement experiences. The emphasis is always the same: no judgment, no performance, no dance experience required. “Even the word ‘dance’ is intimidating for people,” Lori acknowledges. “We’ve grown up judging ourselves. But if we can release that judgment and feel from our hearts instead of our minds, then we can help our bodies reunite with our souls and let go of emotional pain.”     

For Lori, this isn’t just theoretical. She remembers her own first somatic session vividly, and how hard it was. “I was terrified,” she says. “As a trained dancer, I’d always been told what to do. I felt incredibly dumb being vulnerable in any other kind of movement.”

So she froze. She stood still. The music played. Then she closed her eyes and listened. “I paid attention to where I was holding tension, worked on releasing it, and moved in ways that felt freeing,” she recalls. “I actually cried. And then when the song ‘Brand New’ came on, I smiled and jumped for joy.”     

Lori isn’t claiming Dance Vitality is a magic fix. “It’s not going to replace therapy,” she says. “But it’s one more tool for someone who’s struggling.”     

And in Steamboat Springs, tools like this are needed. “Our suicide rates are rising,” Lori notes. “People feel isolated, burned out, overwhelmed – and even though there are resources, they’re not always connecting with them. It’s hard to take that first step when you’re feeling hopeless.”

This program aims to make that first step gentler. “We meet you where you are,” she says. “No expectations. No pressure. Just music, breathwork and someone to hold space for you.”     

Most of all, Lori hopes Dance Vitality reminds people of something deeply human. “Movement is our birthright,” she says. “If we can get back to that basis of human expression, I truly believe we can build a more balanced, healthier community.”

At the end of our in-office session, we shared words again. This time, they were refreshed, energized and relaxed; proof that movement does actually move the stress and tension away.

Try a session: Visit www.steamboatdancetheatre.org for more information.