About Us

-caracola- a somatic movement approach for deepening the relationship of your body-mind and the bond with loved ones across generations.

At caracola we celebrate each individual at their particular stage in life, and their ability for enjoying dance while nurturing connections within and without.

— developed by Marion Ramírez

Read an article about caracola at thINKing DANCE

Article
photo+by-+Dean+Dereck

caracola IS :

  • seashell- a spiral home, a transition between sea and land, water and earth, shell and soft body

  • en español, cara- face, cola- tail, supporting the integrity of the head-tail connection: the core for locomotion and its relationship to gravity

  • embodied practices for attuning with family members of all ages, focusing on sensory awareness, and developmental movement.

  • listening to touch and movement as our first languages for communication

  • riding each other’s ideas, community building

photo credit- Dean Derrick, at The Fathering Circle

caracola comes from:

The curriculum Marion shares at ---caracola--- synthesizes years of dancing and studies on somatic movement therapy as well as contact improvisation, Authentic Movement, partner social dance, and most recent training in Craneosacral Fascial Therapy. -caracola- solidified as a response to the 2020 pandemic and the passing of Marion’s 108 year old grandmother and her willingness to live.

The work with families emerges from Marion’s experience teaching children with neuro-developmental challenges and children who love to move in different parts of the world. And her experiencing co-parenting in a Korean-Puerto Rican family.

In particular Marion’s teachings focus on her work in Somatic Movement Therapy as a Dynamic Embodiment™ Practitioner and training in BodyMind Dancing™, under the guidance of Dr. Martha Eddy, among other somatic movement modalities including Elaine Summers’ Kinetic Awareness, and the teaching of Christine Cole, Mark Taylor, KJ Holmes, Joanie Carlisle, Merián Soto, among other.

The energy and threads that bond these knowledge comes in part from the people that have cared for me and have left their legacy in my personal and artistic growth.

 Through GUIDING VOICES ---caracola--- dedicates all its offerings each month to the memory of these individuals by honoring the lineage of wisdom that strengthens our spiritual and physical connections in a time when social distance seems to keep us apart.

Past offerings:

Marion has offered this work as part of professional development for teachers at TAG (Teaching Artist Group) through Philadelphia Dance Projects and Children’s Community School in Philadelphia, as a choreographer for The Fathering Circle, as well as workshops at NDEO Somatic Conference New York and Body-Mind Centering® conference’s Self and Other in California, and the Freigburg Contact Improvisation Festival in Germany. Most recently with local weekly class series at Cardell Dance Studio in Fairmount, and EveryBody in West Philadelphia, and her ungoing teaching as Adjunct Faculty at Temple University. More on Marion’s training and caracola’s development