We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Olga Sokolova a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Olga, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

If I look back at my life now I can tell that taking risks was one of the most rewarding things I could do on the path of searching and uncovering my true self. In a way I view and sense my life in cycles some old cycles were gracefully and organically transformed into new ones but some turned into comfort zones and stagnations and needed to be broken in order to grow and expand and that’s exactly when taking risks was necessary. The risk of leaving my hometown into unknown to follow the dream of becoming a dancer was one of the first serious risks I took. I come from a very small town on the far east of Russia where Siberian forest meets Pacific Ocean and Asia. Deeply impacted by the dancers of the French musical “Norte Damme de Paris” that I watched over and over on a VHS tape at home in the early 2000, blown away by the way these dancers moved and the whole choreography it was then when I formed a vision and a strong desire to learn the art of movement. I dreamed of learning how to move like those fabulous contemporary dancers. Back then all we had in my town was ballet, ballroom dance and gymnastics, I started training in rhythmic gymnastics when I was 4 and stayed there for many years, as well as later I also joined small ballet studio but contemporary was my dream and already than I knew that I have to make my way to Europe to join contemporary dance school. My family didn’t have resources, my mom was raising me and my older sister alone, to be honest life was rough and I think risk is something I had to take to find opportunities. I wouldn’t be here in sunny Los Angeles today if I didn’t leave my home town back then. There were many more risks I took along this artistic life journey and mostly all of them were related to overcoming fear to follow my heart and fully trusting universe when choosing between mainstream commercial world and a world of authenticity and deeper knowledge. Risking financial comfort and stability in the name of genuine curiosity, research, travel and cultural education, quality practice and self rediscovery. Questioning mainstream narrative and forming my own world view, questioning old insufficient ways of dance training and digging deeper into holistic world of movement, holding my ground, remembering my roots and my center, holding space for physical, mental and spiritual growth would be viewed by many as a risky life style that doesn’t always suit “successful” modern ways of being.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Following a path of movement education and embarking on a journey of auditions, I received my first scholarship for international contemporary dance school in Switzerland where I studied and later performed around Europe for two and a half years. Later I received another scholarship to join Musical and Dramatic Academy in the U.S. and arrived to Los Angeles in 2011. Dedicating years to training, performing, learning about different cultures and traditions while traveling the world on this journey of wonderful art of movement.

Growing up as a gymnast and ballet dancer, spending hours and hours perfecting technique and modifying my physique made me realize that I am programming my body and training my muscle memory to effortlessly execute choreographic patterns that are based on specific and limited movement vocabulary and by restricting and regulating, directing and controlling my biological vessel I became a part of a dance field with incredibly strict rules and standards. By constraining certain muscle groups and overstretching and developing others I took part in the world of perfect steps, turns, leaps and variations for 12 years. I was becoming a better athlete and dancer but was moving further and further away from the natural movement its meaning and role in our lives.

When I turned 16 I was introduced to the world of contemporary movement – a vast ocean of physical expressions, where exploration and experimentation are the base components of this philosophical style. After moving to Europe and diving deep into the rabbit hole of contemporary dance studies, I have opened up a whole new universe of my own body abilities and its potential both physical and mental. It took me years to undo technical habits and blocks from gymnastics and classical world and open up my body and mind in many more ways rebuilding my nervous system.

So from linear programming concept of movement in gymnastics and ballet I entered a world of abstract and diverse physical expression. I a path of movement education and auditioning journey began, I received my first scholarship for international contemporary dance school in Switzerland where I studied and later performed around Europe for two and a half years. Later I received another scholarship to join Musical and Dramatic Academy in the U.S. and arrived to Los Angeles in 2011. Dedicating years to training, performing, learning about different cultures and traditions while traveling the world of wonderful art of movement. Contemporary dance became my passion for many years, where competitive environment was driving our will to perform and improve skillfulness of the body on one side and fueled the achiever dance ego on the other. I constantly pushed my body to the limits and in a way abused it in the name of dance art. With such intense pursue of the dance dream and physical sacrifice little time was left for restoration and deep recovery. Grounding and slowing down were often out of the picture as the time and energy demanding competitive dance field isn’t always built to give enough time to also look deeper into the wellbeing of emotional and mental aspect of a dancer.

Along this dance path physical, mental and spiritual deficiencies started speaking to me by sparkling deep intuitive curiosities towards energy and its conductivity in the body, joint longevity and holistic approach to movement. Energy driven movement came to my life through studies of Tai Chi, Quigong and Shaolin arts. My Shaolin master changed my life by blessing me with his knowledge and presence. Meditation, slow and grounded movement have healed and changed my being in many ways. It is then I understood that stillness is as important as movement. Ancient techniques gave me connection to a tissue I’ve never sensed before and showed me the way of movement from a different layer of the body. I travelled to Asia and took a deep dive into learning medicinal Quigong and energy driven movement.

Another pivotal point of my education was when I entered sport medicine field. I became a certified mobility specialist, and I keep learning this topic of internal strength and joint health from Dr. Andreo Spina and his method. These studies and training played crucially important role in my understanding of movement nature, functional anatomy, strength, health and training behind it. Joint longevity and specificity of connective tissue training changed my life and movement quality not only for me but for many of my students and athletes I got to work with. Deepening my knowledge in biomechanics and functional anatomy I changed my training approach and I keep working on constantly integrating sport science into the system of today’s practice providing safe ways to address physical deficiencies, improve body awareness and overall health.

Interdisciplinary movement training and studies made me look deeper into somatic movement, movement therapy, and explore natural ways of the body. I look at natural flow these days and see an organic intuitive movement, an art form of soul expression through human body, I see it as a deep healing, reconnection, restoration and conscious arrival home/our body and on this path of returning to the ways of nature, undoing techniques of insufficient movement, dissolving dance ego in the depth of natural wisdom of the body, from the inside out, listening and healing through deep exploration, softening and flowing is my way of seeing movement field and sharing with those who resonate.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Working with people from all walks of life taught me how to listen, how to develop a deeper empathy and connection with my students and clients. I learned from years of experience that I have to believe whole heartedly and genuinely want to help to person, and it is the only way of working for me. I love my movement community and people that practice with me, I genuinely want them to have a freedom of movement, strength, health and internal harmony. Seeing my people thrive in life makes me happy it fulfills me and I think they feel that my intention comes first and most from my heart and they trust me and my experience.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

If I could go back, I wouldn’t change a thing, I would probably end up choosing this path of self discovery and soul searching again. It’s been a very interesting journey so far that keeps getting more and more interesting day by day. The world is changing, the masks are falling, we are changing we are able to see deeper and to hold the vision of a better future what a time to be alive and to keep remembering who we really are!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamovement/profilecard/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/olga.sokolova.376?mibextid=wwXIfr&mibextid=wwXIfr
• Other: My website is being built at the moment

Image Credits

Photographers:
Phill Lee
Guzel Oliver Khos
Jerrod Kamau Williams
Marian Loojed

Dancers:
Edgar Khachaturov
Monet Pinkett
Daniela Morales