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

Hi Bethana, thanks for joining us today. Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?

I was settling into my third year of teaching dance at California State University, Northridge when a talented, ambitious young dancer named Evan entered my life. He was an energetic new kinesiology graduate and former athlete hungry for growth and seeking my help in developing his dance technique while he was recovering from past surgery. I, busy teaching both on campus and off, and raising two kids, was just getting comfortable with my routine, and hesitant to disrupt the status quo. But his enthusiasm and voracity for delving deeper into the technical and creative aspects of dance inspired me. So, I agreed to coaching sessions. The sessions began with me helping him refine and grow his dance skills. As a scientist who studied health and well-being, I was not content with the traditional approaches to concert dance training which is typically an “outside in” method of show and do, with little understanding of the how, often resulting in injury from over work, psychological stress, and generally poor outcomes. Evan, a scientist and creative like me, was also interested in challenging these ineffective methods. We started to apply our knowledge of biomechanics and therapeutic modalities to discover and re-pattern movement compensations to improve his technique and to take a holistic approach to dance study from an “inside out” perspective. We became immersed in the laboratory aspect of what we were doing and after several months of focused studio time, Evan was firing on all cylinders and eager to start choreographing and performing.
Our sessions grew beyond a focus on technique to include workshopping dance ideas, creating new dance works, and performing together. We launched into a practice of stimulating and productive work, choreographing, and performing, exploring therapeutic modalities, methods of improving movement quality, and cultivating new teaching tools and approaches to learning dance. There was never a dull moment, especially with Evan’s wit and humor keeping me laughing as we researched and tried new things. I was invigorated by his energy and intrigued by his unique creative and choreographic voice. A partnership was clearly developing and the months we spent grew into years. Our friendship turned into love and eventually marriage. And our dance partnership and work grew into our movement practice- The Conscious Dancer.

Our surprising and unlikely pairing- a significant age difference between us and me with two children, was built from this unique beginning. And after 15 years of shared interests and fueling each other, we continue to have a deep soul connection that runs through everything we do- our family life, our dance partnership, and our movement education practice. We are a true yin and yang force together, balancing one another, strengthening the other and drawing out each other’s strengths. In our practice, we bring both our individual specialties and talents and together create a special experience for our students. Our counterbalance and uniqueness pairs beautifully together in both performance and as teaching partners. We are a tag team, in dialogue with one another, often one presenting a theme and the other running with it. It makes for an exciting partnership and a deepening of our practice that we can uniquely share with others.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am an artist, scientist, movement coach, nutrition and lifestyle coach, and educator. I have 29 years of experience as a professional dancer, a background in movement science, holistic nutrition, and work as a teacher, and wellness expert. I am an alumna of the North Carolina School of the Arts Dance Program, hold a Master of Science degree in Kinesiology with emphasis in Dance Science and Pedagogy. I am also a Certified Nutrition Coach, Herbalist and Permaculture Design Specialist. For the past 25 years, I have been teaching in higher education dance and health departments and for the past 20 years, I have been on the Ballet faculty at California State University, Northridge where I also teach Jazz, Ballroom and Latin dance, Yoga, Somatics & Wellness courses. I have led many workshops and guest seminars in both Dance and Wellness internationally and nationally. I help clients improve their overall well-being, harness their potential, and live a vibrant life. I address postural and movement patterns to help clients enhance their performance and prevent/rehabilitate injuries. I teach social partner dancing, offer nutrition coaching, fitness, and lifestyle coaching, teach dance techniques, yoga, and somatic practices. A large part of my practice involves tracking food from soil to table, designing edible gardens and food forests to mirror natural ecosystems, and creating nutrient rich recipes, herbal and medicinal remedies, and body care products.

As a dancer, I have been a principal dancer with Ballet Theater Pennsylvania and Pasadena Dance Theater. I performed and taught ballroom and Latin dance for many years at New York’s renowned Paul Pellicoro’s Dancesport, and after relocating to LA, performed with Salsa Brava and TangoManiax. I have been creating and performing repertory with my husband Evan Rosenblatt since 2008 and teach through our shared dance and movement practice called The Conscious Dancer.
Through The Conscious Dancer Practice, we offer dance, movement, and holistic lifestyle educational experiences for both the career inspired dancer and the dancer that resides in all of us. We host workshops in a variety of settings including universities, dance conservatories, summer dance programs, wellness, and fitness environments, online, and with private clients.

The Conscious Dancer is an evidence-based and participant-centered practice that bridges the gap between art and science, utilizing an integrative, full systems approach that empowers individuals to build sustainable lifestyles and careers. At its core, it lives at the intersection of physical actualization, creativity, and well-being. Our workshops are rooted in dance and movement technique, improvisation, kinesiology, somatics, creative process, nutrition, and nature immersion.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Growing up, I aspired to be a professional ballet dancer. The common belief at that time was that you had to do it while you were young, and that going to college and even having a life beyond college would get you further away from that dream. Well, my start in the professional ballet world was not so far off the prescribed course. I joined Ballet Theatre Pennsylvania quite young, but not before spending 2 years in college, recovering from a 6-month partnering injury and then another 6 months of rehabilitative dance training while at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York. Unfortunately, the company folded after my second year, and I was thrust into the famed (pre-internet) cattle call audition life in NYC. After feeling like just another member of the herd and spending a year not getting anywhere, I questioned where and how dance would fit into my life. I dabbled in other dance forms such as modern and jazz, but it wasn’t until taking a ballroom dance class, at the suggestion of my mother, that my excitement for dance was truly reignited. I fell in love with the varied music and dance styles, movement qualities, and partnering elements. It was the first time I had danced since early childhood without a mission to make dance a career. I once again was dancing purely for enjoyment without worrying about whether I would dance professionally again. But sure enough, just as I loosened my grip on seeking a specific outcome, opportunities came knocking. I was asked to teach at the very NYC studio I was studying in and to perform. I taught and performed in prestigious NYC venues, in Europe, and the Caribbean. Things were going well, but I had a deep desire to complete my college education and began taking courses at Hunter College in NY. A lover of movement and the human body, I decided to major in kinesiology and made a move back home to CA to study. I continued teaching and performing ballroom and Latin dance in LA while I studied. Life moved on into my thirties, and I had my hands full. I completed my Bachelor of Science degree and finished my master’s degree while becoming a mother to my first born, Gabriel, and later my second, Marcel. I was raising two boys, working part time in the LA salsa scene, teaching creative dance / PE at a Montessori school, and teaching dance courses at Cal. State University, Northridge. Though I was loving teaching, my deep desires for physical and artistic challenge still loomed heavy in the background.

It was the meeting of my talented husband, Evan, that reignited my flame to perform and stretch myself artistically. I began working creatively with Evan in producing and performing new contemporary dance works and we participated in many outreach performances. At that point, at 38, I decided to tag along with Evan for some ballet classes, while he was dancing with Pasadena Dance Theater. I quickly recognized a deep longing to return to ballet as a performer. I hadn’t worn pointe shoes in 16 years! But, I was determined to try my hand at elite level ballet performance once again. I danced as a principal dancer with the company for the next few years and didn’t stop there. In fact, I seemed to be finding my stride at age 42, and as Evan’s body of work grew, I continued to be a key figure in his choreography. I was applying the knowledge of the science of human movement, and the holistic body care and wellness modalities of The Conscious Dancer practice that Evan and I cultivated, and found that I was unraveling imbalances, improving my strength, versatility as a dancer, and health. Driven by my love of dance, and the work of The Conscious Dancer practice, I am now 48, going strong, and looking forward to our next performance!

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

Absolutely! I was fortunate to discover my bliss very young. And the pursuit of deepening my experiences and knowledge of dance, the human body, connecting to and helping others has been my driving force throughout my life. And as new interests in permaculture design, nutrition, and herbalism became specializations, they were deeply integrated in my work and life as though they were always my chosen fields.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @bethanarosenthal @theconscious_dancer
• Facebook: Bethana Rosenthal

Image Credits
Photographers Emma Rosenblatt, Lindsay Morrison, and Lee Choo. Dancers appeared with: Evan Rosenblatt and Sophia Mcknight