Health checkup: Improvisational dance and sharing your feelings

Amanda Levesque

Local artist and longtime Asheville Fringe performer Amanda Levesque speaks with Xpress about improvisational dance and the push for making yoga popular and accessible to those in wheelchairs.

What are some techniques you use for maintaining your mental health? 

The best thing I have found is to just talk to a counselor and share with them whatever I’m feeling!  There is no shame in seeking help!

What is your favorite way to approach your own physical health? 

My favorite way to approach my personal health is through contact improvisational dance. It’s a type of dance with people rolling on top of each other and just being really close. Because I’m in a wheelchair for the majority of time it feels so great to give weight and receive weight safely!

What is one book, podcast, documentary or article related to mental or physical health that you’d recommend, and why?

I have yet to find a perfect media material that helps me because my situation is so unique. I have read a book by a wonderful quadriplegic yoga instructor name Matthew Stanford. The book is titled Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence . I like this book because not only did it go into Matthew’s life, it also inspired me to start doing yoga in my wheelchair!

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