Biography

Sonja Riket, a native Belgian, is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist®, Guild Certified Feldenkrais“ Practitioner, Certified Teacher in Body-Mind Centering®, Aquatic Therapist, Dance Educator and Social Change Artist.

Her 30-year worldwide modern dance career and 18 years of study and practice in the somatic field, put her in a unique position to understand and communicate the power of the body-mind-spirit in movement. In her private practice and group classes, Sonja’s purpose is to help people walk the path of awareness and compassion, and rediscover their capacity for healing and connection.

In her long modern dance career she has been fortunate to collaborate with the Jose Limon Dance Cie. and Lar Lubovitch Dance Cie. in NYC, Peter Goss Cie. in Paris, Susanne Linke Cie. in Germany, Extemporary Dance Cie. in London, MUDRA, Maurice Bejart’s multi-disciplinary school in Brussels and many others spanning 3 continents.

Sonja has studied many forms of ethnic dance, such as Flamenco, Indian, Balkan and African dances. While studying Argentine Tango as a social dance in Buenos Aires, Europe and the USA for the last 7 years, her heart has a found a home in this sensual and subtle art form. In 1999, together with visual artist Todd T.Brown, she co-founded Intimate Embrace Tango, which envisions tango as a medium for Relationship to ourselves, each other and our world and has since inspired hundreds of novice tango dancers throughout the Bay Area to learn the subtle movements of the dance while getting in touch with their own creative expression.

In 2003, out of a desire to increase the accessibility of Somatic Education to the low-income and racially diverse community, she founded the San Francisco Feldenkrais® Community Clinic in San Francisco’s Women’s Building as well as a Somatic Tango Lab.