Testimonials from former students of Daria Faïn

Jonah Bokaer Choreography
www.jonahbokaer.net

"Daria Faïn is without a doubt the most transformational teacher I have had in my career. The depth of her teaching practice was the Secret Ingredient which kept my body integrated, well, whole, safe, and coherent during a career performing with Merce Cunningham, then with Robert Wilson - and now with my own complex career. Daria's practice allowed me to realize, achieve and sustain some of the most demanding acts of physical, mental, integrative, and intercultural occasions that the performing arts had to offer in the 20th and 21st centuries. Still further, she is a unique blend of New York, America, France, Europe, North African roots and belonging: while also spanning the depth of many Eastern and Near-Eastern traditions, authentically, without ever falling into the pathways of orientalist regard - her embodiment, practice, and teaching are complete in their panorama, experience, and generosity towards self and other."

Amy Chan

“To capture the essence of and to articulate my experience of the C O R E M O T I O N program and my experience with Daria's teaching has been, in itself, a process which has been developed, within the framework of this program. Learning to exist within and relate to/from the ever-shifting contexts of the worlds we inhabit, the infinite named and unnamed modalities, has been both a learning and unlearning of so many modes of being.

The structured approach of establishing an understanding of movement through the principles of Qi-gong and the Chinese Five Element Theory has enabled me to more deeply explore the various modalities through improvisational movement. The self-directed aspect of the program has personally been a challenge in defining my own parameters, interests, and applications. I took to this task as integral to my own development within this practice, which in part has been to excavate, as well as to examine the impulses and impetus of movement. This internal work of inner alchemy, not only provides a framework through which we can better understand ourselves and how we relate to the world, space defined by our own awareness, but through improvisation, to more fully arrive in the moment and the landscape of our experience.

Daria creates a space of support, guidance and awareness through her skillful, attentive and perceptive manner of teaching and engaging her students. One of the strengths of the program happens in the participation and learning within community. In co-creating and witnessing another in the space, we begin to connect to and change the way we see ourselves and each other. This work has enabled me to understand my own creative process and has fostered a keen perceptivity in the way I move and navigate through space. Daria is an exceptional teacher and this work is truly transformational. In a way, it has been a process of coming into a completely new way of being, centered in an embodied self, by means of developing an awareness of the elements and the language of the senses. Always arriving.”

Judah Levenson

“I devoted myself to learning, dancing, and creating with Daria Fain and The Commons Choir from November 2015 - April 2017. Studying COREMOTION with Daria was a transformative experience that has affected me deeply and I know will continue to affect me as an artist and educator. I would describe the work as somatic embodied healing and creative movement exploration grounded in the principles of Chinese energetics and Qi Gong. This course of study opened me to many new possibilities for movement; internal, external, inward and outward. How delightful and pleasing it is to move like a baby bird or a heavy bear and not only approximate the motions but experience the energy and quality of these different forces. I came to Daria’s class wanting to study dance, but in her class I never quite considered that I was dancing. That is, through the study of COREMOTION I shifted what I understood to be the range of experiences I could have as a dancer and creator. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to dance fully, expand my strength as well as softness, and connect with a community of other artists and movers that come together in COREMOTION classes.”

“By opening keys to the body and its energies, Daria Fain’s Internal Alchemy as a Motor for Performance radically shifted my idea of what vocal sound could do.  Daria Fain is a gifted teacher with rare perceptive capacities, capable of creating communities that are rigorous, warm, and safe environments for discovery.”

Ursula Eagly