ABOUT

Kafeïa is my chosen name.

Dance-Movement Psychotherapist (DMP)

 I trained at Roehampton University, in London where I lived for 5 years. England is my second home and I learned DMP there. I also have U.S roots, so Anglo-Saxon culture is part of me and my practice.

Multilingual

I speak several languages: French and English but also the non-verbal language of the body, movement and rhythm; intuition, imagination, dream and symbols, art and creativity.

Queer

I come out of the norms of gender identity and sexual orientation. Like many, I endured compulsory heterosexuality: the pressure to have to conform to heterosexuality and all the culture that is generated with it. I reclaim the fluidity of my being (we are organically more fluid than solid), for a fluidity of genders and desires. Being a late bloomer, it was a long (never ending) journey to come in & out. I went through all the grief, deconstructions and confrontations that go with the process of becoming my whole authentic self.

So, I have at heart to support this process of coming in & out, to explore our fluid and queer identities, to dance outside the norms with our queer moving bodies.      

Click to learn more about the Coming In d’Élodie Font (in French) and about Compulsory Heterosexuality.

Embodied Feminist

Embodied Feminism is feminism that is lived in the body, experienced, practiced and not only in theories. 

This openness towards feminism begins through my experience of a sexualized, queer, traumatized and oppressed body. I felt the collective and systemic issues in my body before even knowing what feminism was.    

Then, with my DMP Master I really dived into intersectional and embodied feminism based on the fact that our bodies are not neutral.

I learned the politics of bodies (questioning gender and sexuality, race, class, ableism, health, age, religion, neurodiversity...) and the complexity of their intersections.    

Therefore, I consider the systemic reality of privileges and oppressions and how it impacts our lives and bodies. I take into account power dynamics and asymmetry within relationships paying attention to how they can be replayed in the therapeutic relationship.

Cette approche féministe fait partie intégrante de l’ADN de la DMT que je pratique et que je continue à nourrir et à développer.

 This feminist approach is an integral part of the DMP DNA that I practice and continue to nurture and develop.

I am committed to making my practice and the spaces I offer as safe and inclusive as possible.

The only promise I can make is to commit to it. That is to say, to continue the ongoing process of deconditioning, with a permanent questioning that allows me to see my blind spots, to adjust my positioning in my practice and to embody my ethics as accurately as possible. It is a dance, a constant movement where the therapeutic relationship is horizontal and co-created.

My feminist and embodied approach to therapy considers and respects body politics and the systemic issues of power present both in society and in our therapeutic practices.

Apprentice Witch

Apprentice for the humility necessary for the path of reconnection to the Earth and the body.

Human, Humus and Humility have the same roots. Roots that intertwine and remind us of our belonging to the Earth.

Witch for the history of medicine; a medicine that listens and dances with the Earth, the stars, the plants, the seasons, the cycles, the bodies and the dead.

To not forget the witch-hunt and the legacy that continues today of a capitalist, patriarchal and colonialist world that extracts, dominates, appropriates and consumes bodies and the Earth.

The Pagan Festivals (discovered through my research and the work of Starhawk) allowed me to reconnect with a cyclical notion of time. It inspired the cycle of Écodanse to celebrate and dance each of these festivals.     

My intense research around queer folklore helps me to rebuild my connection with the Earth where I live and to reveal a queer story too often erased.

Queer Tarot supports my process of deconditioning and owning my queerness.

How Dance Trance-Formed me

 Each dance I encountered on my path supported and trance-formed me.

Each dance has its own history and culture. Each dance is connected to an ecosystem: a land, a specific landscape, people, and language, and also, a socio-political context.

Each dance has its own energy and a specific vocabulary of gestures and movements, rhythms and songs.

I am deeply grateful for the dances I encountered on my path and the people who passed them on to me.

I learned so much through every dance I practiced. They allowed me to grow, to extend my range of movement, to change my relationship with my body and the world. This transmission does not happen through words but through a practice of movement: an embodiment of a whole culture, of a unique history.

Each dance has its own embodied wisdom that is shared through movement. 

These dances planted seeds in my body that continued to grow. Today, they nourish my practice of Dance-Movement Psychotherapy. 

Before presenting the dances that supported me as I grew up, I want to clarify that I am not trying to define or appropriate them. Dance is anyway too ephemeral and in constant motion to be fixed in a simple definition with words.

As a white person who has practiced a lot of dances from racial minorities, I have always asked myself the question of legitimacy (rightly so) and I pay attention to questions of decoloniality. A long and slow deconditioning process.

What I can share is the impact that these dances have on my life, what they taught me.

As each encountering transforms us, these dances supported and trance-formed me and I thank them. 

I started with Hip Hop where I discovered an energy of resistance, a freedom of bodies and movements, a form of democracy of the bodies where the specificity of each body, what makes them out of the norm, becomes a strength. I also felt a sense of community and belonging, and develop a deep listening to the music.

I also learned the dances transmitted by Mushi Mayé (peace to his soul) from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I learned to walk in rhythm, grounding, respect for the percussionists who play with the dancers, and a vocabulary of movements where each gesture tells a story.

Then Krump came into my life at a crucial time and literally saved me. Through krump, I was able to express my trauma, let my demons dance, feeling free, just express the raw version of myself. Through dancing, I was fighting to reclaim my body. I was expressing my rage, my anger. With Krump, I found a safe space to express my painful emotions. I discovered another form of grounding, community and even trance states. 

To discover krump, I invite you to watch the documentary Raised by Krump by Maceo Frost.

I grew up with these dances, they shaped my body as a child and young teenager and contributed to my development. They are engraved in my body.

Then, I discovered Danse des 5 Rythmes and the wave: a process with an energetic ascent and descent through 5 different rhythms. I particularly loved the rhythm of Chaos. I also explored the embodiment of archetypes and myths, sometimes in costume.  

Then I discovered the Contemporary Dance of African Expression by Elsa Wolliaston. Meeting Elsa and practicing her dance allowed me to anchor myself even deeper into the Earth, to be even more precise in my walking and how my feet are in rhythm with the percussionist who played live at each class. I learned to stay grounded even when the pace accelerates and the energy rises, to then slowly come back down. I also found a dancing community.

I always loved Village Festivals, la fête de la musique, and Carnivals that reclaim outside spaces. Those dances that are free and shared by the community.

I also explored Festnoz and Dances from Brittany where each music invites a series of foot movements and tells a story. Everyone holds each other by the little finger and do the same movements while moving in the space, one can enter and exit the dance fluidly, there is a very strong feeling of coming together.

Today, I remain curious, and continue to discover practices of dance and movement exploration.

Costume Designer

 I always liked to dress up when I danced. For me, the two are inseparable.

This led me to do trainings in Fashion Design, Dresser and in Costume Design for Performance.

My costumes are part of a carnival culture, a space to transgress social roles, genders, etc.

A queer culture of costume, to play with gender performances and bring social masks down.

An organic culture of costume, to create hybrid beings, to reconnect with our animal, vegetable and mineral bodies.  

I use recycled clothing and materials for ecological and economic purpose.

Composing the old, untying the threads that bind us, letting them melt and dissolve so that new forms can emerge. Being surprised by what wants to be born.

Text and textile have the same root, through sewing, one can rewrite one’s history, reweave one’s web of life, create new forms and change skin.

Experiences

 I worked with different groups of people. Especially with young refugees in foster homes. But also, with people having disabilities in an unmedicalized care facility. With elderly people in a nursing home. And in a halfway housing for people living with mental health issues to support individuals transition from institution to independent living.

Grief

I supported a loved one through illness (cancer) and the end of life. I had to break the taboos around death, organize funerals, and continue to dance the connection beyond death. My practice invites to dance with our ancestors (biological & queer), with the dead and with death itself.

Sexual Trauma

I experienced SGBV (Sexual and Gender-Based Violence) and I took refuge in dance to get by. It has been a long journey to come back into my body and to own my queer sexuality and gender. I am committed to offering this refuge to others. Dancing together to come back to our bodies, to love and liberate ourselves.