To resilience, gumption, and collective effervescence - welcome to The Movement Kitchen
BIO:
Emily Navarra-Meftah (she/her/they) is a NAMA Certified Ayurvedic Counselor, Chef & Ayurvedic Yoga Practitioner / movement educator & therapist / dancer & choreographer / producer / artivist / conflict resolution artist. in Dance Studies from the University of South Florida and a Certificate of Completion in Authentic Movement Training from the European Society of Authentic Movement in Munich, Germany. For the past 17 years, she has worked as a dance movement therapist and authentic movement educator facilitating one-on-one healing sessions for refugees of The Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East. From 2015-2017, Emily designed a reconciliation program for American Veterans involved in the My Lai Massacre as a means to create a time for forgiveness with surviving family members of this massacre in Vietnam. This program was funded by the Public Broadcasting Service. Emily has worked under various choreographers such as Iñaki Azpillaga and Wim Vandekeybus (Ultima Vez) and Lloyd Newson (DV8 Physical Theatre), as well as presented her work in the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the United Kingdom. She is the founder of The Melting Pot, an Art, Dance, and Music Festival held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which has served as a platform for the arts, encouraged engagement in cultural exchange, and brought greater access to the arts for the general public of HCMC since 2011. She formed Standpoint Theories in 2012, an international experimental multimedia performance collective. From 2013-2015, it transformed into its next installation - “Legends of Vietnam,” which retold six Vietnamese legends through dance, visual art, text, and live music featuring singer/songwriter Le Cat Trong Ly. Emily was featured and recognized in the Contemporary Performance Almanac 2015 for Standpoint Theories. In 2015, she founded The Movement Kitchen, where she offers creative community outreach experiences and movement-based workshops for the general public with an aim to spread knowledge about movement as a therapy, bring cultures together, and encourage self-expression. She was a TED Talks keynote speaker in 2016, speaking on the topic of The Importance of Collaboration in the Arts. Additionally, she is the recipient of four Civil Society grants from the United States Consulate of Ho Chi Minh City. She resided overseas for over a decade in North Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia and moved back to Chicago in late 2018. After her move back stateside, she co-founded Holding Common Ground: Pathways to Cultural Exchange in Vietnam, a cyclical dance seminar that brings together dance artists and scholars from the USA and Vietnam to participate in panel discussions, lectures, workshops, and dance performances that celebrate cultural diplomacy. It reinforces the US/Vietnamese legacy of reconciliation and continues to build these relationships through cultural diplomacy for the future of art, education, and freedom of expression in Vietnam. THE MOVEMENT KITCHEN'S PROCESS + VALUES + MISSION:
My practice is focused on the influences of culture and exchange. As a creator, my work focuses on the intent and standard of basic fundamentals and explores all things primitive - primitive thinking, primitive methods, primitive movements. Through my community-based work, I am known for signaling to neighborhoods that through movement and community, change is possible. My work is about reaching communities, revealing what’s possible, and providing an outlet for positive and productive actions to take shape in order to increase communal positivity. I dedicate time to creating an environment of warmth and safety to gather, move, communicate, and exchange. As an educator, I support the process of developing new work and enriching communities through access to the creative process in a setting that encourages experimentation and development of one's craft. I believe in deeply engaging with communities through cultural exchange and public programming. I strive to create work that celebrates diversity and inclusivity. I believe cultural exchanges are an integral part of cultural diplomacy. I believe in establishing, developing, and sustaining relations with foreign states and peoples by way of culture, community, art, and education. I believe artists’ voices are needed in all areas of our society, and exchanges are one great way to infiltrate ideas as an artist into new territory. Through cultural exchange and public outreach programming, communities can deliver their work to new audiences to create more change within culture.
“Projects led by local artists show a community that they themselves have agency and impact.” - The Movement Kitchen
THE MOVEMENT KITCHEN - EASTERN MEDICINE BACKGROUND:
The Movement Kitchen began studying Traditional Vietnamese and Chinese medicine at the Hai-Thuong School in Saigon, Vietnam, in 2012. From the very beginning of her practice, the teachings of Hâi Thuong Lê Hû’u Trac (a Vietnamese medical practitioner, 1720-1791) have greatly influenced her. His methods were very simple and strictly based on the Yin/Yang balance of each individual. Through these methods, one can understand the energy network and balance in the human body. TMK supports clients according to their general energy situation through Sino-Vietnamese pulse diagnosis (pulsology), evaluating bodily conditions and addressing imbalances. TMK continued her education in Ayurveda and Ayurvedic Yoga in 2013 in Southeast Asia and later at the Narayana Ayurveda and Yoga Academy in Austin, Texas. She graduated in 2018 upon her return stateside as an Ayurveda Wellness Counselor and Ayurvedic Yoga Practitioner and is board-certified through the National Ayurvedic Medical Association. Her Ayurvedic practice focuses on a client’s constitution (Prakruti and Vikruti), dosha, agni, āma, and dhātu imbalances. She also prepares custom-fit Ayurvedic dietary and lifestyle programs, detox and rejuvenation plans, and herbal formulas based on Vedic teachings.
