08/07/2025
Over 20 years ago, I met a man with back pain.
I was 22. Just a kid. Not even sober yet.
Freshly moved from Queens to Manhattan.
Studying at NYU by day, training clients by night. Hungry to help.
Joe Salvatore was one of my first clients. He’d just started working at NYU as a Professor.
He walked into the gym in pain—and I remember feeling this fierce desire to help him feel better.
I didn’t have the polish yet. But maybe what Joe saw in me was the earnestness… the wanting to help.
And he stayed.
And we trained.
And he healed.
Then—he started running. Then marathons.
Then, a life unfolded—grief, joy, creation, loss.
I was there when he lost his partner far too soon.
And I watched him keep living—with strength, with humor, with integrity.
And I grew too.
The way I train now is nothing like how I did back then.
I’ve learned to listen better.
To soften.
To invite the body to lead.
And Joe stayed with me through that evolution.
Over two decades we’ve done it all: Strength training, breathwork, Qigong, softening, grieving, laughing, listening.
Heart to chest, hand in hand.
A full-bodied friendship.
And now—Joe’s published his first book:
Creating Ethnodrama: A Theatrical Approach to Research with
It’s bold. It’s human. It’s needed.
He also created and built the at NYU - where research is transformed into live performance, and the lines between data and lived experience blur in beautiful, radical ways.
One of my favorite reflections from Joe reminds me exactly why mentorship matters:
“Training with Jonathan taught me that the body always tells the truth. That’s shaped not only how I perform, but how I lead, teach, and listen.”
I’m so proud of who he’s become—
not just as a scholar, teacher, and performer, but as a man who stayed awake through it all.
It’s rare to grow with someone over 20 years.
To walk beside them through transformation.
To be trusted with their body, their story, their becoming.
Joe—thank you for trusting me.
I’m honored to know you.
Here’s to the next 20, and congratulations! 🍾
