“I think my favorite thing is the students. I really love engaging with them. I never get tired of discovering who someone is and what I might do to help and support them in growing.”

Robin Becker, a dance professor at Hofstra University, has taught at Hofstra for 35 years. In addition to modern dance and choreography, she is teaching a Rabinowitz Honors College seminar this semester. It is open to both dance and non-dance majors.

“I’m teaching a course in the Honors College called ‘Embodiment and the Creative Process,’” she said. “I focus that course on a somatic practice that I’ve taught for 35 years called continuum, and it’s all about the body as a fluid system.”

Becker has practiced continuum for 40 years and was introduced to the somatic practice by its founder, Emily Conrad. She described continuum as a focus on embodiment and learning about the role of the body.

“The body is where every thought we have originates,” Becker said. “I love helping people gain a certain respect for the language of the body and the tempo of the body – which is slower than thinking – and the intelligence of the body.”

Becker said she loves being able to bring continuum to both dancers and non-dancers in her seminar, “what the role of the body is in both perception and learning.”
Becker explained why she believes that continuum can be a beneficial practice to implement daily.

“I have noticed how most of us in this culture need resources to be able to settle our nervous systems and find our own voices and sense of personal authority,” she said. “When we live in a culture of so much demand and speed, it’s very hard to keep one’s sense of ground and confidence.”

Becker often speaks about her experience with continuum in her classes and shares her knowledge with dancers.

“Continuum for me has brought real gifts of how I belong to life and how I can support myself in finding resources to meet the demands of life,” Becker said. “So, I enjoy sharing that with dancers here.”

In her modern dance classes and choreography class, she finds ways to bring elements of continuum to her students.

“I always start with the breath and the nuance of breath and all the ways breath is reflecting our current situation,” she said. “I emphasize all the ways we’re supported by gravity and all the ways we’re supported by our world.”

Not only does Becker see continuum as a beneficial practice for students, but she has also received stories from students telling her that the practices they have learned in class have helped them in stressful situations.

“One student spoke about her anxiety preparing for a law exam and the words were jumping off the screen and she couldn’t put sentences together,” she said. “So, she stopped and did some of the practices she had learned from continuum and found her capacity to focus.”

Stories like these from students have reaffirmed Becker’s feelings about continuum effectiveness as a beneficial practice to bring into her teaching.

Becker said that in her time teaching, she has learned just as much from her students as they have learned from her.

“I feel like I learn from every student. I kind of view each student as a teacher and we’re in this mutual path of discovery,” she said. “Some of the things students say are like lightbulbs that go off in my mind and think, yes, that was absolutely brilliant.”
Becker said that the biggest lesson she’s learned from being a dance professor is about community.

“I see dance as a communal collaborative endeavor,” she said. “We really are all unified. Each one of us is distinct and unique, but we are not separate; we are really one.”

Her one message to her students is, “Never stop being curious. There’s so much to learn, and it’s so exciting to be alive and such a gift to always be curious. Don’t be afraid to learn about something you don’t know anything about.”

Becker expressed her appreciation for the opportunity to continue her career in the arts and live out her passion after so many years.

“I feel like a very lucky human, especially being in the arts,” Becker said. “I still am engaged at my age in what I care about and what I’m passionate about.”