Nancy Golike has been a dancer, choreographer, performing artist, and teacher for over twenty years. Her movement career began somewhere around the age of 10, when she picked up a baton and began twirling and doing gymnastics in a friend’s backyard. At 16, determined, she got a job at Wendy’s to finance her dance classes in jazz and tap, and began performing in musicals and marching bands. Nancy went on to receive a BA in Fine Arts with a Dance Minor from the College of William & Mary, and an MFA in Dance from Temple University, where she studied with Hellmut Gottschild in the tradition of German dance theatre. Nancy performed as a modern dancer and dance theatre artist, as well as presenting her own performance work in Philadelphia for ten years. Upon moving to New York in 2003, she fell in love with and immersed herself in the study of African Diaspora dance forms. She has studied with many teachers at Djoniba Dance and Drum and Alvin Ailey Studios and performed at numerous NYC venues. Nancy is currently focusing on Afro-Brazilian percussion and dance, including samba and capoeira, and travels to Brazil for intensive study.

While receiving her MFA in Dance, Nancy began studying pilates, and came under the private tutelage of Master Teacher Karen H. Carlson. She was certified by Ms. Carlson’s Advanced Teacher Training Program, performed as demonstrator in workshops, and was awarded the title of Senior Teacher.

Nancy has taught pilates privately for the past 12 years in Philadelphia, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey, as well as group classes in fitness centers, yoga studios, and in the Dance Department of Bryn Mawr College. Nancy also develops and teaches advanced teacher training workshops for pilates instructors. She has studied Bikram and Astanga yoga, TRX Suspension Training, and is a Certified Reiki Master.

Nancy incorporates the entirety of her journey and experiences into her teaching of movement. Her clients are primarily high performance movers, including professional dancers, choreographers, musicians, performing artists and trainers. Her training approach is from the perspective of biomechanics and functional anatomy. She utilizes pilates as a neuro-muscular and movement organization system to create greater functionality, clarity, strength, ease, assisting her clients be healthy, embodied and expressive in their performance arena, be it dance, athletics, or just moving through life.

Website: www.nancygolike.com