About Erika

Erika Berland, a Certified Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering (R), is a nationally Registered Movement Therapist RSMT) and practiced as a Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) for over 2 decades. She has an extensive background as a dance and movement teacher as well as a performer and has taught workshops in experiential anatomy and dance applications of Body-Mind Centering in numerous studios, schools, and universities throughout the US and Europe. Erika was a founding faculty of the MFA Theater: Contemporary Performance Program at Naropa University (2004-2020) where she developed a program integrating meditation, somatic movement training and dharma art principles. She and her partner, Wendell Beavers have offered independent training and workshops through their company, Somatic Performer for over 10 years.

An early student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the meditation master and founder of Naropa University, Erika is a long-time student and teacher of meditation. Her areas of research include the integration of meditation practice and view in the Buddhist tradition with performance techniques as well as the development of somatic practices as a resource for the meditator. She has presented her workshop, “Sitting: The Physical Art of Meditation”, based on her book of the same title published in 2017, throughout the US.  She has also been a member of the teaching team for Naropa University’s Extended Campus Mindfulness Compassion Initiative; WELCOME, since the program’s launch in 2017. Her courses, lectures and guided meditations have been featured over many years on Shambhala Online as well as at Shambhala Meditation and Retreat Centers worldwide.

In addition to her book Sitting: The Physical Art of Meditation (Somatic Performer LLC 2017), her other publications include  Somatic Training for Actors with the Principles of Body-Mind Centering(R) 2nd ed.  Movement for Actors (edited by Nicole Potter, Alworth Press 2017).

A Dramaturgy of Embodiment, Accessing the Expressivity of the Body through Study and Practice of Experiential Anatomy  Physical Dramaturgy (Routledge 2018)

She is also a contributor to Discovering Sanity: Mindfulness in Solitary Confinement by Gary Allen (Mindfulness Peace Project) published in 2016.