Dancing is my passion. I danced as a child, through my teenage years, and into adulthood, and my elder years. I helped found a swing dance that continues to hold dances more than 30 years later. I’ve been part of the collective holding our local ecstatic dance for decades. I hold Dance Church and other dances in the dance space I built on my land. But I’ve also lived a professional life dedicated to social change - founding a public interest law firm. After retiring from law, I began to explore personal and social transformation through ritual. When I experienced Biodanza, the various threads of my soul’s journey became clear. It is my dream that New World R&D grows regular practices of ritual and dance in communities everywhere. And that together, we can reclaim the love and kindness that can anchor a truly beautiful and human culture.

I am committed to creating bridges. I've danced my whole life, discovering conscious dance about twenty years ago. I know the dance as a place where I can experience, and witness, us as divine beings in a mortal existence. Supporting. and spreading, the dance is a way to realize my dream of bridging us all into a different, sustainable, and joyful, way of living. I have worked as an artist and theatrical designer, a scientist, and a statistician. I have held pivotal roles in retreat center management, handled production and promotional work for a national class action law firm, and assisted in the creation of a B2B holistic enterprise integration system. I have led groups and taught classrooms. And I have spent decades searching my soul and learning how to live. This personal and professional work has all been dedicated to a kind of bridging: creating elegant systems to provide support and structure for people, groups and projects looking to bring dreams to manifestation. Bringing myself to New World Ritual & Dance is a great great joy, and I look forward to moving with you soon!

Maira has been working with love and passion at the development of Biodanza for over 20 years.  She is the Director of the Montreal and South West of Quebec School of Biodanza, and she also facilitates and gives workshops  all over the world.   In addition to training Biodanza facilitators and creating powerful Vivencias, Maira has been active in the field of alternative approaches to health, wellness, and joy for almost 40 years as a coach, hypno-coach, ritual guide, breathwork facilitator and artist. Her passion is to see human beings blossom and unfold in all their splendor.  At the heart of her work is a deep belief in the power of the imagination and creative expression to nurture the unfolding of healthy and rich identities and communities.

I have been a spiritual seeker most of my adult life and a dancer my entire life.  My spiritual journey includes following the Buddhist path for many years and leading a Buddhist Sangha.  Eleven years ago I discovered the magic of Biodanza and knew with all my being that I had found a modality of dance which connects me with all of life.  At that point I had a dream of becoming a Biodanza facilitator in order to be of service to humanity by offering weekly Biodanza classes in Massachusetts.

Today my husband, Doug Costello, and I are facilitator trainees under the supervision of the Biodanza School SRT Montreal & Southwest Quebec.  We attended three profoundly moving years of training in Quebec with Maira Martinez, our beloved teacher and school director.  We hold classes in our hometown of Ashland, MA.

I have been a lifelong seeker of truth.  I graduated from the Rhys Thomas School of Energy Medicine and just completed the three-year Biodanza facilitator training program in Southwestern Quebec.  Having recently semi-retired from a career as a forensic accountant, I am looking forward to bringing the magic of Biodanza to mainstream America.