Happy Spring!

Wishing you peace and joy as you partake in quiet moments, seasonal holidays, parades, and festivals. Looking forward to seeing you in a class or at an event!

Get more information about classes and events by clicking the In-Person or Zoom tab on this website.

Email: jmhughes5678@gmail.com

Upcoming

Mind-Body Health

Mondays, 1-2:30 pm, Stonestown YMCA Annex, ongoing, free

Folk, Line, and Social Dance

Fridays, 1-2:30 pm, Stonestown YMCA Annex, ongoing, free

Zoom Classes: Tai Chi and Chair Yoga

Tuesday and Thursday evenings, 1st 3 weeks each month.

Cha Cha Cha Dance Lesson and Live Music for Dancing, April 4

SF Community Music Center, 7-7:30 pm, live music fr0m 7:45-9pm. Family friendly!

Creative Dance for Older Adults, begins April 1

Wednesdays 1-2:30 pm, Miraloma Park Clubhouse

Free Salsa Dance Lessons, March 24 & April 28

Please fill out these required forms:

Sports Basement Waiver, for Sports Basement.

Registration Form, for Jeanne.

Schedule:

Earlybirds, to help move furniture out of the way: 4:45 pm-5pm
Check-in and set-up, 5pm.
Beginning class 5:15 pm
Intermediate class 6-7pm
Practice 7-7:30 pm

Stonestown Sports Basement Community Room, cement floor.

This is an experiment! Let's see if this is a good place to dance. Family friendly.

My interests include the creative and healing aspects of movement, as well as the sense of community that develops in movement classes and production projects. I enjoy working with people of all ages and am currently teaching classes designed for older adults, with the goal of cultivating skill, wellness, and happiness.

I draw on years of studying and teaching dance, yoga, meditation, fitness, and tai chi to students of diverse backgrounds, ages, and abilities. My intention is that the inclusive classes I teach will foster a sense of community, reduce stress, enhance creativity, and promote mind-body wellness.

I enjoy teaching participants how to modify movement to address their personal needs and goals. This includes anyone who wants to improve the health of their brain and body, who is mobile and ready to safely explore community movement classes that address:

Moving with awareness to decreases stress and improve mental and physical fitness for everyday life
Fall prevention, balance, coordination, osteoporosis, arthritis, pain, dementia, brain injury, or other neurological conditions such as Parkinson's Disease and Muscular Sclerosis,
The process of recovering from injury/illness

If you are a beginner or someone returning to exercise

You may look forward to gradually building strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, agility, and confidence in your physical and mental abilities.

If you are a more experienced mover

You might appreciate these classes as an addition to your existing training schedule, an option for your "easy-day" workout, or a chance to slow down and reflect on your movement/mind in the name of wellness maintenance and/or injury prevention.

Everyone may notice that a single class brings a feeling of rejuvenation. However, please note that more profound benefits come from consistent practice over time.

With that in mind, I encourage you to cultivate a variety of enjoyable movement and meditation practices to help keep your body and mind healthy in the long run, and to experience more ease in daily life. Whether you do that in my classes or elsewhere, I wish you the best.

Please consult your medical professional for exercise safety guidelines tailored to your specific needs. I am not a medical doctor.

Do you have questions/concerns about any of the classes offered?

If so, please email me for clarification and guidance in selecting the right class for your current needs.

Best wishes,

Jeanne

(Pronounced "Jeannie", she/her)

Jeanne-Marie Hughes, Ph.D.

jmhughes5678@gmail.com

Special thanks to everyone who has supported my work over the years: family, friends, teaching assistants, students, and colleagues.

Please note that I maintain this website myself and appreciate feedback about anything that needs fixing.

Adventures

Redwoods In & Around San Francisco

Research has shown that being around trees is beneficial to our mental and physical health, reducing anxiety and depression. All trees are beneficial, however this blurb is focused on the California Redwoods. A walk in the redwoods can be a balm to the soul while also being a gentle-to-intense workout, depending on which redwoods and trails you visit.

Living near the California Coast, we have access to many awe inspiring and peaceful redwood groves, some within city limits. Recently, I took a road trip from SF to Southern Oregon and a huge part of the highway was lined with redwoods and plenty of redwood parks to visit. There are also Redwoods to the south of the city and to the east of San Francisco. Below are a few links to help you explore the redwoods in whichever way best suits you.

SF Botanical Gardens Venues to Visit

Scroll down at this link to watch the "Magical and Timeless" video that highlights special places in the botanical garden, including the redwood grove.

Redwood Park at the Transamerica Pyramid in downtown SF

The Transamerica Building and Redwood Park were renovated from 2022-2024 and are now a welcoming respite from the hustle and bustle of downtown. It's located a short walk from Chinatown and North Beach. Includes comfortable outdoor seating, paths, and a café adjacent to the park. Indoors is a café and comfortable seating with big windows that open to the redwoods and an art/architectural exhibit. Read more about the park, arts, concerts, exhibitions, and events at the Transamerica Center.

Four Peaceful Redwood Groves in Golden Gate Park

Each of thes groves is a nice place for a stroll or picnic. You can even do an extended walk and visit all four in one day!

Save the Redwoods League

Learn about the Redwoods and plan a trip to see them.

Map of the Coast Redwoods and Giant Sequoias in California

Interested in learning about where the giant trees are in California? If so, take a look at this map that shows basic facts and locations of both the California Redwoods and the Giant Sequoias.

Projects

Producing, Directing, Choreography, Research, Teaching

Choreography, Performances, Events, School Shows, Wedding Officiant, Quinceñeras, Parades, Educational Programming, Residential and Workplace classes and workshops.

Experience with all ages and skill levels.

Research projects and teaching related to health and wellness across the lifespan...the arts (especially dance!), language, movement, mind-body health, dementia, meditation, breathing, healthy eating, diversity, community building.

I accept a limited number of projects each year. Please email me about your project to see if we are a good match.

Performing with

Alex Hosmer

Mission Dolores Basilica, December 2023

Concert: Navidad en la Misión with Community Music Center Choirs—with Coro CMC del Centro Latino de San Francisco and CMC Solera Singers of Mission Neighborhood Center with Coro de Camara and students of Beth Wilmurt. Special appreciation goes to Martha Rodriguez-Salazar and Jennifer Peringer for the invitation to perform at this lovely event.

About Me

Ph.D. Education, Capella University

M.F.A., Dance, Mills College

B.A. Dance, Mills College

Six Thumbs Dance Theatre, Founder/Director, 1985-1995

During the ebb and flow of the pandemic, I focused on facilitating a sense of community in the places I teach, with an emphasis on encouraging myself and others to move our bodies and minds in a variety of ways. I was certified and began teaching Tai Chih Chih, Tai Chi for Arthritis & Fall Prevention, and Love Your Brain Yoga - a form of yoga focused on teaching those who have been impacted by traumatic brain injuries. I became an Accessible Yoga Ambassador, completed the ACEs Aware/Toxic Stress Certification, studied mindfulness with Mindful Schools, and trained so that I could teach college classes online, including yoga, folk dance, and salsa dance! As an independent teacher, I started, and continue, to offer movement classes via Zoom on a pay-what-you-can basis. More recently, I have trained with the Bone Health and Osteopososis Foundation and am currenlty working towards certification in Tai Chi for Osteoporosis.

For 36 years I was a faculty member at City College of San Francisco (CCSF). Courses taught in the Physical Education and Dance Department include Modern Dance, Jazz Dance, Ballet, Ballroom Dance, Salsa and Latin American Dances, International Folk Dance, European Folk Dance, CCSF Dance Repertory Company, Dance Production (Modern, Ballroom, Folk, Salsa), Dance History, Teaching Movement (A lecture class for future dance, PE, and yoga teachers), all levels of Yoga, Intensive Yoga, Yoga Movement, Aerobics, Resistance Training, Body Sculpting, and, Analysis of Folk, Social and Ballroom Dance. Courses taught in the Older Adults Department include Body Dynamics and Mind-Body Health.

During my time at CCSF I organized and hosted several multicultural dance performances, parties, workshops, and festivals each year. Examples of these events include: The Blossom International Folk Dance Festival; The San Francisco Free Folk Festival; The SF Kolo Dance Festival; AXIS Dance Company Workshop and Performance; Colombian Ethnic Dance Workshops; Romanian Dance Workshops; Alaskan Dance Workshop; Dances for All Ages Workshops; and, Filipino Dance Workshop. Each semester, for over 25 years, I produced the CCSF Salsa and/or Ballroom Dance Party, and, the CCSF Low-Tech Dance Performance, an informal performance featuring dance work by CCSF faculty, students, and alum. I directed Working, an ongoing dance performance series presenting the work of CCSF dance students, alum, and other local choreographers. I also served as the the Faculty Advisor of Shall We Dance, a CCSF partner social dance club and the Latin and Social Dance Club.

In response to CCSF student interest I authored the CCSF Certificate of Accomplishment in Yoga Instruction and directed the program as a volunteer for two years. For this certificate program, I created a new course, Teaching Movement, designed to help future dance, yoga, and PE teachers gain a foundation in the theory and practice of teaching movement to students of all ages. To assist students in gaining experience as yoga teachers, I sponsored and supervised a series of student-led yoga workshops, which were free to the community. These included: Yoga taught in Spanish, Family Yoga, Yoga Taught in Italian, and Restorative Yoga.

An Emerita Lecturer at San Francisco State University, I taught in the Kinesiology Department for 35 years. The courses I taught include Fitness and Conditioning, Individualized Weightlifting, Yoga, Aerobics, Step Aerobics, Posture, Personal Fitness Programming, and Ballroom Dance. I authored and taught the course Fitness, Wellness, and the Global Perspective, for which students studied physical activities from around the world, methods of cultivating personal wellness, and global public policies related to wellness. Additionally, students were guided to design, implement, and evaluate an 8-week personal wellness program.

There is more to tell about me...like all of the work I've done with kids pre-K to high school, my research and lived experiences about what keeps college students in school, my role as a wedding officiant, yoga classes I designed and taught for infertility and neo-natal death, my choreographic works, and the 10 years I directed a dance company...but, those stories are for another time!

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