Motion Theater

Specialties

Motion Theater offers workshops in a unique form of autobiographical improvisation and embodied storytelling. The work is uplifting and transformational. Develop your skills in presence, public speaking, writing, and movement. And have a great deal of fun playing with other adults who engage their whole being in interactive creative practices.

History

Established in 1974.

Motion was founded in 1974 by three performance artists exploring the interactive relationship of dance and narrative. Over the decades, Nina Wise crafted «Motion Theater» a unique form of embodied autobiographical narrative. Dedicated to integrated mind, body and spirit, Nina has been performing Motion Theater since the ’90’s and has appeared on stage with such luminaries as Jane Siberry, Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Boorstein, Natalie Goldberg, Marianne Williamson and Jimmy Dale Gilmore. Her students describe the work as deeply mood elevating, uplifting and life changing.

Meet the Business Owner

Nina W.

Business Owner

Nina Wise earned her degree in Religious Studies and the Aesthetics of Movement from UCSC, and has devoted her career to creating performances that address the complex relationship between body, mind and spirit. She is the recipient of 3 NEA fellowships, 3 Marin Arts Council fellowships and her theater pieces have received 7 Bay Area Theater Critics’ Circle Awards. In addition to doing scripted work, Wise creates one-​of-​a-​kind «Motion Theater» performances, a form of autobiographical improvisation. Described by a New York Times columnist as «a metaphysical vaudevillian for the new millennium,» she has performed this original work in theaters, at international conferences, think tanks and the like. Her book, A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life, was published by Broadway Books in 2002 and her stories and articles have been published in numerous anthologies and journals. In 2013 she premiered the Kepler Story at Morrison Planetarium and is planning a world tour of the work.