Erica Ross offers her wisdom of her life experience as a dancer, art graduate, group and workshop facilitator, certified hypnotherapist, life mentor, traveller and mother.

Erica comes from a lineage of dancers- where home was a place of dance! Her dance training started early, and continued through her youth. Erica's spiritual journey began in 1973 after graduating from high school when she took a trip through Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia as an impassioned seeker. Since then, she has been developing herself personally and professionally. Her heart-centered work is a synthesis of this life journey - she's a pioneer in the field of dance, imagery and relaxation as a healing path, and has been teaching people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds, with compassion, clarity, enthusiasm, and inspiration. She loves sharing what she knows to be true- body/mind/spirit are one, life is movement, movement is healing, and the divine lives in each of us.

Erica continues to travel and has lived in different parts of the world exploring a variety of modalities:

• Dance - Training in Russian ballet, creative, folk, flamenco, modern, African, ecstatic and belly; improvisational dance performer
• Visual Arts - OCA graduate, enamellist, jeweller, clothing designer, maker & wholesaler, collage, mosaics, and plaster worker
• Expressive Arts - Training in African drumming, mythic writing and voice work
• Spiritual Arts - Training in reiki, chi kung, tai chi, visualization, meditation and breath work
• Healing Arts - Training in hypnotherapy (certified), empathy, focusing and compassionate listening techniques.

Erica Ross is a creatrix of unique programmes designed for the liberation and ease of the heart, soul, breath, mind and body such as Body Temple, Journey and Journal, Sound Body-Sound Heart and Spirit Dance. She creates and facilitates ongoing groups at Sheena's Place, a not-for-profit organization helping people with eating disorders. She leads workshops at the North York General Hospital for teens with eating disorders. She has a private practice as a life mentor and facilitator- using any combination of movement, breath, imagery, relaxation, ritual, art and talking.

Erica, along with Nan Keyser, has created special programmes such as Transcendance: Dance as a Healing Path, Gate of the Goddess, Dance Our Way Home, The Great Thaw, The Dark Embrace and Warm by the Fire. As Expressive Healing, they continue to grow and collaborate together.

Erica created and taught relaxation and expression classes for elementary grades in the Toronto Board of Education, relaxation sessions for Fairlawn Neighbourhood Centre and Central Neighbourhood House, and a kid's movement workshop for Diabetes Day at The Hospital for Sick Children. Erica wrote the module for the YMCA 'Let's Dance' Camps, and was the dance programme director and teacher of parent & child expressive dance classes for YMCA's Family Development Centre.

Erica's the co-founder, treasurer and DJ of The Move Dance Collective, a weekly dance event for a thriving ecstatic dance community in Toronto. Erica has been featured in the Globe and Mail Newspaper, Vitality Magazine, CIUT and CKLN Radio, and OMNI TV. Last year she ventured off her path to produce the successful 1st International Fantasy Film Festival in Toronto, Fantasy Worldwide International Film Festival. Presently, Erica is training as an Expressive Mind/Body Trauma Therapist with Zan Redcrow of Mountain Stream School in Toronto. She is writing an inspirational book about the dance and flow of life.

Contact: Erica