Tatianah Thunberg, LMSW
Spirit Moves:
Where the Expressive and Healing Arts Converge
“Let’s gather. Come sing, dance, and play in the center of what’s here, right now—just as we are.”
The Heart of Gathering
My creative life is inseparable from my healing arts practice at Spirit Moves LLC. I’m a devoted community weaver, and I believe in the power of gathering in these fractured times. When we come together, we witness one another’s beauty, open to our shared vulnerability, and co-create a field where relational and artistic resonance blossoms. I take great joy in co-creating spaces where tenderness, aliveness, and creative expression can thrive—where the capacity to play expands through our shared presence.
The Art of Facilitation
I am an enthusiastic event producer and experiential facilitator, with over three decades of experience gathering community, crafting curriculum and leading expressive and healing arts classes, groups, programs, playshops, and retreats that awaken the body, soften the armor of protection, and invite connection and creativity to reemerge. My work draws from a rich tapestry of influences, all centered in the spontaneous intelligence of play.
My introduction to experiential facilitation began in the 1990s through adventure challenge programs and outdoor trip leadership, where nature and healthy risk-taking are powerful teachers of trust, resilience, and group cohesion. I carried that foundation into my clinical social work practice, leading experiential group programming in hospitals, schools, and community-based settings.
Yoga, Partner Yoga & Thai Massage
In 2006, after completing my Kripalu yoga teacher certification, I expanded my facilitation work to include teaching yoga at schools, studios and retreat centers. I was especially drawn to the relational nature of partner and acro yoga and began offering workshops in collaboration with Nina Eusani and later, Connor Otto.
Nina also introduced me to Thai Yoga Massage, and I eagerly enrolled when Michelle Tupko brought Paul Fowler’s Blue Lotus Thai certification program to Sun Moon Yoga in Ann Arbor, where I was teaching at the time. Kelly Kempter served as the assistant in that program, and together we launched Sacred Breath Healing Studies in 2012, co-leading monthly Thai Yoga Massage workshops and seasonal retreats for five years.
During the pandemic, when my position teaching semester long yoga courses at Washtenaw Community College shifted to an online format, I chose to pause this aspect of my career and turned my focus more fully toward leading ceremony and singing—where my creative energy continues to unfold. My years of studying and teaching yoga and Thai Yoga massage still inform my understanding of the voice as a full-body instrument—guiding me in attuning to the nervous system, creating safety through presence, and opening somatically to the subtle vibrations of sound.
Improvisation As Lifelong Play
As a neurodivergent human, I’ve always been drawn to spontaneous movement and sound as a way to soothe, express, and come home to myself—what I later came to understand as stimming. This impulse has been my compass, leading me to explore many movement and expressive arts practices across my lifespan. At the heart of them all is my love of improvisation as a communal act of devotion and play—a return to the unscripted moment where breath becomes gesture, feeling becomes melody in motion, and the individual dance, rhythm, and story find the groove within a collective jam.
As a child, improvisational movement was my jam—gymnastics, acrobatics, dancing, skating, skiing, swimming, rock climbing and more. Whether on land or submerged in water, moving my body freely was pure joy. By high school, movement became more than play; it became a practice. I discovered the exhilaration of improvisational and choreographed dance and the pure magic of call-and-response dancing to live percussion—something I continue to explore with drum and dance teachers, Julie Kouyate and Asia Sikkila.
In college, I studied all the forms dance they offered and took a Contact Improvisation dance course at Naropa Institute (1991). I continued this practice locally and regionally throughout the Great Lakes Area for several decades. Contact improv nurtured my capacity for attunement, trust, and intimacy—offering a playful and strenuous exploration of sharing weight, momentum, and flow with one or more dancers.
In 2001, my yoga teacher, Gail Rucker, invited me to join a peer led Authentic Movement circle, a non-performative exploration of moving with eyes closed while being compassionately witnessed. This practice expanded my capacity to listen inwardly and move from impulse and felt sensation, as well as to hold space with presence and non-judgment while witnessing others. I still practice weekly through the groups that Stefanie Cohen leads in Ann Arbor. Her long-standing commitment to movement improvisation and her spacious facilitation style have been a source of inspiration in my own practice.
Around the same time, I discovered improvisational theater and joined a peer group sparked by Lee Edwards, who eventually brought
InterPlay to Michigan. Improv theater offered me the thrill of spontaneous storytelling—inhabiting characters that mirrored parts of myself and others—and the emotional resonance that arises when insight and connection unfold in real time. That same year, I attended Peggy Rubin Nash's annual Sacred Theater retreat in Michigan. Moved by her wise, attuned and evocative facilitation and the intergenerational circle of students I joined, I returned year after year—for a decade.
During this era, I also studied with Nell Weatherwax, a contact dance and theater improv artist based in Bloomington, Indiana, who led theater improv workshops at our dance retreats. One of her favorite mantras—“dare to suck!”—remains a humorous and grounding reminder that when improvising it's best practice to embrace beginners mind, jump in and take a risk, regardless of how poorly the inner critic thinks it may go.
In 2012, I was captivated by the improvisational practice of ecstatic dance, became a production assistant for Michael Peter’s Dance Meditation Technique, and by 2018, I was one of the hosts of Dance Church—our local weekly ecstatic dance gathering that completed its run during the pandemic. I continue to create ecstatic dance playlists for retreats and enjoy attending the offerings that have emerged post-pandemic.
Voice as a Path to Belonging
I grew up singing in church and school choirs and played a few roles in musical theater productions. I loved the rehearsal process—the harmonies, shared focus, and sense of creative collaboration—but often found performance stressful. When I discovered community singing within the context of ceremonial gatherings in the 1990s, I found my niche: not performing for an audience, but everyone singing together—for the sake of connection, presence, and devotion.
For about 15 years, my community singing practice was organized around ceremonies honoring the seasons, holidays and cycles of life. In 2011, this practice expanded when beloved local song leader Carol Bardenstein welcomed me into her community singing circle and introduced me to a broader context of community singing culture. Her enthusiastic community weaving, generous leadership and inclusive spirit encouraged my exploration of group singing far and wide as well as my interest in stepping into song leadership.
That same year, Trevor Eller began leading Kirtan at the yoga studio where I taught classes. I quickly volunteered to be his response chanter and have had the honor of singing with the Full Moon Kirtan Ensemble ever since, inspired by his steady, community-centered approach.
All of the forms of improvisation I had explored as a dancer eventually led me to vocal improvisation. In 2013, my song mates Jeremy Fulwiler, Don Allen, and I began offering vocal improvisation workshops based on this inquiry: what might emerge if we gathered a spontaneous vocal ensemble and toned for 90 minutes with very few guidelines-just to keep listening, follow the sound current, toning, humming and opening to the resounding presence. We discovered it was fantastic and called our practice, Harmonic Voice Meditation. We shared it locally and at festivals until Don passed in 2021.
Singing in community gave me a visceral sense of belonging to something greater than myself—something hard to explain, yet deeply felt. In Kirtan, it’s called the bhav—a shared devotional mood that arises when our chanting to the divine reaches a state of resonance. The shared breath, the layering of harmonies, the vibration moving through the room—voice becomes more than expression. It becomes a practice of connection, an embodied remembrance that I am, and we are, part of something larger … something ineffable
Collaboration as Practice
This discovery inspired me to begin collaborating with vocal artists and musicians. These creative partnerships continue to shape and inspire me today. As a healing and expressive artist, I’ve always valued co-creating with a diverse team who share a commitment to embodied presence and soulful expression. Working together allows us to support one another’s artistry, co-regulate while co-facilitating, and hold space for what’s emerging in the circle—modeling relational attunement and creative synergy in real time. Below are some of the beloved collaborations I’m honored to be part of at this time.
Weaving A Web of Song Kin
Since 2011, I have been response chanting with Trevor Eller and the Full Moon Kirtan Ensemble which includes: Trevor Chaitanya Eller, Miriam Dowd Eller, Tatianah Thunberg, Marcia Madhavi Mai, Paul Sihon, Mark Maxwell & special guests.
In 2018, Mary Fithian—a beautiful singer, captivating performer, and exquisite cook—joined me in launching a monthly Supper & Sing Circle, which organically evolved into a community-led vocal improvisation jam. To this day, each month a new host in our circle offers their space and leadership to guide this evolving gathering.
In 2022, I began co-leading community singing workshops with Julie Kouyate, a prolific song catcher and gifted song leader. We continue to collaborate on song ceremonies, workshops, and retreats. Julie has a unique gift for adorning spaces with exquisite beauty, creating an environment that evokes awe and reverence as we sink into soothing song.
In August 2022, at the first annual Yoga Gathering organized by Trevor Eller at Triple Crane Retreat Center, there were two creative collaborations that emerged. One was with vocal improv artist Beth Patterson—a gifted recording artist, song leader, and founder of the vocal improv group Trybal Revival in Kalamazoo. That fall, Beth and I began weaving regional connections among the vocal improv communities in Southwest and Southeast Michigan, inviting one another to travel across the state to jam. We invited Kath Weider—a gifted vocalist, voice teacher, and vocal improvisation artist based in Ann Arbor—to join us in this emerging collaboration.
The second collaboration was with my soul sister, Lyndsey Scott. We met at a song ceremony in 2012. Throughout the pandemic, I found nourishment in attending her online groups, where she wove community singing with themes of collective healing and liberation. She joined us at the Yoga Gathering to lead a Well Held song circle, and soon after, we began planning her return visit to Michigan to co-lead a community singing retreat. We called it Lush Up Our Spirits and the two of us produced and co-facilitated it in 2023 & 2024, with guest artists Beth Patterson, Kath Weider and Carol Bardenstein. For our third annual Lush Up retreat in April 2025, Kath, Beth and I welcomed new voices into the circle—song leaders Julie Kouyate and Matú Étienne Kurzawa—while Carol and Lyndsey stepped back to tend to other opportunities.
For two years, Beth, Kath, Carol and I followed Lush Up with Fall Into Harmony—a daylong autumn retreat blending experiential play, community singing, vocal improvisation, and ecstatic dance.
In 2024, to help build a more experienced local community of vocal improv artists, I assisted Kath in launching, shaping and recruiting students for The Vocal Lab, a weekly vocal improvisation class, held in her Ann Arbor Studio for Vocal Alchemy, which is now entering its fifth series. Collaborating with Kath and engaging with her repertoire has broadened my capacity as a community singer, and greatly expanded my vocal improvisation practice.
The ripples of these collaborations continue to evolve, carried by our shared intention to nourish and grow the vocal improvisation and community singing communities across Michigan and beyond.
I am looking forward to these emergent collaborations this summer and fall: with Asia Sikkila, a skilled basket weaver, textile artist and clothing designer, she and I are offering Harvest Basket and Song Weaving workshops. In October, my voice teacher Dory Mead and I co-facilitated Vocal Wilds—our first vocal improv retreat together—alongside the gifted music therapist, expressive artist, vocalist and recording artist Irene Soléa Antonellis. And in the New Year, Julie Kouyate and I will continue our offering of the song ceremony, Mandala.
Current Vocal Arts Studies
In 2023, I began studying voice and vocal improvisation with Dory Mead through her Mead Performing Arts program. Dory disarmed me with her warmth, ease, and precise skill in teaching singers of all levels. She continues to introduce me to a vast landscape of what my voice can do and has consistently supported my growth as both a song leader and vocal improvisation artist.
In 2024, I began studying frame drumming and ceremonial arts with singer, song writer, percussionist and priestess, Dede Alder. Her mentorship has expanded my rhythmic vocabulary and opened new channels for embodied prayer, rhythm, and song. I’m looking forward to continuing this journey in her next six-month intensive, Stepping Into Your Power, beginning in September 2025.
In 2025, I was so inspired by the book, The Singing Athlete, by Andrew Byrne that I searched for a certified practitioner to study with near Michigan. I was thrilled to find Neuro Athletics and began studying in the spring with Amie Debrone, who is based in Kitchener, Ontario, and I look forward to hosting her for a Michigan workshop in 2026. Stay tuned!
Gratitude for All My Teachers
I learn so much from my song and dance kin—each collaboration a living exchange of wisdom, wonder, and presence. I am deeply grateful for the ways their artistry and leadership have shaped and inspired my own. These relationships continue to nourish my path, and it is an honor to co-create spaces where we can return—again and again—to breath, to voice, to belonging, and to the beauty that emerges when we truly listen to and feel the pulse, the melody, and the movement—together.
Let’s Gather: Check out the upcoming gatherings I’m collaborating on—you’ll find them on my Let's Sing Together page.