Dance Instructor - Parkinson’s Dance/Tai Chi

Deborah Magallanes teaches both our Dance For Parkinson’s (Dance For Fun and Balance) and our new Tai Chi Qi Gong classes. She is also part of the international teaching team of Dance for PD® (a Mark Morris Dance Group and Brooklyn PD Support Group project), is a Teaching Artist for the Seattle Theatre Group program and has been teaching dance to persons with movement challenges for more than 15 years. Deborah’s formal training began in the ballet studio of Shirley Ross. Starting in 1975 Deborah studied and performed Northern and Eastern African Dance. In 1992, she began the study of the Chinese arts and dance with Xue Zhi Wang of Beijing China. Deborah was a performer in Pat Graney’s Movement Meditation Project and continues as a Performance Artist with the Chinese Cultural and Arts Association (Wu Dang). In the world of Tai Chi and Qi Gong, Deborah is recognized as a Golden High Master in the Wu Dang Gate Lineage from Wu Dang Mountain Taoist monasteries. She holds a Second Degree Black Belt in martial arts and has won 1st and other high place trophies in Tai Chi Forms competitions at the local, regional and international levels. She is also a Certified Instructor in several Tai Chi For Health® programs and is an East Asian Medicine Practitioner (retired). Martial arts and Traditional Chinese medicine are important components of Tai Chi and Qi Gong practice and study. Her training and rich experience in both these fields allows Deborah to bring these traditions to her Tai Chi and Qi Gong classes making them richer and allowing students to explore this form of exercise and development more fully.