Clara Rubin-Smith McKie

Clara is a lifelong dancer and music-maker, somatic movement educator, songleader, and mother raising two of her greatest teachers. Now making home in western Massachusetts after many years living in San Francisco, California. She is a passionate collaborator and co-conspirator on social action initiatives, skilled at designing participatory arts experiences, community facilitation and capacity-building, and inviting embodied nervous system learning through play.

Clara has a B.A. in Anthropology, Modern Languages and Dance, and her thesis work centered on ways that womxn in Latin America have mobilized social change through dance and music. She is a certified MotherCircle Facilitator, and longtime Biodanza Facilitator, leading in English and Spanish with additional specializations in bringing this practice to youth, organizations and teams; her Biodanza monograph focused on co-creating conditions supportive of growth and wellbeing with families and individuals at any age. She has worked across diverse fields including nonprofits, education and health care, from pregnancy and early childhood to end of life, with an emphasis on communication and community building. In many years as an interdisciplinary teacher and artist, she has focused on building individual and organizational wellbeing working at the intersections of health and the arts, and has been an invited presenter to a wide range of groups and events including a statewide early education conference for teachers and parents. During pandemic times, she created Lullabies for Grownups, a new offering bringing forward singing to ourselves and in community as a centering and regenerative practice, and pathway for evolving how we use our voices in relationship and out in the world. 

As a facilitator, Clara creates circles and sanctuary spaces that help those who hold space for others -- especially caregivers, teachers, and other leaders -- to tap into the wisdom of their bodies, find and use their voices, and step into greater connection, creativity and healing for themselves and this world we live in together.