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This is one of my top converstaions so far.Â
Tamara aka Cuchira is a one of a kind person who's work is so original and so NEEDED at this time. Our conversation begins with her childhood as an olympic gymnast, her career as a professional dancer and choreographer working with the likes of Madonna, to what she really values the most which is her work helping bring people back to the core of who they really are as human beings. We talk about life and death and her husbands Rubens miraculous recovery after a sudden life threatening illness, and practical ways in which we can all begin to listen to the body more, to help us regulate, heal and grow.
I felt so expanded and on such a beautiful high after this conversation for days on end, its conversations like this that I started this podcast for. There are many ways to work with Tamara online and in person and she has a beautiful retreat in Mexico coming up in November, please scroll down to the bottom for all the links and contact info.
Tamara's Bio:
 Tamara âCuchiraâ Levinson
It all began in 1976, when Tamara was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to loving, extraordinary parents who made space for her artistry and expression to unfold without interference, only support. This is where the work was first born. Her earliest memory is at age five, alone in her room, moving, sounding, expressing the ancestral pain she carried into this world through her body, along with any residual energies she absorbed. For young Tamara, somatic therapy had no name, nor had she been taught to do it, it was innate. And because there was no conditioning that shamed her for this instinctive release, she continued throughout her entire life, now 50 years in. It became her lifeâs work. Not from a book or a school, but from the classroom of life.
This explains much of Tamaraâs accomplishments; all born from passion, raw talent, and an unmatched discipline learned from her immigrant parents, determined to create a comfortable life for their family in the United States of America.At fifteen, the American dream materialized when she qualified for the 1992 Olympic Games in rhythmic gymnastics. Tamara still holds the American record for the highest placement ever achieved in a nonâboycotted World Championships or Olympic Games. After a successful athletic career, she retired at nineteen and moved to New York City to become a professional dancer.This was a new world in every way; from how her body was trained to move, to finally having the chance to discover herself as a human being. Dance opened her mind to how movement could become the paintbrush of her internal world. And New York City gave her the freedom to explore herself without rules or expectations. Immersed in the vogue and underground dance scene of the 1990s, Tamara was breathing the artistry and raw expression she had channeled as that fiveâyearâold wilding out in her room.That energy manifested into dancing alongside Madonna on three world tours, and with pop artists such as Avril Lavigne, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Ricky Martin, and more. She helped create a Broadway show based on Bob Dylanâs music with the legendary Twyla Tharp, curated performance art pieces throughout the city, and eventually felt her Argentine roots rise again when offâBroadway called. She joined the immersive, aerial, avantâgarde theatre group âDe La Guardaâ and âFuerzabrutaâ, where she scaled walls to strobe lighting and rave music, bungee-jumped off ceiling rafters, bodyâslammed and slid wildly across a massive mylar pool suspended above the audienceâs heads. One could say Tamara lived it all without apology.She later spent time in Los Angeles, expanding her dance and choreography career into television, stage, music videos, and film; including choreographing the aerial scenes with Zendaya and Hugh Jackman in âThe Greatest Showmanâ.Yet even with a dream rĂŠsumĂŠ, something was missing; that fiveâyearâold who longed for primitive, raw emotional expression. This led her to begin teaching dance from an emotive point of view. But it wasnât as simple as asking dancers to retreat from choreography and feel; that felt too frightening for many. So she entered through YogaDance: a creation born during her yoga teacher training, when she was asked to design a sequence. When she demonstrated it, she was told she couldnât connect two postures with such creative, flowing transitions. YogaDance took off, and Tamara taught it at festivals and studios around the world.Naturally, it evolved into what later became MovMEANT; long before somatic therapy was widely known, when people called her âthe crazy dancing lady.â They arrived curious and left transformed. That shift became the trajectory in MovMEANT: somatic activation classes that inspired aliveness. But in time, Tamara noticed that the lack of integration left her students feeling abandoned after âgetting somatically highâ of the classes. And by then, she had been working through her own wounds and traumas, just as she had as a little girl, calling something from deep within. She knew, something deeper was calling. As usual, she followed her instincts without hesitation.Thus, a private practice emerged from her studentsâ need to integrate the deep work done in her classes. And again, the work deepened : beyond body, beyond narrative â into the realms of trauma work, emotional intelligence, shadow work, lifeâdoula guidance, and somatic philosophy.Not much has changed from the fiveâyearâold channeling ancient, primitive energy in her bedroom, to the adult who now guides people toward that same source. The only difference is that now she has words for it. What makes Tamaraâs work unique among somatic therapy or shadowâwork modalities is that it is not a method or a system â it is a Godâgiven talent she came to earth with, to help people free themselves and honor their authentic self. To help them realize that each person carries an innate gift longing to be seen and shared in this lifetime. Her work gives space to the rawness of humanity. The parts of us that donât need to be educated and tamed, but released into the wild.Tamara, also known as Cuchira (her superhero name), offers retreats, online classes, an anger course coming soon, and 1:1 sessions online or in person if you can make your way to Portugal, where she now resides.
