SomaSpace Teachers

Jacqueline Rubinstein

Director of SomaSpace & Move with Ease

Jacqueline Rubinstein is dedicated to creating space for profound healing through embodiment and awareness. She brings the wealth of knowledge and experience that she has gathered over the last twenty years training and working in creative dance, somatic bodywork, and women empowerment.

Since 2014, she has been the proud owner and director of SomaSpace, a movement arts & healing center. Through the last decade, SomaSpace has evolved into a robust community of embodiment facilitators and healing arts practitioners. Under her guidance, SomaSpace’s offerings have expanded to include not only movement and somatic arts but also sound healing, breathwork, meditation, and authentic connection workshops.

After 20 years of traditional dance training as a child and young adult, Jacqueline fell deeply in love with the innovative and life-affirming world of improvisational movement. Since achieving a bachelor’s degree in dance with a focus on choreography from Wesleyan University, she has led hundreds of creative and embodied movement classes.

Suffering from a severe concussion and a pinched cervical nerve, Jacqueline found a powerfully gentle and insightful somatic healing education called the Feldenkrais Method. She completed the practitioner training and opened her practice in Portland, Oregon in 2011.

After a decade of being in private practice as a Feldenkrais practitioner, Jacqueline craved to reach more people and to introduce them to the opportunities for more holistic, mindful living. She decided to go back to school to complete a master’s degree in the studies of Physician Assistance in order to learn more about the body and medicine, as well as expand her opportunity to teach people who might not otherwise seek out holistic care. 

By day, she serves as a Physician Assistant in cardiology, helping people recover from heart attacks and heart failure and introducing ideas of healthy living through diet, exercise, and stress reduction. And by night, she offers contact improvisation workshops, women’s circles, and clothing swaps among other special events at SomaSpace.

To contact Jacqueline: [email protected]

Carlton Grew

On a humid summer day in 2000, Carlton Grew walked into Scott Kelman’s free introductory improvisation workshop. Carlton joined Kelman’s workshop simply for a new, creative experience. What he discovered led him on a transformational journey that continues today.

Originally uninterested in performance, this improvisation practice led him to perform with The Tuesday Group, the Agnieszka Laska Dancers, and to create an autobiographical piece entitled Bag of Hammers. He is thrilled to have the opportunity to guide others through their own inspiring journeys into creativity, presence, and connection.

To contact Carlton: [email protected]

Eva D’Luscious

Eva D’Luscious is a Certified JourneyDance Guide since 2020. She continues to build her own practice of dancing with her heart. She’s honored to hold space for you to tune into your body and build trust with your own wisdom and power.

She is also known as the High Priestess of Tease. She teaches BodyMagick Burlesque classes and performances. She guides women into their power through dance ritual. And she brings bling & blessings wherever she goes!

Her Portland home is surrounded by a garden, and filled with her husband, two teenage sons, an absurd amount of costumes and outdoor gear, and absolutely no patriarchal BS.​

To contact Eva: www.showgirltemple.com

Laura Li Fong Yee

Laura Li Fong Yee offers sound healing from a place of gratitude, drawing from her practices in breath, sound, yoga, prayer and meditation. She values community, communication, connection, and inclusivity, and strives to create an experience that will leave participants feeling connected, grounded and whole. Laura has worked in the nursing profession since 2004, became certified as a Kundalini Yoga Instructor in 2016, had the honor of learning gong techniques with Don Conreaux, completed a crystal bowl immersion training with Shalom Mayberg in 2018, and completed Tibetan Singing Bowls Level 1 Atma Buti Sound Healing Method in 2022, Level 2 in 2023, and a 300-hr YTT with Sattva Yoga Academy in India in 2024.

To contact Laura: laura@crownandhearthealing or VISIT crownandhearthealing.com

Karla Lancaster

Karla Lancaster is passionate about leading woman in the sensually, embodied movement of S Factor. As a licensed instructor, Karla guides woman through body-led movement focused on sensuality, body ownership, and sisterhood. 

By removing distractions from our everyday lives, like mirrors and the male gaze, she leads her students through discovering their own sensual movement, strengthening the physical body, and gaining greater self-love and confidence. Come join this sisterhood and unlock your feminine, sensual movement!

To contact Karla: [email protected]

Allison Hudson

Allison is a meditation teacher, didgeridoo sound therapist, Reiki Master Teacher, and InnerDance facilitator who has led deeply impactful events at some of the most warm and inviting studios in Portland, Oregon including Yoga Refuge and SomaSpace. She learned to play the didgeridoo and spent nine months under the wing of Joseph B. Carringer, founder of Didge Therapy. Now, through these modalities, she hold space for introspective minds to remember what wholeness feels like and cultivate a renewed relationship with all that is.

To contact Allison: https://allison-hudson.com/contact/

Lui Gervais

Lui Gervais is a dancer, teacher, writer and yogi. He has performed with more than 30 dance companies during his professional performing career. Lui teaches for the BodyElectric School and brings his creative somatic workshops to festivals and schools around the world. He is the founder of the Embodied Institute, a published author and creator of online somatic intimacy education. Completing his Masters in dance and somatic studies from the University of Washington, in 2009, he is happy to be making his home in Portland, OR.

To contact Lui: https://www.embodiedinstitute.com/

Roxanna Gates

Driven by mystery, wonder, beauty, and the natural world, Roxanna has spent the last two decades exploring the therapeutic notion of dance. Her ideology is firmly rooted in personal agency, creativity, and enchantment in the mundane. As a dancer and movement practitioner, her curiosity strives to understand the clear resonance between the science of our aliveness and our conscious experience of living.

Roxanna is currently a graduate student pursuing her clinical doctorate in Occupational Therapy. DanceLab is the premier integration of her individual brand, essence, and expression as a life-long learner with a unique message in joy, sovereignty, and community. Come join Roxanna and others in a co-creative dance experience that is designed for spirited dancing, mindfulness, and personal meaning making!

To contact Roxanna: www.roxannagates.com