Krista B.

My interests in teaching are extremely body-mechanics based; I teach people how to understand their bodies as athletes and use that knowledge to challenge themselves. Part of learning various sports is understanding why a specific movement might be necessary and how an individual can tailor his/her movements to be a more efficient, competitive athlete or to just enjoy the game more. My function as a trainer is to help you to set your goals and achieve them.

Many of my ideas regarding movement-based instruction (movement style itself but also various methods for how to think about movement) were developed as a social dance instructor. I teach social partner dancing with a focus on Argentine Tango, Blues, and Salsa. The style of dance I enjoy teaching is a non-pattern, improvisational base. I create my lessons to emphasize individual growth through a series of progressive exercises that stress the importance of an active/reactive communication.

I attended WPI and earned a double B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry. I spent much of my time exploring various disciplines in the chemistry world as well as researching education psychology. If not found in the lab, I was at the throwing circle being a competitive member of the Track & Field throwing team. Though I focused on Track during my collegiate years, my athletic experience includes over 12 years as a soccer goal keeper and a basketball player. As a trainer, I stress the importance of individual practice as well understanding the strategy of the various positions and how different movements are applicable depending upon your strategy.

What I find interesting about chemistry is that it is not intuitive, unlike something such as physics (i.e. mechanics). Part of learning about chemistry is developing an understanding of how all the tiny little particles relate to each other and how this interaction has an impact on everyday life. Whether or not you think chemistry is for you, I can promise to help you understand the fundamental rules and make sense of this bizarre atomic world.

Krista's Subjects

Science:	chemistry
Music:	piano, salsa dancing
Art:	salsa dancing
Sports/Recreation:	basketball, salsa dancing, soccer, tango, track & field
Homeschool:	chemistry, piano

Soccer

I have over 12 years of experience in soccer with a focus on the goal keeping and and goal scoring. My philosophy is that goal keeping needs to begin with the athlete's individual motor skills of how to react and interact with the ball in a variety of different situations. Once those are in place, how to interact with the players and the field can be further developed as well as different strategies depending upon the field dynamic.

Athletes very often know where their difficulties... Read More

Salsa Dancing

Salsa dancing is about feeling the rhythm and connecting with a partner. If those two things are not happening, you are not dancing. I have been teaching partner dancing for about 5 years and my teaching has shifted from counting based dancing to feel-the-rhythm based dancing. My students focus on how to move their bodies and how to communicate that with a partner. This style of learning to dance has quite a bit of application in other styles of dancing and works even for someone who has two left... Read More

Tango

As with the other styles of dancing that I teach, I teach the Argentine tango from a connection and music based approach. My focus is to emphasize a person's natural movement with a tango lens so rather than try to force a strict form, I work with the biomechanics that an individual has and create a tango framework around that. In terms of moves, I focus on building up personal movements and how they will lead to other movements rather than the approach to teach a move and then break it down into... Read More

Read all subject qualifications »