Studio Rana is collaboration between husband & wife Kenta Thomas Naoi & Laura Jervidalo Ravn.
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Rana is a combination of our two last names:
Naoi & Ravn = Rana.
Rana started in 2015 when Laura & Kenta met in New York City through dance.
Rana in name and form is our individual and shared practices, teachings, space, artistic expression, creations, ideas & products.
In our schedule you will find Lauras weekly and Monthly Yoga classes plus future additional classes taught by Kenta and collaborative events.
Laura Jervidalo Ravn is born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark. Laura grew up in a yoga school in Copenhagen and practicing yoga was always a natural part of living life, with both her parents teaching yoga. Growing up yoga practice was a way to find balance and calmness in everyday life activities and challenges. In 2009 Laura started dancing and always strived to expand her quality and understanding of movement and further her knowledge of the body, movement and meditation. In 2014 Laura started a dance company, Grounded View focusing on fluent, dynamic and acrobatic Floorwork movement.
After moving to New York City to study dance, Laura felt a call-back to re-integrate a regular yoga practice for balance and met teachers Yoshio Hama and Sri Dharma Mittra that inspired her to be able to share this ancient, beautiful, life-supportive practice of yoga.
Laura says: “I started to teach because I want to serve my community and share the knowledge discovered in my own journey. In the physical aspect I focus on the relationship between strength and flexibility to balance the body, but just as importantly how overall through incorporating all eight-limbs of Yoga it holistically support longevity in outer and inner health. Balancing the physical, sets the body for stillness, silence and creates the preparation for deeper discoveries in more subtle parts, encouraging sensitivity and heightened enjoyment of existence. I hope to help my students to a deeper understanding of their inner Self.”
Laura has fulfilled advanced teacher training in Dharma Yoga, Rocket Vinyasa Yoga and Backbend, reaching over 1000 hours of certified teacher training.
She also has training in anatomy, various dance styles and floor-barre for injury recovery and prevention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjYjswNcX-0&t=10s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33F7TNw1o18&t=32s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81hmNdU0hU8
Kenta Thomas Naoi, was born and raised in the SF/Bay Area, California. As a child he grew up playing all kinds of sports, but eventually his life became focused around tennis, and he competed in the Northern California system for most of his childhood. He later became ill which rendered him unable to play tennis at the same level he once hoped. In High School, as he recovered from the effects of his illness, he fell in love with dance and started to break or ‘bboy’. This completely changes his life.
He continued to explore dance and performing arts all throughout his high school years via musical theater, spoken word, studio choreography, house, popping, and so forth. Eventually, falling deeper in love with hip hop culture and the community of activists and educators that cultivated its values in the Bay Area.
He felt the healing effects of dance, but couldn’t quite put his fingers on the yearning inside of him to go deeper with movement. In college, he watched a short documentary about Bill T Jones and his work, “Still/Here” which was the third moment he realized his movement direction shifted. He understood that what he craved was to work with movement as a healing practice, rather than a performance art.
Around 2012, he moved to NYC where he fell in love with House culture and dance for its freedom, fluidity, and values. In NYC, Kenta continued to expand his movement practice and vocabulary as he trained in floor work, contemporary acrobatics, contact improvisation, systema + various other martial arts workshops, and whatever else he could explore within movement as a practice rather than a singular genre. He dove deeper into somatic or embodied movement work, where the focus shifted from performance to self inquiry. The practice became the goal, rather than the outcome.
Since then he has moved to Berlin and now Copenhagen where he works as a business coach, and teaches / facilitates movement workshops from a holistic lens. During his training/year long certification as a coach, he learned somatic techniques and emotional exploration which he brings into his facilitation along with his own de-colonial arts practice.
Right now he is offering group training through the container of floor work and acrobatics, as well as, embodied inquiry work; and does so in respect to a larger intention of self healing and knowledge.
Kenta believes in movement, not as a means to an end, but as the end. And he invites you to join him in his playful and inquiry based practices.
