Shari Setchell,
Executive & Artistic Director
About Shari
Artistic Experience
Shari Setchell has over 20 years of directing, teaching and choreographing experience with people of all ages, abilities, and body-types in and around Southeastern Minnesota. She focuses on creating community and joy in all of her work and is particularly proud of guiding hundreds of students at Northfield High School through their biennial production of Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival. Shari created Big Woods Movement Collective in 2022 to provide a safe, nurturing space for the movement community in Northfield and beyond. Big Woods has provided a home for movers that want to learn in a non-competitive, low stakes, supportive environment where everyone is welcome.
Educational Interests
She is especially interested in sparking curiosity in those who believe they are not dancers and those who are at the beginning of their dance journeys. She does this through a combination of play, scientifically backed methods of somatic integration, and years of training in multiple forms of dance. Shari is the creator of Whole Body Ballet, a methodology of dance instruction that includes layered somatic movement principles dovetailed into formal progressive ballet training.
Certifications
She is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist, having trained in the Global Somatics process and Autism Movement Therapy. Shari is also a Registered Yoga Teacher and has trained in Children’s and Yin Yoga. She lives in Northfield with her husband, kiddo, and two cats.