Community Corner
Who's Who: Anna Landauer
On weekdays we feature a chat with someone who lives or works in El Cerrito.
Name: Anna Landauer
Age: 41
Occupation: My occupation is multi-faceted. I teach yoga, I’m a licensed acupuncturist and I am also a guide. I lead wilderness trips, mostly backpacking, in Yosemite.
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How did you get involved in so many things? I think I’m the type of person who needs a lot of diversity in my life and variety in activities. Also, I’m very physical so I need to have something that keeps me moving. I guess I’ve always had an interest in supporting people’s wellness and being in the body. They are a lot of my passions that I decided to go explore as livelihoods.
Are you local to this area? Born and raised in Berkeley. I have lived in El Cerrito and I have family living in El Cerrito right now.
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What do you think of it? I love it. I’ve come and gone so many times, and now I feel like I’m here to stay. There’s nothing that compares to this area for its diversity and the arts and culture that are available, and there’s good access to being outside.
How long have you been teaching yoga classes at Bridges Gym? I just started subbing yoga classes at Bridges in November, and I just started last week with my regular class.
What do you do for fun? I go outside. I do a lot of hiking, backpacking, running and dance; the other really big thing in my life is dance.
What kind of dance? I grew up doing all kinds, like ballet and modern, a lot of ethnic dance – African, Asian. Now I do a lot of contact improvisation — I don’t know if a lot of people know about it. And I’ve been taking aerial classes, which is my latest fun thing.
What is contact improvisation? Contact improvisation is a form of dance. While you can take two things from the name – that it’s done in contact with usually one other person but sometimes trios or quartets and it’s improvised – it’s really a cross between really athletic dance and contemplative mediation that’s done in communication with somebody else. It’s usually done in silence with very little or no talking and usually not with music. It’s really magical. Some of it can be very athletic and acrobatic. It usually depends on who you’re dancing with and when you’re dancing.
