Stay tuned for Dance & Fitness offerings!
As a dedicated movement artist with a deep-rooted passion for embodiment and expression, her journey in dance and movement has been shaped by a fusion of practices, from traditional and contemporary dance forms to her expertise in bodywork and fitness. She is also a Lagree fitness instructor, integrating strength, endurance, and mindful movement into her approach, helping others cultivate resilience and fluidity in their bodies.
Her practice extends beyond fitness, intertwining with her work as a Lomi Lomi practitioner and postpartum care provider. Through Ma Ha Wellness and Massage, Alysha creates spaces where movement is not just about fitness but about healing, restoration, and connection—honoring the body's innate wisdom.
Alysha's artistry is a testament to her belief in movement as medicine, blending technical precision with intuitive flow to inspire others on their journey to wellness.
Alysha Higgins is a dance artist and ethnologist, mother, yogi, doula, Fulbright scholar, and UC Berkeley alum. She studies dances of the African and Indian diaspora, including Classical Odissi and Afro-Caribbean dance. Her research focuses on Trinidad and Tobago, her mother's homeland. During her 2013 Fulbright in Trinidad, she produced two documentary short films (below) on dance, Walking with the Ancestors: Orisha Dance for Education and Empowerment, and All Ah We Is One, an ongoing project that looks at the connections between African and Indian dance and culture in Trinidad.
She has also studied Silvestre technique and Dances of the Orixas extensively in Salvador, Bahia, and Brazil with Rosangela Silvestre and Vera Passos. She has performed in the U.S. with various companies, including Duniya Drum and Dance Company in San Franscisco, as well as in Trinidad for the play, “The King and I.”
She has taught Bollywood, Indian Contemporary, and Caribbean dance at various dance studios throughout California. Her current choreographies seek to explore how Afro- and Indo-Caribbean contemporary and spiritual dance practices live in the body.
Walking With the Ancestors (2013), Alysha Higgins.
Premiered at Dancing the African Diaspora: Theories of Black Performance 2014, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival 2014
"Walking with the Ancestors: Innovating Orisha Dance Theatre from Empowerment and Education" introduces a new generation of dancers who are reclaiming their own cultural heritage by defining Orisha dance for theatre, and making Orisha accessible to mainstream Trinidad by articulating the dance technique in a contemporary context. Learn how this reclaiming is healing for a young, evolving nation, imbuing a strong sense of pride, cultural ownership, and a deeper self-knowing.
All Ah We Is One (2013), Alysha Higgins.
A short film that takes a peek at the dance in Trinidad and Tobago- the African and Indian influences.
As a dance ethnologist and dance artist, I am always seeking to access my authentic choreographic voice through internal investigation, while also gaining cultural and spiritual understandings of the body through study of Caribbean, African and Indian diasporic dance forms. I seek to marry the wisdom of my own knowing with the wisdom of ancestral knowings. I seek to deconstruct and then reconstruct my own embodied practices to birth something new. This work of reshaping prompts questions of belonging and home. My work delves into the “in-between” spaces of identity and the mixed-race experience. My work is birthed from the personal, but through my various intersections (e.g. woman, mother, Indo-Caribbean, American, Muslim, mixed), there is always something to be seen that is political. I utilize poetry through my performance and improvisation/somatic investigation is a key to my dance-making and ultimately my healing through dance.
"Lagree Fitness
Lagree Fitness is a high-intensity, low-impact workout that blends strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility using a specialized machine called the Megaformer. While it shares similarities with Pilates —- both focusing on controlled, mindful movements -- it offers a more intense, full-body workout that builds muscle endurance, core strength, sculpts and tones, and can help with injury rehabilitation. It is also very beneficial for dancers, enhancing stability, mobility, and muscular control. Lagree's slow, resistance-based movements also support bone density, making it excellent for bone health, while its deep core engagement helps with postpartum pelvic floor recovery. Additionally, its high-intensity, muscle-quivering exercises boost metabolism, making it effective for weight loss goals.
