About

Rita Renha, has been a certified instructor of the GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® Methods and all the GYROTONIC® specialized equipment in the United States since 1991.

In this capacity she taught at the original White Cloud Studios NYC under the supervision of its founder and creator, Mr. Juliu Horvath, who appointed her one of his first generation of Master Trainers.

Rita since then has been participating in the development of the GYROTONIC EXPENSION SYSTEM® and its application to physical therapy (prevention and rehabilitation), fitness, health and wellness. Rita has taught and treated people from all walks of life and has been privileged to educate new generations of teachers and Master Trainers worldwide.

She taught GYROKINESIS® classes at the Alvin Ailey American Dance School, Steps on Broadway and introduced the method to the Master Program from the Actor’s Studio, at The New School in the 90’s, in New York City.

During that time Rita was also a staff member of the National Dance Institute (NDI), an arts and education program founded by Mr. Jacques D’Amboise. She ran NDI’s program for deaf children as a teacher and choreographer, and had the opportunity to introduce GYROKINESIS® classes also, at its summer scholarship program.

Inspired by her personal recovery from knee injuries, from all her teaching experiences and as part of the effort to expand worldwide awareness, in the year 2000, Rita returned to Brazil, her home country, to promote and represent the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM® and its educational program in South America. She opened in Rio de Janeiro, the Rita Renha Wellness Center, where she started developing groundbreaking work for singers, actors and dancers to improve their performance skills and prevent injuries, as well as the Physical Therapy application of the methods. She has also founded the GYROTONIC® Institute Brazil, an International Educational Center for Teacher Trainings, Certification Courses and Updates, bringing Juliu Horvath to teach at it regularly, from 2001 to 2011.

In 2006, Ms. Renha was elected one of few Master Trainers authorized to conduct the GYROTONIC® Level 1 final Certificate Course.

She introduced Gyrokinesis and Gyrotonic methods to the scientific community at the First International Congress of Posture 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, and was invited back to its third edition in Vitoria in 2013, as a member of the Scientific Commission, to evaluate the scientific works presented and teach a Gyrotonic workshop.

In 2010, Rita wrote a chapter about the methods for “In Full Body, Somatic Education, Movement and Health” – 2nd Edition. Publisher JURUÁ.

Rita developed few projects together with Pre-Trainer Marni Larkin, director of Gyrotonic Manhasset;

1) A continuing education credits course approved by the Bord of Certification, “GYROTONIC® METHODOLOGY FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS” offered through The Harkness Center for Dance Injuries (HCDI) at NYU Langone Health, 2016

2) The pilot program “Harkness Center Healthy Dancer Initiative” in partnership with HCDI, 2018;

3) Abstract, “A MOVEMT SYSTEM APPROACH FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE”, Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy – volume 48, number 1, January 2018.

4)Poster presentation “Implementing a Movement System Approach into Clinical Practice Utilizing the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM® Method” at the APTA Conference, 2018.

In 2019 she wrote her second publication of the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM®, in “Somatic Education and Its Pioneers in Brazil“– 3rd Volume. Publisher JURUÁ.

Graduated from the Dance School of The Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, Rita had a professional dancer/singer, dance teacher, movement educator career for over 25 years, having worked in the USA, Europe, Japan and Brazil. Her Musical Theater credits include: “A Chorus Line”, “West Side Story”, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, “Cabaret” and “Company”.

Ms. Renha considers herself a somatic/emotional movement therapist with a Physical therapy degree from the University Methodist Bennett in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has recently completed her training in the Psychosomatic Therapy Matrix-Hakomi, from Colorado, 2017-2020.

Rita is a member of the Brazilian Institute of Technology and Health – IBTS.

Based on Ms. Renha’s many years of teacher trainings, and on her clinical observations, she developed a Specialized Course; “GYROTONIC® Principles Applied to Dynamic Trunk Stabilization”, that has become part of the Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis Continuing Educational Program.

The intention, she says Is to lead you to your deepest experience of the Method’s unique and masterful approach to “rethink” the body. Not a bi-dimensional body, but rather a tridimensional one, a body that functions organically, that moves from within!