Judith Rhodes

Hello! It was born and raised within Chicago's city limits and grew up with all the fabulous things Chicago offers. My love of books undoubtedly was seeded at our annual school trip to the Book Fair at the Museum of Science and Industry! After high school, I attended Macalester College in St. Paul, MN earning a B.A. in speech and theater, and from there wound up at the Dallas Theater Center, earning an M.F.A. in theater with the degree being awarded through Trinity University, San Antonio, TX. While in Dallas, I acquired my Actors Equity card playing Faye in Neil Simon's play Chapter Two starring Tab Hunter. Next stop: New York, where I resided for the next 32 years.

In New York, a classmate from the Theater Center conceived a project called Living Literature — actors performing one-person shows of literary figures — and convinced me to put something together to be marketed to schools, nursing homes, regional festivals, etc. We had actors performing shows on John Keats, Edgar Alan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and Shakespeare — and my contribution, a compilation of cuttings from the works of Charles Dickens (entitled A Little Dickens) which I've performed on and off for about 15 years. Even made it to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and had a lovely time meeting performers from all over the world.

I developed a strong wanderlust as a kid on annual trips to Florida visiting grandparents, introducing me to new landscapes, flora and fauna, Burma Shave signage, and lots of Spanish moss hanging from trees lining driveways to abandoned plantations. I've traveled to many places since then, most recently to the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland, Laos, and Cambodia, Uzbekistan, and soon to come — a yoga retreat in Iceland.

I teach yoga now as a natural evolution from traditional modalities such as weight training, circuit training, aerobics, and dance classes. I grew up with older parents whose lifestyles and illnesses were an example of what NOT to do. I started taking yoga classes in my 50s. I loved it enough to take teacher training at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts, the largest yoga and health center in the U.S. I recently completed a teacher training in qigong there and will offer these classes as well. Kripalu is an inquiry-based approach to the yoga asanas. It encourages lots of kindness and exploration toward oneself as the practitioner moves through the poses. It's a 5,000-year-old wisdom that "yokes" the mind, body, and spirit together, keeping the body strong, flexible, and vibrant. The physical practice can serve as a gateway to deeper self-discovery through breathing, mudras, chanting, meditation, and other practices to access inner wisdom that's been there all along.

My classes combine deep breathing, asanas accessible to all — especially as we age — and poetry and spiritual thinkers' readings. What a gift to be given these traditions to keep us steady and vibrant in this ever-changing and often stressful world.

I retired to Santa Fe in 2016 and find the capital city offers many opportunities — opera, chamber music, symphony, the Folk Art Market, Spanish Market, and Indian Market every summer. I collect art my friends make, collect small covered receptacles — some made of ceramic, some of basketry, some of wood — and enjoy adding to my collection of vintage clip earrings! My interests include good books to read, photography, architectural and interior design, discovering new places to explore in New Mexico and beyond. May we keep this one beautiful world safe and thriving for all to enjoy for seven generations and beyond? Namaste.

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