Our mission is to rediscover the joy of movement by using our combined experience in somatic education, therapy and awareness techniques in order to explore how we move and eventually improve that movement so that you can ultimately become the person you were meant to be.
Anthony Duricy
I was a two sport athlete, playing basketball and baseball in college. I earned a degree in Kinesiology/Exercise and Sport Science at Western State College in Gunnison Colorado. Since then I have coached and taught at the college, high school and club sport level. I have always enjoyed training and the process of becoming the best athlete I could. This journey led me to studying mindfulness for athletes, which I have done for the past 20 years, and particularly for endurance running the last 5 years.
I met Harald Kasper at his physical therapy practice in Salida Colorado when I was nursing an injured foot. He started teaching me about the Feldenkrais Method and I was hooked. A perfect blend of athletics and mindfulness all in one. We got to talking and Elevated Retreats CO was formulated.
Renee DURICY
I have always been a recreational athlete – playing soccer, volleyball and rugby on various school or club teams. I only ran when I had to! Over the last 8 years I have discovered a love of running as I’ve gotten off the road and onto the trails. I love the scenery, the challenge, the variation, and the community that I’ve found through trail running. Running has become a way for me to stay fit and enjoy the outdoors and, more than that, it has helped me to become more mindful and aware of my body and mind and how they work together. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and have practiced as a therapist for over 15 years. I now run a private practice with my husband, Anthony, and our primary focus is helping people feel empowered to live more authentically – to be more self-aware, self compassionate and to trust themselves to hear their inner wisdom and have the courage to follow it. For me, running has become a way for me to practice all of those skills in my own life. I am thrilled to have met Harald and Devon and found a way, through Feldenkrais, to take this practice even deeper. And, I’m even more thrilled that we get to share this experience with you!
DEVON JENCKS KASPER
I’ve lived in Salida the last 11 years since moving here from Boston. I grew up in New Hampshire and lived in Maine, Massachusetts, France and now feel lucky to be able to call Salida home. I met my husband Harald in the Feldenkrais training we took in Santa Fe over the course of four years. Harald was coming to this modality from his Physical Therapy perspective and, I, from my professional acting background. I spent ten years in Boston acting and teaching and had hoped to bring the method back to train with actors. But life had something else in store for me! It’s been a gift meeting Renee and Anthony and merging this dream of creating a running retreat here in Salida together. This is such a beautiful place to get to live and work!
HARALD KASPER
I got interested in running in my teenage years, when I realized that I was not only better at it than most of my friends, but that it also changed the status of my mind. I was able to solve my math problems easier and would be a lot more upbeat, when getting out there and feeling my heart beat and my legs propel me forward. Running kept me grounded while I studied to be an engineer in my twenties. When I studied to become a Physical Therapist almost 30 years ago, I developed a different perspective toward running, exploring the functions of muscles tendons, the Myofascia, the cardiovascular system and basically what could go wrong with our beautiful vessel, if we didn’t use it as designed. At that point I was not only running as a hobby but would run to my night job, that financed my studies. A street marathon time of 2:48 kept me far away from the high competitive athletes, but made me stuck out from the everyday runner. Since then running has been my primary way to enjoy nature, the tool to take care of my body as well as my senses. About 12 years ago my running entered another transformation. While I had been working with runners in my Physical Therapy practice for a lot of years, entering into a Feldenkrais training, gave me the opening into a different kind of relearning. Since then every run has been a dance, an exploration, a bountiful crush of consciously noticed sensations. Of course that was also a paradigm shift in my Physical Therapy work . While moving in my teachings further and further away from right and wrong, the essence of my goals with my active clients became more and more clear. Running being the tool to optimize most people’s health, helping them to not only stay healthy but to become the authentic selves, they want to be. Pouring all this wisdom into running retreats is the logical continuation on this path.
