This oral history interview is an intimate conversation between two people, both of whom have generously agreed to share this recording with Oral History Summer School, and with you. Please listen in the spirit with which this was shared.
This interview is hereby made available for research purposes only. For additional uses (radio and other media, music, internet), please inquire about permissions.
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This interview was conducted with Sondra Loring at her home 15 minutes outside of Huson, NY on January 28, 2024. Sondra was born in Virginia to parents who were from New York; she moved around the country (including Boston and California) before moving to New York City. She discovered dance while living in California, which would become a central part of her life and work. She later moved to New York, where she danced with various companies, started a dance festival, and was heavily involved in the New York City dance scene. She discovered yoga in New York and traveled toIndia for yoga teacher training; she opened a yoga studio in Hudson in 2003which is an active community space, and also teaches yoga and dance in prisons/ detention facilities in the area. She discusses queerness, coming out as a young person and again later in life, becoming a parent, and moving to Hudson with her former partner.
This interview will be of interest to anyone who wants to learn about yoga, dance, and movement, queerness, parenthood, moving to Hudson, and prisons / detention facilities.
Sabine Frid-Bernards grew up in the Pacific Northwest and has lived in Brooklyn, New York for twelve years. She attended Oral History Summer School in 2013, and worked for OHSS from 2018 - 2022.
Oral history is an iterative process. In keeping with oral history values of anti-fixity, interviewees will have an opportunity to add, annotate and reflect upon their lives and interviews in perpetuity. Talking back to the archive is a form of “shared authority.”