Teresa “Toogie” Barcelo has over two decades of experience as a movement educator, guiding artists through practices that blend technique, improvisation, somatic awareness, and breathwork. She has taught at institutions including Arizona State University, AMDA College of the Performing Arts, CLI Conservatory, EDGE Performing Arts Center, Establishment LA, Harvard-Westlake, JUMPSTART/LA, Movement Lifestyle, University of Southern California, as well as in numerous national and international settings. While Toogie has led classes in choreography, composition, and a wide range of styles, she is most recognized for developing wiggle room: an improvisational movement experience rooted in breath, meditation, and frequently live music. wiggle room fosters somatic awareness and instinctual movement, offering participants space to regulate the nervous system, release tension, and access creative flow. Through guided prompts and unstructured movement, the practice supports a physiological shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic activity, enhancing emotional processing and physical integration.
Teresa “Toogie” Barcelo is an internationally acclaimed choreographer, director, and movement artist. A first-generation Cuban-Spaniard American, her work blends classical and street techniques, creating immersive, multidisciplinary experiences. Known as a chameleon, she adapts and expands any creative context, working across the music industry, film, live performance, site-specific and dance theatre projects. Her work has been presented at The Music Center, Pacific Design Center, LA Theatre Center, The Odyssey, and Art Share LA, among others. She choreographed the Lighting of the Sails at the Sydney Opera House with Andy Huang and served as Associate Artistic Director at Heidi Duckler Dance from 2012-2019, creating site-specific performances in unconventional spaces. Toogie has choreographed for Tate McCrae, Sabrina Carpenter, Alicia Keys, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, and Miguel, among others, and was named one of Billboard’s Top 12 Most Iconic Choreographers of the Decade for Dua Lipa’s “New Rules” and received an MTV VMA nomination for “Electricity.” Toogie’s choreography has also appeared on international tours for artists such as St. Vincent, Sabrina Carpenter, and Dua Lipa, as well as on many award shows including the AMAs, VMAs, Latin Grammys, Billboard Music Awards, BRIT Awards, and the Grammys.
During wiggle room, you are invited to move beyond steps and into sensation. I encourage you to come as you are: curious, messy, tired, inspired, and allow your body to guide the experience. Whether we are exploring choreography or improvisation, my aim is to create a space where movement becomes a tool for reflection, release, and creative discovery.
You will be asked to listen more closely to what is already present—your breath, your intuition, the way energy moves through you. I believe in slowing down, taking time to notice what is alive in your body, and practicing presence as both a technical and emotional skill.
Together, we will cultivate a sense of grounded freedom, a space where structure supports exploration and where movement is a form of research. I want you to leave class more connected to yourself, more open to possibility, and more willing to let your artistry be shaped by honesty rather than habit.
LOS ANGELES 
