by Jeff Nesler
Transforming Lives Through Movement and Breath
For Diane Jacobowitz, movement has never simply been a profession but a lifelong calling. Long before she began teaching Fitness Empowerment classes or guiding students through Essentrics®, she felt an instinctive connection to dance and the human body in motion. “I knew it from before I was four,” she recalls. “Dancing was what I was supposed to do on this planet.”
A Life Rooted in Movement
Born on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1952 to first-generation American parents, Diane grew up surrounded by the cultural energy of New York City. Her passion for dance emerged early and deepened through years of intensive study with influential teachers and choreographers representing a wide range of traditions. Her formative artistic influences include:
- Annabelle Gamson—One of her first major teachers; Jacobowitz trained with Gamson throughout high school and performed with her teen dance company.
- John Leon Destiné—Introduced her to Caribbean dance early in her career.
- Percival Borde—The husband of renowned dancer Pearl Primus, Borde further expanded her training in Caribbean dance traditions.
- Artists from the Merce Cunningham Company—While studying at Ohio State University, she was exposed to Cunningham technique and experimental approaches to movement.
- Artists from the Martha Graham Company—Training rooted her in the expressive power of modern dance.
- Dancers associated with the José Limón tradition—Deepened her understanding of musicality, weight, and human expression through movement.
Diane earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Ohio State University in 1974 and later completed a Master of Fine Arts at Connecticut College in 1984. The vibrant and experimental New York dance scene of the 1970s further shaped her artistic vision. “The seventies in New York was fantastic,” she recalls. Despite the city’s grit and challenges, it pulsed with creative energy that fueled her ambitions.
Building an Artistic Career
After returning to New York City, Diane founded the Diane Jacobowitz Dance Theater in 1979. The company became known for innovative dance-theater works and performed at respected venues including Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). A 1994 performance at BAM marked a milestone achievement of her performing and choreographic career.
Alongside performing, teaching quickly became central to her work. Diane helped establish the dance major at Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus, where she taught ballet, choreography, and performance for nine years. She also created the Kids Cafe Festival, giving children across New York City opportunities to connect and express themselves through dance.
From Performance to Purpose
In 1994, Diane disbanded her company to focus on motherhood, a transition that led to a new and deeply meaningful chapter. In 1995, she founded Dancewave, an organization dedicated to providing pre-professional dance training and access to high-quality arts education for young people, particularly those from underserved communities.
Dancewave’s Youth Company learned and performed repertory from modern dance
legends Mark Morris, John Heginbotham, Meredith Monk, Camille A. Brown, Annie-B Parson, Paul
Taylor, Trisha Brown, Kyle Abraham, Twyla Tharp, Shen Wei and many more at venues including
Jacob’s Pillow, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Jimmy Fallon Show.
Through Dancewave, thousands of public-school students across all five boroughs gained access to tuition-free dance programs. While rewarding, the administrative and fundraising demands eventually prompted Diane to step away, allowing her to return to more direct, personal work with students. But Dancewave lives on, as she found a worthy successor to pass on the baton.
The Evolution of a Movement Philosophy
Over time, Diane’s focus expanded from performance toward healing, wellness, and positive aging. Now a Level 4 Certified Essentrics Teacher and certified EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) Tapping mentor, she blends decades of dance experience with somatic movement principles.
Her philosophy is simple but profound: movement is a natural human impulse. “I actually believe most babies want to dance,” she says. “It’s only technology and our crazy lives that have taken us out of our bodies.”
Rather than prescribing one method, she encourages people to find their own sustainable form of movement, whether Essentrics, yoga, Pilates, walking, or another practice, and to engage consistently.
Healing Through Movement
Diane’s Fitness Empowerment classes represent the culmination of her lifelong journey. Drawing on her background as a dancer, choreographer, and educator, she translates sophisticated movement principles into gentle, accessible exercises designed for real bodies and real lives.
“I’ve moved into a direction of healing, very much focused on healing now, through tapping, through affirmations, through movement,” she said. “Having a life of movement and also having a brain that is focused on positivity and gratefulness for life—these are things I never knew or really ignored when I was younger.”
Her teaching emphasizes what she calls the “human touch”: meeting participants exactly where they are. Students learn to release tension, improve flexibility, and rediscover ease of movement while reconnecting with their bodies through breath and awareness.
She views movement as both preventative and restorative: a way to rebalance muscles, reduce pain, increase energy, and support the body’s natural capacity for healing.
A Continuing Vision
Today, Diane leads monthly online classes and private sessions while developing small-group programs that combine movement with emotional support and community connection. Participants move together, share experiences, and support one another’s growth, reflecting her belief that transformation happens physically, emotionally, and socially.
What distinguishes Diane most is not only her decades of experience but her enduring conviction that movement belongs to everyone. “You need to find your place in movement, whatever that is,” she said.
From a four-year-old dancer discovering joy in motion to a mentor helping others liberate their bodies, Diane Jacobowitz’s journey reflects a lifelong commitment to helping people move with confidence, freedom, and self-compassion. Students who join her Fitness Empowerment classes aren’t simply attending a movement class, they are learning from an artist and educator who believes that through movement, breath, and belief, transformation is always possible.
“I want to offer encouragement and support and love and healing to all the elders,” she said, “because as long as we are here, breathing, we are alive, and we’re capable of more than we think we are.”
Upcoming Classes (Wednesdays from 11:00 AM – NOON Eastern Time):
- March 11 | Fitness Empowerment with Diane: Chair, Standing & Seated Exercises
- April 8 | Fitness Empowerment with Diane: Chair Essentrics & Barre Exercises
- May 13 | Fitness Empowerment with Diane: Essentrics-Focused Class
- June 10 | Fitness Empowerment with Diane: Tapping
Visit our Health and Wellness section for fitness classes and health and wellness information sessions:
Read more about Essentrics:
Movement with Essentrics®: Gentle Full-Body Fitness for Healthy Aging