About Rebecca Foster

Rebecca was born — thanks to her mother’s labor and her father’s pursuit of the smallpox virus– in Lagos, Nigeria. There, a group of Yoruba women held a naming ceremony honoring her birth and bestowing upon her the name: Modupe (“thankfulness to God”) Bamidele (“follow me home”) Ajoke (“something to cherish”). These sacred themes of divine gratitude, the journey “home” and the call to cherish everything continue to illuminate her own journey.

Rebecca is an internationally certified mindfulness meditation teacher & coach, conscious dance facilitator, hatha yoga instructor and lifetime laughter-yogi. She also holds a Masters Degree from the Princeton School of Public & International Affairs. She has taught Mindfulness Based Emotional Intelligence at the Men’s & Women’s Correctional Facilities in Rhode Island for over 15 years and is a consultant & lead teacher for Brown University’s “Peace of Mind and Body” research study of yoga in incarcerated settings as an intervention in anger management. Rebecca is also the Wellness Cultivator at Gather Farm and a certified Biodanza Facilitator through the Rhode Island School of Biodanza Systema Rolando Toro.

Over the last 18 years Rebecca has taught a unique blend of mindfulness, movement, laughter and play in diverse settings ranging from yoga studios to hospitals and city forests to state prisons. She has also lived and worked in Africa, Asia and Latin America and currently resides on a small farm in Rhode Island with her family.

Inspiration 

(Pictured: Michael Molin-Skelton, Toni Bergins, Rick Benjamin, Aleta Hayes)

In a bow of deep gratitude, she offers this list of movement, play and wisdom teachers who have significantly shaped her capacity to Embody Freedom, in reverse chronological order:

  • Carolina Churba-Doyle, Biodanza Systema Rolando Toro, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Michael Molin-Skelton, Soul Motion teacher & co-founder of Movements Matter, Port Townsend, WA
  • Alton Wasson, Contemplative Dance / Authentic Movement, Haydenville, MA
  • Vita Pires & Fleet Maull, Prison Mindfulness Institute, South Deerfield, MA
  • Bentinho Massero, Trinfinity Academy, Boulder, CO
  • Laura Geilen & Vivian Gladwell, Nose-to-Nose clowning, NY & UK
  • Toni Bergins, Founder of JourneyDance, Great Barrington, MA
  • Dr. Madan Kataria, Founder of Laughter Yoga,  Mumbai, India
  • Tom Gillette, Eyes of the World Yoga, Providence, RI
  • Joseph Goldstein & Sharon Salzberg, Insight Meditation Society, Barre, MA
  • Rick Benjamin, former Poet Laureate of Rhode Island & co-founder of the PotLid Sangha, Providence, RI (now Santa Barbara, CA)
  • Aleta Hayes, Modern Dance teacher at Princeton University, now Artist in Residence at the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, Stanford, CA
  • Charmaine Lee, South African ballerina, political refugee & Founder of Synergy Dance, Washington, D.C.
  • Mrs. Ruth Boozer, art educator and anti-nuclear activist who ran a creative movement school out of her Atlanta garage, circa 1977.
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“There are many ways to the Divine. I have chosen the ways of song, dance, and laughter.”  — Jelaluddin Rumi

And speaking of laughing, singing & dancing…