Lang Liu
Lang Maria Liu is a martial artist, dancer, teacher and healer. For over twenty years, she taught capoeira (a form of dance/martial arts developed by enslaved Afro-Brazilians) in Toronto, using a community-based, transformative approach. Her mother school, Filhos de Bimba, run by Mestre Nenel, is based in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
At 36, Lang was diagnosed with a hip condition (FAI), as well as premature osteoarthritis in both hips. This created imbalance and pain in the body. Rather than give in to her doctors' suggestion to stop dance and martial arts, since a hip replacement was forecasted, Lang embarked on a journey in search of healing. She spent two years in an osteopathic clinic in India, learning and eventually teaching a dynamic stretching technique from the northeastern state of Manipur. In India, she came across Esther Gokhale’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, and knew that she had found a missing piece of the puzzle. Having lived in both Brazil and India, Lang had long noticed the impact of Western lifestyles on posture and health. She was eager to learn ways of addressing the growing epidemic of back and joint pain through the principles of ancestral posture. The Gokhale Method allowed her to stay active, and when at 53 she underwent a left-hip replacement, she found that the Gokhale principles helped her return quickly to a high level of functioning.
As a passionate advocate for healthy living and the mind-body connection, Lang studied Compassionate Inquiry, a somatic form of trauma therapy, under the internationally acclaimed Dr. Gabor Maté. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Toronto and is currently completing a masters in Counseling Psychology at Yorkville University. Her thesis-book, Bimba’s Rhythm is One, Two, Three: From Resistance to Transformation Through Brazilian Capoeira is available on Amazon.
Lang currently lives in the Ottawa area, offers Gokhale Method Foundation courses at her home, and teaches weekly yoga and 123 Move classes on Zoom through the Gokhale Fitness program. She is eager to help others heal their bodies so that they can live more joyful, expansive lives!
