Pilates and Movement Educator
Donnell moved upstate to Pleasant Valley in the Hudson Valley in 2022. She works from home, both online and in her in-home studio as well as at a Physical Therapy and Pilates Wellness studio called Danica in Sharon, CT.
Since moving to NYC in 2002 and getting pilates certified through Polestar Pilates LLC, Donnell has been teaching private and group instruction, both in studios with equipment, through physical therapy centers and in homes. Her teaching is supplemented and continually informed by these other kinesthetic practices: yoga, Anatomy Trains Structural Integration, Katy Bowman’s Nutritious Movement, The Franklin Method and contemporary dance.
Donnell’s interests lie around providing guidance towards more physiological awareness. Through breath, grounding, and pilates protocols we can transform our restrictive and possibly painful habits into a freer and better aligned moving body. She places an emphasis on fluidity and feeling the body as a whole in which its constituent parts work to contribute to that whole. It is very important to her that each client gains a feeling of agency in their bodies and translates their hour sessions into the functional world. They can work together to create a bridge between the pilates studio and their every day because that is where the growth and change takes place.
Donnell has worked with clients challenged by scoliosis, plantar fasciitis, spinal disc herniations, spinal stenosis, POTS, hip and knee replacements, among other conditions and worked with prenatal and postpartum women. She continues to broaden her understanding of the body in motion through various continuing education workshops at Kinected, Steele Pilates, The Pilates Garage, The Franklin Method, Anatomy Trains Structural Integration, FAMI (Functional Anatomy for Movement and Injuries,) and her 21 years of dancing professionally as a contemporary dancer. Donnell taught professional contemporary dance technique classes at Gibney Dance Center in NYC from 2015 to 2023 as well as many master classes in colleges throughout the U.S. from 2004 to 2023.
Dance
Donnell Oakley is an independent choreographer, performer and teacher that was based in NYC and created work from 2002 to 2022. She co-founded the collaborative company everything smaller in 2002 with her inimitable cohorts, Jessica Jolly and David Schmidt. They made work, performed, and taught master classes in and outside NYC until 2008 when they disbanded to pursue other ventures. Donnell has continued making dances and has had her work produced through Movement Research, the 92nd Street Y, the West End Theatre, Triskelion Arts, the Joyce SoHo, Dance Now NYC, Judson Church, Dance New Amsterdam, Gibney Dance Center, Women in Motion, Dixon Place, Gowanus Art + Production, Westfest Dance Festival, the American Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, and The Yard (Bessie Schönberg Choreographic Mentorship recipient, 2013) among other venues. She has been fortunate enough to make dances with the extraordinary likes of Xan Burley, Courtney Drasner, Josh Palmer, Jordan Risdon, Alex Springer, Emily Diers, Carolyn Cryer, Sarah Barney, Deborah Lohse and Cori Marquis among others.
In addition to her own work, Donnell has had the great pleasure of collaborating and dancing with Liz Staruch, Fritha Pengelly, Cori Marquis & The Nines [IX], Xan Burley + Alex Springer, Steeledance, Chavasse Dance & Performance, Doug Elkins and the collective LMnO3: (Deborah Lohse, Cori Marquis, n’ Donnell Oakley.)
The collaborative trio LMnO3 (Deborah Lohse, Cori Marquis and Donnell Oakley) met in 2010 while working with Doug Elkins in Fräulein Maria, and joyfully launched into a choreographic partnership in 2014. Their first evening-length piece, B.A.N.G.S.: made in america, was commissioned by Dance Now NYC and premiered in 2016 at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater. LMnO3 took B.A.N.G.S. on the road to American Dance Festival, SUNY Brockport's Summer Dance Festival, MusikFest in PA, Dance Now Boston, Denver’s Clocktower Cabaret, The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard, Dance Place in DC, and Ringling International Arts Festival in Sarasota, FL with excerpts performed at Judson Church, Triskelion Arts, Gibney Dance Center, New Haven's Elm City Dance Collective, and The Yard’s Follies: Women Dance the Comic. Their second work, More Like Your Mom, premiered at Triskelion Arts in May 2017, and appeared at 92Y and Dance Now Boston in 2018. LMnO3 has been granted residencies through Dance Now’s Silo, The Lumberyard, SUNY Brockport, Fourth Arts Block, and The Croft in Michigan. The Silo, The Lumberyard, The Joyce Theater, The Croft in Michigan, and The Floor generously supported their creations. Donnell left the incredible collaboration in 2020 but Cori and Deborah continue scheming to this day! Those ladies and creations have a left an ever grateful imprint.
A North Carolina native, Donnell had the great fortune of attending Arts Together in Raleigh where she received extensive training in mostly modern forms, improvisation, and composition from a young age through high school. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography in 2001 and attended the American Dance Festival in the summers of 1999 and 2001. Donnell feels a strong connection to her roots and believes deeply in Arts Together’s philosophy: “We believe that students who develop personal artistic vision as well as technique become creators rather than imitators.”