My name is Patti Jennings. I was born and raised in Northern California and grew up along the American River. In fact, my family pioneered the beautiful foothills when it was once rich cattle country. I was the oldest of three children each three and a half years apart, two girls and a boy. It was a childhood of spelunking, riding horses, doing chores, chasing chickens, climbing trees, and panning gold. My dad had a mining claim and on weekends we would sometimes go into the hills and camp. He died when he was thirty-nine from cancer.

My great-grandfather’s ranch was in Chicago Park which is ten minutes from Coloma where John W. Marshall discovered gold in the American River (1848). The Jennings Trestle was run through the meadow wetland and each time the Nevada County Narrow Gauge train crossed the property the railroad paid twenty-five cents. When the railroad owner died his widowed wife, Sarah Clark Kidder, took over the near bankrupt business and completely turned it around. She was the first woman in the world to ever run a railroad. Mrs. Kidder died the year my father was born (1933). The ranch was eventually sold and the family moved to Sacramento where my grandfather established a business.

My parents were very young (eighteen years old) when they married. They lived with my paternal grandparents until they finished school. My mom was in nursing school,  and my father was studying architecture. My first home was comprised of two sets of parents (older and younger). My father designed and built their first house, outside of town along the American River. When I was about three my life started to really change. My mother was expecting my brother in December; my father was working to get the house finished for the new baby and I was not very happy about either. As far as I was concerned, they could take the baby and go to the new house. I was upset about leaving and acting out because my plan was to stay put.

My grandpa, in his wisdom, figured out how sad I was and created a situation wherein I would return home at least one day a week. It was a warm September afternoon, following my third birthday, when he said, “let’s take a walk up the street”. Willingly I agreed since a walk meant Rocky Road ice cream, but we went the opposite way. When we arrived at the corner of 39th and H street, we entered a door where this floating-like lady greeted my grandpa and said, “Leo, what can I do for you? How’s Irma?” Pop said, “We’d like to watch class because I may have a future student here.” I was mesmerized by the movement…like birds in flight…but human beings. Later that evening, at dinner, I announced to my parents (all four) that, ” I am going to learn to fly in ballet.” To be honest, it was my brother who became a pilot. The two of us defied gravity and our little sister defied both of her older siblings, with pleasure!

I went to college, grad school, became a professor of psychology, became licensed and have practiced psychotherapy since 1995.  I have lived in San Francisco, New York and Santa Monica. Fundamentally, my love of movement has enriched my life in so many ways. This love has tempered my fire, engaged me with space, honed being aware of others, and opened my heart to high flight and grounded being. Movement has healed me in times of grief and sorrow, inspired me to celebrate being, been a source of global friendship and through mothering my beautiful daughter allowed me to experience and observe the development of human movement through time.