TED Community » Jason Stotz
About Me
I received my BFA in dance from the University at Buffalo and was a scholarship student at the Joffrey Ballet School in NYC. Out of school, I worked with the Tracy Anderson Method Studios where I was a personal trainer and group fitness class instructor at both her NYC and Los Angeles locations, as well as traveling the world with private clients. I returned to dance in 2010 with the Missouri Contemporary Ballet of Columbia, MO. While with MCB, I taught dance and fitness locally at Wilson's Fitness, Dancearts, the School of Missouri Contemporary Ballet, and Yoga Sol. At the end of my tenure with MCB, we performed in the Great Friends Festival in Newport, RI with the Island Moving Company and John-Mark Owen. I went to perform in NYC for John-Mark Owen Presents... Requiem, a cinematic ballet set to Mozart's Requiem. I then returned to Newport, RI, where I played Dracula in an interactive ballet taking place in the Carey Mansion, where the original Dark Shadows was filmed. I am currently working on the Nutcracker with IMC where I will be the Cavalier, as well as the Yorkville Nutcracker in NYC, where I will perform the Arabian. I've recently taken the position of Dancer Liaison for Island Moving Company, and am serving as the representative of the dancers in speaking with the office as well as the IMC Board. I have begun doing fitness workshops that I have created at Aull Pilates in Middletown. I am in the process of finding a time slot to have a regularly scheduled class and am looking into opening my own wellness studio in the area.
- Location:
- United States, Newport, RI
- Gender:
- Male
More About Me
I'm passionate about
Learning, Life, Love, Art, Change, Evolution, Presence, Joy, Laughter
Talk to me about
What makes you happy. What you want to change. What you've experienced. What you're grateful for.
People don't know that I'm good at
Dance, Music, Fitness, Wellness, Math
My TED Story
I'm not even sure when I saw my first TED Talk. I'm still so blown away by the whole thing. I truly believe in this thing. I think the concepts of TED are changing the world and are becoming the new way that we do things. We are all trying to figure it out, but coming to this place of open forum discussion where you hear the developments and discoveries of the greatest minds on Earth. It's mind-blowing. What a cool way to have such a major revolution. We just decided to sit down together and share with each other and engage with love, joy, and gratitude. How simple. How profound. How effective. It's a beautiful thing to see. I'm so happy that it's happening and am filled with so much joy and gratitude to be a part of it.
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A comment on Conversation: Would it be possible to install wind turbines on train cars? Has it been done before?
A comment on Conversation: What would your ideal government system look like?
What if it was the greatest minds of the world that got together and decided how things were going to run and where the money should go. They hear everyone's presentations and then voted which initiatives should move forward and which should be scrapped, how much money they got, etc.
These amazing meetings of the minds are happening now because of TED and other global information exchange programs. What if they had judicial power?
TED for world leadership! :)
A comment on Conversation: Isn't human skill a more tangible currency than trust in the new economy?
I think that is indeed where we are moving. The flood of information for the last few decades has changed a lot of things. While it does have its drawbacks in the generation that's being built glued to an illuminated screen, it has given incredible amounts of information to an amazing number of people. The spread of knowledge is accelerating. And all that information is getting stored in each person, expanding their bodies of knowledge farther than was ever possible before. It's slowly taking us out of our roles as cogs and walking us into utilizing all our knowledge and resources to live.
For example, I am a musician, dancer, and fitness instructor. I've changed course and focus over the years but I am now using all of my skillsets simultaneously. I do this simply out of joy. They are things that I like to do. They make me happy. But its allowed me to start to walk away from that place of identity that our system wants you to have. It wants to classify you as a lawyer, business man, administrator. It makes it easier to sell to you.
But we're now starting to move a place where people are finding a fuller sense of self and responsibility. People who grow their own food. Bike instead of drive. Help people who obviously need it without asking. Have 2-3 "jobs" but simply because you're doing multiple things you love, not because you "have to make money". This system makes our physical dollars flow in more organically because you're doing what you love, you're saving more because you're being responsible about eating well and being good to the environment, and you're constantly getting meals and gifts and treats from friends and neighbors because you help them out all the time without them even asking.
This is a much more joyful way to live. It redefines what capitalism is; no longer capitalizing to acquire great quantities, but capitalizing on all the opportunities you have to give of yourself to the world. I promise it's more fun that way.
A comment on Conversation: Debate: Having children should be regulated or licensed
However, I think a big issue on this planet is our runaway population. While everyone should be allowed to bare children, there's no need for a family to have 10 of them. Everyone could be freely allowed 2 children. If you wanted to have more, you would pay for it. I don't really see this happening given all the moral baggage, the government's involvement, and the question of how to deal with law-breakers, but it does seem like a possible way to try to slow the population increase a bit.