atalanta
Physical Therapy for the Family
ABOUT
Elizabeth graduated from Marymount University with a Master’s in Physical Therapy in 2002. Over the past two decades, Elizabeth has worked in a variety of settings with both children and adults. In schools, country clubs, sports training centers and out-patient clinics, she’s helped clients return to work and play, strengthen and train to prevent future injury, achieve performance goals, and live life more fully. With a background in sports and the arts, as a collegiate soccer player and musical theater performer and dancer, Elizabeth knows what it means to compete and perform. This experience informs each evaluation and treatment session; she utilizes a whole body approach to facilitate healing, restore movement, and enhance performance through manual therapy and functional exercise. Elizabeth has been influenced by FMT (Functional Manual Therapy) and dynamic neuromuscular facilitation techniques as a student of The Institute of Physical Art, Mulligan Concept of Mobilizations with Movement, and pilates-based rehabilitation. Elizabeth serves clients of every age and stage of life. Elizabeth enjoys gardening, cooking, dancing, playing tennis, hiking, swimming, pilates and spending time with her husband and children.
What’s in the Name?
The name evokes a re-interpretation of a woman from Roman mythology. Atalanta was one of those beautiful and clever women who disdained to marry a man. When put up to it by her father, she agreed to wed only the man who could beat her in a footrace, on the condition that any man she defeated would lose his head. Many put the agreement to the test, but none were so fast as Atalanta. Now Hippomenes was the suitor who won her hand, not because he was more swift, but because he knew (thanks to Venus) that which Atalanta found irresistible, prizes even more desirable than freedom alone.
In 1933, Lucette Bauer, a student at the Polytechnic School of Art, won a British Institution Scholarship for a sculptured image of the race that has inspired us. It is a neoclassical image that points to the goodness and beauty of the human form – body and soul. Here we freely re-interpret the story of “Atalanta’s Race” for a contemporary audience: Atalanta, clearly in the lead a moment ago (note how her right foot is ahead of his left), is checking her speed to double back for one of the golden apples – the apples of the Hesperides. These are the proper rewards of the greatest heroes, Hercules and the like. These are no mere trifles that she seeks. Her liberty may be at stake, but she sets things worthy of true honor ahead of that. This Atalanta is an image of one who checks herself for her children, for a friend, for a stranger in need, for a noble work that can fill a void in the culture – a business, a work of art, a song, a family.
This Hippomenes has already cast his last apple. Now he is running for a singular purpose. He’s focused on winning the race, but not for winning’s sake, nor to save his head, although his life is forfeit if he loses this contest. No, Hippomenes is set on the finish so as to win Atalanta. It is for her that he runs. He is an image of one who, even in the reality of mortality, singularly pursues happiness.
The two are caught here by a young artist about whom we know little, but we honor the beauty of the image and the talent and discipline that produced it – we honor her and see in her sculpture an inspiration for a noble life – with a drive for ultimate happiness and an attention to all the beautiful details of the goods of this life. The two make a great pairing – willing to risk all for the sake of the greatest good and unwilling to forego anything of true value.
A life in motion, a healthy tension, the nobility of work and play. Restoring the body so as to run the race well.