As professional dancers and choreographers, Eun Jung Choi and Guillermo Ortega Tanus were familiar with how the body moves. However, they did not expect their experiences as dancers to translate so well into their next career goal: becoming professional massage therapists.

While spending five consecutive summers in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Choi and Tanus became fascinated with the ancient practice of Thai massage. They began to notice parallels between dance and massage — a similar flowing, rhythmic nature.

“Being a dancer was really helpful for transitioning into massage therapy, because as a dancer, you’re used to working with the body,” Tanus said. “Especially if you do any type of partnering, any type of contact improvisation, you have to know how to manipulate someone’s body without hurting them or hurting yourself. So, in massage, a lot of it is knowing what’s safe and what’s not, and how to give weight to a client when you need to and how to take weight when you don’t.”

Choi and Tanus, who have performed internationally, are now using their multi-faceted backgrounds to offer massage services at Nuad Bodywork, which opened in Chestnut Hill in January.

Many modalities

After first gaining an interest in massage through their trips to Thailand, Choi and Tanus attended school in the U.S. to become licensed. They began offering services in Center City, but moved to the Northwest after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. The duo then practiced in Germantown before finding an open location on Highland Avenue.

The services offered by Nuad Bodywork include integrative therapeutic massages, integrative Thai massages, Chi abdominal massages, Trager approach massages, ashiatsu deep feet bar therapy, manual lymph drainage, and pregnancy massages.

According to Choi and Tanus, offering such a wide range of massages with names that might not be widely known can occasionally be a barrier to engaging clients.

For instance, the Trager approach is a lesser-known form of massage that uses gentle, rocking movements to release tension and Choi is one of only a few practitioners in the region.

“Sometimes a challenge can be that our menu can be a little bit different,” Tanus said. “People don’t know what they don’t know. Not everybody is adventurous enough to try something that they don’t know.”

However, Choi and Tanus are eager to share what they have learned with the community and encourage customers to find the right massage for them.

Benefits of massage

The various modalities offered by Nuad Bodywork can assist with chronic pain, injury recovery, or simply help someone feel more deeply connected with their body.

“[Massage] basically gives you physical feedback,” Choi said. “That’s what we learned as a dancer, that touch is actually not about healing people, but giving them feedback about their own bodies.”

Massages don’t heal, Choi and Tanus say, but rather facilitate healing. “Oftentimes, the nervous system is what needs to be reset in order for the pain signal to go away,” Tanus said. “We’re just facilitating the muscles to relax, but also the nervous system to make that connection and notice that the problem is gone. So the pain signal stopped being called by creating a safe space.”

Naud Bodywork is located at 12-14 E. Highland Ave. Suite 201 in Chestnut Hill. Learn more at nuadbodywork.com.

Maggie Dougherty can be reached at Margaret@chestnuthilllocal.com.