Soulletting: Honoring the soul through ritual art, movement, tender witnessing—Theatre For The Soul.
We move our body.
We make art.
We witness
“Valerie’s emotional intelligence is off the charts. She doesn’t miss a beat. She has the rare ability to mine a text deeply for all its human, psychological potential, combined with razor sharp physical instincts. As a collaborator, as a teacher, she bestows this so passionately, so generously, with the utmost respect for a performer’s personal process and interests. She’s a true artist.”
“For me, the Covid shut down took away my outlet for dance, creativity and dedicated self care. Soulletting has allowed me to tend to my heart, process my shadow, unleash my wild woman, and feel all parts of myself again. This program has transformed me! It’s literally as if I have woken up to all parts of myself. If you are ready to feel more alive, Soulletting is the program for you.”
The Soulletting Method® is a movement-based creative practice born from the raw terrain of grief, love, and renewal. It is designed to restore our relationship to body, spirit, and voice—to help us express what words alone cannot hold.
Soulletting invites us to honor presence over performance, permission over self-censorship, and aliveness over restraint. We learn to move sorrow, tend to ache, and reclaim wild joy.
The core of our work begins by creating a safe, structured, and non-judgmental space for exploration. Together we descend into the body to awaken, connect with, and unleash parts of the Self that cannot yet be described in words.
Throughout our work, you will reconnect with your raw vulnerability and rediscover your own holy and wild self.
Unleash. Express. Be Seen. Be Held. Be Set Free.
“The connection I built with one person in the workshop and in such a short period of time felt stronger than some friendships I have. When we were finally finished my partner and I just looked at each other and tears begin to flow for both of us. The flood of emotions was overwhelming. I don’t know if I could imagine what my life might be like if I allowed myself to become vulnerable like that in theatre or in life... but I am now willing to try.”
The roots of The Soulletting Method™ embodiment practice were set during the ten years (1997-2007) that I worked as an exotic dancer in strip clubs across Las Vegas, Alaska, Hawaii, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Tijuana. This experience remains one of the fiercest beating hearts of my life.
The most significant influences on my work have been:
The imaginative play of my father Jerry Hager (renowned mime, teacher, and theatre artist).
The grit, guts, and instinctual intelligence of exotic dance.
The relentless attention to detail and resilience creating and then performing six autobiographical solo shows with my husband Scott Slavin (our most celebrated works being, Naked In Alaska: The True Story of Stripping in The Last Frontier).
The palpable life changing work with Bea, (Doris Wolz-Cohen) of Soulful Relating.
Other trainings and professional education include: Peter A. Levine’s Somatic Experiencing (SE) Professional Certificate Program (L,3), Open Floor International’s Teacher Training Program (Ground Floor Lab, Open Floor Phase I), 5Rhythms (with Lucia Horan), Tamalpa Institute’s Body Mapping Workshops, Laban/Bartenieff & Somatic Studies International, and Pacifica Graduate Institute’s “Exploring the Conscious Feminine: The Legacy of Marion Woodman’s BodySoul Work.” Additional influences include Authentic Movement, Dreamwork, Spontaneous Drawing, Touch Work, and The Alexander Technique.
I studied acting and worked as a performance artist for over twenty years. My training includes Stanislavski (Cinda Jackson), Method (Tony Greco), The Style (Grotowski, Viewpoints, Mask Theatre, (The Actor’s Gang), Lucid Body (Fay Simpson), Committed Impulse (Josh Pais), and mime under Rick Wamer and my father, Jerry Hager. My performance interests have also led me to study within various improvisational schools.
I am certified as a Soulful Relating in Community Practitioner—an integrative approach to cultivating soulful relationships through somatic, contemplative, and Gestalt-based practices. I hold multiple teaching artist certifications in movement and performing arts and have received numerous teaching grants and awards. My teaching experience includes The Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival, Queens Theatre (New York City), and Artworx LA.
My contemplative background includes studies in meditation and mindfulness at the Kadampa Meditation Center and The Shambhala Center in New York City, as well as Transcendental Meditation training in Los Angeles.
Originally self-taught in Tarot, I later deepened my understanding under Johanna Beyer, a former student of cultural anthropologist and Tarot scholar Angeles Arrien—an influence that continues to inform my creative and spiritual work.