Bon wears the THICK ROUNDED EAR CUFF, GRANDITA RING, and the MAJA II BANGLE.
Bonnie Crotzer is a genius when it comes to all things beauty and wellness. The body is her medium, after all. The New York City-based dancer and Sky Ting Yoga instructor takes a holistic approach to health, integrating a range of modalities into her own life and practice. Her top tip? Regular fascia exfoliation. The founder of The Floss, Bonnie teaches her highly sought-after Fascia Flossing technique both online and in her New York studio. Through her keen body knowledge and intuitive understanding of movement, Bonnie has helped me develop greater strength, flexibility, and physical awareness. She also gives the best recommendations when it comes to natural beauty products. Her homemade hair and face masks are some of my all-time faves! We caught up with Bonnie to talk fascia and physical wellness, right before she left for her trip to Mallorca.
PHOTOS Kendall Conrad
EDITOR Sofia Florimbi
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First, tell us a little about yourself.
This girl was born to move…All I ever wanted to do as a kid was dance. And as I got older, I realized the more I pursued various interests and gathered knowledge, the more it would support my dancing. I believe everything is connected and bridges can be built between ideas, experience, and skills. Dance was my first love, and still is. I was trained in classical ballet where I grew up. Also I was surrounded by nature, so I got to both express my nature and be in nature. I am from the Santa Barbara, CA area. I was lucky to grow up hiking in the mountains and playing in the sea below. My folks always kept a garden to grow herbs, tomatoes, and zucchini, and I worked on a farm as my first job, so valuing nature and health seeped through my skin and into my soul at a young age. Both dance and being outdoors were very formative for me. I knew in my heart that I would be a professional dancer, and I’m so grateful I had that opportunity. Dance brought me to NYC for a season but it was the work I learned about fascia that brought me here for the second time - almost 7 years ago. Here I am, still obsessed with this city! Anything can happen in NYC at any moment. I still believe that.
Bon wears the RECTANGULAR BANGLE, the NAKED SQUARE BANGLE, the GYRO EAR CUFF and the OBLIQUE and ARTEMISIA I RINGS.
How did you find Fascia Flossing?
For about 10 years, I danced professionally while also teaching yoga on the side. I was in pursuit of creating sustainability for my body, healing from the rigor of ballet and contemporary dance. I’d studied and started teaching yoga at a young age, my practice became my crutch, and I maybe took it to the limit, to the point of actually injuring myself with the practice that I held so dear and was meant to be my saving grace. As I was on this journey to care for my body and sustain my career, I met a man named Bob Cooley, who is a genius at manipulating fascia, and he taught me how to help heal myself and other people through this particular technique. After studying with Mr. Cooley for 6+ years and combining it with my other backgrounds of dance, yoga, pilates, etc, I developed a movement method and platform The Floss to educate people about the often overlooked source of health - our fascial network.
The XARRACA TOTE makes the perfect yoga bag.
What is Fascia Flossing, basically?
I call it Fascia Flossing because we are essentially attempting to resculpt the body’s fascia by causing an internal exfoliation, subtracting densified fascia to change our foundational structure.
Bonnie wears the FUSION WRAP RING paired with the CLAM PENDANT and ORIGINS DOUBLE RING CUFF.
Who can Fascia Flossing benefit?
When I started Flossing, my immune system and digestive health improved, and the major injuries from my dance career were alleviated. It showed me how it felt to be truly flexible versus hypermobile. Throughout my dance and yoga career I was hypermobile - that was what was required of me. Little did I know that my rock solid thighs were full of scar tissue that was trying to stabilize my hypermobile hips. That was a minor ego blast… I will explain…
Truly flexible means your tissue is pliable/elastic/hydrated and ready to spring into action. So many studies show us that overstretching tears our tissue; the body responds by repairing itself overnight by laying down scar tissue fibers to recreate stability, which causes you feel tight again. Beyond that, wherever you are super mobile, the body will try to find balance by creating restrictions, which means scar tissue: that’s the nagging neck pain, or achy hip. Once tissues around the joints are overstretched, they act more like a dried-up overused rubber band.
The kind of stretching we do stays out of the joints (where we generally become hyper mobile); we work with shorter ranges of motion and we work with active effort and resistance. We get into the belly of the tissue (think the depths of your hamstring, quads, or traps — imagine them strong and elastic, springy) and we don’t hang out in the end range of motion where micro-tearing usually occurs.
If you are not hypermobile and instead feel tight or even super tight, this work applies to you in the same way: resistance and elongation will make your tissue elastic. Everyone will gain range that is functional, sustainable and makes you feel comfortable in your body by harmonizing imbalances.
And most importantly, if you follow the practice, this is safe and effective.
Bonnie wears the ROUNDED RING PENDANT, HEMISPHERE RING, NAKED CUFF I and ROUNDED EAR CUFF.
What are the main benefits of Fascia Flossing?
Fascia Flossing alleviates scar tissue, densified fascia, and systemic stagnation for an almost immediate sense of improved mobility, tension relief and organic posture. Some students of Fascia Flossing say that their digestive systems and or hormonal systems change as the health of their fascia improves. As a practitioner feels more open and spacious in their body, it impacts the health of the nervous system, relieving daily stress and eventually helping to resolve past traumas.
With this work, we also apply the lens of Chinese Medicine to help guide us along the fascial changes, this can provide little hints/treasures of insight for self discovery. I am so grateful for the wisdom of Chinese Medicine as it has given me so much support in truly upgrading my health.
BASICS OF FASCIA FLOSSING