After a 12-year absence from the stage and at the unlikely age of 45, she was called back to dance the role of Juliet in the company’s 1976 25th anniversary performance of Romeo and Juliet at Toronto’s landmark Sony Centre theatre, receiving a standing ovation from the full house audience.
The success of this performance and the “new” body she had acquired convinced her that she had found a path to lasting physical mobility and enjoyment. Wanting to share this vital process with others, she established a studio in 1980 and began teaching her own method of self-improvement exercises. First known as BioSomatics, her methodology was established in 2002 as Somatic Stretch: The Jarvis Technique. It is now also known as Inner Body Fitness, which sums up the somatic, internally focused approach of tension release, flexibility, postural alignment and internal strengthening, which she saw as being the foundations for overall bodily wellbeing.
Lilian’s daughter, Meredith Sands Keator, who “grew up” with the technique, became Co-Director of the Somatic Stretch organization in 2003. In 2013, she joined her mother in launching an online training program that to date has enlisted over fifteen trainees from Canada, the US, England and Australia, with new additions being added as the outreach grows.
