Lancaster resident Adele Taylor Ulrich is a dancer, choreographer, movement therapist and political activist. She is, in a word, busy.

"I've considered giving up eating and sleeping," she quipped in an interview, which was shoehorned into her jampacked schedule.

She is a founding member of Lancaster's Grant Street Dance Company. She is also co-director of the Fulton Theatre's Youtheatre, a program for teens who have faced challenging circumstances.

Much of her time these days is spent volunteering for Organizing for America, President Barack Obama's grass-roots political organization.

As OFA's community organizer for Lancaster, Ulrich has been running phone banks, and canvassing for support on behalf of the president's push for health care reform. Since the U.S. House of Representatives passed its health care bill, the battle over reform has moved to the Senate.

"It's going to be quite a fight, so we're working very hard to educate people," Ulrich said.

In Ulrich's view, health care is a human right, and health care reform is a moral issue.

She struggled for a decade with chronic fatigue syndrome — and with the travails of dealing with an insurer quick to deny coverage because of that pre-existing condition.

She has survived breast cancer and thyroid cancer. She said she has health insurance that is considered good. Nevertheless, she said she has "really had to fight" to get her insurer to follow her cancer adequately.

During the presidential primaries, Ulrich got a call from a friend, who was a local field organizer for the Obama campaign. Her friend asked Ulrich to open her home as a staging location for campaign staff and volunteers.

Still in pain from her cancer treatments, Ulrich agreed. That very evening, a half-dozen or so campaign staffers were at her dining room table, and Ulrich was all in.

She said she has long used her art as a means of expressing her social justice views. Now, dance is helping to sustain her as she does political work.

The weekly movement classes she teaches are "deeply restorative, which really helps me to handle all that I'm handling," she said.

Age: 58.

Hometown: My childhood was split between two places — suburban Philadelphia and Key Biscayne, Fla.

Family: Daughters Jocelyn, 24; Hannah, 21, and husband, Bob.

Education: Bachelor of Arts degree in social psychology from Vermont College; graduate studies in counseling psychology; certifications in movement therapy and massage therapy.

The most important issues facing the country today: Education, green energy/consumerism, sexism/violence prevention and health care reform.

My most challenging experience: Two cancers.

My most inspiring experience: Witnessing the inauguration of President Obama next to a sobbing African-American woman, who said, "Finally, we can just be people — not colors or sexes" ... and singing "We Have Overcome" with her and thousands of people.

I draw strength from: The resilience of the human spirit — seeing others get through experiences that are unimaginably tough, witnessing someone freeing themselves from inhibition and finding their voice, and men fighting for a new order of masculinity that is not macho, but relational. It is stronger and sexier and will help women save the world.

I find peace in: Knowing that I am working hard to make a difference.

The last book I read: "The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help," by Jackson Katz.

If I had a theme song, it would be: "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," from "Monty Python's Life of Brian."

The movie I watch over and over again: "Waiting for Guffman."

My favorite bumper sticker: "Think education is expensive? Try ignorance."

The choreography I admire: Any work with meaning that lets the audience in and is interesting to look at —preferably nonstylized and nonproscribed movement.

What dance does for me: [It] releases experiences and tension and creates space — physically, mentally and emotionally. We are free and fully expressed as children, but then we learn to sit down, get in line and conform. Lots of that is necessary, but some aliveness gets lost. ... Dance facilitates stress release and allows that full expression to continue throughout life.

My guilty pleasure: Ice cream.

I admire: Anyone who sees suffering and injustice and is working as proactively as possible to change it.

What makes me yell at my TV: News shows and political ads parading rumors from unnamed inside sources and lies as the truth. ... The public deserves the truth and people are too busy and tired to dig for reality.

The thing about me that would surprise my acquaintances: I am allergic to superficial social interaction.

The world needs more: Empathy and less us vs. them thinking.

My greatest hope: [It's] that more people will join me in working for a sustainable world, which I will do until I die — I owe that to future generations.