Awareness Perception Presence – workshop series

These workshops are a practical exploration of how somatic movement practices can be applied to the performing arts as a kind of “invisible technique”. While they do not necessarily teach any performable material, somatic practices can enhance how you perform, your ability to learn new skills and suggest new movement vocabulary. They also offer a way to deal with longstanding aches and pains, and your ability to recover from or, better still, avoid injuries.

In the workshop classes, we will use the Feldenkrais Method, Experiential Anatomy and other specially-devised material to enter into a physical dialogue with ourselves and the environment in which we are situated. I am particularly interested in how the seemingly internal changes that result from exploring these somatic practices are mirrored in the way we perceive the world around us and how the world perceives us.

Form and Content

While the form was developed as a 2-hour morning class for professional dancers, its focus on the simple acts of standing and walking means the material is suitable for anyone who is interested to attend the classes. And because each person works alone with the material, it is in fact suitable for groups of mixed abilities, skills and interests. The basic requirement then is that anyone with some expereince of studying with movement (yoga, dance classes, sports, fitness, etc) is welcome to attend.

When presented for professional dancers, the class flows from one thing to the next without so much room for discussion. My experience is that an ideal length for the class in this context is around 2 hours 15 minutes. However, the same material can also be presented for the general public in a longer class of up to 3 hours which allows for a slower pace and more time for dialogue as a group.

Each class begins with a guided exploration/lecture/dialogue in which the specific theme of the class is introduced through exploring reference movements and looking at associated anatomical details. Then follows a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) class which aims to clarify some aspects of the theme and generates a more general state of self-awareness. The final part of the class is spent in self-directed exploration taking the references movements as a starting point and offers the possibility to connect, integrate and further explore discoveries made during the first two parts of the class.

Themes

The classes are grouped into five-class workshops which each address an overall theme. It is possible to modify this five-class format according to scheduling demands:

• Introducing the Torso - the Fish Body (ideal as an introductory workshop)
• Exploring the relation of Shoulders and Hips
• Arms and Hands
• Feet and Legs
• Head and neck
• Breath

Further Information

• classes can be 2-3 hours long - 2 hours 30 minutes is ideal
• up to around 40 people maximum (the exact size of the class depend on the size and acoustics of the studio)
• can be presented as workshop or drop in class - the classes are designed to work together but because each class presents a single movement idea then it's also possible for people to drop in to single classes
• because of the solo nature of the exploration then it's possible to teach students from different groups at the same time, for example, different skill levels, technical backgrounds, year groups or disciplines (eg. actors and dancers)

Requirements

• studio needs to be warm
• yoga-type mats for all
• a life-size skeleton as a teaching aid if possible (if not then I can work from books)
• the ability to play music from my iPod/computer

Resources

For those interested in how I came to develop these classes then I have written at length about the background and development of them in my MA thesis entitled Awareness Perception Presence : Inquiring Into Forming A Body Of Work which can be downloaded as a PDF.

I am also making available to those who have attended Awareness Perception Presence workshops with me recordings in MP3 format of the Feldenkrais ATM portions of the classes. These are live recordings from workshops themselves and are therefore suitable only as study aids for people who are already familiar with the context in which they were originally presented. Please email me at saying when and where you studied with me to receive a link to a page where these MP3s are available for download.

I hope in the future to make available studio recorded versions that will be freely available to anyone who is interested.

• Approach to Teaching Courses Offered
• ...
• Awareness Perception Presence
• Perceiving Choices
• BodySchool
• Contact Improvisation
• Feldenkrais Method
• ...
• Workshop and Course Dates