A short history of BodySchool

I originally conceived of BodySchool in late 2002 as a three-month education programme. The idea was to teach around half of the hours myself and invite teachers that I resonated with to teach the rest. For various reasons (bureaucratic mostly since my enthusiasm for the idea wasn't, and isn't, matched by my understanding of the Finnish system) the course didn't happen. But it came close enough for newspaper ads to run and a web site to be made.

As a result of the web site, many people emailed me from all over the world saying that they would be very interested in such a course. I soon realised that the best way to proceed was to both to look for an institution to host the BodySchool and to organise some short courses offering the same kind of material in the same kind of way.

BodySchool 2005

The first BodySchool took place in Finland in the summer of 2006. I organised a week-long summer intensive in the heart of the Finnish countryside near Mikkeli. You can read something of the process that we went through and see some pictures here ...

 

BodySchool 2006 and 2007

I organised a short BodySchool 2006 workshop with Andrea Olsen (author of Body and Earth: An Experiential Guide and Bodystories: A Guide to Experiential Anatomy) and Caryn McHose (co-author of both Bodystories: A Guide to Experiential Anatomy and How Life Moves, Explorations in Meaning and Body Awareness). You can see the orginal web info page here ...

 

BodySchool 2008

In the Autumn of 2007, I taught an evening class series as part of the Theatre Academy of Finland Open University programme entitled: "Awareness Perception Presence - Somatic Movement Practice as "Invisible Technique". I had taught a similar course many times specifically for performers but this evening class drew people from a wider range of backgrounds - within a few classes I realised it was the BodySchool again!

The course was a success and I have been invited to repeat it again in the Spring of 2008. This time it will be advertised as BodySchool Spring 2008. Through teaching at a dance festival in Romania, I made contact with some people who would like to organise a week-long intensive in the countryside there in summer of 2008. For more info about these courses go here ...

 

 

• Bodyschool
• Background and Short History
• BodySchool Workshops and Courses
• Notes from BodySchool 2005