Weekly classes in Victoria, BC
Summer Session 1: 4 Thursdays, weekly from June 13- July 4th, 8-9:45 am
Summer Session 2: 4 Thursdays, weekly August 15, 22, 29th, 8-9:45 am
In this class series we explore cycles of call and response. Ebb and flow. Stillness and movement. Listening and speaking in movement gestures, phrases, as well as through words and images. Movement explorations will be held within a score - a framework that provides structure and lots of space for creative exploration. After gathering together, we will practice a nourishing somatic movement resource, and then begin a score. for exploration. We will jump off together from a creative seed or a theme, which will be different each time.
Folks will be well supported to explore their own instinctive ripples of movement and play, to find their creative voice, within spacious time and a kind, welcoming atmosphere. We will explore a variety of ways to witness one another: supple, curious, reflective stillness, poetic responses, through image, and through movement responses.
This inquiry is held with and without music, resting into the beloved textures of silence and sounds of Earth.
I encourage you to dress in layers. Have water or tea nearby. Bring a journal or some paper and simple art materials. Have a blanket and/or a cushion and/or a comfortable sitting option nearby as well.
Why
Movement and play are fundamental to our sense of aliveness as embodied beings. When we spend time in the collective deepening our playfulness, our creativity, through movement, we grow our ability to be real with one another and feel at ease in our bodies, in our nervous systems, in our relationships. Working with our creative expression supports our ability to voice our real, to be visible and participatory in life. Body Songs, Earth and Sky also supports us to more deeply experience our relationship with this living being we are part of. This is a crucial form of nourishment, waking us up to our sense of place within the whole.
“Movement partners the dynamics of the earth. Momentum, centrifugal force, and gravity inform the way we swing an arm, turn our head, or leap across a stream. In many ways, the moving body is our connection to the family of things. Rather than creating movement, we participate in the inherent movement of the planet….
Neurologist Oliver Sacks…considers kinesthesia (sense of movement), our sixth sense, essential to an understanding of self and the world.…. “
Andrea Olsen
Who
You and I. We. All of us. Together. Earth and Sky.
Lineage: I studied Authentic Movement as part of my studies in Dance Movement Therapy with the Center for Movement Education and Research in California, and with Andrea Olsen, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, and Jen Polins at the School for Contemporary Dance and Though in North Hampton, MA. I also trained with Anna and Daria Halprin at the Tamalpa Institute in Movement Based Expressive Arts, and am a Certified Soul Motion Conscious Dance Teacher trained and mentored by Vincent Martinez Grieco and Zuza Engler. I was trained and mentored by Sandra Sammartino in Hatha Yoga and am a Registered Yoga Teacher; trained and mentored by Pat Ogden and Kekuni Minton in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and am a Certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist (SP is a form of Body-Centered Psychotherapy); and trained by Jon Eisman in Hakomi. I have also been mentored by Elders Fyre Jean Graveline and Jean Tait, learning about healing arts and ceremonies from an Indigenous Feminist perspective, through Life As Medicine.