Mar 25, 2014 - Workshop at SFU with Mirae

Workshop at SFU with Mirae

Mirae and I prepare our lesson plan for this session on the phone the day before. It’s getting easier to build a sort of flow quickly. Our toolboxes are getting stronger, and our ability to be flexible within the structure we build is getting better.

We have one new member and two guests from the Carnegie, representing the Arts and Health Project. They are here to get a sense of the workshop.

To give these new participants more of a basic introduction to the workshop, I decide to extend the building the dancing house exercise to include tensegrity lines of the body.

When I take the group through the hand dance, we revisit the hand energy duet dance: one person has a conversation of movement between their two hands and the group echoes. This is passed around the circle. We use the term echoing to describe an active state of observation. Rather than standing or sitting statically while watching, the group can echo (move with the energy of) the performer. Mirae leads the group in an old Greek folk dance. It is a circle dance, and each section is a different season. This feels communal and brings us together through easy to follow rhythms and light physical contact through the hands.

We lead the group in a movement meditation on water and earth. Though the water elements were dynamic and everyone seemed engaged, the contrasting earth movers, in retrospect needed more spaces through which to respond and engage with the water movers.

At the closing circle, I let the participants know that they are encouraged to invite new members. As Karen is no longer facilitating on a recurrent basis, and we are not working towards a performance, we need to do a bit more outreach. This often is best achieved through participants’ experience being shared.