Movement and Embodied Presence is a workshop designed to build awareness of
one's self
one's body
one's tissue
one's blood
one's bone
one's being
one's sensing
one's actions
one's present
one's presence
It draws from somatic practices such as the Alexander Technique, Body Mind Centering®, contact improvisation, the history of post-modern dance pedagogy and other moving meditations. It is sometimes in some form a response to this passage:
Whereas I cannot apprehend my body as an object but only as a body-for-itself, I apprehend the body of the other as an object about which i take a point of view and realize that my body as an object is the body-for-others. I do not perceive the other's body as mere flesh, but always in a specific and concrete situation which I interpret as meaningful. The other is perceived not as a cadaver, but as a being-in-body with intentions whose actions or gestures are goal directed and purposeful -- such as striking a match to light a fire in order to eat. This interaction of my body as the subject for myself and an object seen by the other leads to the third ontological dimension. Being seen and observed by the other results in a recognition of my facticity, that I am an object to the other. In interaction I begin to experience my intimate inside as an impersonal outside. The body-for-itself becomes objectified and alienated. What is my body is through being observed by the other, simply a body. - The Body and Society by Bryan S. Turner
I have primarily taught this workshop to performance artists with little to no background in dance or somatic practices yet are placing themselves/their bodies at the center of their work. It can also be taught and adapted to dancers and other advanced movers.