Moving From Within: Ecstatic Dance and Staged Movement
Sunday, October 23
11:00am-2:00pm
Instructor Andrea Thompson
How do we move from our most authentic self? The core concept of Ecstatic Dance is movement that comes spontaneously from your own body. Many times this movement can be deeply healing as it helps the body process held/stuck emotions, traumas, and patterns. As the music builds and takes the dancers through a series of rhythms, dancers are given the opportunity to explore how their bodies actually want to move through time and space. In this way, we will explore how ecstatic dance can open up the door to enhancing choreography and on stage performances by allowing them to come from a more authentic and embodied presence.
In this three-hour workshop we'll explore how movement originates in the body by doing some breath work and gentle focused exploration. Then we'll move through approximately a 90-minute dance set of authentic ecstatic movement. After dancing, we'll spend time discussing how movement felt different in the body when it wasn't directed, when it wasn't forced, and when it came from a deep listening to what the body needed. We'll also share how that movement might be translated into every experiencing of the world around us as well as staged movement in artistic spaces.
