Cultivating Awareness Through Play
As humans, we have our body awareness to navigate this world. Saying “How I feel,” is akin to describing the quality of my awareness. Cultivating the clarity and quality of this awareness is meaningful work. I think of my teaching offerings as extensions of this effort. Currently I am focused on training the awareness of the body/mind through the practice of play.
This September, I will be teaching with my long time friend and mentor, Mestre Itapuã Beiramar. He and I are both Capoeiristas and manual therapists. He has also focused on studying the art of weight/joint manipulation through the martial art of Brazilian Jiujitsu—while I have focused on, in some ways, a physically similar but more cooperative dance form: Contact Improvisation. In early September, Beiramar and I are going to offer a week of practices that are designed to support the participants in cultivating the art of play, informed by the influence of Capoeira, CI, and JiuJitsu.
Within the practice of play, we find joy, creativity, and the unexpected. Through being together, we co-regulate and can practice ways to build self awareness. Self awareness can become a way to slow time and create options. It helps us to find our sources of “free” energy and inspiration. Knowing where we are at helps us to get to where we are going. Getting lost along the way is half the fun.
Upcoming Workshops…
Join myself and Mestre Itapuã Beiramar at The Field Center, September 6-13 for “The Invisible Game” Workshop!
This workshop is designed for anyone, at any level, who is a dancer, a Capoeirista, a martial artist curious about dance and play, or a dancer curious about Jiujitsu and Capoeira. It is designed for humans interested in physical games, and the practice of self-awareness.
Please come and join us — NOTALOF (no one turned away for lack of funds) — at The Field Center! All Room and Board included.
I am also looking forward to being back at Rhizome Springs, teaching Axis Syllabus, Capoeira and Contact Improvisation Friday, August 28 - Sunday, August 30!
I was recently featured on the podcast “The Thinking Practitioner” by Whitney Lowe & Til Luchau. If you’d like to listen, my episode “Becoming Friends with Movement” is linked here!