Movement as a Metaphor in Life and Art

Everything I have experienced in my life I use to make art.—Anna Halprin 

What if everything you’ve experienced in your life could be danced? What if an image drawn carried a message for healing? What if a dance inspired a drawing and a drawing inspired words for a poem and the poem transformed a difficult story that needed to be told into beauty?

Grounded in the Halprin Life Art Process™, this workshop’s approach enlivens dialogues between body and imagination, life experience and art making, and creativity and healing. Working with the expressive arts; movement, drawing and poetic writing, you  will be guided into a creative encounter and exploration with the symbolic and metaphoric life of the body.

Each day begins with somatic awareness and movement to awaken and attune the physical body. From there, you will be guided to explore your personal material through a model that interweaves movement/dance, visual art, poetic narrative, performative ritual, and witnessing.

We will work with Body Part Mapping and the Self Portrait Process, which are visual and narrative maps that intend to lead you into the themes, memories, and dreams that inform your life. Individual and collective life narratives will provide material to generate encounters and inspire embodied models for change.

 Participants can expect to explore:

• Models of a practice to facilitate embodied art-making for individuals and groups.
• Examples of movement and art making as a healing force.
• A communication tool that supports giving and receiving feedback.

Participants must bring the following: a writer’s journal and a box of varied and well-supplied Craypas pastels.

Somatic warm-ups will be guided by guest faculty Natan Dascal, with live music provided throughout the workshop by guest musician Miles Lassi.

Recommended reading: The Expressive Body in Life, Art & Therapy by Daria Halprin