Monthly Archives: December 2018

What’s a Workshop?

Somebody asked me, will there be Awareness Through Movement® in Uncover Your Innate Strength? (That’s the series of six workshops coming in 2019.)

I realized, oh! Not everyone knows what I mean when I say “workshop.”

So here’s what to expect!

Lessons

Yes, we’ll do ATM lessons. We might do two. We might do parts of several. But we’ll certainly be getting down on the floor. Having three hours to play with means we can stop and start. Pause for discussion or demos. We can also do extended lessons which are too long to offer in an hour class.

Partner work

Sometimes I’ll invite you to work with one or two other people to investigate something together, maybe in moving, maybe in discussion.

Discussion

Walking workshop participants grouped around a human skeleton

After our walking workshop.

We’ll do some talking about what we’re discovering. Each of us will make unique discoveries during each workshop, and over the series. We’ll probably find common threads. Naming and describing what we discover will help us decide whether our discoveries are useful—do we want to keep traveling in that direction?—or whether we’ve found something to change or improve.

As Moshe Feldenkrais wrote: “When you know what you’re doing, you can do what you want.” Part of knowing involves naming, really bringing your attention to what’s going on.

Homework

If you like, you can take one or two of the ideas from each workshop and continue to play with them on your own, during the month. Over the six months, your toolbox will grow.

You may surprise yourself. I once taught a rolling lesson. During the lesson I said, “You’ll never do these movements in this way in real life. The point of this lesson is flexibility.” Then I found myself getting into my car after class, tapping into part of the lesson to pivot, fold, and twist, all at the same time. Spontaneously and effortlessly!

Fun

It’s just plain fun to do a workshop. But don’t take my word for it! Here’s what Linda had to say after her first workshop: “Thank you so much for a most stimulating, enlivening, enlightening and totally fun afternoon.

More questions? Send me an email!