Arts-Based Embodiment: (most of) your burning questions answered!
I want to sign up but I don’t consider myself an artist/mover and I’m intimidated... OR I want to sign up but I have a lot of experience/skills in the arts... would I be out of place in this?
You would be welcome! (and very much belong). All of the things we do together are accessible and deceivingly simple with lots of room for everyone to show up in the way that feels best for them. Moving the emphasis in the exercises away from skill and onto sensitivity allows us to concentrate on and research our theme: exploring our individual lived experience of embodiment. In this way, your perspective and unique personal aesthetic, regardless of your experience in the arts, is a gift for the group. I’ve done this series with highly trained artists from different backgrounds as well as people who are just beginning to build their relationship with that identity. If you have a lot of experience in the modality we are working in, this gives you the opportunity to explore the fundamentals of your practice: play, sensitivity, experimentation in a supportive environment as well as practicing non-identification with certain expression styles (read: it’s an opportunity to get out of your habits and in to researching new things).
Generally, if you like this type of work, skill-level has little to do with how much you get out of it all.
Often people experience it as remembrance that feels second nature rather than a completely new learning. This way of living the arts is not new. All I can say is: you’ll see!
(and know that you are never expected to do something you feel uncomfortable or unsafe doing)
I want to come but I can’t make all 6 of the dates, is it still ok to sign up?
Please don’t sign up if you can’t make at least 5 of the 6 sessions. And please plan to be there for the first session. The reason for this is that the group builds and strengthens as the workshop progresses. It is just so much more rich and rewarding for everyone when there is a commitment to attending. The quality of the group container, and our communal tending of this space, is a large part of what creates a supportive environment for risks, play, curiosity and trying new things. And this makes a ripe ground for aesthetically/ relationally fulfilling experience.
If you are unable to make the commitment now, you can sign up for the studio newsletter here (or send me an email letting me know you’d like to be added to the list) and you’ll get an update when I offer this series again. I hope to offer it once a year in the Okanagan - maybe twice if there is interest.
So what exactly is this?
In our work together, I draw on my training in Expressive Arts (I hold a Masters Degree in Intermodal Expressive Arts Therapy) and my studio practice as a textile/installation artist. We are coming together in a facilitated creative process to explore lived embodiment together, each in our own unique way. Then we get to reap the benefits of our collective wisdom/insights, because we have the gift of doing this in the context of a group.
Each session:
is Process oriented. We start somewhere, stay present, and build on that place. At the end of the session, we are often in a place we never imagined we would or could be. This allows for the facilitation to be responsive to what’s happening in the room, and for us to actually deepen our research into what is exciting for that unique group right in that moment. This is how we discover new things rather than staying with what think we know.
AND
has a structure. Each session begins with a check-in. Then we warm-up with simple guided meditations or exercises to bring us into our senses and the present. From here we move into the arts, where we will engage together in some kind of facilitated artistic experiment. We move in and out of our experimenting, debriefing and digesting in groups and alone. We may use multiple art-forms in one session. At the end of the session, we have a final debrief where we get to share our impressions, thoughts, insights, or findings (only if we want) and a final check-out. In terms of relational holding, I’ll be around after each session if you need to talk for a bit. You can contact me by email if something comes up during the week, and finally, if you want to go deeper, I am available for individual sessions at a special rate for workshop participants ($60 per hour. My normal rate is $90/ hr).
Yes, but what exactly will we be doing? What could a session look like? I need a concrete example of what I am getting myself into!
The activities are drawn from somatic healing modalities (such as Hakomi), mindfulness techniques, and the arts: visual arts, contemporary movement practices (like authentic movement and experimental dance), performance, words, sound etc.
A session might look like this:
Check-in
moving into...
A guided walking warmup to bring us into our bodies
moving into...
A free-writing exercise
moving into...
creating a poem in a small group
moving into...
sharing our findings in the large group
moving into...
another sensitizing game where we attune to sound
moving into...
creating a small and simple “soundscape” on our own, using one found object
moving into...
creating a small piece in a group
then...
debrief. respond. continue experimenting. deepen. respond. experiment. share. debrief. etc...
I plan the sessions based on the group and what happened in the previous session. Every group explores a different facet of human embodied experience and I want to make sure I’m right with you.
All the questions about payment...
You can pay in a few different ways.
If you are paying by credit card, this can be done here through the "Register" button (you don’t need a paypal account - it just hosts the payment).
Another option is to pay by internet E-transfer (preferable to credit card for me!). This you can send to alexandragoodall@gmail.com
Cheques are an option.
Lastly, we can also arrange a cash drop! Email or call me and we’ll find a time and place that works for both of us.
Limited spots in each workshop are available for scholarship/financial aid or payment plans. Contact me and we can find an arrangement that works for your situation.
Your payment confirms your spot. Unfortunately, I can’t hold a spot for you without payment. Again, if this is a barrier for you, contact me and we can work out an amount for deposit/payment plan: 250-487-0737 or alexandragoodall@gmail.com