How can we embrace our habitual tendencies to move in certain ways, whilst at the same time investigate some new possibilities, not only in our movement but how we think, act and feel? The Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic Education* offers us a great opportunity to dive into this world of learning and experience ourselves with some new insight.
Each class will begin with a Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement lesson framed by a simple movement activity, for example shifting weight or turning. We will explore lessons (movement puzzles) which help clarify your foundations, your base of support so that you are free to move with greater ease, grace and pleasure. Structured improvisations then allow this learning to feed into your dancing and the ability to sense yourself on the ‘inside’ whilst being fully present in the performance space. We will work together sometimes through touch, sometimes through observation and feedback and of course through dancing alone and with others.
These classes are for anyone interested in diving deeply into sensing themselves, going slowly and patiently to find new ways of moving and looking to find an easier, simpler way of being. From here, your dancing self can emerge with playful curiosity. These classes may also be useful if you are facing challenges or limitations as a result of injury or the effects of ageing.
*The Feldenkrais Method® was developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984) as a gentle and intricate embodied educational process concerned with self-discovery, wellbeing and improved function. It uses movement, sensation & reflective experience as organic learning modes to support us in our ability to interact with the world in new ways with comfort, ease and curiosity.
This week of classes forms part of the MA/MFA Creative Practice programme, which means that only 11 public places are available each day.
Thomas Kampe has worked as a performer, artist, researcher and somatic educator across the globe for 40 years and was Professor of Somatic Performance & Education at Bath Spa University (UK) between 2012 & 2022. Thomas initially trained in visual art and dance, and is a teacher of the Feldenkrais Method ® which forms a rich foundation for his teaching, arts practice and research. He is interested in critical somatic arts legacies, and his writings and performance works have been published internationally. He was editor of the Feldenkrais Research Journal Vol. 6 ‘Practices of Freedom: The Feldenkrais Method & Creativity’ in 2019, and recently co-edited JDSP Vol. 13.1 & 2 (2022): ‘Embodying Eco-Consciousness: Somatics, Aesthetic Practice and Social Action’. Thomas’ chapter ‘Dancing the Soma-Ecstatic: Feldenkrais and the Modernist Body’ was published in 2021.