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ISMETA MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS
University of Central Lancashire: Faculty of Arts, Humanities and
Social Sciences An Approved Somatic Movement Training Program of: The International Somatic Movement Education Therapy Association (ISMETA)
Moving Body Resources
Director of ISMETA Approved Programme and Course leader for MA Programme: Amanda Williamson. Please feel free to contact Amanda
Williamson directly for an informal discussion about the Masters
programme, course information and professional development. Amanda is
available from 10am -4pm UK time.
Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Email: acwilliamson@uclan.ac.uk
Course Modules:
This highly innovative international development gives academic visibility to a largely under-acknowledged strand of professional practice within mainstream university curricular, supporting practitioners world-wide by raising the status of Somatic Movement Dance Education (within community & client contexts) to the level of viable academic study and professional practice. This new strand of practice is distinctly marked by high degrees of socio-cultural awareness, non-hierarchical reflective frameworks, biologic temporality and restful resonance. In essence, it could be referred to as a model of ‘Dance and Human Companionship’.
General processes covered within and across modules:
The program offers a professional training in the philosophies, ethos and skills required to work as a Somatic Movement Dance Educator. The learning environment actively supports students in making a unique and highly creative contribution to the field. Creative synthesis is explored through experiential sensitivity and reflective frameworks fostering depth-connection to body-self and the community. The course covers the following within and across modular study:
The field is based on the belief that we have the capacity and personal agency to direct and/or re-direct our lives through gentle self-reflexive processes; becoming active agents in our experience, sensually alive, and co-actively engaged with our world. The following are key areas covered within and across modular study:
What the MA offers by way of accreditation and vocational development:
The MA Dance & Somatic Well-being: Connections to the Living Body offers a unique opportunity to dive into the world of somatic movement and personal growth process, to develop teaching skills with individuals and groups, and to engage in deep academic research. Validated by UCLan as a Masters of Arts level course of study and by the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA), this programme is both an academic foret and professional training ground for teachers and professionals of all kinds to enhance their personal and inter personal work skills. This programme meets the educational and professional standards set forth by ISMETA for its professional membership registry requirements, which follow requirements common among many professional level training programes. With the added work of research to fulfill the MA, programme graduates advance their philosophical and practical understanding of somatic movement education beyond entry level professional standards, and contribute further to the overall development of the field of somatic movement.
Reflections from Masters degree students:
‘What I like about the course is being at the heart of this developing field of Somatics. Being able to combine the profound experience of the practical work with a backbone of academic research is very exciting’. Jane Okondo
‘Having already changed it is continuing to transform my life. I feel privileged to be part of such a pioneering and rewarding course, which combines science, humanitarianism, compassion, daily life, and spirituality. It offers the tools one needs to be creative and potentially produce some truly life-altering and dynamic work’. Nephelee Stergiou
‘As a dance tutor and choreographer, the application of somatics practice within my work has allowed me to discover a new found vehicle of communication for the teaching of dance and performance practice. I have found that the use of somatics as a tool to support learning, has helped in demystifying the complexities associated with the teaching of contemporary African dance within a western framework, allowing students to bring about a defined clarity to their understanding and embodiment of the expression of African dance.’ Francis Angol
Connection:
Somatic Movement Dance Education has been shaped through differing strands of practice and a far wider paradigmatic movement exploring depth-connection to the body and interconnectivity with community and the environment. The discipline forms part of a wider supportive connective paradigm advocating the healthy benefits of connection and support – finding support in the moving body is a basic premise and discerning feature of Somatic Movement Dance Education.
Connection to the body, support within the body, and supportive communications between bodies are definable aspects shaping the field. Connectivity is fostered through experiential processes, which contact a deeper sense of vitality, usually located within the body's moving physiology or the sensory-imaginal.
Restoration:
Restoring connection to body-self is a key principle in Somatic Movement Dance Education and connection is a central feature of this course. The programme explores depth-connection to the soma through the following conceptual frameworks: non-judgmental facilitation, physiological rest & activity, being/doing, sensory-imagination, vision, restfulness, ease, compassion and empathy.
The course also focuses on how language shapes our experience in movement, as well as the quality of our “presence” during facilitation. The subtleties of facilitation are explored, such as the cultivation of human qualities such as companionship, gentleness, heart, vitality, pleasure, empathy and compassion. These subtle but essential qualities are embedded within somatic movement exercises and reflective dialogical processes.
Looking after the body/care for the moving body:
The silent level biological processes of the human body inform every moment of our thinking, feeling, and meaning-making movements on the planet. From birth through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and aging we are in constant rapport with these silent movements telling us about our well-being and guiding our actions and decisions. As cognitive development matures and we have more awareness of the affects our life choices have on ourselves and others, it is essential to develop more conscious interest in the silent level biological activities of our experience. Developing interest and enjoyment of our silent level experiences through sensation and feeling awareness provides each one of us more resources and more choices for how we respond to the circumstances life presents us, the aging processes of our bodies, and how we live our lives at work and play with colleagues, family, friends, and those who challenge us.
Wider Key philosophical standpoints:
Key philosophical standpoints such as self-awareness, self-knowledge and self-education inform praxis. The subject discipline is founded on the belief that we have the capacity and personal agency to direct and re-direct our lives through gentle self-reflexive movement processes, becoming active agents in our experience, sensually alive and co-actively engaged with our world.
Somatic Movement Dance Education tends to mean the study of the moving body through the development of kinaesthetic intelligence and anatomical awareness. Using gentle improvisational movement processes 'somatic movement education' is an excellent way to re-vision life and reflect upon experience. It is a spacious practice designed to support people in cultivating a "deeper sense" of self. The profession utilizes experiential anatomical educative processes: drawing, painting, poetry, writing, talking, dancing and moving. Sensing, perceiving and reflecting through movement in order to gain a deeper understanding of the body, and how we feel in the world are central to the profession.
The professional field is premised on conscious awareness of the vitality and movement within the body, depth-connection to body through movement.
The discipline is largely based on:
Why studying at movingbodyresouces in New York is great:
Moving Body Resources is a space dedicated to classes, workshops, and professions that recognize creativity and the body as central to the process of human development. MBR is quiet, clean, and a unique oasis in the midst of New York City’s Chelsea/Fashion District, and home to over 100 professionals teaching workshops and classes, and offering private sessions in over 20 different body, mind, spiritual and creative development professions. Students learning at MBR are exposed to the all levels of personal learning and exploration, professional practice, and the nuts and bolts of running a business.
Amanda Williamson is the course leader and founder of MA Dance &
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