University of Central Lancashire

MA Dance & Somatic Well-being: 

Connections to the Living Body

The International Somatic Movement Education Therapy Association: Approved Training in Somatic Movement Dance Education: Community & Client Based Practice

Contact:

Penny Collinson, MA
Senior Lecturer
MA Dance & Somatic Wellbeing
University of Central Lancashire
Media Factory
Preston
PR1 2HE
phone: 01772 895349
email:  PSCollinson@uclan.ac.uk

Click Here For Brochure & Course Details

MA Dance & Somatic Well-Being is a professional training programme designed to certify professional practitioners in the field of dance and somatic education. The MA promotes the role of somatic awareness and well-being in community and client based contexts, maintaining high standards of professional competence and excellence.

*Modules:*

• DA4001 Presence, Kinaesthesia & Meta-Kinesis
• DA4002 Dance, Connection and Support
• DA4003 Dance and Fluid Transitioning
• DA4004 Dance and the Skeletal Muscular System
• DA5005 Dance & Relaxation
• DA4006 Soma and Phenomenology
• DA4007 Re-formations of the Sacred
• DA4008 Somatic Education & Co-creation with clients
• DA4009 Somatic Research

All sessions are taught in the spirit of self-discovery, non-judgment and heart-centred educative models. MA Dance & Somatic Well-Being: Connections to the Living Body is a unique visionary programme in the world, offering a professional training in the philosophies, ethos and skills required to work as a Somatic Movement Dance Educator.

Central to this programme is how somatic awareness and kinaesthetic development enhances self-esteem and how "deep body listening" can engage students and the wider community in new perceptions of Self. Dance is explored through somatic awareness and is viewed as a site of interconnection and vision. The transpersonal and interdependent dimensions of community are a focus of study.

Somatic Movement Dance Education is a supportive connective paradigm or a 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 (SMDE).

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 connection to the soma through the following conceptual frameworks: non-judgmental facilitation, physiological rest & activity, being/doing, imagination, vision, restfulness, ease, compassion and empathy. The professional field is premised on conscious awareness of the vitality and movement within the body, self-awareness and self-education.

*Somatic Movement Dance Education:

• Connection to Self through frameworks of listening, moving and reflection
• Restful frameworks, supporting deep body listening
• Models of self-realization & open frameworks of listening/witnessing
• Sensory-perceptual processes
• Experiential anatomy
• Physiological support
• Symbolic and metaphorical support
• Models of connectivity and support
• Deep body listening and physiological rest
• Sensing, perceiving and moving
• Frameworks of self-care and gentle witnessing
• Self-care and connection to others through talking and moving
• Symbolic and metaphorical inner support
• Re-inhabiting time – exploring the quality of our time.
• Affirming practices of biological temporality

"The Dance & Somatic Well-Being programme is one of the most comprehensive dance programs I have ever seen. The program is truly on the cutting creative edge of dance and movement programs"

Mary Abrams President ISMETA Board of Directors
(International Somatic Movement Education & Therapy Association New York)