I’m delighted to be invited back as a guest lecturer at University of Limerick next week. I’ll be working with the Master of Arts Contemporary Dance Performance students on alignment, effortless and efficient movement as a basis for their complex challenges they are facing as professional dancers. I am currently the only practitioner in the Republic of Ireland with dance studies (dance and dance education degree as well as an MA) and Somatic Movement qualifications at a professional standard, so I am very happy I am invited to integrate the different aspects of my knowledge and teach students at this critical phase of their professional development.
Dancers are often trained very well to ignore injuries or discomfort, pushing through pain until they collapse and have to retire early from professional dancing. The pressure to be in top form, to be able to do impossible and exhausting (both mentally and physically) tasks to satisfy audience and choreographers in the quest for more is very high. Careers are short in general, payment is among the lowest in the performing arts industry and more often than not has to be subsidised by jobs that leave no or little time to really take care of body and mind. Self worth is often linked to physical abilities and the ephemeral nature of the work can seem like an endless starting from the beginning, especially at the beginning of the professional career… 5 6 7 8!
Somatic Movement Education is easy to integrate into a self care routine and can become part of a daily warm up for the day (even if there is no daily class available either because they’re not offered or funds are too low).
Once learned, the movements an be adapted intelligently to offer greater kinaesthetic awareness, focus and clarity – both in movement and thoughts. With practice, not only movement becomes stronger, presence becomes more grounded and the sense of moving fluidly around limitations rather than pushing with force becomes second nature.
Somatic Movement is not only for professional movers (and aren’t we all just that in a way? we are highly adapted to the movements we do daily!) – it’s beneficial for everyone who wants to improve gait, standing, energy levels throughout the day, sleep and rest.
It is independent from any movement aesthetics as it works from the internal awareness of the mover, not from an idealised shape the mover has to fit in. What sets it apart from other modalities is that it targets the Nervous System and creates changes in control at a profound level. This regulation of the nervous system output decreases pain drastically with a bit of practice (in Clinical lessons, skilled hands on feedback allows for a much faster result that is kept up by subsequent practice of the self care movements you learn in the session), and practice is what is important to strengthen those neural pathways, creating better movement habits that are efficient and let you reach your full potential.
Contact me if you would like to change the way you hold yourself, the way you experience yourself and appreciate yourself.
I’m looking forward to hear from you!