When healthy, we take little notice of our bodies. Yet the state of the body determines the physical form of who we are and how we present ourselves. The body is the first thing by which others recognize us, and it is central to the way that people define the ‘self’ and personal individuality. Through growth and education, we gradually cultivate behavior patterns and responses tied to emotions that are also interconnected with our body. We continuously reinforce our sense of ‘self’ through a mainly unconscious process of self-observation and self-adjustment. In this course, we aim to raise our own awareness through body movement, gradually finding how to express through movements and expressions that ignite our inner creativity.

This course is interactive, integrating the tools of yoga, self-inquiry, body movement and expressive arts. Participants are encouraged to let go of inhibitions and delve deeply within themselves to try to feel and sense things intuitively. Each session integrates simple yoga postures, body movement, free expression, and expressive artwork to be explored by all participants, followed by a free, open dialogue.

No prior background in yoga, meditation, dance, or the arts is needed. All participants must wear clothing that allows full freedom of movement, and must bring an A4-size or bigger sketchbook and crayons (the more colors the merrier).

Course Curriculum:

Week 1: Standing, Walking & Moving through Space

The simplest, most frequent, and yet deeply unconscious movement that we repeat every day is the act of standing and walking. In this session, we look into the fundamentals of how we stand and balance ourselves. We then advance from standing still by adding movements such as walking, skipping and running, thereby exploring how we pass in and out of space.

Key focus: Standing postures & Creative expression

Week 2: Uncovering Posture & Emotion

Our emotional state is reflected by posture and how we hold ourselves. But this is a two-way street in that we can also affect our emotional state through the conscious maneuver of posture. In this session, we look into how posture is tied to the movement of the spine. We then study how spinal alignment and movement can be used to affect our mental and emotional state.

Key focus: Spinal movement & Creative expression

Week 3: Expression through the Parts of the Body

The arms, legs, shoulders, chest, hips and head all have roles to play in expression. In this session, we explore body parts that extend from the torso. Each part has a specific associated function, state, sensation, feeling, and image. We aim to isolate each body part as a separate element to come to a better understanding of the entire body.

Key focus: Shoulder openers, arm variations & Creative expression

Week 4: Releasing Inner Inhibitions & Feelings

The hips are a body part especially tied to emotion. In this session, we focus only on the hips, to explore their movement and how we can open them up to release stored, pent-up feelings. Starting with hip-openers, hip dances, and free hip expression, we allow our hips to take the lead in mining into feelings and sensations deep within us.

Key focus: Hip-openers & Creative expression

Week 5: Finding your Truths, and your Inner Ally

Awareness is cultivated not only through sensing ourselves physically, but also by traveling deep inside our own personalities. In this session, we use various techniques to deeply probe our awareness of the subconscious. Through this process, we tune into our inner truths, our potential strengths, that inner ally that supports us through our life journey of self-understanding.

Key focus: Meditation, visualization & Creative expression

Week 6: Sensing through Touch & Contour

We all communicate and interact, yet we often lose or lack adequate human physical contact. In this session, we explore how physical connections of touch with other people can initially be intimidating, yet can also be extremely calming, caring, and answering to deep inner cravings. We will physically explore various dimensions of touch, observing how nature contact, connect and contour with objects.

Key focus: Static partner yoga & Creative expression

Week 7: Relating through Posture & Movement

The process of fine-tuning our senses not only allows us to become more aware of our personal state and self, but also of those same features of other people, and of how we interact with others in general. In this session we look into how we relate, connect, communicate, sense and understand others and their feelings through posture and movement. We explore ways of tuning into the state of other individuals, thereby seeking to adjust both our state and that of others through interaction.

Key focus: Dynamic partner yoga & Creative expression

Week 8:Exploring Movement through Free Expression

In this final session, we integrate our experiences to experiment in exercising our abilities for self-expression. Continuity builds up experience that brings a sense of ease with oneself. Full expression is then an intuitive flow from within -- a transparent extension of the self. We will demonstrate to ourselves and others how our collective accumulation of stimulus has led us toward expressiveness, enhancing creativity based on resources uncovered within ourselves.

Key focus: Free Movement & Creative expression