Nineteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

The body is a repository of lived experience, the site where identity is shaped, practiced, reaffirmed ,and embodied. In Somatic-based movement education, physical sensations such as breath phrasing, weight sensing, muscular binding, and body shaping are perceived, described, and culturally contextualized. As a repository of experience and identity, the body is key in meaningful engagement with others and with the environment. This workshop engages participants in several somatic-based movement activities used to cultivate connections among diverse communities. A simple mirroring activity will get participants sensing movement in themselves, perceiving movement in others, and connecting to the group as a whole. Next, guided movement improvisation and disucssion will introduce participants to Rudolf Laban’s theory of Flow Effort, and the first two Patterns of Total Body Connectivity (PTBC), Breath Connection and Core-distal Connection. Aspects of human development will be addressed, including how we carry these patterns of body connectivity with us in various aspects of adult living. Participants will then be guided through the creation of individual “Moving Statement of Identity,” to be shared with, and learned by, a partner as an exercise in kinesthetic empathy. Workshop participants will leave with increased perception of physical sensation happening in their own body, greater empathy for others through the observation and performance of their movement, and practical movement activities that can be used to facilitate deeper connections within their own communities.