Practicing Relational Presence: Improvisation and Movement Meditation

There is only change, the same way there is only improvisation when life is experienced moment by moment. When we participate clearly, openly, even creatively and playfully, to include our relations in being that change, we are in skillful practice – practice that engages relationally through attentional care. 

Movement scores, active meditations, and movement practices designed to develop both simple and complex physical capacities and awareness—tailored to the participant’s level—along with creative inquiry games, will facilitate rich discussions and explorations. These activities will help uncover the often-unrecognized choices inherent in our actions.

As we nurture our relational presence, we will engage in our inquiries both outdoors and in intimate groups, allowing plenty of time for self-reflection and rest. Our primary focus will be on physical awareness that shapes how we relate to the world, fostering a balance of care and playfulness. We aim to discover co-creative ways of being together, acknowledging the improvisational dance that exists in our lives. 

What we’ll do

Day 1. Understand MIND BODY: Acting as a single relation. The event of being. Understand how Mind and Body experience the world moment by moment as one thing. Put this into relational practice. Concept of a mobius within embodied States. What is a Human? Introduce concepts of the more than human world. 

Day 2. Attention Practices and the Sensory world: Sight Sound Smell Taste and Mostly Touch- Tactile Practices including skin /space touch – Exploring the depth and breadth of the kinesthetic world of being. Introduction to scales of being. Moving beyond merely Human Interaction, Intra-action. The issue of prepositions as formative or culturally bound models of relations. 

Day 3. Acts of Care, feeling, thinking and being present; Research practices, Living in a more than Human world- living as a  multiplicity.  The issue with affordances as a concept. Subtle violence begins with embodied states. Practicing peace in motion. Having a stable and fluid center. 

Day 4. Presence is a disturbance: being easily moved while in motion. Being more than your boundaries. What does it mean to “hold” to “carry” to “release” and to “support”? Understanding re-spect and response-ability. The notion and skills of co-creation. 

Day 5. Moving together: being one of many, being many as one. Communion in practice. Engaging the physical mind in acts of communication. Twos, threes, fours, and more. 

Practical details

Arrival day: Sunday October 5. You’re invited to come from 4 pm in order to register and settle in your room. Dinner is served at 6.30 pm. Orientation talk at 8 pm. 

End of program: Friday October 10. Closing and banquet in the evening.

Departure day: Saturday October 11. You may leave anytime (no program). You are welcome to stay for lunch.

This programme will be taught in English. Translation to French is available on request. If you require interpretation, please submit your request at least two months ahead of the programme.

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