Mindful Movement Workshop

This past Sunday I attended a workshop held by Nancy Krieger, R-DMT, of the ADTA. This workshop was offered free to Lesley University students and I received a certificate of completion at the end. Why not go?!

It turned out to be a wonderful workshop that was focused on adapting dance and movement for children with special needs and how to adapt your teaching when there are multiple abilities in the same group.

We did a portion of moving ourselves and then discussed the theoretical underpinnings. 

I left with many new ideas to add to my toolbox and a whole new music playlist (this is one thing I always struggle to find...music!). 

Laban Institute for Movement Studies in New York

I know, I know, it's been a while since my last post. Things have been hectic down here to say the least. However some exciting things have happened including a trip to New York this past weekend.

Myself and my roommate went to the Big Apple for a workshop offered by the Laban Institute for Movement Studies (LIMS). Lesley University requires us to take an anatomy course as part of our degree. However given my background with anatomy I was able to take a weekend workshop instead and LIMS was recommended.

I have never been to New York before and let me tell you, it was something else! We gave ourselves Friday to explore the city. Lots of sight seeing was done through a hop on hop off tour bus. The class was all day Saturday and all day Sunday.

I can not speak highly enough about the teacher, Anastasi Siotas who was fabulous. He was extremely knowledgeable of the topic and tailored the content to our class. We only had four people in the class which made learning the material much easier. On the first day Anastasi asked us what we wanted to learn about and then scheduled the weekend to fit our needs. Although there was a lot of review, the way we discussed the material and were able to take it to a new level was great. The course is tailored for those with a movement background so instead of memorizing the muscles in the body we learned injury prevention and how they work for movers.

I would highly recommend checking out the school and if you are in the area and need to take an anatomy course, this is the place to do so!

www.limsonline.org

Myself in front of the skating rink at Rockefeller Center

Scheduling Self-Care

As I sit this morning waiting for my internship to start I am reminded again of the importance of self-care.

It is the second week in October and I am beginning to feel as though the semester is kicking my butt (have no fear, I have amazing support and know this will pass).

Sleep patterns have been disturbed and many classmates are getting sick.

Yesterday we had a guest lecturer in my supervision class, Robert Macy, who spoke of the burnout rate in new practioners.

What I took from that and from how I am feeling is that self-care can't just happen on the weekend or if you take a vacation. It needs to happen every day.

Goal for this week, do 5 minutes of self-care a day. Although this may not seem like a lot it is a realistic goal.

Body Paint Fun with Sheri Gundry

I've finally had a minute to sit down and process a wonderful experience I had this summer. A friend and colleague, Sheri Gundry (see link below), used her artistic abilities to turn my body into a canvas for her painting.

She body painted me over the course of a day and then we had a movement session where we tried to bring the piece alive even more. The artwork and photography are credited to Sheri Gundry with myself as the model. Please do not use any of the photos below unless given permission by the artist and model.

We hope to collaborate again soon!

http://www.reachingintoheaven.com/

Busy busy busy!

If the last couple of weeks have been any indication I have an inkling my posts may not be as frequent as last year.

Classes are well under way and that means the usual copious amounts of work. However some exciting news....in addition to courses and internship I am also working this year! I was offered a graduate assistantship position doing research with one of the professors at Lesley. I just met with the prof last week and think it will be an exciting project with a publication at the end with my name on it!

It will make it a busier year but I am just thrilled to be back into the throws of research. Speaking of research I think I have finally chosen a research topic for my own thesis. I had hoped to do a quantitative project but after discussing my schedule with my professor, I think a qualitative one is more realistic for this time. I'd like to look at the history of DMT in Canada but more specifically why it disappeared (the association dissolved as did the training programs) and why the push for it to come back in the last year. I think that this would give valuable insight on how to perhaps prevent it from disappearing again.

Stay tuned for progress on both research projects! I'm off to try and navigate my way through the process of getting a social security number and the large amount of paperwork that goes with it.

First Day of Classes

I have officially survived my first class of the year! Just finished Movement Observation II which continues to build on the Movement Observation I class from the Spring. The course is built on the Laban Movement Analysis framework and counts towards certification as a Laban analyst should I choose to go that route. So many extra certifications to consider getting!

Next up on the schedule is Assessments in Mental Health Counseling, where from the readings and syllabus we will be learning which assessments to use and how to evaluate them. Stay tuned for more on that! Tomorrow it is my Research and Evaluation class and Supervision class. My first day of internship is on Wednesday and just like that things are back in full swing.

I have finally registered for my anatomy and kinesiology workshop that I will completing at the Laban Institute of Movement Studies in New York. Glad I can finally cross that off my "To Do" list (registering for it has only been on there since May!).  It's the first weekend in November so something to look forward to. I have never been to New York and although there won't be much time for exploring I hope to at least see Central Park...maybe Times Square.

I best be off for now to make the possible topics for my thesis a bit more concrete before class tomorrow!

End of Summer

Hello loyal readers!

Hope you enjoyed your summers, it certainly went by fast. I was fortunate enough to return to Canada for almost 7 weeks and was able to enjoy lots of family time including a week at a cottage.

I realized over this time that I was home how much inspiration I receive from nature. It was during the silent moments of sitting on the dock at the lake watching the stillness of the water, the sun rising and setting or just watching the family of loons and ducks go about their days that I felt grounded in time. I had images come to me and movement choirs erupt within.

Again today I ventured out into a outdoor museum and it was walking through the grass that I couldn't help but dance!

Classes and internship start next week for me so I am taking the long weekend to settle into my new apartment and then getting myself geared up for what lay ahead this year.

Only 9 months left until I will be graduating and returning to Canada...but who's counting?!