This Transformative Practice Residency is an Invitation to come SHIFT WITHIN by Reconnecting to the Self & your Lived-Experience. Through various Somatic exercises adapted within the conceptual model of the ancient chakra system (sacred architecture of body and psyche) we will explore our lived-body or soma as a site for Insight, Integration, Knowing and Transformation; Our Performances will inquire & research what’s most relevant to our Present Selves

This residency is a class designed as a part of the graduate thesis of the facilitator, Pushpanjali Sharma, M.A. (Embodied Studies), Lesley University, Cambridge, U.S.A. She is offering it in India for the very first time.

	Day 1 (4thApril)	Day 2 (5thApril)	Day 3 (6thApril)	Day 4 (7thApril)	Day 5 (8thApril)	Day 6 (9thApril)
10-12pm	Daily- Opening Interaction Different Somatic Exercises (Body-Mind Centering, Feldenkrais, Continuum and Ideokinesis) utilizing visualization, sound and movement. Chakra Dhyana Followed by Movement Improvisation- Play
12-12.30pm	Tea-break
12.30-2.00pm	Writing, Sharing/Discussion, Generating content and material for Performance
2.00-3.00pm	Lunch-break
3.00-5.00pm	Lab time- Each Individual will work on their own performance/creative piece supported by the facilitator; Performances will inquire into the subject matter that is spontaneously emerging during the day, as well explore/interpret what it means to move beyond frames, and peel off social-masks Closing Discussion

Take Aways:

1. Explore and Learn Somatic (mind-body) practices for self-healing, self-knowing and self-expression; Come alive to a renewed sense of embodiment; discover the joy in movement, dance and being.
2. Move away from the typical way in which the body has always been treated as a puppet, an instrument or a hired body, towards an epistemology of the lived-body as a site for insight, integration, knowing, wisdom and transformation.
3. Investigate into the seven aspects of the self represented by the chakra system through chakra dhyana
4. Let go of end-gaining and goal driven approaches, in favor of process oriented approaches
5. Find support in the self and in each other
6. Adopt approaches that promote a balance between work and rest, and incorporate effortlessness and ease in our lived-experience
7. Reclaim your creative agency and your authentic voice. Learn to create a performance piece, through your own organic somatic process, that inquires into what is most relevant to you right now.

Please Bring:

1. Bring to our first class meeting one personal item- can be a poem, an object, picture, music, photograph, anything that is significant to you which you could share with others. This could be something that has heart and meaning for you in your relationship to the arts, embodied practices and healing.
2. A towel for supporting the body during somatic practice
3. A notebook/journal and pen
4. Colour pencils/ crayons/ art items (If you like to express through art, not cumpolsory), Individuals may chose to bring anything that enhances/supports their medium of expression
5. Wear comfortable clothing, in which you can breathe, express and move freely. For those who like to improvise and move uninhibitedly on the floor and are wary of your knees, bring yourself a pair of knee pads for protection.
6. For those of you who are choosing to stay on at Antara, please carry your own bed sheet, pillow cover and towel for personal use.

Pushpanjali Sharma:

Belonging to the sea- shore of Goa and the Foothills of Jammu, Pushpanjali Sharma a performing artist and research-scholar in Somatic Education & Transformative Practice is currently on the last stage of her Master’s Degree in Embodied Studies from Lesley University, Cambridge (U.S.A). As such she is taking the opportunity to explore and examine somatic practices and its application towards internal inquiry, embodied writing as well as somatic-performative research. The residency at Antara is an amalgamation of the same. 

 During Embodied Creative Practice:

“I am free from time, effort is replaced with ease, limitations are transformed into freedom, and mundane is elevated to a heightened state of connectedness to the source of all things.”

As a contemporary dancer she has trained both in India (TR Dance company, Mumbai, Gati Dance Center, New Delhi) and for the last three years she has lived in New York training in Ballet-Contemporary track at Peridance Capezio Center and studying composition and choreography at Dance New Amsterdam (Certificate course) and Movement Research (Somatic-Performative Intensives).

Alongside being a trained pilates and yoga instructor, Pushpanjali has researched several somatic practices- Feldenkrais, Body-Mind Centering, Continuum and Ideokinesis, at Movement Research, NYC. She has interned/menteed under second generation somatic leaders Dr. Martha Eddy (Body-Mind Centering), Mary Abrams (Continuum). Studied Arts and Healing under Vivien Marcow Speiser (Expressive Arts Therapy) and has also taken several workshops under Michel Casanovas (Feldenkrais Teacher- Dance maker).

" I am fascinated by ‘true potential’, finding fresh ways to enhance the experience of life! The idea of internal transformation of the individual revolutionizing the whole, and finally creating and performing work that is palpable, resonant and shifts both the performer and the audience, drives me moment by moment!"

Kindly Note:

1. This residency is open to all interested in embodied practices and performance inquiry. Previous dance experience is not mandatory.
2. Lunch can be provided on prior notice. 
3. Residential facilities are available.

Workshop Venue:

Antara Artists' Collective

12th main, Shubh Enclave,

Harlur Road, off Sarjapur Road,

Near Springfields Apts.

Bangalore , India.

Bodystorming Hits Bangalore

A COLLABORATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND MOVEMENT

Can we reflect, remember, react and talk through our bodies?

Bodystorming is an initiative which explores this concept in action, giving people an experiential account of what it means to engage with the body as a medium of thought and communication. While we are quite familiar with brain storming- coming up with ideas rapidly in a group situation, we rarely think of doing the same with our bodies.

What happens when we collectively throw ideas together spontaneously using our bodies?

Bodystorming – which began as a way of physically committing to and testing ideas about biological processes at the cellular level, is very soon coming down to Bangalore, as a common initiative between the city's dance and the science community.

The National Centre of Biological Sciences (NCBS) supported by the Wellcome Trust is hosting the Black Label Movement for a 10 day intensive engagement with the dance and science communities in Bangalore. The fundamental idea behind this initiative is to use simple interaction rules between dancers to simulate and understand biological processes, drawing from deeply inter-disciplinary roots.

The Black Label Movement is a dance company led by Professor Carl Flink and closely working with Professor David Odde (Department of Biomedical Engineering), both from the University of Minnesota.

A series of events are planned, including a bodystorming workshop for 25 selected dancers and a residency at NCBS where in 10 invited dancers will work with BLM intensely. They will be in constant touch with scientists and researchers to discuss and articulate their work. These sessions will seek to explore the ideas for bodystorming, its potentials and limitations. The programme will also include public interaction sessions with lead researchers Carl Flink and David Odde and a final performance by the Black Label Movement. The programme is being coordinated by the Antara Artists’ Collective.

There are plans to continue this engagement beyond the duration of the workshop/residency series to offer dancers and scientists in Bangalore a way to keep the bodystorming practice alive in the city.

This program is an opportunity for dancers who wish to work with deeper awareness of body and its role in dance. At the same time it stretches the notion of what it means to experiment in science – playing with the idea that ‘to experience, is to know’.

The bodystorming workshop shall be held on 25th and 26th April 2015 from 2 to 7 p.m.

Register for this workshop by filling up this online form: Click here

Kindly note:

• Applicants need to share a link to their performance video in the form
• The last date for registration is 31st of March 2015
• Applicants will be informed about selection for workshop on or before 1st of April 2015 through email/phone
• Selected participants are requested to arrive at the venue at 1.30 pm on 25th April 2015 for orientation

Workshop Venue:

The Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet

5th floor, Salma Bizhouse,

Manee Avenue Road,

Opp Lakeside hospital,

Above CCD, Near Ulsoor Lake,

Bangalore- 560042.