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.