Coordination, Matter, Energy
A workshop with Pedro de Alcantara
May 26 & 27, 2018
Simple and effective exercises to help you orient yourself in space
What: Two separate but linked days of creative games designed to open your mind and free your creativity.
When: Saturday & Sunday, May 26 & 27, 2018. From 2 to 7 PM, with a tea break. Bonus: on Monday, May 28 from 10 AM to 1 PM: optional Practice Lab. At no extra fee, come play with your new creative tools in the company of your new friends!
Where? Studio Bleu, 7/9 rue des Petites Ecuries, 75010 Paris. Métros Château d'eau (line 4) or Strasbourg-Saint Denis (lines 4, 8 and 9). The Studio Bleu is on the first floor of the building sandwiched between the Franprix supermarket and the New Morning jazz club.
For Whom: Anyone interested in skills of observation, creativity, mindfulness, and adaptability. Limited to 12 participants. Past participants have included artists, musicians, singers, writers, health professionals, public speakers, and creative individuals. No previous experience needed.
How Much: Each day costs €120. Take both days and receive a discount: €200 instead of €240. Payment ensures your registration. Cancellations are cost-free up to May 20 when payments become non-refundable unless someone else takes your place. Please email me for more information or to register.
Program
Saturday, May 26
1. Convexity & Concavity are two ways of organizing your thoughts and energies, and of occupying the space around you. We’ll discover how convexity tends to be connected and affirmative, and concavity tends to be disconnected and submissive. We’ll use the Simplified Skeleton as an arena in which to start understanding convexity and concavity. The Simplified Skeleton is a minimal anatomical concept with only three focal points: the neck and the spine belong together (and the head is relatively autonomous from the neck); the back and the shoulders belong together (and the arms are relatively autonomous from the shoulders); the back and the pelvis belong together (and the legs are relatively autonomous from the pelvis).
2. The Play of Opposing Forces. We’ll learn to create circuits of opposing forces throughout the body. For instance, you can oppose downward and upward forces, sending roots into the Earth and growing up and out toward Heaven. This is the most basic and fundamental of oppositions, and it gives you a lot of stability and strength. Starting with Heaven & Earth, we’ll explore many paths and dimensions of opposition, using several simple postures from ordinary life.
Sunday, May 27
3. Direction & Energy. In this session we’ll practice a series of 15 simple but powerful exercises that start you on the path to sensing and understanding how matter and energy are dimensions of a single thing. The exercises lead your physical body seemingly to disappear, leaving in its place an energy field that you can expand, contract, move, and otherwise direct with your imagination.
4. Head & Neck. Using the lessons learned from studying the simplified skeleton, we’ll practice multiple exercises to connect the neck to the spine. The exercises include “The Dance of the Head & Neck” (where you discover the planes of movement for the head and neck, and how to adjust and energize the head and neck); “The Neck-Spine” (learning how to speak without disconnecting the neck from the spine); and "Occupy the Space" (in which you learn how to sense and occupy the space all around your head).
This young woman gives a virtuoso performance of the Simplified Skeleton in action! The techniques in this module aim to bring us closer to her state.
Resources: Chapters 1, 2, and 5 of Indirect Procedures.