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About the Workshops

I targeted the workshops around issues I hoped would be useful, or at least appealing to each constituency group.

Who: Mothers with babies
Theme: Communicating With Your Baby
Sample workshop activities:
Developmental movement sequences; yoga for mothers with babies; interactive songs.

Who: Members of Seward Business Association (business owners and employees)
Theme: Creativity in Action
Sample workshop activities:
Creative problem solving for the workplace by "force-fitting" a movement activity with a specific workplace challenge to find new solutions.

For example, one small business was considering reorganizing their store, but could not afford to shut down the business for a renovation period. During the workshop we engaged in a movement activity that brought participants more awareness of the room, including the space above their heads. In conversations we juxtaposed the business redesign issue with the movement experience. The business owner envisioned the store layout in a radically new way; that is, from floor to ceiling, rather than from the conventional industry perspective of wall-to-wall product zones. This innovative vertical perspective on store layout led to new ideas about how to redesign the store without fundamentally disrupting the business. By renovating horizontally over a longer time period (first low shelves, then higher shelves, and lastly eye-level shelves), customers would be able to locate products in familiar locations, even while a major re-organization was taking place. Note: This exercise is an example of how I integrated movement activities into a Synectics ideation process. For more about Synectics, click on Creative Economy.

Who: Senior residents in a publicly run high-rise apartment building
Theme: Living Well in Your Body
Sample workshop activities:
Partnered work with stretchable bands to explore how muscular tension can be a resource; mirroring games with a life-sized plastic skeleton. For example, in this exercise I manipulate a life-sized plastic skeleton (the way a puppeteer might manipulate a marionette). As I jiggle the skeleton's limbs or wiggle its spine, participants playfully imitate the skeleton's movements with their own limbs and spines. I invite participants to pay attention to the movements that feel particularly good and to notice how the sensations change from day to day and from moment to moment. Like many conscious movement activities, this exercise works on several simultaneous levels:

By suggesting participants notice which movements "feel particularly good on this particular day," I can guide participants towards an awareness that although sensation in an aging body may seem unrelentingly painful, when we look closely, we see that bodily experience is actually varied and changing.
Imitating a skeleton introduces new movement vocabulary without triggering the body-image comparisons that arise when we imitate another person's movement.
Moving from the bones clarifies the anatomical reality of how movement actually occurs; that is, at joints (the intersections between our bones). When we move in ways that are consistent with our anatomical reality (rather than from a distorted idea), bodies generally experience less physical tension and pain.
In many cultures skeletons are metaphors for death. To dance playfully with a skeleton as an anatomical image can be a doorway to reflecting on our mortality in fresh and potentially less fearful ways.

Who: Youth in the Matthews Community Center Day Program
Theme: Creating a Spontaneous Dance Video
Sample workshop activities:
While leading a creative movement workshop, I realized that the participants were most intrigued by the presence of my video camera. On the spot we began using the camera as a feedback mechanism. Participants improvised in front of the camera and then watched what they had just done. Acting as a choreographer/director, I arranged their improvisations and re-videotaped them. Watching the video together was an opportunity to witness how the camera lens changes our perception of what we see and experience.

About the installation
There is irony in “documenting” an event with a medium that is as easy to manipulate as digital photography. The installation played with the distinction between using digital imagery to represent what happened and using digital imagery as raw material to create a new story of what might have been (but never really was). In this case the seniors never danced with the youth and the workers never danced with the moms and babies. By hanging their images side by side a new story was imagined -- a story in which these diverse groups were dancing side by side. It is a story I would like to see happen in my neighborhood some day.

close	About the Workshops	close
	I targeted the workshops around issues I hoped would be useful, or at least appealing to each constituency group. Who: Mothers with babies Theme: Communicating With Your Baby Sample workshop activities: Developmental movement sequences; yoga for mothers with babies; interactive songs. Who: Members of Seward Business Association (business owners and employees) Theme: Creativity in Action Sample workshop activities: Creative problem solving for the workplace by "force-fitting" a movement activity with a specific workplace challenge to find new solutions. For example, one small business was considering reorganizing their store, but could not afford to shut down the business for a renovation period. During the workshop we engaged in a movement activity that brought participants more awareness of the room, including the space above their heads. In conversations we juxtaposed the business redesign issue with the movement experience. The business owner envisioned the store layout in a radically new way; that is, from floor to ceiling, rather than from the conventional industry perspective of wall-to-wall product zones. This innovative vertical perspective on store layout led to new ideas about how to redesign the store without fundamentally disrupting the business. By renovating horizontally over a longer time period (first low shelves, then higher shelves, and lastly eye-level shelves), customers would be able to locate products in familiar locations, even while a major re-organization was taking place. Note: This exercise is an example of how I integrated movement activities into a Synectics ideation process. For more about Synectics, click on Creative Economy. Who: Senior residents in a publicly run high-rise apartment building Theme: Living Well in Your Body Sample workshop activities: Partnered work with stretchable bands to explore how muscular tension can be a resource; mirroring games with a life-sized plastic skeleton. For example, in this exercise I manipulate a life-sized plastic skeleton (the way a puppeteer might manipulate a marionette). As I jiggle the skeleton's limbs or wiggle its spine, participants playfully imitate the skeleton's movements with their own limbs and spines. I invite participants to pay attention to the movements that feel particularly good and to notice how the sensations change from day to day and from moment to moment. Like many conscious movement activities, this exercise works on several simultaneous levels: By suggesting participants notice which movements "feel particularly good on this particular day," I can guide participants towards an awareness that although sensation in an aging body may seem unrelentingly painful, when we look closely, we see that bodily experience is actually varied and changing. Imitating a skeleton introduces new movement vocabulary without triggering the body-image comparisons that arise when we imitate another person's movement. Moving from the bones clarifies the anatomical reality of how movement actually occurs; that is, at joints (the intersections between our bones). When we move in ways that are consistent with our anatomical reality (rather than from a distorted idea), bodies generally experience less physical tension and pain. In many cultures skeletons are metaphors for death. To dance playfully with a skeleton as an anatomical image can be a doorway to reflecting on our mortality in fresh and potentially less fearful ways. Who: Youth in the Matthews Community Center Day Program Theme: Creating a Spontaneous Dance Video Sample workshop activities: While leading a creative movement workshop, I realized that the participants were most intrigued by the presence of my video camera. On the spot we began using the camera as a feedback mechanism. Participants improvised in front of the camera and then watched what they had just done. Acting as a choreographer/director, I arranged their improvisations and re-videotaped them. Watching the video together was an opportunity to witness how the camera lens changes our perception of what we see and experience. About the installation There is irony in “documenting” an event with a medium that is as easy to manipulate as digital photography. The installation played with the distinction between using digital imagery to represent what happened and using digital imagery as raw material to create a new story of what might have been (but never really was). In this case the seniors never danced with the youth and the workers never danced with the moms and babies. By hanging their images side by side a new story was imagined -- a story in which these diverse groups were dancing side by side. It is a story I would like to see happen in my neighborhood some day.
© 2003 wendy morris