Design by Claire Calalo Berry of Flourish and Frost
From Blog Director Jill Randall:
Each August, I love connecting with college professors as they prepare their syllabi and course material. Today I want to share resources from the blog for a Somatics Course.
Somatic Writing Series
In Spring 2021, nine dancers shared ideas around somatic themes and how these themes played out in their lives - such as softening, allowing, activating, and slowing down to feel.
Like "flash fiction writing," each writer took on the challenge of sharing their ideas in 100 words or less.
I hope you might get inspired to write on these themes as well, succinctly and poetically within this word limit.
Somatic Writing Series
52 Movement Poems
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place, in Spring 2020, I started sharing Movement Poems on the blog. The idea was to offer improvisation and composition prompts that we could easily do at home. I paired each poem with a piece of music by Michael Wall, easily accessed on his site soundformovement.com.
Here is the complete list of 52 poems. Somatic concepts and language are woven throughout the poems.
Invitations: 52 Movement Poems (the complete list)
Books Recommendations
A short list of books to browse and consider for your courses:
The Natural Body in Somatics Dance Training (Doran George, edited by Susan Leigh Foster)
Mindful Movement: The Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action (Martha Eddy)
Diverse Bodies, Diverse Practices: Towards an Inclusive Somatics (Don Hanlon Johnson)
The Place of Dance: A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making (Andrea Olsen)
Other Resources, Podcasts, and Connections
I also want to mention the incredible work of Prentis Hemphill, The Embodiment Institute, and The Nap Ministry. I encourage you to explore these links as well as you prepare your classes.
Plus, this is a short journal to print out:
Lastly, I do want to give a shameless little pitch for this deck of dancer wellness cards Claire Calalo Berry and I made in 2020. There are 31 cards, many with somatically based words on them (receive, soften, listen, etc). Consider pulling a card for each day of class. Purchase the cards through Etsy here.
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