An Account of the 2009 International Authentic Movement Gathering, Vienna

There is a challenge, a never-ending game, being in the abyss between having a sensation and naming it.

Why would we write about the 2009 Vienna International Authentic Movement gathering in Vienna in March when it took place last July? Maybe because we are looking forward to the 2010 gathering. We remember moving together, thinking about the perspectives of developing practices, skills and understanding what we call “the miracle” of Authentic Movement.

The Second International Gathering of Authentic Movement took place again in Vienna, Austria in July 2009. This time there were nineteen people from twelve different countries: Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, the U.K., the U.S., Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, Portugal, Brazil, Russia and Belarus. Therapists from the fields of dance-movement therapy, body-oriented therapy, music therapy, Hakomi, psychomotor, and others were present. Whether there for the first or second time, we were all united by one thing - the Authentic Movement practice. We convened once again in the wonderful space of the therapeutic center, Gersthof, that our colleague therapists Isaías and Clarissa Costa, generously provided for this annual gathering.

The International Meeting of AM lasted four and a half days and maintained a very full schedule. The first night we started with an Authentic Movement “long circle”. The following days there were two sessions each day. A warm-up starting each session was offered by one of the participants. The group decided on the form for each following session in the day based on the individual state and needs of participants. One evening our Brazilian colleagues, Soraya Jorge and Guto Macedo, showed us the video of their work and spoke of their dance projects. On another day, on the initiative of Alexei Konstantinov (Minsk), a group discussion took place regarding methodological issues of the practice. There was a lot of professional as well as interpersonally warm and supportive interaction.

Following are the experiences from three of the attendees:

Yulia Morozova:
This was the second peer-group gathering that I attended. The first hours in the therapeutic centre Gersthof, were filled with the joy of reconnecting with old friends and the anticipation of meeting new people. I knew some things about the new participants from the impressive mail introductions. I was very excited to meet and communicate, talk, move, and witness with people who had years of training and practice in AM and other fields of movement and dance therapy.

It was remarkable to me, that the most used form was a 'long circle'. We did not plan it in advance, but by the middle of the day, after sharing and asking which form feels the most appropriate to undertake in the moment, the long circle was most often chosen. This choice in the moment was natural and reflected the logic of a process. This being said, I feel I missed dyad processes!

During the sessions, I faced some moments in practice that were new for me. For example, one participant asked the circle of witnesses to make some space for moving outside the circle—behind the witnesses, so if one had a need to move there s/he could do so. Another participant noticed that in her practice there was an 'official third role' in addition to the mover and the witness. This being so, if a person in her/his process couldn't stay in the witness position, but couldn't be a mover either, s/he could choose the role of the one 'sleeping 'outside the circle. I do not know how this fits in with the classic canon of AM, but I think sometimes it could be the safest option in some situations.

The discussion initiated by Alexey Konstantinov, revealed that we have learned the practice in slightly difference ways, not the core of the discipline but some details of the form. These tiny details, such as how the mover begins the process, (ie: sliding to the floor from her place with eyes closed, taking a place not far from her witness, or going to the place where something "caught" the attention when s\he was a witness) were in question. The language of witnessing was also a question. Do we say, "I see the mover", or "I see you", or "I'm the witness who sees the mover." Of course we asked ourselves, which version is "the right one"? We came to the conclusion, that awareness is most important in that every word and action has a function that impacts the movers and the group process. We then as a group, could find and commit to solutions that were safe and supportive to our process. Finding time for the discussions was difficult. That is the common problem at such gatherings, to find time for everything: for more AM-sessions, for the discussions, and for the integration of one's own process.

Also the witnessing styles present at this gathering I would call poetic. In a large group setting where there is not much time for the detailed sharing, there begins the process of crystallization of many sensations, movements, images and feelings in a few capacious words. The witnessing remained full of sensation, and that was for me the breathtaking process of creating the space of shared experience. This is a space where everyone could see and be seen, as well as feel and share with others. It was like poetry. My experience was that witnessing sometimes became the form of a poem.

This meeting was one of the most supportive events of the year for me, and I am grateful to all those with whom I shared this experience.

Elena Starikova:
“To write about a peer group with the understanding that I am myself a member of a peer group for two years is important, as it clarifies and makes the practice of Authentic Movement more conscious, more valuable and grounded not only in the body, but also in words. The format requires sufficient maturity and elaboration (or desire to move in that direction), the ability to take responsibility, not only for one’s own process but also for the process happening in the group as well. This is a group without a leader. What does it mean? In the group with a leader, we are completely, feeling it within, sharing with others and learning to see and be seen. In general, it can be called a learning process where the formation and development of “Authentic Movement skills” takes place. The leader teaches, directs and is responsible for group dynamics. He/she leads the process. In the peer-group, leadership as I understand it is distributed among group members who possess the ability to see the process and talk about it outside the language of the projections, based on the deep experience of the body. This is the language of respect and trust for others. By following the rules drawn up by the group, we have the ability to discuss and follow the unfolding process. I often have brought to the group’s attention that we should not move further until we have specified all the nuances to achieve the necessary safety to start the movement again. Even if one member feels unsafe, the group takes this into account and looks for the most appropriate practice for the present session.

Yes, we practiced most often in a long circle, a breathing circle with a bit of dyad work. Why did most people prefer the long circle? I think it gave everyone in the group process support and allowed themes to unfold, giving them space to grow and gain strength. The long circle gave us the freedom to balance between the roles of witness and mover, assessing the needs to move or to be seen. Dyad work at the beginning of the process served as a good start and established the sufficient level of confidence in the group. There were warm-ups in pairs that held the same authenticity felt in AM dyad work.

Yes, it is true we were all from different schools, from different countries and even continents, but we were sharing a universal language of movement, scooping it from the depths of our own experience—the wisdom of ours bodies. Of course it is important to verbalize the details of the practice again and again, the process of formulating the rules for the practice, by referring to the foundational principles laid down by Mary Whitehouse, Janet Adler, and others whose work is now (to the great joy of the many of us who do the practice) available in the printed form.

In spite of the fact that the fundamental rules are the same for many people practicing AM - the nuances and the details can be determined by each group separately; the group develops, breathes, grows and can experiment with different forms of practice. This is what I found and became open to. I am glad that my understanding of the AM practice is resonant, on the same rails so-to-speak with those at the conference, giving me the possibility to “move myself” further.

As I see it now, it would be great to have more space for the integration of whatever came through the movement and witnessing experience. Perhaps, one free day in the middle of the conference to just emerge from the process. But this, I think, is to be discussed in this next year. Overall the experience of moving and witnessing, communicating and the new interactions with such remarkable people brought and continues to bring an increasing awareness and understanding in me. The ideas, the great support received and a lot of joy came from the understanding that there is AM practice in many parts of the world!

And, of course, I would like to thank Irina Biryukova who conveys the tradition of Authentic Movement in the form in which it is proposed by Janet Adler, Joan Chodorow, Tina Stromsted and the others. I also want to thank my peer group in Moscow, which continues to move and be moved.

Soraya Jorge:
After a wonderful description to our meeting in Vienna in the year 2009 from Yulia and Elena, I am bringing some words with the intention to participate in this written piece. I feel a great honor to be part of this Gathering and appreciate their impulses to give and shares words from our time together.

All my work as a movement specialist is profoundly touched by the discipline of Authentic Movement. The way I learned and the way I´ve been developing it in Brazil is an inner/outer dialogue creating new avenues in life. To see, perceive and sense the other in me, and the flowing of invisible and visible movements, have been themes of investigation for me in teaching and performing. Through AM, I experience my body is in the presence of not knowing, embodied experiences of unnamed sensations, life and death in gestures of time, connecting with the spirits in the cells of my whole body.

I hope in the future Authentic Movement Gatherings in Vienna (2010), I will be able to collectively touch the deep extensions of Moving Thoughts*, and sensitive dances. The beauty that comes from sensorial movements, whether they are in silence, in explosive gestures or in a loving, reflective container for our art, becomes a capacity to own and to relate to judgments, thoughts and sensations as a vibrating tune in relationship.

The big event felt in my heart from this Gathering, is to have met people who have experienced Authentic Movement and who love the work. Also, it was wonderful be able to see our differences and similarities, and learn how Authentic Movement expands our relationships and expressions in the world.

Even when tired, I never feel tired when I am at an Authentic Movement retreat. I witness myself embracing my limits and my deep will to gain inner and outer volume, space and time-- stretching possibilities to walk the path of not-knowing. As witness, as mover, with no separation between functions, but conscious of my role in the circle, I interweave personal and collective, solitude and togetherness, closed eyes and open eyes as a way to transform dance in a state of presence. Dance transforms us in this way as well.

My deep interest is to share our creative work as teachers of the form, as therapists, as people influenced by Authentic Movement.


*‘Moving Thought. Movement that is sensation and thought in the search for its own pathways of existence, embodying different forms of being art and life, of observing, deconstructing and creating new patterns. Movement that is spontaneous gesture, the instant before it even happens. A gesture that reveals a fine texture provides meaning without a logical form, capturing the gaze of the observer (in the moment when he meets with the one who performs the gesture). Hence a new question emerges: what unfolding, expansions and possibilities of Moving Thought can arise from such given place? (part of final text from a Specialization in Dance / Therapy - Brazil).

Authentic Movement in Grief Work by Germaine Fraser

Hi Nanette,

I read in the Connections page of the community website you’re looking for experience or research on how others are using AM in grief work. I am one of the editors of the AM community blog and make my living as a conventional/holistic bedside-care RN in a northeastern hospital.

My hospital was deeply affected by the Haitian earthquake as we have many staff that are Haitian. I am trained in Critical Intervention Stress Management (CISM) and did several grief groups over the last 2 wks.

In spite of the conservative nature of most hospitals, I found my AM practice very beneficial, indirectly and directly. The deep listening skills cultivated in AM over two decades served me well during the sessions listening to the catastrophic experiences of my coworkers. In the sessions, I noted lots of respectful silences and stillness, sensing this as extremely supportive to the entire group. Granted, deep listening is not solely the auspices of AM, still I attribute its influence indirectly impacting those sessions. Watching body language and movement, even how people aligned themselves in relation to each other was very interesting (in one group in a circle, participants chose to sit in a semi circle not across from each other). I found a home-spun version of the form in the experience of debriefing myself after the sessions doing AM in my rather small living room space (circumstances are never ideal, are they, but inevitably don't really matter when one has intention).

Lighting a candle as my witness, I set a personal intention of caring for myself after witnessing the devastating testimony. I moved, breathed and sounded as I needed to to help me process the very intense work. It was very healing. An unplanned AM experience was finding myself at the end of the week at a live Afro-Cuban music concert in a small and intimate cafe, in the darkened room toward the back, releasing through my hands and torso what I'm sure was residue of the earlier grief experience. Eyes closed sitting next to an AM friend, I just let it move. The expression was contained to my immediate seated self at a table, but again, despite the circumstantial limitations, it rocked. Very cool. Very healing. My main impression of this experience was the softness and incredible articulation of my hands, how receptive and open and responsive they were/are. They waited and listened, skimmed each other repeatedly and opened their humbled, magnificent soles/souls to themselves and to the world so gently, patiently and with a great deal of love. – All to an amazing Afro-Cuban beat!

I frequently have AM moments in my role as a bedside nurse.
My first experience was 7-8 years ago when I first started considering using the form and presence in my work. During one night shift I admitted a 60+ yo man for heart palpitations. It turned out he had found his 30 yo son’s body hanging in the woods behind his house (“heart palpitations”… give me a break). This patient was in shock, able to speak, but barely. His eyes were 200 miles deep in his head. Very disassociated. All the nurses kept telling me to drug him to the max, but he refused everything and I couldn’t talk him into even the mildest medication. As sometimes happens, it was a slow night, so I decided to sit with him. I sat in a chair facing him in the bed, he was sitting pretty much 90 degrees in the bed, the room dark. I told him I was going to sit with him as long as I could and he was free to speak or do whatever, or not. I know Therapeutic Touch, a type of energy medicine, and I did this around his heart and down his right arm finally settling at his open palm. My fingers met his wrist and his fingers met mine and we just sat like that for a very long time not saying anything. I had an impression of our meeting relaxed hands as being a small wrought iron cage and that his heart had migrated down his arm to enter it; it felt like his heart was a small furry animal like a mouse nestled inside the strong cage, deeply protected. I was very aware of my spine and the need to maintain its vertical, which had to be righted several times during this period with him. Around 4am, realizing I had to go back to my duties, I spoke to him encouraging him once again to take some medication that would help him to rest. He agreed and I gave it to him. I was able to stop in on him before I left at 7a, at which time he broke down and began his next step in the grieving process.

Despite my efforts to keep my vertical I was undone by this experience (naïve to the powers of transferrance at this point). For months, I was unable to make any similar efforts in the practice at the bedside, my nursing was rote at best. What I learned from this was the importance of my own self care before, during and after such an effort, and the unwavering vigilance needed toward this end.

Another example of a grief based experience was a few years ago (and a lot more experience down the pike) working with an 80 yo neglect patient. This woman was in a type of coma, not able to communicate directly. Yet, she writhed in the bed with an open, soundless scream-formed mouth and no amount of intravenous narcotics seemed to obliterate her pain. When I was assigned to her as her primary nurse on an evening, I anticipated the challenge of caring for her having heard about this repetitive writhing and soundless scream from other nurses. Having had the earlier experience with the ‘heart’ patient, I knew this had to be different for me. I decided to stay in my ‘feminine’, preparing by doing a lot of purposeful walking around the circuitous nursing station very aware of my pelvis taking the corners and being quite springy in my hip sockets. That being established, I set my intention for myself to be of service to her as best I could, while staying close to my own truth. I initially spent a few minutes at her bedside watching and being with her. It was clear she needed to be seen, mirrored (although this made no sense to the logical part of me as her eyes were closed and she was in a type of coma). I only knew a few words of her language. I said (probably very poorly!) in her language, “I am here with you. All will be well” over and over (kind of singing it) while I did this butterfly-light type stroke over her chest and down her arm to her clenched fists, while writhing with her (her in the bed, me standing). I did this pattern for a very long time, maybe 7-10 mins (long if you’re in a semi private room with only a curtain separating beds). Something relaxed in her the more I was with her in this way. When her writhing became quiet and there was a significant decrease in body tension, I sat on the bed beside her and was quietly with her and myself for 5-10 mins (it must have been another slow night I guess!). I felt like I was getting the communication from her that she wanted and needed to die. She was a full code at that point in time. I, along with the help of many other concerned staff, was able over the course of the shift to arrange, despite a difficult and complicated family dynamic, that she be made a DNR. She without interference, died two days later.

The creative (unconscious?) seems to be AM’s foundation. When this is self-accepted, the form becomes quite spacious. I tried to stay true to it and myself by: making an intention for my practice, dropping into sensation in my body and my in-the-moment experience, witnessing another as best I could and responding authentically. For me, these are basic AM principles. My experience is when the form is well grounded/known and trusted in the self, it unwinds itself and finds it’s way as it needs to.

I deeply know the benefit of AM in this type of work and also realize institutions aren't ready for it as I have thought in the past to ‘deliver it’. But there I am. And this is what I know and understand. I bring this work (AM) as I can, how I can, having learned to be with more of myself outside the box (both hospital and AM form) through this incredible creative/spirit-based practice. Not as ambitiously routine as I had hoped for in earlier years as a practitioner (I think I used to imagine a big open well-lit room with aware, willing and somewhat well participants—you know, sort of like US! lol), but we do what we can, where we can, as we can.

Perusing the blog the other night, I saw I made a promise a few years ago to write about AM in Life and I’ve been thus far remiss to do so. Maybe this will be my springboard.

Wishing you well in your research and collection of stories, but especially in the evolution of your individual practice, as that is where the work is and also where the hope lies.

Warm wishes,

Germaine Fraser

7 comments:

Ann McNeal said...

That is such a moving, deep witnessing, including witnessing of yourself. Thank you for doing that amazing work and for letting us in on it.

Is that your art work, Germaine? wonderful.

Saturday, January 30, 2010 6:44:00 PM EST

Anonymous said...

Germaine couldn't figure how to comment right, but she says 'anonymously':
Hi Ann, as part of my 'self care' piece during these haiti sessions, i have
been doing a 'postcard from home' collage/assemblage art series. attached is one i made over the last few weeks, that in my mind/body/heart, is very akin to helping me work through the grief work. i work in an AM type way; using a compelling image and whatever calls me that surrounds me from found objects to everyday stuff to collected things that resonate. cut, paste, thread and PLAY! very fun and very healing.

thanks for your warm words and appreciation. I feel held. wonderfully.

Saturday, January 30, 2010 7:18:00 PM EST

Ann McNeal said...

Gorgeous collage. It feels very whole and healing to me--the water and the rounded shapes, the way it is contained and open. I am so glad you are doing this for yourself and sharing it.

Saturday, January 30, 2010 8:40:00 PM EST

Embodied Movement said...

Thank you for the deep sharing. Your sharing helps me again as a dance/movement therapist how to use AM in the sessions.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 3:37:00 AM EST

lisa Tsetse said...

Your sharing of these experiences is written with such clarity and honesty. I feel as I read that I am with you. I see you move and I see you transition from your "movement". Then I see you speak directly from inside your "movement" . A tenderness rises within me.

The work you do for a living and the work you do from the heart and your art is so essential to the growth and nurturing of our collective consciousness. I send deep gratitude over these virtual waves of energy.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 1:29:00 PM EST

寶貝 said...

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 10:57:00 PM EST

Anonymous said...

Germaine, Thanks so much for your detailed descriptions of your work, both with patients and with yourself. I like your emphasis on intention and the listening way in which you work with the felt energies between you and the client. You deepen for me the word "witness" to yet another level. Thank you. Judy Funderburk

Saturday, March 6, 2010 10:55:00 AM EST

Life after A Moving Journal

by Annie Geissinger, Paula Sager, and Joan Webb



Editors’ Note: We asked the Journal editors what they’ve each been doing since AMJ ceased publication. A Moving Journal (AMJ), the first periodical devoted to Authentic Movement, ended in July 2006 after 13 years of publication. The Authentic Movement Community website began in November of 2006, attempting to replicate many features of AMJ, while expanding to an on-line presence and blog. All three editors of AMJ began their work in Authentic Movement by studying with Diana Levy in 1990. They acknowledge Zoë Avstreih and Aileen Crow as teachers and important influences; all three have worked extensively with Janet Adler for many years. They have also worked together as members of a weekly peer group for 16 years and continue to collaborate and practice Authentic Movement together.



From Annie Geissinger:

Authentic Movement is an integral part of my life. It continues to reveal and transform, to be a vital way in which I can understand who I am and what I’m up to—how I work with my big questions about knowing who I am within the unknowing, this dance of creation. It is a mystical, spiritual practice of direct experience. I am so grateful for Janet Adler’s work and for the clarity and courage of her path, which has inspired and sustained me over the past twenty years.

I continue to teach and to work with a community of peers. Sometimes we relate through distance witnessing. Here in Providence, I am able to meet often with a small band of soul mates, including Paula and Joan (my eternal co-collaborators). As we’ve each moved down our separate paths of investigation, we now have the incredibly rich experience of learning from one another, and weaving our different threads into our shared Authentic Movement practice.

After A Moving Journal closed I experienced a time of opening, a kind of empty space, and then I met a teacher. For two years now I’ve been working in an intensive process within a small community under the guidance of Tewa/Hopi Medicine Woman, Willow Tequillo. The work has provided me with a structure through which I can understand and hold the deep experiences that Authentic Movement opens for me. It nurtures my Authentic Movement practice, and is nurtured by it.

Within my Authentic Movement practice, over many years, I often felt in bodymind the experience, perhaps the memory, that we are truly wanderers in the wilderness, cut off from our ancestors and the earth, who could hold and teach us. And we work so hard to search the revelation of our own bodies, to recreate through intuitive knowledge what we have lost. This quest for wisdom through the body seems to have arisen with great longing and integrity out of our western culture, in response to a collective calling out for meaning, as we seek to recreate or re-member our understanding of who we are.

My teacher, who calls herself a “Universal Humanitarian Ceremonialist,” comes from an ancient and sustained lineage, held by many generations of wise ones with intimate connection to the earth. The work with her has been enormously helpful in grounding the clarity and vision of my Authentic Movement practice, teaching me about the integration of my vision into daily life. It is a great joy to experience these two ways of practice inside of me: the one hewn through intensity of commitment to body-centered wisdom without a fully formed or conscious lineage; and one that ancestors have carried through enormous challenges, and share as they will, in great compassion. I am amazed and grateful to experience each one as an extraordinary vessel for my search and questions, and to feel them weave together within me, speaking to one reality within different forms.

From Willow I have learned of the Hopi story of the creation and destruction of previous worlds, and of moving from our current Fourth World, based on separation, fear or scarcity, to the Fifth World of unity. In the past year I’ve begun offering a teaching process called Hawk Dance Ceremonies of Transformation [http://www.hawkdance.com/], which focuses on emotional evolution–specifically, transformation of fears. The intention of Hawk Dance is to support our movement into Fifth World, as we co-create a new world in evolving consciousness. Hawk Dance has been an adventure of experimentation and learning, as I bring together drumming, movement, art and creative contemplations, drawing on many years of studying and teaching African drumming, expressive arts therapy, and all the deep work of Authentic Movement practice.

To Janet, Willow, and to all my companions in learning, I offer my heart’s enormous gratitude.


From Paula Sager:

During the years that Annie, Joan and I produced A Moving Journal, I was always struck by the highly individualized ways in which Authentic Movement practitioners articulate their experience of the form. And not just on a personal level: Authentic Movement practitioners keep finding all kinds of applications of Authentic Movement within a wide range of fields.

Patrizia Pallaro’s second volume of essays highlights this diversity as well as some of the ways Authentic Movement serves as a transformative practice. In one of the book’s essays, Lisa Tsetse (2007) writes about Authentic Movement as “a force that can support the development of personal and global conscience” (p. 406). This idea that there is a relationship between one’s personal practice and one’s activity as a global citizen is of great interest to me, and is the direction I see my work going in.

Ten years ago, when Lizbeth Hamlin and I began an exploration of long-distance moving and witnessing, the Red Thread project [http://www.charleshobson.com/books/redthread.html], it felt very much like a personal process. Over time, the experience has opened us to a sense of greater possible connection to others beyond boundaries of space. Last Spring, we explored this possibility, in a literal way, through an experiment involving a moving/witnessing relationship between a group in the United States and a group in Belarus. The project came about after Alexey Konstantinov, in Minsk, contacted me after learning about my master’s thesis on the Authentic Movement Community Website Blog!

My thesis, titled Witness Consciousness and the Development of the Individual, looks at Authentic Movement’s potential for supporting individual and collective change, which for me means understanding the developmental nature of Authentic Movement as a discipline [http://www.threestonestudio.org]. I focused on the development of the inner witness. It was an exhilarating experience. I loved the process of research and it was amazing to have so many people in the Authentic Movement community respond to the survey which became an important part of the study.

I am also grateful to Janet Adler as a teacher, for the way witness consciousness has unfolded through her work, and for her support as my thesis mentor along with my primary mentor Arthur Zajonc [http://www.arthurzajonc.org/]. Arthur, with a number of other inspiring educators, created a graduate program that integrated academic research, artistic expression and contemplative inquiry with a strong emphasis on the work of Rudolf Steiner [http://www.steinerinstitute.org/rudolf-steiner-and-anthroposophy/index.aspx]. The opportunity to incorporate contemplative inquiry into the research model proved to be invaluable and deepened my appreciation for the ways in which Authentic Movement can serve as a contemplative practice.

Last Spring I participated in a conference at Amherst College, The Contemplative Heart of Higher Education, sponsored by The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society [http://www.acmhe.org/]. My paper discussed the development of witness consciousness in the practice of Authentic Movement and its relevance to other contemplative approaches being used in higher education. I described how, in Authentic Movement, action and perception are embodied and explored within the roles of mover and witness and that the phenomenon of an inner witness for each, develops through the relationship of mover and witness. Other participants at the conference seemed to resonate with the idea of the “inner witness” and the notion that individuals, through their own initiative AND in relationship, can develop greater capacities for perception, compassion, and knowledge.

Another project I’m involved in addresses the earliest phase of learning and education. I’m a co-founder of The Mariposa Center, a non-profit organization that seeks to create innovative learning environments for children and their families, especially in underserved communities [http://www.mariposari.org]. We’re currently collaborating with an inner-city charter school and were recently chosen by the Rhode Island Department of Education, to participate in a Pre-K demonstration project this year. My hope is that as Mariposa develops, there will be opportunities to create training programs for schoolteachers in which some of the principles from Authentic Movement will have a place. I’m especially interested in encouraging teachers to appreciate how the quality of their presence impacts the classroom and their students.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve come full circle. My interest in education began after college when I studied the Alexander Technique and then deepened when I came across Rudolf Steiner's work, twenty years ago. It was the same year I began practicing Authentic Movement but the two seemed like separate pursuits. Now what used to feel separate is becoming more unified and I am finding that Steiner’s very detailed description of the human being as “a citizen” of three integrated worlds, body, soul, and spirit, each with its own constituent aspects, offers a profound way to understand and explore my experiences of Authentic Movement and shape my teaching of others.

Both Authentic Movement and Steiner’s Anthroposophy (Human Wisdom) [http://www.anthroposophy.org/index.php?id=16] offer practices that safely encourage the movement toward the unknown or what we don’t yet understand. At the same time we can learn, with growing discernment, to attend to what is true, distinct from what may be illusory. In Authentic Movement we also learn to attend to the experience of “being moved.” This hallmark feature of the form is so simple and so profound. In my thesis research I came to believe that each of us, out of our regular, everyday sense of self (Adler says, “we begin just where we are”) must be willing to engage a hidden or somewhat unknown spiritual sense of self. In Steiner’s teaching, it is this hidden and “higher” sense of “I” that opens us to the full mystery of being human and is behind the phenomenon of being moved. I think this is why Authentic Movement experiences are always surprising, always helping to reveal new aspects of ourselves, and our relationship to the world and others.

I’m still just beginning to understand my experience of Authentic Movement through the lens of Anthroposophy but, as Annie, Joan, and I are discovering, our practice of Authentic Movement together is providing a vast and strong foundation to explore the intersection of each of our richly distinct spiritual paths. And who knows where the journey will take us next!

From Joan Webb:

We three are grateful that we had all felt the need to move on from A Moving Journal at the same time. And now, by a similar grace, we each have delved into studies of different spiritual traditions. In 2008 I completed a four-year training in Integrated Kabbalistic Healing (IKH) [http://www.kabbalah.org/IKH_first.html]. Annie has been working under the guidance of a Tewa/Hopi Medicine Woman; and Paula completed a master’s degree on witness consciousness, informed by the work of Rudolph Steiner and Anthroposophy. When we get together, we look at our experiences of moving and witnessing from these three points of view and learn from each other. All three traditions strive to understand and bring us closer to the same basic, elusive, mysterious truths but use different constructs and language. All three help to illuminate our authentic movement practices.

IKH is a healing modality developed by Jason Shulman over the last twenty or so years. He integrates Eastern philosophy (he is a Jinen or Buddhist teacher), Kabbalah (the ancient mystical tradition within Judaism), modern psychological theories, and quantum physics. Shulman views problems, whether physical, emotional, or both, in the largest context of the processes of life and creation so that healing occurs on all levels of your being.

I have found IKH to be a wonderful practice: healing for the particular difficulty I’m having, strengthening my ability to be present to what is, increasing my ability to drop a story, to step back, and to let natural healing processes take over. Healing occurs for both me and my clients [http://www.kabbalistichealersri.org/].

Authentic Movement and IKH have at least three important aspects in common: relationship, nonduality and attention to transference.

Relationship

Relationship is at the heart of both Authentic Movement and IKH. Healings occur in the context of a long-term relationship between client and healer. An IKH healer is not only in relationship to a client, but also to her inner healer, her own ego, her spiritual practice (including many meditations and exercises) and usually to other IKH healers. IKH is part of A Society of Souls, a community with annual meetings and several well-defined practices (called gateways): Impersonal Movement, the Work of Return, and The Magi Process. An IKH healer is in a nest of relationships: with self, other, community, and the divine.

In Authentic Movement we begin with the relationship between mover and witness, which mirrors and helps develop the relationship between a mover and his/her inner witness. Janet Adler (1987) speaks of three basic states of relationship: merged, dialogic, and unitive (non-dual). Each of these three states can occur between the mover and external witness, mover and inner witness, and mover and the divine.

Experience of a unitive state comes with long practice and with grace. I can’t count on being in a unitive state with the mover I’m witnessing or with my internal witness; I can only keep practicing and be awake to the times when that grace occurs. Similarly, I hardly go around being in a unitive state with the divine. But because I keep practicing Authentic Movement, I have had many of these experiences of unity, or mystical experiences, and they are happening more frequently. Authentic Movement is for me a spiritual practice; in that sense, it is about my relationship with the divine.



Nonduality

Authentic Movement gave me my first lived experiences with non-duality. My teachers encouraged us to experience the full range within polarities, to stay with uncomfortable as well as pleasant feelings and to feel them fully and watch while they change. We explored the shadow side. We learned to hold opposites and allow contradictions to stay as contradictions. I became able to hold the joy of a moment and at the same time feel the grief that will come when the moment is gone; to let my child love me and resent me at the same time (Teenagers exclaiming: I love you! Go away).

In IKH, through many exercises and practices, we learn to hold “nested opposites,” such as up and down, big and little, inside and outside, and good and evil, until a “third thing” arises. The third thing contains the full range of the polarity and is also a new thing. The third thing represents coming into wholeness, which is what healing is all about. When I practice nesting opposites and the third thing arises, I know it has appeared because a whole set of body sensations comes over me. I was able to feel and recognize this, I believe, because of all my work with Authentic Movement and being “in my body.” To be more specific, I am just now realizing that this set of body sensations is a subtle energetic phenomenon, and my familiarity with energetic phenomena has come through my long practice of Authentic Movement.



Transference

Authentic Movement also introduced me to awareness of projections and the importance of using careful language. Early on, we learned to acknowledge a separation between a mover’s primary experience and a witness’s experience in the presence of a mover. My teachers asked us to contain our projections, judgments, and interpretations and to “own” (by using “I” or percept language) any statements we make. “When I see your hand form a fist, I feel a tightness in myself and connect to my anger.” I don’t say, “You showed anger” or “I could see that you were angry.”

This attention to language and projections was transformative for me. It was a revelation to become aware of how I project my experience onto others and how others project onto me. To be aware of others’ projections helps free me from them. I learned to translate any unskillful language. For example if someone says, “You’re tired from your long trip,” I can separate enough to ask myself if I am tired or not and to wonder if that person might be tired. On a humorous note: I can barely watch soap operas and bad plays now! I cringe when the characters speak in “you-language,” when I hear statements like: “You’re always telling me what to do!” “And you care only about yourself!” Well, unskillful language does lead to high drama.

In IKH we work with transference, which includes all forms of projections and judgments. We talk about “riding the wave of transference.” We’re not so much trying to contain or avoid the projections as to be fully conscious of them. In “riding the wave,” we let the projection become vivid and give it full attention until something shifts. There is always information in the transference: about our client, ourselves, or both. We honor the transference as an obstacle that need not be an obstacle but instead a sacred portal to deeper knowing, once one is in conscious, loving relationship to it.

Shulman says that all our work as healers moves us toward dissolving our transference. As the “hooks” we have from psychological wounding become healed, we have less and less transference and are able to see reality more and more clearly, just as it truly is. Of course, as humans we never reach an ideal state where all transference dissolves. We can, however, have more awareness of our transference and change our relationship to it. In the same way, our work as witnesses in Authentic Movement moves us toward becoming what Adler calls “clear, silent awareness.” Again we can’t expect to achieve that state, but we can have more and more moments in it.

℘ ℘ ℘ ℘ ℘ ℘ ℘ ℘

For me, IKH and Authentic Movement complement and enhance each other. Authentic Movement gives a fuller, more focused emphasis on experience in the body. In IKH we work with body sensations, but we don’t move them in the same way or give them the focused attention of years of movement circles. IKH adds to Authentic Movement a fuller cognitive, conceptual framework. The Tree of Life, Kabbalistic universes, ideas about creation, and my ongoing creative process give me a framework in which to understand my Authentic Movement experiences. I didn’t know that I needed this until I encountered it. For me both are spiritual practices leading to healthy relationships, wholeness, greater consciousness, and ability to be present to all-that-is.



Bibliography

Adler, J. (1987). Who is the witness? In P. Pallaro (Ed.) (1999). Authentic Movement: Essays by Mary Starks Whitehouse, Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow (pp. 141-159). London: Jessica Kingsley.
Adler, J. (1995). Arching backward: The mystical initiation of a contemporary woman. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.
Adler, J. (2002). Offering from the conscious body. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.

Pallaro, P. (Ed.). (1999). Authentic Movement: Essays by Mary Starks Whitehouse, Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Pallaro, P. (Ed.). (2007). Authentic Movement: Moving the body, moving the self, being moved. A collection of essays, Vol. 2. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Shulman, J. (2004). Kabbalistic healing: A path to an awakened soul. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.
Shulman, J. (2006). The instruction manual for receiving God. Boulder, CO: Sounds True.

Tsetse, L. (2007). Moving the outer rim in: Authentic Movement and nonviolence. In P. Pallaro (Ed.). Authentic Movement: Moving the body, moving the self, being moved (pp. 406-413). London: Jessica Kingsley.



Links

Janet Adler’s books link:
http://store.innertraditions.com/Contributor.jmdx?action=displayDetail&id=259

Patrizia Pallaro’s books link:
http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/author/705

Shulman’s books link:
http://store.innertraditions.com/Contributor.jmdx;jsessionid=58EB8C4F9BF02E8C16BA540CEC38903A?action=displayDetail&id=1446
http://shop.soundstrue.com/authors.soundstrue.com/shulmanj/

Authentic Movements in Cappadocia (Turkey)

(Picture taken from a hot air balloon above Cappadocia:)

by Viktor Raykin, NYC, NY

It’s two months later and I still can’t wrap my head around Cappadocia. Had I gone there as a tourist, it would be a rich memory of land created by some extremist landscaper, land whose cultural heritage dates back to 14 century BC. I’d be happy to tell you about the underground cities (some 20+ floors down into earth), surrealistic “fairy chimneys”, phallic rock formations. About livable caves (my pension room was made in a cave). About early Christian churches carved out in the rock faces. And about the hot air balloons seen out of my window in the mornings.

But I came to Cappadocia not just as a tourist – I came to join the AM group there, and doing the Movements every day has transformed Cappadocia into my personal dreamscape. This is the only way I can now think about the land. And I dream on as I try to recollect the experience.

During the 7 days of the workshop (the group came from Russia, and the workshop was facilitated by A. Girshon), I had a chance to Move in the open spaces and inside a cave, on the elevated and sunken grounds, near the fruit trees and on the barren rocks. Each place has affected the Authentic Movement process by creating a unique circumstance, by projecting the outer space (or lack of it) inside me.

I invite you to look at the photos below. For a closure, here is a memory of the last Movement I did in Cappadocia. It’s just an episode.

……………………..

… I am standing straight, my arms are hanging, and I am screwing my feet into the sandy gravel - deeper and deeper… Here is my root, I grow from this ground, and I belong here. My feet get strength from the soil. My ankles are being moulded; my calves get their shape and body, and go up into my thighs and hips. There is no upper body yet, and I patiently wait until it is given. It seems to be lowered from above and set precisely on my hips. Here I stand – the eternal sculpture.

I bend and squat and grab handfuls of the gravel, then stand up again and start to squeeze the gravel in the hands. I crash it and crackle; and I listen. The sound fills my whole body. The Ocean rustles and rumbles. My body is listening.

I start pouring the gravel over my head – left hand, then right. I get covered, I get buried. I am buried in timeless. Eternity has me.

I pour the gravel over my head again and again.
…………………….

Photos – to view the slideshow of the whole album (which is missing 3 pictures below) click here.


“Fairy chimneys” and Rock waves in Gereme valley:

© 2009 Viktor Raykin

Fabulous photos and wonderful images in your words. Thanks so much for the post. The pictures can be clicked on to be seen larger. The photo slide show can be slowed downed and paused with buttons on the lower left hand side of the slide show. I hope people take the time to look at these beautiful images.

Elizabeth

Sunday, December 20, 2009 8:37:00 PM EST

Christmas Present

One possible benefit for us all of being a part of the Authentic Movement Community Web site is to meet other members of our group who we don't know. When Kristine Maltrud updated her directory listing with the Authentic Movement Community Web Site, I noticed she was from Albuquerque, NM. Since I was about to vacation there, I wrote her a note wondering if we could get together while I was in town. She was actually planning on being on the East Coast at a conference in Providence, RI presenting on her new project called ArtSpark. ArtSpark is a new web based way to support artists with funding. Her words: Igniting widespread artistic expression via online micro-funding, collaboration and community building.

When it actually came time to meet, I found I was shy about it, but within minutes the sense of community I feel whenever I am with others who practice authentic movement came forward. We met over breakfast at a local place where she asked for Christmas, because she wanted both red and green chili on her eggs. That was the kind of treat this time was for me, like a surprise Christmas present. We talked and discovered more and more people we knew in common, ideas about the practice we were working on, things we had learned over the years that delighted us; we became friends in less than two hours. My dream is to meet everyone someday. Let's get together when we are traveling. Have you ever done anything like this?

http://art-spark.org or visit ArtSpark's fan page on Facebook or Twitter: @artspark

~~~Elizabeth

Email Correspondence, after a weekend Authentic Movement workshop with Alton Wasson in NYC edited by Aileen Crow

Excerpts from an Email Correspondence, after a weekend Authentic Movement workshop with Alton Wasson in NYC. Alton started back in the 60’s with Ed Maupin (who was working with Mary Whitehouse) and with Janet Adler, in the 70’s. The exercise Viktor Raykin describes evolved over the years at the Contemplative Dance Week taught by Alton and Daphne Lowell, and was set up in this workshop by Eileen Kelly and debriefed by Alton.

Viktor Raykin writes: Alton Wasson, one of the veterans of AM, has visited New York City. His workshop last weekend was one of the most powerful in my life (I am relatively new to AM but have done a lot of other practices). Not to be too verbose I'll describe a process that has changed my view of the role of Witness. Participants were divided between 2 groups 4 in each, and given following roles:

A - Mover
B - Mirroring Witness: mirrors A, including voice expressions.
C - Expressive Witness: expresses in movement any impulses that may arise from witnessing A; anything is allowed but voice expression or physical interaction with A or B. (NB: it would be interesting to allow interaction between Cs of different groups)
D - "Regular" Witness.

Ds were placed in a separate part of the room dedicated to Witnesses. Bs and Cs moved freely in the space for the Movers, without preventing each other's moves or those of A’s.
Every 10 minutes, by the sound of a bell, roles rotated, i.e. B becomes A, C - B, D - C, and A becomes D. Every participant experienced each of the four roles. After the process had finished the group got in a circle, and each participant could share their own impressions about their own experiences.

I happened to start as C and finish as D, and "regular" witnessing gave me - for the first time - a real pleasure. My mind was stilled by moving in three other roles. My body was also loosened and "allowed itself" free moves (though with a lower amplitude, not to get distracted from observing the Mover), reacting to what I was seeing. I experienced freedom from the role of a Witness as I'd understood it (a composed, "dedicated" observer). I was relaxed, uninhibited and attentive at the same time.

One more discovery. As a C I was moving freely - and stayed in a quality contact with the Mover. I simply loved her - just because I was allowed to be myself, fully express myself while reacting to her moves. This experience goes far beyond AM as it teaches me the new way of a quality contact with another human in "ordinary" life. First thing that popped in my mind was the inhibition I habitually experience when relating to my father. P.S. I had another profound moment in this process, and I think it is quite characteristic of it: a sense of continuum, of unity of all that was happening. I was struck by it when I was in the Mover role. I guess closing eyes was important for the experience: sounds, moves, energy, co-presence of all and everything. Ocean of Life. One Soul.
There is much more, but I'd like to stop here.

Later, Viktor writes: Yesterday morning I posted, in Russian, to LiveJournal “Authentic Move” dedicated to AM. I described briefly the ABCD process that has struck me most. It took them less than 24 hours (accounting for time difference between NY and Moscow) to try out the structure in their AM Laboratory in Moscow, Russia and post back a short but profound analysis!
Here is the link for your curiosity, but, sorry, it's all in Russian: Russian web page: www.community.livejournal.com/authentic_move

Blog editor writes: Can you translate it for the Blog?

Viktor answers: U-uph! I've done it - I've translated it into English as was requested. It was quite a job, but interesting, I've learnt something new. I am sure some of the expressions are not very English (you know, English is my 22nd language).

Any comments, questions, exclamations, mutilations, aggravations, condemnations, exaltations, solicitations - are cordially welcomed!

Here is a comment by Alexander Girshon from Moscow, written after they tried out the process in their "laboratory" next day after I posted.

Alexander Girshon comments: We tried this format out, 15 min in each role. Naturally, more attention was given to the less familiar roles: Mirror Witness and Moving Witness. As Sasha S correctly noted, these roles implicitly exist in the Witness, and this format allows them to unfold. Mirror Witness role allows to define more exactly physical side of the process, but seems to lessen the emotional side of contact. Moving Witness is a borderline role, as you don't stop asking yourself: am I moving from what I am seeing, or these are my personal movement associations? We observed 2 positions: identification (mirror variations) and complementarity (moving in counterbalance to the Mover). Essential contact (meeting of M&W) - or the absence of it - may happen in any of these roles. It was also noted that this format has under taste of performance art, and it would be nice to introduce in it a Meta-Witness as observer of the whole scene. All in all, thanks to Viktor and to Alton.

Germaine Fraser writes: Thanks, Viktor, for this great translation effort. The response from Alexis was very interesting. I was struck by the analysis aspect; the fuller experience (such as you described in your own experience impression) seemingly quite absent. Alton's universal question of 'how does this have to do with me' begs for us to be more whole and all-encompassing in our being when engaging in AM. Empathic compassion for self and others is an integral and necessary aspect of the work. Even though clear structures offer safety and often help create a container, analyzing a technique for its value as a structure solely, kind of misses the point of why we engage in this way.

It is a tribute to Alton that our weekend's experience was so expansive; he (and Eileen Kelly) model holding space in this complete way, infusing the movement/witness space with a sense of holism, allowing others’ (and their own) work to be deeply spacious and safe. I am certain this fact is quite grounded in longevity and decades of practice / trial and error. As simple as the form is, my sense is the 'normal' human factor response to a relatively new anything is prone to initially get bogged down in the 'technique' and structure before it is comfortable enough to allow for other. So be it. Aren't we lucky to be human and have the influences and opportunities we have?

All my best, Germaine

Viktor responds: Hi, Germaine, I totally agree. Alton and Eileen have created a wonderful field where we could work, and play, and experience. I felt truly safe to go as deep as possible, never felt a danger. There was a Field of Acceptance. I was also struck by the dryness of Alex's analysis, but I was told by my friend in Russia, who is a part of this AM Lab, that they use this sort of very concise formal report to inform those who missed the Lab about the general course of events. These reports are always dry and don’t contain any experiential / emotional stuff. This is important to know. I know that at least one participant in Russia had a very deep process, but it's up to her to share. I believe that absence of intellectual analysis was very important in our group. I also believe that absence of direct verbal sharing of witnesses to the movers gave a totally different slant to the process. These two factors allowed deep integration to happen effectively and safely.

Enough analysis!

Love! Viktor.

Lisa Fladager said...

Viktor, thank you. I feel changed and opened after reading your post. I can't wait to experiment with this! best, Lisa

Thursday, November 26, 2009 2:00:00 AM EST