SOMATIC DANCE DANCE DANCE

This somatic workshop is an exploration of body and movement involving children with different cognitive and sensory abilities.

It’s an invitation to discover space through play, to explore the perceptive abilities of the body and to actively use the five senses as instruments of knowledge.

It’s an opportunity to communicate using a diverse sensory language that emphasises ways to know, create and master cognitive coordinates of space; to strengthen security and confidence in moving freely; and to build different ways of perceiving one's own body and its relationship with others.

This experience also reveals more poetic dimensions of knowledge such as "When you look at a tree and say “this is an oak” or “this is a Bengal fig”... to get in touch with the tree you have to place your hand on it and the word will not help you touch it.” (Krishnamurti)

Somatic applies a working process that’s adaptable to the skills of the participating children, based on an approach I have developed over many years whilst working as an educator, psychologist, dance therapist and artist with social cooperatives and NGOs.

I nourish my relationships with children using a blend of honesty and loyalty: we laugh together, we get excited together, we make and unravel worlds together. The children follow, respond and grow in confidence; they may be carried to the end of the world or gently back to themselves. Because of the nature and responsibilities of this work, my intentions are clear and guided by love and generosity.

Somatic projects with children are usually long term, lasting not less than 4 weeks, due to the nature of this work and the different abilities of the child. Learning to speak the "language of the senses" necessarily takes time, yet efforts are balanced by the playful aspects of the activities and through encouragement of the child’s instinctive curiosity about the body’s possibilities.