On December 1, 2014 VoiceWorks and SoundBody Studio, presented a one hour workshop to 24 visual arts students at Camosun College. This is the 2nd time that the instructor Brenda Petays had requested that I give the students an experience to explore their bodies and connect it to their artistic work.
The workshop was titled: “Bones Space and Time” and was an opportunity for students to get out of their heads and into their bodies. At the workshop we spent time:
1) Accessing their curiosity about their bodies by exploring their pain patterns, relaxing them and regaining the space in their bodies and minds (heads);
2) Accessing their creative relationship to their bodies. Giving them experiences that allowed them to take up more space in the room and develop movement and time relationships with the group.
3) Drawing three – 1 minute long sketches in last part of the session, where students drew:
- what their body felt like before our session began;
- how it had changed physically;
- how it changed them emotionally.
(The photos in this post are just a few of the images that students were inspired to draw during the workshop.)
Some students commented on how this experience was so immediate and direct in accessing breath, permission and expression, that they had a sense of creative relief, which got them inspired to draw from that different experience.
The students learnt how to recognize and address pain patterns in their hands, wrists, arms, shoulder sand neck and to use self massage techniques to relieve some of their physical pressures. They also learnt how to help each other relieve body pain and how to claim space, breath and decrease pressure thru partner work.