HOW THE CLASS WORKS

Every Expand Your World class is two hours long. Movement practice and embodied dialogue combine to create a group process that fosters deeper human connection. Its three-part structure roughly maps onto the process of building a campfire. It begins with kindling, continues with spark, and then moves into flame.

KINDLING:

Class begins with “kindling” - these are words I’ve chosen that point us towards some universal aspect of human experience we are all capable of feeling, recognizing and contemplating together.

We will investigate this aspect of being human together over the course of the entire class, through our movement, the use of our attention, and our capacity to connect our nervous systems through the magic of language, or embodied dialogue.

The initial “kindling” for each class is always posted ahead of time (see above). Participants are invited to bring their own complementary “kindling” to class to expand the dimensions of our collective practice.

At the beginning of the class, these words will be read aloud. Every participant will have the opportunity to read. 

We read to dive deeper than the surface meaning of the words and into the sensory and somatic experience of how they shape our lips, teeth and tongue, and resonate the voice in our throats. We sense how their vibrations are captured by our ears, digested into images by our brains, and watch how they flower into sensations throughout our bodies.

While we speak to each other we also attend to our collective vibrational experience as we build connection through the voluntary sharing of space for the exchange of ideas.

(For those familiar with it, one might think of our process as something like an ensemble experience of the contemplative practice of Lectio Divina.)

SPARK:

We begin by facing each other in order to tune into our felt sense of relationship. Then we enter into the exploratory process of Awareness Through Movement, a form of somatic inquiry that combines the use of novel movements and non-habitual use of attention to refresh the nervous system. 

The intention of the practice is to redraw our internal maps of mind, body, and self in order to awaken more graceful and comfortable movement and clearer perception. Each class includes a new sensory journey that fits both the monthly theme of the class and the words that have just been read aloud.

FLAME:

After exploring inside, we expand our attention outside of ourselves once again, bringing each other back into our field of awareness. We endeavor to do this while remaining connected to our own insides. 

With new eyes, ears, and mouths, we revisit the words that birthed our inquiry, inviting them to burn even brighter. 

Then we gradually remove formalities, speaking more freely from within the unfolding sensations of our shared experience. Through the exchange we make further discoveries together that none of us could individually arrive to on our own.

The invitation and intention of the class is to create the experience of a kind of a group flow state that opens us to a new experience of relating.