Can you hear the No that is under a Yes? Can you hear the Yes under a No? Can you listen with your body rather than with your ears?
How often have you danced, moved, or offered something to another partner and felt a question mark arise? A question mark about their intentions, your own desires, your wants and needs?
This question carries meaning – it signifies that you are either venturing into unfamiliar territory or are unclear about your partner’s wishes. When this question mark arises, another immediately follows: Am I willing to stay here, in this ambiguity, and explore the feelings and sensations that arise in the body?
If you choose to remain in that unknown space and bring awareness to it, you may discover clarity – understanding what is a no, what behavior is desired, and what circumstances might shift a maybe into either a full yes or a strong no. By exploring this together, we can learn to perceive the non-verbal cues that emerge long before a message reaches the surface, whether it is spoken aloud or suppressed.
I would like to invite you all into this research – from non-verbal communication (and more importantly, non-verbal understanding) into the verbal expression of Yes, No, Maybe. Bringing them from dance into conversation, and from conversation back into dance.
In this workshop, we will explore two words that carry a lot of weight: Consent and Empowerment. While these concepts can remain at the level of the mind, once they are embodied, the experience changes entirely. You are welcome to join a meeting point of touch, contact, and sensory movement – a deep dive into verbal and non-verbal consent, and a learning process in how to empower others and be empowered by your partners.
In this workshop, we will explore the edges and borders of dance, physical contact, and touch – investigating the psychological effects of movement and connection: motion into emotion, and emotion into motion. Dance is a playground of non-verbal communication, where everything can be expressed, represented, and played with. It is a field we all sense deeply, yet its meanings and intentions can sometimes be difficult to interpret.
In this workshop, we will learn to listen and speak with our bodies – and with our partners’ bodies. We will bring the non-verbal into verbal form and explore how empowerment and consent can move fluidly from one realm into another.
This workshop includes touch and placing our attention into sensitivity.
We will practice saying yes/no in a verbal and non verbal way, you should be aware that we will go from our comfort zone into the learning zone and integrate it back into our comfort zone.
This is a clothes on workshop, and no nudity.
Registration
The number of participants for this workshop is limited and registration is required by filling the registration form.
If you have questions – please send an e-mail to sadhana.improdance@gmail.com.
The beautiful studio Belcampo Loft – Hannie Dankbaarpassage 33, Amsterdam (in front of the Film center in De Hallen).
– (Pot-luck) lunch for yourself and to share
– Water bottle
– Comfortable clothes for movement
– Notebook and pen
Sunday, 20 July – 10:00-17:00 (with an hour break)
Paid by work/institution – 175 Euro.
For individuals –
High income – 120 Euro
Normal price – 100 Euro
Low budget/students – 80 Euro
