Movement Medicine is a fascinating dance meditation/mindful movement practice that combines the exhilaration of free movement with mindfulness as well as the wisdom of shamanic understanding of nature and the world around us. The practice invites us to breathe, follow our bodies and let them “translate” our experience in movement and original expression.
What do we do?
We dance – no shoes and no steps to follow! With the help of carefully selected music from many parts of the planet, and clear guidance from the facilitator, we will give our attention to our breath, sensations and whatever is alive in the moment. Through our own free dance and simple experiential exercises, we will encourage the body to awaken, the heart to shape us, the mind to focus, transforming our experience in the present into our very own “choreography” and authentic personal expression.
In this way, we can release accumulated physical, mental and emotional tensions, while allowing, creative expression of different parts of ourselves – through setting our movement free, letting it set us free in return.
Who is it for?
Adults that are interested in discovering new ways of mindful, yet energetic, release and replenishment – along with deep curiosity and urge to re-acquaint themselves with the intelligence, expressiveness, and sheer delight of their own moving body.
No previous experience with dance/meditation is needed, only keeping in mind to respect your own body and physical condition.
Movement is Medicine whether you have been moving your whole life or you are a complete beginner and might feel like you have two left feet (or hands!). You will only need clothes you can move comfortably in, your own bottle of water – and, most importantly, yourself, just as you are.
Practical info
Date and time • Sunday 11 October 2020, 11.30-13.00, and Sundays weekly until 20.12.2020 (participation by registration only)
Venue • Fabrica Artspace, M. Alexandrou 125 & Evrimedontos, Athens centre (closest metro: Kerameikos)
Information and bookings • movement.medicine.greece@gmail.com, (+30) 6998 729988
>>>> Booking necessary due to limited number of places, up to 24 hours before the class.
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Facilitator •María Varelá
María Varelá has been following the Movement Medicine dancing path since 2014. She has completed the Movement Medicine Professional Training with founders Susannah & Ya’Acov Darling Khan in Devon, England. She has been a School of Movement Medicine Local Organiser for Greece since July 2017; she designs and teaches Movement Medicine classes/introductory workshops, online and in-person, in and around Athens.
Her first point of contact with meditation and movement were Osho active meditations and meditative therapies (2006) by which she was inspired to delve into the Twice Born – Primal Training (2007-2009) in Greece and Italy. Having already felt the connection, through this field, to the liberating power of dance in experiential approaches to healing, she found herself intensively participating in Cathy Ryan’s embodied movement workshops in Athens and Thessaloniki (2011-2014). Movement and dance showed her, again, the point where all the pieces of research and personal quest are connected and come alive: within the moving body. And this is where she keeps coming back to search, and find, the richness of her experience as a human being in skin, muscles and bones.
Her academic background is in Translation Studies (BA), European Studies (MA) and Political Discourse Analysis (PhD). She has lived in England, Italy and Spain, where she spent time working as a researcher at Deusto University in Bilbao. She has travelled to many European countries, and Mexico, presenting papers in international conferences focused on discourse analysis and related fields. She has also worked as an editor, technical writer and writing consultant for non-native English speakers in academia internationally for more than a decade.
