“Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.” -Brian Eno
Embodiment.space
The Embodiment.space project aims to help people find new aesthetic experiences through the expansion of embodied states and affective processing. It is an umbrella project covering the following practices:
Private Experiencing is a method of provoking embodied states and affective processing through movement. It is done alone, in a comfortable, familiar space, in low light, following audio instructions. Movement is done lying down, in sitting, and standing. Movement is designed with a wide variety of skill levels in mind to make it accessible to as many as possible. We recommend that everyone starts here.
Creative Embodying is a practice for connecting movement to personal expression, done by following a set of audio instructions. No particular level of skill is required. Ideally, do it in a space that will allow you to move in all directions, but use whatever space is available to you. Instructions are designed to give everyone freedom to explore and make their own choices while giving a clear path of development. There is no need to do more than is comfortable and you are free to follow your own curiosity and interest.
Since this is an ongoing project, instances of each practice (“chapters” of practice) will be added as they are created. We may also add new practices over time. To stay informed of new developments, subscribe to our mailing list.
Origins of Embodiment.space
Ben Law and Chih-Hsien Lin are both long-time professional dancers. Embodiment.space was inspired partly by our dance work, which aims to affect change in the audiences experience of their bodies through an empathic connectivity established through theatrical performance.
The other main inspiration for this project has been our work with individuals. Ben Law has been a Feldenkrais Teacher since 2013 and Chih-Hsien Lin has been a dance/movement therapist since 2015. Through this work we have learned how to affect growth and transformation using verbal communication to facilitate movement exploration.
Embodiment.space aims to synthesize these practices with their dance work.
Dance professionals are responsible for developing their own methods of maintaining their movement facility and generating new avenues of exploration. This process usually involves spending a lot of time alone in a room that has enough space to stretch out, paying attention to how movement works, bodies are interconnected, and solving problems that come up in dance careers.
After spending a lot of time moving on our own, we noticed several things:
- We all move differently when we are alone. We are more relaxed when we know we are not being seen. The edges of our bodies are more porous. We don’t feel that we always have to know where our whole body is, so there are body attitudes that we are more free to drop.
- We move differently when we are in familiar spaces. There’s no place like home. There are ways that we only let ourselves be when we are in a space that we really feel is our own. It being familiar to us means we don’t have to attend to its novelty, leaving maximal processing available for bodily experience. Attachment Theory argues that our foundational development happens within secure attachment spaces and we then try to bring those developments to the external world. This would indicate that working with personal movement would be more successful within a secure attachment space – i.e. at home.
- This ease of body is also more significant in low light. Perhaps because when we see ourselves, we know that others could also see us when we are under brighter lights. It could also be because we associate lights with being around other people and darkness with being by ourselves. Whatever the reason, the relationship is evident.
- Reducing external stimulation increases body awareness. When our environment is not loud, bright, or busy, our brains have much easier time taking in physical sensations. Our experience becomes more physically and emotionally acute than in daily life, wherein our physical sensations need to be tuned out so we can focus on our responsibilities to others.
All of this points toward a particular environment that is conducive to one’s processing of physical embodiment. The question then was “how do we create an experience that can be done under these conditions by those who would be dance audience members rather than performers?”
The Feldenkrais Method presented one model for movement instruction. The method focuses on increasing a person’s body awareness and movement repertoire through increasingly complex movement sequences. While this work can be transformation, it focuses on function – it is not specifically designed to create an aesthetic or artistic experience, though it often does. Our task was to create sets of instructions that people could follow that would be somewhat akin to both witnessing and performing dance. This meant creating structures that didn’t depend so much on the gradual improvement of particular skills, but could be done out of the box. Movements needed to be both aesthetically satisfying and emotionally resonant, which meant developing new movement and verbal vocabularies, individuated from Feldenkrais and dance vocabularies (though pulling from them).
Private Experiencing is specifically designed to create an experience through which one can easily perceive and process embodied content. Creative Embodying expands on the process and helps movers create movement on their own.
Private Experiencing
Private Experiencing uses recorded audio instructions, an individual segment being called a “chapter” of the project, meant to be followed while alone in a dimly-lit or darkened room. There is some room for variation based on personal ability and habits of movement. You follow the instructions in the way that makes sense to you – no two people will do it exactly the same way, and it’s not important that they do. That being said, we hope that the instructions are clear enough that following them doesn’t require massive concentration, but that it can be a simple, pleasant experience.
All you need is a space large enough to lie on the floor and do a snow angel. You may feel you need more room, so that you really feel free to move as you like, but 8′ by 12′ may be enough. We encourage you to experiment so you can find what is most conducive to your experience.
You also need a way to play the instructions from the internet. This could be a smartphone connected to a small speaker system or it could be a laptop. The recordings can be streamed or downloaded.
Much of the movement is done lying down. We recommend these for beginners and those concerned about safety. Each chapter will have a description and tags that give a picture of what is involved (e.g. lying supine, side-lying, sitting).
The movement is for your own experience. There is no need to do push your range of motion, comfort, or safety. Some of the movement will elicit emotional responses. Those experiences are for you alone. There is no need to suppress them, control them, or to stop moving. Whatever your experience, you can continue moving in a way that feels comfortable to you.
You can view a demo of someone doing a Private Experiencing chapter here: https://youtu.be/LXcw9Mj8A4E
This is an ongoing project. We will continue to produce more chapters, so please keep checking back, or stay informed of new releases by subscribing to our mailing list.
Creative Embodying
Creative Embodying is a practice for connecting movement to personal expression, done by following a set of audio instructions. No particular level of skill is required. We recommend doing it in a space that will allow you to move in all directions, but we encourage you to try it in whatever space is available to you.
Instructions are designed to give everyone freedom to explore and make their own choices while giving a clear path of development, but you don’t have to rigidly adhere to them. There is no need to do more than is comfortable and you are free to follow your own curiosity and interest.
This is an ongoing project. We will continue to produce more chapters, so please keep checking back, or stay informed of new releases by subscribing to our mailing list.
Responding and Sharing
We welcome you to share your experiences in the “comments” under each recording. Others may be interested to read your response to the experience and hear more about your internal process and reflections.
The Creators
Ben Law is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and has had a private practice for five years. A professional dance artist for over 12 years, he has danced with Kate Corby & Dancers, Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak, Lucky Plush Productions, Mordine & Company Dance Theater, CDI/Concert Dance, Inc., Julia Rae Antonick/Khecari, Hedwig Dances, and The Dance COLEctive. He also participated in performance art projects, including Tino Seghal‘s Kiss at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He received a B.A. in Dance and Psychology, with a minor in Mathematics, from Beloit College. More information about him is available at benlawfeldenkrais.com.
Chih-Hsien Lin, originally from Taiwan, is a mover, thinker, wonderer, Licensed Professional Counselor and Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist. She is an ongoing collaborator with Khecari dance company and a certified Movement Pattern Analyst (MPA). She continues to expand her practices in somatic movement, improvisation, and multidisciplinary works artistically, and works as a dance/movement therapist and counselor for a diverse set of populations, such as geriatrics, family, immigrants experiencing domestic violence, trauma survivors, adults with brain injury, and children with developmental disabilities or autistic spectrum on their healing journey to integration. More information about her is available at lindmt.com
You can contact the creators HERE