Kinesthetic Delight: Movement and Meditation

The words meditation and mindfulness often conjure images of people sitting quietly in peaceful contemplation. However, as contemplatives and scholars from various fields have argued, though the brain resides in the cranium, the mind functions throughout the body. Students in this class will playfully explore embodied and dynamic forms of meditation and mindfulness through movement in an effort to integrate the mind and body. Examples of modalities include Lisa Nelson's Tuning Scores, Barbara Dilley's Contemplative Dance Practices, and other movement practices including qigong, laughter yoga, and psychogeography. Students will work in teams to develop their own movement-meditation scores inspired by these practices.