Creative Movement- Bear Crawl Play

The task of this movement situation is to keep the yoga block wedged between both players/artists as they move through some patterns.

This is no right or wrong. Just play, create riddles and movement situations to help one another create and grow.

I borrow heavily from martial arts and their particular approach to creative movement and problem solving, as well as physical and artistic expression.

Creative Movement is a poetic, playful discipline which aims to revitalize and rejuvenate an individual's ability to deeply perceive and listen to the body and develop expressive and creative potential.

The physical body, is a source and medium of our artistic life and is considered an essential element in the creative process, despite the artistic language in which it may be realized.

Creative Movement Live Workshops

What is it that we’re doing here at OUR Creative Movement Live Workshops ?

We use physical practices that are simple, enjoyable and repeatable. We design play-based activities that encourage physical freedom, creativity and vitality. And because we are artist, creative movers, we are not bound by any one discipline or way. We use, we steal and repurpose ideas, tools and resources from the old ways. We cultivate a way that is adaptive and alive to create a beautifully moving, adaptable and creative human being.

Creative Movement Live Workshops

Creative Movement is a general term used in a broad field of physical disciplines connected to the relationship between body, mind, and creative spirit.

I borrow heavily from martial arts and their particular approach to creative movement and problem solving, as well as physical and artistic expression. Creative Movement is a poetic, playful discipline which aims to revitalize and rejuvenate an individual's ability to deeply perceive and listen to the body and develop expressive and creative potential.

The physical body, is a source and medium of our artistic life and is considered an essential element in the creative process, despite the artistic language in which it may be realized.

Hope to work with you soon.

Authentic Movement and Teaching

I know “Authenticity”is a buzz word right now. But it remains a great way to describe what it is that we’re searching for in our own creative movement practice or moving art.

It’s also what we’re searching for in our work. We want to present ourselves and our work as we are, authentically.

Everyone benefits when we show up as our selves. Below I share two stories from personal interactions I had with two younger coaches/teachers. Seeing them happier in their coaching/teaching profession warms my heart.

The video below is of a mentor of mine Linda from Fighting Monkey Practice.

Linda is a dancer and an incredible mover and teacher. I wanted to show you this video within the context of Authentic Movement. Now Linda could just give her students planks or push-ups to strengthen their core, shoulders and chest. Or, as she has done here, give those students something more playful, more artistic, more authentic to her own training and lineage.

Which one do you think her students enjoy more? Which one has more engagement and encourages physical expression? Which one will keep them coming back for more?

I speak much more about Fighting Monkey here: How to Get Smashed & Keep Going.

Creative Problem Solvers and Play

My calling is to help you become skillful and creative through establishing a direct connection between you, your environment and your task. Not pulling away from it by becoming an automatic and reflexive robot. As a moving or martial artist, or just someone that wants to enjoy the physical world around them, we must become adaptive problem solvers and creative decision makers.

One of the best ways to help cultivate these elements is through partner play. Below Molly and Alex do a wonderful job of communicating with one another as well as with the tool that’s between them.

It's a shame we're outsourcing these.

It breaks me heart actually that we have and are completely outsourcing our own Creativity and Physicality.

When was the last time you allowed yourself to be bored? To let your own thoughts and imagination flow ?

I fully support learning from other folks and gathering resources and inspiration but there has to be a balance.

There has to be a time in our own lives where we stop the entertainment and channel surfing. And physically… we have basically stopped all skill work, even in relationship to movement and exercise. There is no skill associated with sitting on a seated leg extension machine and busting out some reps. Maybe useful in some rehab/prehab situations but unlikely...

Cooking and preparing our own food is a pain. We can't even clean or vacuum our own homes, we have to outsource that to little round robots. And then we complain that we have aches and pains. Yes we do, because we're doing less and less to actually nourish our tissues with movement.

We do not stop moving because we get old, we get old because we stop moving.

Creative Movement Live

My signature workshop: Creative Movement Live is an intensive training, a meeting between an artist and their body. It’s a workshop that gives you permission to be yourself fully.

Not in a way that is meant for other people or for their approval or pleasure, but your own. This workshop is about you and your creativity and physicality.

It is a workshop that ask for a lot and in return gives back just as much.

On this creative path is trust, and I’ve been blessed to help facilitate a curious, playful exploration of possibilities.

Thank you to everyone who has taken my Creative Movement Live , shown up fully, and trusted me to help guide and shape your relationship with movement, play and physical expression.

It’s your journey, your pilgrimage, but I’m so honored to have been there for you. Thank you.

Making Motor Learning Easier ( 2 Things)

Generally speaking there are 2 things that make learning easier.

Learning, in my field of movement and motor learning, can be a very deep and broad topic but I'm trying to keep things basic and very understandable.

In the video example above, I speak about balls being a perfect example of novelty and familiarity.

Sometimes when I’m presenting or teaching my Creative Movement Workshops I can feel some hesitation and apprehension in the air.

People do not know what to expect and are a little shy.

But once I break out the balls, usually tennis and medicine balls people relax a bit and become very willing to play and explore.

You can check out two completely different populations, from two different workshops, using the same simple ball game here:

Creative Movement Workshops

Experiment with these and let me know what you come up with.

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Creating a Sacred Space

Every practice has a space, and that space is sacred.

Setting up your workspace is a vital part of your creative process, whether we’re speaking of creative movement or another artistic expression or practice. Your environment has a significant impact on expression.

A personal place of expression is a grounding influence and a partner through every phase of expression.

I personally envision the studio, the dojo, or the woodshed as a nucleus of creation, a source from which creative movement and expression flows outward to other areas of life and the place to which it returns again.

Personally, I maintain my artistic workspace as a sanctuary, a place at home where creative expression is nourished and regenerated.

Start by setting up your space. Your very own creative movement woodshed.

A few years ago I was struggling to find or uncover my own practice so I literally built a woodshed where I could move and create daily.

I wrote about here: Jiu-Jitsu and the Slow Track.

Exercise, Expression and Creative Movement

““I estimate that the average professional person gives much more time each week to physical exercise than to creative expression. We have discovered that health is significantly affected by how we care for our bodies. Why is it that we have overlooked the way creative energy influences our individual and collective well-being? Can you consider making a small weekly time commitment to creative exercise?

If your time is really constricted , consider how a discipline like creative movement can combine body, mind and creative spirit.””

— Shaun McNiff

Putting the Art Back Into the Art of Teaching

Some of your students/ athletes/artists simply will not consider themselves artists. My personal opinion is that anyone that steps inside a movement or martial arts studio is already an artist, it’s simply a matter of refining and cultivating one’s artistic skill.

Recently a mentor of mine, who is a dancer, told me that everyone is a dancer, but some people just need to learn, or maybe relearn the techniques. As a grappler, I would add that we are all grapplers, but maybe we just need to learn or relearn some techniques. My sons, as toddlers were excellent dances and roughhousers (grapplers.)

That’s how I think about movement and martial arts. Or even personal training and athletic development. It’s our job to bring out the artistry and movement creativity in our students. We are here to help guide and shape someone, not to change them.

If you’d like to learn more about my upcoming workshop please go here for some details Teach Like an Artist.

TEACH LIKE AN ARTIST

$50.00