What is MVMT Therapy?
Movement – Vocals – Music – Transformation Experiment
formerly called DragonDanSing
MVMT Therapy is a full-expression experiment, primarily led by group movement and vocal expression. movement and vocals are then supported by improvisational music created by the group and employing many different types of manufactured and homemade sounding tools.
How did MVMT Therapy come to be?
MVMT is an experiential and experimental refinement of a practice we lovingly call “DragonDanSing”. It is also informed by other containers that explore sacred play and embodiment including ecstatic dance, kirtan improvisation and contact improvisation jams.
Ecstatic dance
Ecstatic dance is a practice of moving the body in a free, unbridled, unscripted, unchoreographed way – in exactly the way it wants. Employing the opposites of movement or stillness – and discovering a deep sense of embodiment within a group. This is a practice of dropping judgments toward self, toward the sound scape and the DJ’s creating the set list, toward movement – a full welcoming of anything that shows up in the space.
Contact Improv (CI)
I eventually discovered contact improv, and began attending “contact jams”, mainly silent ones.
The silence was revelatory. I felt like I had upleveled and upgraded my life embodiment journey. For me, silent contact jams were the first dance container where I got deep into my body, and my dance arose from silence, stillness, and deep listening to myself and others. I found this to be a lens for life.
Kirtan improv
I have always enjoyed singing mantra/kirtan – but it wasn’t until I merged my ecstatic & contact improv experiences in the kirtan space – allowing myself to sing in harmonies, melodies, and to fully improvise with whatever sound I was experiencing that I fell completely in love with the practice.
DragonDanSing
I attended a dance retreat on the Oregon coast that had a "dragon dance" - an improv experience that reintroduced music into the dance space – only all of the sound was created by the dancers.
Not only was this container a deep portal into grounded embodiment like CI, the intentional activation of vocals and sound-making by the dancers created a VAST and DYNAMIC space of creativity and play that I had never experienced in a group. Yet it all felt so familiar again at the same time. I defaulted to child-like play. Presence without fixation. It felt safe to me almost immediately.
MVMT Therapy
intent with MVMT is to co-create a group-play child-animal ritual experience. It is a place for performance artists, aspiring performance artists, and recovering performance artists to let the performative ego rest, to listen, and to play. The practice of deep listening (to ourselves and others) ritualizes the sacredness of group resonance within the container. It is about being interested rather than interesting. This is a deep exploration of all the ways we can co-create and play in our fullest expression. Starting, ending, and weaving from silence and stillness – our most powerful instruments and most potent soils for listening.
Exploring the expansiveness & play of our birthright – Sat Chit Ananda – The Joy and Bliss of BEing – that arises from intentional ego/identity dissolution. When our body and senses are activated thru movement AND vocal expression, the vast expanses of creativity, connection, and play are unveiled.
This container is a research experiment & we are all the researchers - our aim is to see if/how well we can "hold the tension of opposites"
Movement/Stillness
Silence/Sound
Chaos/calm
Discord/melody-harmony
Judgment - control/freedom – autonomy
Timeliness/Lateness
Light/dark
Hot/cold
Sunshine/Rain
Etc..
And how can we "care for self" as we ride the waves from one into the other.... Welcoming everything as it is – and self-soothing through moments where we are invited to welcome whichever of the two opposites we deem as “uncomfortable” or “unwelcome”. Discharging the energy of the discomfort through our movement, vocals & music making – and/or just BEing in stillness/silence – participating as a witness to the container.
This is a practice for ALL bodies – people in wheelchairs and even bedbound can explore MVMT! How?
Even in stillness, the body is dancing. This is the primordial vibration of life – also known as Spanda, and the concept comes from Kashmir Shaivism. This “movement” within the body is what makes a toddler “toddle” until they learn to stiffen and stabilize the body despite its innate movement that arises out of a body’s stillness, and is sometimes referred to as the transcendental cause of the universe.
One of the most powerful and potent tools is our imagination – it has been proven by research that if a body part is in a cast and the person just imagines that body part moving, it has the power to reduce overall muscle atrophy.
Additional Elements:
Stickers – if you are sensitive to potential touch in the room and this challenges your ability to drop into the flow, there are stickers to be utilized to indicate that at this moment you have a preference to remain free from the touch of others in the room.
Blindfolds – if the light or images in the room challenge your ability to drop into the flow, you are welcome to reduce sight stimuli by closing your eyes, or employing the use of a blindfold to decrease stimuli.
Ear plugs - if the sound in the room challenges your ability to drop into the flow, and you are unable to you are welcome to reduce sight stimuli by covering your ears or employing the use of ear plugs to muffle some of the sound.
Massage tools – if discomfort is showing up in the physical body and wants to be worked out, there are tools available for everyone to try.
Gong/OMing – Think of the gong as a light switch in the room. Any person at any time and for any reason is welcome to sound the gong – which will elicit an ocean of OM’s and quickly bring the room back to stillness & seated silence. Try it sometime, just for the fun of it!
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