Embodied Music, Expressive, Movement, and Collaborative-Pedagogy Workshop
by Emily Lau
Would you like to unlock and unstuck your body and voice and start to tell empathetic stories like you have always wanted to?
Would you like to learn new ideas and processes to work and understand ourselves and our collaborators better in the absence of an authoritative figure?
Would you like to do all of these things through games, movement, laughter, and sharing? (maybe some tears too)
Would you like to be seen as individuals and work as an ensemble with fluidity and depth?
I have been asking these questions for over two decades. In the process, I have developed a pedagogy of unlocking creativity and empathy through a series of intentional activities and exercises, transforming inspirations from expressive-art therapy, devised theater, Orff-Schulwerk, breathwork, Dalcroze-Eurhythmics, and her own experience of working with hundreds of professional and amateur musicians and citizens from all walks of life. These workshops are trauma-informed, inclusive, and joyful.
For ensembles, this process will connect your team members emotionally, and equip them with some basic methods of collaboration and communication. This process also serves as a fantastic starting-point for generating new works.
For artists, this process will bring new ideas and processes that will certainly be beneficial to your creative practice.
For community members, this will be a fun, interesting, and energizing way to awaken different parts of your body and mind.
Together, we will open up our expressive bodies and make new friends. There is no age limit, but we ask that participants self-govern for 4 hours and voluntarily participate without outside supervision. We also welcome care teams for people with different or extra abilities; if this is your situation, it will help us to plan effectively if we communicate in advance.
If you run a choir, an orchestra, a community organization, a theater group, or a creative company that requires people to work collaboratively and skillfully, you can engage me in offering this workshop. They can be 2x2hour workshops or 1x4hour workshop. The max group number is approximately 20.
Currently I offer this workshop as the starting point of most of my new commissions.
PEOPLE FIRST.
I have worked with approximately 200 individuals in the 2022-2023 season.
Here are some testimonials from recent participants:
“What an amazing day I had with you all yesterday. Thank you ... for your work and dedication to the creative process. The group dynamics were magical, each of us seeing and connecting with each other - it brought understanding and connection and created empathy. I (wept) quiet tears of joy as I felt connected, as we moved our bodies and expressed ourselves.”
"A great day, well structured, a real safe space."
"It was a freeing experience. The facilitator is gifted, patient, funny, and inspirational. I did not realize how much I have held back in my daily life."
