From Blog Director Jill Randall:

After hearing Salt Lake City artist Molly Heller speak in late November in Berkeley, California, I have been thinking a lot about the concept of wellness. Thinking about it in my own life as well as the dance field at large, and also undergraduate training programs.

This calendar year, once a month Molly Heller and I will write a post to keep this thread of wellness going throughout the year. Please join in!

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To begin, we asked colleagues in the field what the broad concept of “wellness” means to them:

From Ashley Thorndike-Youssef, wellness consultant/teaching artist/writer:

Recently I've been thinking about the importance of 3-dimensionality in wellbeing or wellness. Breathing into the back of the body, considering relationships and environments that surround us, and approaching problems holistically…to refine how we occupy space and make choices in time with intention. I know the word intention got overplayed, but it still makes a lot of sense to me in considering the qualities of being.

From Leah Cox, Dean of the American Dance Festival:

Lately, I have living by the words of Jidda Krishnamurti: “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” With this in mind, I have been understanding wellness to be a practice of creating caring, equitable communities and ways of engaging others. There is no hope of personal wellness when we are actively or passively perpetuating toxic attitudes and actions toward our fellow human being.

From Douglas Nielsen, choreographer and teacher:

WELLNESS: 1. Deliberate functionality. 2. Taking responsibility for one’s understanding of the cause & effect of the choices we make. 3. Living on a planet of gravity, and being able to get to the ground, and back up again, without assistance.

From Martha Eddy, leader in somatics:

To quote one of my professors, eminent exercise physiologist Bernard Gutin –

Fitness is having the ability to engage in any activities you enjoy.

I would say that Wellness also includes the capacity to bring compassion to one's life adventures.

From Michelle Boulé, dancer/choreographer/Body Talk practitioner:

I experience “wellness” when my entire system is harmonized and in good communication (within itself and the environment). I aim for aligning my body, mind, and spirit with my truth/purpose, while also allowing and accepting what is.

 

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This month, January 22-26, there will be a Wellness Immersion in the School of Dance at the University of Utah. Assistant Professor Molly Heller and Associate Professor Pamela Geber-Handman will be facilitating it.

As Molly Heller recently shared,

The Immersion stemmed from a desire to honor all aspects of a student’s health, where the emotional and psychological components of living a life in dance are addressed. The School welcomes 3 guests for the Immersion: University of the Arts Assistant Professor Jesse Zaritt, NYC artist and BodyTalk Practitioner Michelle Boulé, and LA-based Somatic Experiencing Practitioner Debra Clydesdale.The five day forum will consist of lec-dems, movement and performance practices, panel discussions, small group break-out sessions, and a performance by Boulé and Zaritt. The intent of the Immersion is to discuss, process, and share what it means to embody wellness holistically, in and outside of the studio – how health and well-being can be included/embedded in our artistic practices.  

More details and reflections will be shared on the blog in February after the Immersion experience.

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