MORNINGS IN MOTION Body Wisdom in Motion – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

During the September series of morning sessions, organised by the Burdąg Foundation as a guest programme at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, we will explore possible answers to a range of questions:

• What is wisdom? Is it knowledge or experience? How much of what we know about the world, relationships and ourselves do we learn from others, and how much emerges from our own experiences and insights? How is wisdom connected to the body and movement? And by discovering new pathways of movement, new strategies and qualities, can we also transform the ways in which we think and come to know?

Somatic education is not about passively receiving and acquiring knowledge, nor does it impose a single correct form of movement. It teaches attentiveness and the ability to recognise impulses arising from the body. It enables us to work with respect for each person’s boundaries, pace and capacities, creating conditions in which we can experience, become aware of our limits, regain freedom and develop trust in ourselves. Through collaboration, dialogue, experimentation and play, it allows us to develop a fuller sense of self and a greater capacity to act, create and shape our experience.

• Our nervous system forms patterns and, on the basis of previous experience, creates projections of the future as well as filters through which we interpret the present. Drawing on Body-Mind Centering®, we will listen to the vibrations of cells, the pulse of fluids, the breath of organs and tissues, loosening the nervous system’s control to make room for spontaneity and creativity. Improvisational structures based on Authentic Movement and contemplative practices will provide a framework within which our sensitivity and intuition can emerge. Sometimes accompanied by music, at other times by the rustling of the trees outside the window and the sounds of bodies brushing and shuffling across the floor, we will explore whether we can shake off rigid convictions, shift perspective and turn our view of the world upside down; whether we can dance with questions and somersault towards the unknown.

When can accepting that we do not know become a form of wisdom? Faced with uncertainty about where we are heading, how can we orient ourselves in where we are now, in the here and now, and take a step into the future with trust and hope?

Natalia Oniśk

• works across the fields of dance and arts education. She is a somatic movement educator in the Body-Mind Centering® approach, registered with the Body-Mind Centering Association, as well as a producer, artist and activist. Her education in dance and movement has largely followed an independent path through workshops, coaching programmes and festivals devoted to contact improvisation, somatic practices and choreography. She completed a course in experimental choreography at Centrum w Ruchu, a programme in process psychology, and training in anti-discrimination education and consent culture. As a performer, she has appeared at, among others, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, STUDIO Theatre, the Centre for Contemporary Art, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art and Art Stations Foundation, as well as at the Malta Festival, Gdańsk Dance Festival and festivals of art for very young children, including Sztuka Szuka Malucha. She leads workshops, seminars and regular classes in improvisation and contact improvisation, somatic practices and the development of soft skills through bodywork. She organises certified Body-Mind Centering® training programmes in Poland in collaboration with Embody Move/Touchdown Dance UK. For her, somatics, dance and movement are practices essential to health and survival, and to restoring contact with vitality, sensitivity and creativity. She is interested in developing forms and strategies for thinking, sensing and being together. She has recently moved to the countryside, where she tends a garden.

MORNINGS IN MOTION

• To regularne zajęcia ze świadomości ruchu oparte m.in. na tańcu współczesnym, improwizacji oraz pokrewnych metodach pracy z uważnością i percepcją ciała. Skierowane są do osób powyżej 16 roku życia, niezależnie od doświadczenia. Podczas zajęć przeplatają się ćwiczenia indywidualne, w parach i w grupie. Spotkania służą poszerzaniu doświadczeń ruchowych, zwiększeniu samoświadomości oraz zdobywaniu wiedzy o tańcu współczesnym i nowej choreografii. Warsztaty mają formę lekcji otwartej.

Accessibility

• Women's, men's, and for people with disabilities are available (level 0).
• The Laboratory is a separate building located a few steps from Ujazdowski Castle on its south side (the former historic Arsenal building).
• The Wojciech Krukowski Auditorium Hall is located on level +1, and the building has an elevator.
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