Finding Flow - with Bodyroots.org
Bodyroots Workshop Hosted By Ben Medder
In this one-day workshop Matt Mulligan will share an introduction to his approach to flow; a movement thread which he has followed passionately in his career across dance, acrobatics, martial arts and movement coaching.
As a participant you will focus on finding a state of ‘flow’ in your movement, and will expand your concept of what comfortable movement flow involves for your body.
What is ‘Flow’?
Flow is something that we know when we see it or feel it, but can sometimes be hard to access at will for ourselves in movement.
Sometimes in seeking flow we try to adopt a quality that we have seen elsewhere in other people’s bodies - one that is not necessarily natural for us - and so we ultimately ‘pretend’ to flow without really finding it or feeling it for ourselves.
Conversely, if we spend some time connecting with our own sense of flow and learning to recognise and access the ‘felt’ quality of this, we may find we can become fluent in letting this out at will. We can turn on the tap.
Just as no two rivers or streams have the same flow - it is dependent on depth, incline, local conditions - no two people will have an identical sense of flow either.
For this reason Matt’s approach to flow is based on finding your flow; discovering authentic qualities of flow in your own unique body.
You will work with elemental visualisation & learning a relaxed state of physical awareness, and learn to move away from the temptation to mimic ‘flow’ that you might have seen in a very different body.
You will be introduced to new ways of accessing a relaxed state of your body; a state in which you can be sensitive to impulses (from within, and from the environment) and are able to move dynamically, without excess tension and with greater awareness of momentum.
Always working to find your unique way of moving, you will find the ways in which you are able to soften into a state of relaxed but powerful flow, borrowing some of the many variations of water qualities.
“be shapeless, formless, like water.
When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup.
When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle.
When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Water can flow, and it can crash.
Be water my friend”
Bruce Lee
Across the workshop you will:
- Learn playful techniques for accessing an easier state of relaxed ‘flow’ in your movement, including some focus on floor work.
- Use tasks and partnerwork to relax into a more improvisational form of movement than you may be used to. Learn to let your body find new places of rest and action, rather than simply executing previously ‘pre-thought’ movements and manoeuvres.
- Learn principles of flow between the floor, low planes, mid-planes, and how to allow flow to carry oneself into the air.
- Connect with elemental visualisation to bring a sense of authenticity and content to your flow; learn how to let yourself find genuine movement freedom rather than simply ‘trying to move smoothly’ and generating interior tension.
- Learn some technical basics for widening your ‘flowcabulary’- including dynamic moving balances and techniques borrowed from acrobatics, contact improvisation, gymnastics, capoeira, and contemporary dance.
- Find and become comfortable with new pathways and qualities in your body.
This workshop is suitable for all movers with a general level of fitness and health. There are no technical pre-requisites for this Bodyroots workshop, the only requirement is a keen interest in the moving body.
Bio
MATT MULLIGAN is a professional acrodancer and movement coach. Through BODYROOTS.ORG he works to make people move better, feel more alive, be happier & healthier through movement & mindfulness.
He is a graduate of Circomedia Circus School and Northern School of Contemporary Dance and has toured nationally and internationally in a number of circus, dance and theatre productions. This has included work with Sally Cookson (National Theatre), Olivier-Award winning choreographer Javier de Frutos, Jo Fong, Ellen Havard, Jean-Paul Zaccarini, Bim Mason and a host of companies.
Matt’s primary collaboration in recent years has been an ongoing exploration of shared dance and acrobatic interests with Tom Weksler (Movement Archery, RootlessRoot, Dot504)
VIDEO OF MATT IN ACTION