The Artist Within – Follow up project

Name and contact of the person/oragnisation:

- Szamosi Judit, szamosij@gmail.com / www.szamosijudit.com Target group

- Adults (from around age 20-to age 60)

Description of the activity

The name of the activity is: Bodytime workshop. I am a trainer of somatic movement, and

dance. Bodytime is a technique influenced by:

- Somatic approaches: Feldenkrais, Klein technique, Body Mind Centering, Skinner

Releasing Technique.

- Movement improvisation, contact improvisation, composition

- Relaxation techniques: autogenic training, progressive relaxation, mindfulness

techniques and other meditative practises

- Quigong and hatha joga

In the last couple of years (2011- ) I have been working on developing this system, and it

is still evolving in it’s own way. Every interaction with dance, movement, art and therapy

have been influencing (and is influencing) this work. The artist within training organised by

IKTE also had an impact on this work. In this description I am trying to grasp what aspects

of the training was influential on my work. I also find this a difficult task, as the approach I

am using is very similar. (There are many differences, however this document is focusing

on the follow up project, which does not reflect on these differences.)

I am going to outline one of my workshops as a follow up project that occurred after the

training. This workshop was held in 2015 September the 10th at the conference of the

Hungarian Psychology Association, in the frame of “Summer University”. (Magyar

Pszichológiai Társaság: Nyári Egyetem) Out of hereby undescribed reasons my follow up

project was held and written much later than the deadline. I would like to express my

apologise for this delay. I hope this paper is still relevant within these circumstances.

There were 13-16 participants present on this occasion. The follow up project was built up

this way:

- verbal opening round, introduction of the participants and on what will happen on this

occasion

- interacting each other non-verbally still sitting than standing in the circle

- arriving physically: moving in the space/walking slowly, then faster, backwards, giving

different tasks on speed, directions and later on in relation to each other while still

moving in the space

- mirroring: we have focused on a mirroring exercise during this session, because I find

this very direct and simple exercise to interact each other. The way I introduced it was:

- First A is leading the movements then B follows them / change (we broke it down for

the movement of arms, legs, spine etc.)

- After the task was a little different: The leader and follower roles disappeared, as A and

B mirrored each other. The task was to give 100% attention to the space between them,

and allow this mirroring to happen by itself. At first it’s not simple to grasp the essence,

but then it is a shift from the above mention leader/follower roles, as the dance happens

specifically from giving undivided attention to each other. (The mirroring exercise was

also influenced by the IKTE training, although I have also been applying it prior as

well.)

- From here I have opened the possibility to interact with other couples, to dance alone.

Couples started moving in space, to interact with each other. Some people were ready

to leave the mirroring task and express themselves authentically through movement

improvisation.

- At last we have made a verbal sharing round based on the experiences of the participants.

• Results

- There haven’t been any statistics made on the results of my activity or on this specific

follow up project, although I did get feedback from the group members. The mentioned

results are a short and subjective description based on the participant’s verbal sharing

round at the end of this project. It was a positive experience for most of the people,

although personal issues and topics did come up. The verbal round is not aimed to share

only positive experiences with each other, (same way as I have experienced it at the

IKTE training) as this direct work with the body may invite deep and sometimes difficult

emotions-memories from our earlier lives (childhood etc.) One lady for instance did

share that is was very interesting, but at times difficult to stay in the dances. From the

leading and following exercise she had realisations on how she behaves in specific

human relationships in her everyday life. Two people left the room in the beginning,

when we did a little mindfulness breathing practise (not everybody is opened and/or

ready to slow down and listen to their breathing for example) However most of the

people did share they felt joy and had fun during this workshop, and we (me and the

helper called Janka) have evaluated this as a meaningful occasion.

- I find it difficult to make sharp and explicit distinction and describe precisely what were

the effects of the IKTE training and what weren’t, because my work is already very

close to this approach. We did not use other modalities, we focused only on the body

entirely.

• Pros and contras concerning the used methodology

- Pros: I personally like to work with the body explicitly and less with other artistic

modalities because I am experienced in this field, and less familiar with other modalities.

My interest is directed to the body in motion (and in stillness, although motion is present

all the time as long as we are alive). I did enjoy the offered modalities offered by the

trainers, and they had a big impact on me (making the masks, working with clay etc.) I

am still thinking how I could integrate that more into my work. If that is going to happen,

(working with clay, mask, painting) than it is explicitly going to be the effect of this

training.

- Contras: Working with movement can be a very difficult task. People have to loosen up

first and feel secure for this kind of approach. I find it difficult sometimes to break down

these barriers that people have in their minds when it comes to movement and dance...

Interestingly people generally really enjoy these sessions, because they can feel free and

are encouraged to express themselves in their authentic way. I think it is a cultural

phenomenon, because logical thinking is overrated in contrast to artistic expression and

intuitive thinking. I think it should be more balanced, and we should give more space to

artistic expression generally. This is why IKTE and other art therapy modalities are very

precious and should be spread more in schools, universities, workplaces etc. Both halves

of our brains and our entire bodies should be used equally in my opinion…

• Recommendations on the methodology

- I recommend the IKTE methodology for those adults who are interested to develop

personally via an integrated art-therapy approach. I believe that art and creative

approaches have intensive transformative potential. However IKTE is a special

approach because it integrates different art modalities and therapy. The possibility for

personal development is offered for adults who are opened to invest time and energy

into this process. I recommend it for people, because taking part in this kind of work

develops and encourages creativity. I think everyone should to experience their creative

potential regularly in their everyday lives.

• How did the training in Hungary support/challenged/altered my professional

approach? As mentioned before it is difficult to distinguish my previous experiences from The

Artist within training. Professionally and personally this training gave me time, space

and a supportive environment. It gave freedom to express myself and to interact with

others. I think it was a very good opportunity to process personal issues and to recharge

my batteries.

Copyright

Recipients are free to use all or parts of this document for personal use however are requested

to inform the author. Recipients are requested to acknowledge The artist within –

Applied eMOTION consortium and the author in any reference to the content of this

document. In the event of any further queries please consult the author.

Acknowledgements

This project was possible with the financial support from the Erasmus+ program. The

methodological resources and inspiration came from the The artist within – Applied

eMOTION long-term adult education project (www.theartistwithin.eu). The generosity

from the fund and these organisations is much appreciated.