Authentic Movement Training and Retreats


AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT RETREAT

19 TO 26 AUGUST 2024 at
BALA BROOK RETREAT HOUSE DARTMOOR DEVON UK

This week-long Authentic Movement Teaching Retreat takes place in an area of outstanding natural beauty on Dartmoor in one of the most beautiful retreat centres in the country. Bala Brook Retreat Centre is peaceful and private, offering spacious and comfortable accommodation and studios. The grounds and the surrounding cultural landscape are as close to original nature as many of us will ever get. The special area of South Devon with its ancient and new ecologies provide opportunities to envisage a new vision for the future in challenging times that support the hope engendered by the study of the Discipline of Authentic Movement in a supportive group setting.
Participants will learn embodied movement, close and clear observation of themselves and others, and non-judgemental language framework with which to create accepting and fulfilling relationships. This focussed six-day programme of intensively studying Authentic Movement practices will be supported by the peace and invigoration of nature.

The retreat is led by Dr Eila Goldhahn, originally trained by Dr Janet Adler and a proponent in this field. She the author of REFLECTIONS ON AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT, THEORY, PRACTICE AND ARTS-LED RESEARCH (Goldhahn 2022, Routledge).

The day to day practicalities of the retreat and the kitchen are supported by Eila’s friend Dominique Olney who has been a social activist and the creator of a forest garden and community library in Nicaragua. When not looking after the group Dominique engages in her own writing.

All meals are deliciously home cooked and vegetarian.

Please register your interest to come on the retreat.
Interviews and a couple of preliminary seminars will be announced shortly.
Eilagoldhahn@gmail.com

Dr Eila Goldhahn is a mentor and a specialist in human movement and psychology. She provides a warm and welcoming service offering individual sessions, small group work and retreats.

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Indications:
Anxiety; body image; chronic postural tensions and unexplained pain; creativity and work issues; decision making and life path; eco-anxiety; emotional issues; insomnia; issues about the aging process; obssessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); professional stress; trauma.



Mentoring in MoverWitness (The Discipline of Authentic Movement)


Training and supervision to movement, dance and therapy practitioners and guidance how the model can be used in participants’ own work. Small group retreats. 
 

Experience & Qualifications:

Eila has over thirty years of experience and is highly regarded in her field. She has researched and taught at University of Plymouth and The University of Arts, Helsinki, and has internationally presented and published her work in peer-reviewed journals. She is the author of the new book Reflections on Authentic Movement, Theory, Practice and Arts-led Research.

BA Hons Theatre (specialism in contemporary dance), Dartington College of Arts.
Certificate of Client Centred Counselling, Torbay Social Services.
Senior reg. Dance Movement Psychotherapist and Supervisor (ADMP UK 1997)
Teacher of the Discipline of Authentic Movement , Dr Janet Adler, 1999
PhD in Interdisciplinary Arts: The MoverWitness, Dartington College of Arts.



Eila was born and brought up in Germany and she works in English and in German.


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More information?
MoverWitness is a practice of self-directed movement expression in the presence of a compassionate, non-judgmental other, the therapist or teacher. Participants learn to become conscious of their own embodied experiences and able to describe these. In group work participants develop a deep sense of being part of an interconnected, shared habitat where each one is equal and valued.

What people who have worked with Eila say....Testimonials


Slapton beach movers. © Eila Goldhahn 2003

Groups take place in studio settings and out of doors.

“We now understand that we are part of a collective body and habitat. That which supposedly separated us is revised in the face of geopolitical changes.” 



“Wir verstehen jetzt, dass wir Teil eines kollektiven  Lebensraums, ja Körpers sind. Das was uns vermeintlich trennte wird revidiert angesichts geopolitischer Veränderungen.”
“When the own inner observer becomes empathetic, others may be  reflected with less prejudice and judgement too.  Perhaps the MoverWitness can prepare for a new egalitarianism?”



“Wenn der eigene innere Betrachter empathisch wird, können auch andere mit weniger Vorurteil und Urteil gesehen werden. Vielleicht kann der MoverWitness auf einen neuen Egalitarismus vorbereiten.”
“As long as nature remains at least in part available to our contemplation, we can train our esteem in her. We can be still and sense our embodied selves and appreciate the sight of a river, a plant, a bird or a newborn.”


“Solange die Natur uns noch in Aspekten zur Verfügung steht, können wir unsere Wertschätzung durch Kontemplation an ihr trainieren. Noch können wir still sein und unsere Körper empfinden und die Ansicht eines Flusses, einer Pflanze, eines Vogels oder eines Neugeborenen geniessen.”



All ideas, images and texts are the copyright of Eila Goldhahn 2020
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Testimonials


“ What a difference you have made to my life in just a few sessions. I have been able to make some real changes. Thank you.”

“ You and your work have finally addressed an issue that, although already present, I was not at all conscious of.”

“Somehow my own work gains potency through the work with you.”

“Many thanks for your undivided attention. I always learn so much from you.”

“After our session I was able to sleep for a whole night for the first time in many years.”

“I appreciate your sensitivity and respectfulness”.

“I feel you have witnessed me very beautifully, sensitively and respectfully. I thank you very much for that. And I very much hope to see and work with you again.”


“Your seminar has impressed and touched me. Since I attended I am so much more aware of the connection between body, movement and mind.”

“I chose to study under your supervision is because I read about your work.”

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Eila Goldhahn
Art & Science: Sculpture


Eila Goldhahn’s art practice reflects aspects from biological, ecological and social sciences. It is inspired by embodiment and meditation. Using found objects she creates surprising metaphors offering new perspectives on familiar objects. 

Chromosome boards, friezes


Genetics und genomics mirror individual and collective experiences and inscriptions across life spans and  evolutionary times. In these art works chromosomes are visualised as an analogy to the moving body itself. As friezes they form generational, metaphoric pathways into an archeological past, an anthropocene present and a yet unknown human future.
Material: handmade iron nails, wax and pigment on floor boards
Works shown at: Anatomical Museum  University Erlangen
Kunstraum Weissenhohe Nürnberg
Embassy Rhineland-Palatinate Bruxelles
Haus am Dom Frankfurt


Genetik und Genomik spiegeln individuelle und kollektive Erfahrungen und Einschreibungen über eine Lebensspanne sowie über evolutionäre Zeiträume. In der künstlerischen Formensprache bilden Chromosomen eine Analogie zum sich bewegenden, menschlichen Körper. Die Friese bilden generationsübergreifende, metaphorische Wegspuren für eine archeologische Vergangenheit, eine anthropozäne Gegenwart und eine noch unbekannte menschliche Zukunft.

Matricycle


The haptic contact with materials leaves imprints  of physical movements in the emerging sculptures. These visible forms are like an echo of the movement: they mirror the fleeting performance with the  material. They also touch upon the beginnings of embryonic movement: form and folding of early developmental stages like blastula and gastrula.
Material: steel wire and gauze
Works shown at: Dartington College of Arts UK
Kunsthalle Halle
Kunstverein Basis Frankfurt
Open Studios South Devon UK


Development grant for the upcycling of pocket springs with support from the  University Plymouth UK

Durch den körperlichen Kontakt mit Materialien enstehen Abdrücke von Bewegungen in Skulpturen. Diese Formen ähneln einem Echo: sie spiegeln die Begegnung von flüchtigen Ereignissen mit Materialien. Sie deuten auch auf den Anfang von embryonalen Bewegungen an, nämlich die Formung und Faltung in frühen Entwicklungsstadien wie Blastula und Gastrula.              
Material: Stahldraht und Gaze
Dartington College of Arts UK
Kunsthalle Halle
Kunstverein Basis Frankfurt
Open Studios South Devon UK


Entwicklungszuschuss für die Wiederverwertung von Federkern in Designkontexten und Produkten mit freundlicher Unterstützung der University Plymouth UK

Eine Publikation über MATRICYCLE kann hier als PDF heruntergeladen werden. Realisiert mit Unterstützung des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz. 

Matricycle



                                                                                          

                                                                    



(Un)marked Boxes



Obliteration and the fear of death have always been important aspects of collective narratives, as the survival of the human species is a deeply inscribed, instinctual concern. Societies and their collective experiences contain an energy, whether mystical or scientific, to try to determine the course of the human and planetary history. Experiences of collective movement and dance and an imagined collective body inspired these installations with packing crates. In the face of the current pandemic and geopolitical tensions this work seems all too real.
Material: wooden crates
Works shown at: Dartington Trust, UK
Delamore Arts, UK

Auslöschung und die Angst vor dem Tod waren stets wichtige Aspekte kollektiven Erzählens, da das Überleben der Menschheit als Spezies von tief eingeschriebener, instinktiver Besorgnis ist. Gesellschaften und ihre kollektive Erfahrungen beinhalten unter anderem die Energie den Verlauf der menschlichen und planetaren Geschichte zu versuchen zu determinieren. Erfahrungen mit kollektiver Bewegung und Tanz und einem imaginären kollektivem Körper inspirierten diese Installationen mit Verpackungskisten. Die gegenwärtige Pandemie und geopolitische Krise verleihen den Installationen eine allzu realistische Relevanz.