MoverWitness

What is often referred to as Janet Adler's ‘Discipline of Authentic Movement’ forms the ground of Eila Goldhahn's creative practice and teaching. This in-depth method of embodied awareness attends both to the mover's inner, self-reflective experience and to the relationship between mover and observer, or witness.

Within this practice, movement arises in response to both inner impulse and environmental feedback, creating connections between embodied perception and the ecological, social and relational worlds in which we move.

Questioning the term ‘authentic’, with its implication of a universal truth, Eila proposed the term MoverWitness in her doctoral research (Shared Habitats, PhD, 2007). MoverWitness emphasises the relational nature of the work: an evolving process in which moving and witnessing become reciprocal acts of perception, reflection and imagination.

MoverWitness is a long-term practice of embodied enquiry that uses movement and witnessing to explore relationships between self, others and environment.



Workshops & Higher Education

Eila Goldhahn has spent thirty years developing and practicing a transferable methodology that trains embodied observation, witnessing and relational knowledge production.

MoverWitness has been taught by Eila in a range of higher education contexts, including Plymouth University, the University of Ottersberg and the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. It has been introduced both as a research methodology and as a reflective practice for artists and performers.

Enquiries about forthcoming workshops, training opportunities and MoverWitness groups are welcome via the contact form.




Training Pathway

Eila offers a training pathway in MoverWitness method and theory that unfolds over time through small-group practice, individual study, mentoring, reading, writing and reflection. The training supports the development of embodied awareness, creative expression, perceptual language and relational sensitivity.

There are two ongoing groups, in Bristol and Devon, which meet monthly. Each group typically runs over twelve months, with places occasionally becoming available in midsummer and midwinter.





Supervision & Consultancy

Alongside this work, Eila facilitates mentoring, supervision and consultancy in collaboration with partners in education and the public arts. She is a mentor within an EU-funded German support network for women artists.

She also works with organisations interested in the contribution of embodied and creative practices to research across the humanities and natural sciences. MoverWitness offers a framework for investigating relational and embodied forms of knowing and for deepening understanding of perception, perspective and language.