1. What is “intuitive movement”?
Cinema Antiplastique’s intuitive movement practice draws from several forms of somatic dance and therapy as well as Rania’s embodied research as a video artist and dancer into our kinesthetic relationship with plant, animal life and moving images.
This accessible introduction to intuitive movement incorporates decades of Rania’s of practice in Movement in Depth / Authentic Movement, Jinen (nature) Butoh, Experiential Anatomy and principles of connection with the floor, subtle internal listening from her formal studies of Contact Improvisation. Cinema Antiplastique’s intuitive movement practice is independent and can be done by people of any age and movement ability, including people with serious bodily injuries. Intuitive movement is an important practice of reconnection with oneself in life today where so much is externalized and determined by forces beyond our control. This practice is trauma and informed and culturally sensitive, integrating Rania’s work as a family therapist and social worker. While everyone will experience intuitive movement differently, some purely on a physical level, others integrating emotions, cinema antiplastique’s practice with moving images of nature is a peaceful way to reach memories in a safe way beyond talk therapy.
3. why move with moving images?
Moving with moving images of our plant and animal relatives allows for a more effortless experience of expansion than many traditional somatic dance and therapeutic practices, because the emphasis does not lie soley in the participants internal relationship with themselves. Moving in parallel with plants and animals expands our movement beyond our own individualized inner prompts, providing a tangible source of community and connection beyond ourselves.
Secondly, capitalism, colonization and overdevelopment has strategically denied many beings access to nature. In the stolen lands of New York City for example, it is too often the most marginalized people who have the least access to trees, unobstructed skies and water which is all of our birthright.
Cinema Antiplastique draws on Rania’s research into moving images of plant and animal life. Attuning to growth, migration and fertilization cycles beyond the human realm reconnects us with forgotten aspects of our own lives. Our moving images are designed to connect participants with the vastness and wonder of life on earth. Observing tender nonhuman movement can calm, energize and expand our human beingness, including when direct access to nature is not possible. Moving with moving images of nature in a studio setting also provides an alternative experience of earth (unemcumbered by mud, mosquitos and onlookers).
4 are cinema antiplastique’s workshop for fun or for healing?
i would say that this distinction is first and foremost a false one. capitalism enforces these distinctions for their own profit margins, yet cinema antiplastique understands that art should be healing, and healing enjoyable and creative. furthermore, human beings have as much capacity to repress joy and happiness as we have to repress grief and sorrow. so healing is not a form of labor that we must endure nor is art and dance an escapist activity. We view healing as joyful, playful and embodied. Fun, self directed movement and embodiment can be wholesome and healing.
cinema antiplastique is a space for expansion, imagination and reconnection not accessible within the solemn divisions colonialism has created within our lives. it is truly interdisciplinary in this way.
5. can people with phsyical disabilities participate? cinema antiplastique offers a practice of listening to one’s body that is genuine to one’s needs and abilities. because the movement we offer is intuitive and self directed, it is an ideal practice for people with varied physical disabilities. one of rania’s favorite teachers - the butoh dancer atsushi takenouchi - says: “dance can be anything from the movement of an eyelash to the twitch of a finger- a dance can take place with the person lying on their death bed.”
participation in our workshops - both in person and online - does not in fact require any movement at all.
for questions about specific disability accommodations please reach out to us at info@cinemantiplastique.org.
our space is wheelchair accessible.
6. why does cinema antiplastique offer only workshops and not classes?
we prefer the slower, deeper and longer experience of workshops to briefer, shorter classes. this work takes time, to create conditions for participants to experience feelings of safety.
like electronic dance and house music, the long duration and repetition within our moving images allows participants to drop into their own movement, in order to access it fully.
7. your workshops look pretty far out, are they for people on drugs or for medicine ceremonies?
they are far out, yet but not because of drugs or plant medicine - on the contrary - we ask that everyone who comes to our movement workshops please be alchohol and drug free (unless prescribed by a doctor) from the morning the workshop begins (24 hours is preferable). we request this so that participants can best listen to and attune to their inner selves and others in the room.
please understand that this request does not come from a moral place! we have deep respect for plant medicine and other drugs for the ways in which they allow humans to regulate, open and access positive and expansive feelings. we request this because of the specifics of our practice: being drug and alchohol free for some hours better ensures that participants can inner information with clarity and without distortion. we also ask this because we need everyone in our workshops to be self possessed for the physical and emotional safety of others in the room.
8. is there music at cinema antiplastique?
unless otherwise noted, our workshops are silent so that we can hear the sounds, songs, beats, rythms and vibrations within ourselves. available to us then can be the sound of our hearts beating, the sound of our joints or breath, quietness within that can be harder to hear in the hustle of everyday life.
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