Preparing the Flow, Lemmer Schmid
| About masterclass: | All levels.
What is the Flow?
Flow is the mental state in which a person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields. Applied to the field of dancing, being in the flow stops the self-reflecting, ruminating thoughts, where you constantly are evaluating everything you do. Being in the flow allows your mind, your body and hence your movement to create a perfect harmony with the present moment. Even though you are improvising everything that happens it seems to be just right and expected, as if your dance were following an inner logic that cannot be predicted. You simply get lost in you and your partners’ movements, while time flies by.
How to enter the Flow?
In this Master Class “Preparing the Flow” we will deal with the question of how to enter the flow. Is it possible to intentionally open a channel through which we can dive into the flow? What internal and external conditions are needed? Is it a matter of mindfulness or physical states? Is it a mindset of what to expect of the dance?
After an introduction to the flow-phenomenon and its current state of research, this lab will experiment with “flow-bringers and blockers”. We will share and tryout different techniques of how to enter the flow on and off the stage.
| | About Lemmer Schmid: | Lemmer Schmid studied psychology and movement (motology) at the Philipps-University Marburg, Germany. Working as a cognitive-behavioural therapist, he is combining movement and psychology. At the same time, he is working on his PhD; collecting empirical data on how Contact and Flow can influence the quality of life.
After four years of taking intensive classes of Contact-Improvisation with Jörg Hassmann, Nita Little, Nancy Stark-Smith and several others, he started giving classes himself three years ago. He currently is teaching “Communication and Contact” at Marburg University. At the ECITE 2006 in Austria he facilitated a work-lab on Contact and Flow. He recently introduced a model on how mindfulness and being in the flow affects our well-being and quality of life at an international research conference for psychomotricity in Germany (WVPM.org).
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