In light of the current global situation, with the war in Ukraine and ongoing difficulties from the pandemic, we felt the need to shorten this year’s Summer residential programme to 12 days. The Seki Method Essentials will immerse you in the core elements of the method, and also give you a flavour of my 2023-2024 Teacher Training course.
12 days SEKI METHOD ESSENTIALS in Portugal
29th August – 9th September 2022
Over the course of twelve days participants will dive into the essentials of The Seki Method, learning its principals of dance training and experiencing its holistic approach to body and mind. Meditation and bodywork are the starting points for cultivating a clear mind, which is the door to our intuitive wisdom from where dance and creativity spring.
CENTERING
Where we begin: aligning body and mind to find presence and a naturally creative state.
What is the point of departure in the creative process? You will explore elements of presence work, allowing body and mind to arrive and become centered. This state is in relation to gravity, where you are aligned: both grounding into the Earth, and expanding. From this absolute state of being, where you are hanging from the Earth, perception expands and natural creativity becomes alive and available.
*
TRUSTING the unknown
Creativity is always new: joy naturally bubbles up from the inner child who knows how to move and create.
The course will help you deepen your sense of your true nature and explore your unique movement. The Seki Method – which includes dance, imagination, breathing exercises and voice and energy work – will help you contact the inner child who is the joyful natural creator! And trust more in your ability to go beyond what is in conscious awareness.
*
EXCHANGE between inner and outer worlds
Researching movement to experience interconnectivity with the environment and others.
This part of the course focuses on the self within Nature. Listening to the deep self and the outer world brings up moments of dialogue and exchange.
*
DEEPEN into your own creative process
Synthesise the learning and find how to use your own creativity for the unfolding of your individuality.
Through imagination and energy work we will tap into the unconscious to find out where, when and how to use its contents and energy to best support the unfolding uniqueness of the individual.
*
When?
29th August – 9th September 2022
Arrival on 29th August: Gathering at 3pm
Departure on 9th September: Departure 3 pm
Daily Training Schedule
6:30 am – 8:00 am Meditation & Training
10:00 am – 4:00 pm / 5:00 pm Training (includes a break)
5th September: day off
Where?
Vinha Velha, an organic farm in the Algarve.
Vinha Velha, Barão de São João, 8600-028 Lagos, Portugal
Who is the Seki Method Essentials for?
The Seki Method Essentials is open to dancers/movers, therapists, those working in the healing arts, artists from other disciplines and anyone interested in experiencing the Seki Method.
A willingness for deep, accurate individual work is required, together with the capacity to care for group dynamics within a collective space.
Registration by email to Franziska Gerth at:
Bonus
Next year, in 2023, Year 1 of the 2-year Seki Method Teacher Training is launching in Studio EDEN, Berlin.
Participants of The Seki Method Essentials 2022 will get a 15% discount.
Year 1 dates, 2023:
February 08-12
March 10-12
March 30 – April 2
April 14-16
May 26-28
June 14-18
Modules 1 to 4 include 2023:
Embodied Being / Direction, Space, Movement / The Waterbag Body / Weight in Movement.
Skills develop alongside time for meditation and reflection, deepening creative process, performance preparation and improvisation.
Year 2 of the Seki Method Teacher Training will take place in February to April 2024 in Studio EDEN, Berlin.
Cost:
Accommodation and food:
Yurt (provided, based on 2 people sharing) + Food: €344 per person
Macrobiotic and ayurvedic meals are cooked by our chef.
Plus Training fee:
12 days of The Seki Method Essentials
Early bird price: €596 until 01.06.2022
Payment by installment – 3 x €200
Regular price: Sliding scale: €650 – €856
3 installments available. Please talk to us if you’d like to set up a payment plan.
Since we are going through an international crisis, we are aware that economic inequality is increasing. Some of you may be in financial difficulty and we would like everyone to have the chance to participate. We ask that each participant makes a conscious payment. If you can afford it, we kindly ask that you help us in our work: in this way you also help us to support other artists! We are offering a price panel of between €650 and €856 for the 12 days training fee. Please consciously choose the best amount for yourself and us.
Write to Franziska for any information: team@minakoseki.com
/////
The team:
Minako is a Japanese-German dancer, choreographer and teacher with dance roots in Butoh, who has been developing her own movement techniques and teaching method over the past 35 years: The Seki Method. Her method is based on simple essential principles of nature that support the dancing body. Minako continues to perform and teach internationally, and is currently writing a book about her method.
In 2007, after graduating from the Otto-Falkenberg- Acting School in Munich, Antje Lea Schmidt became a student of Minako Seki in Berlin and, in 2010, started to assist in her workshops all over the world. As an actress and performer, she integrates The Seki Method in her own practice and creation processes, and benefits from the sense of freedom it offers her body, as well as its freeing way of working with body and mind.
Franziska is a texter, organizer, translator and inquiring dancer. Constantly shifting her focus, she researches the principles of movement as the principles of life itself.
Franziska graduated in Latin American Studies from the University of Cologne in 2017. Searching for a simple and humble way to live in the age of digital capitalism, she began working as Minako Seki’s assistant five years ago.
Inalu is a Yoga Teacher & Therapist and Macrobiotic Nutrition and Ayurvedic Consultant. She has been collaborating with Minako since 2017. She teaches in the Triratna Buddhist centers in the UK offering Conscious Movement & Meditation Retreats as well as private programs in Mallorca. Dancing to express her life, emotions and soul is her passion. She is currently training in the Discipline of Authentic Movement.
Volker is an artist who positions his artistic work in the context of society. He develops and successfully realizes concepts, strategies, and ways of working in the framework of various life-worlds. In relation to systems of expertise he understands non-artistic questions, problems and prejudices, how to respond to these professionally, and grounds the relevance of his own work.