Naropa University’s Somatic Counseling Psychology Department
Presents the 14th Annual Somatic Arts Scholarship Concert: “Divining Gravity”

BOULDER, Colo. (December 14, 2009)—Naropa University’s Somatic Counseling Psychology Department presents the 14th Annual Somatic Arts Scholarship Concert: “Divining Gravity.” The concert bridges the creative process of art making and performance with the psychotherapeutic disciplines of Body Psychotherapy and Dance/Movement Therapy to create an experience that is at once entertaining and therapeutic.

Performances have been scheduled for Friday, January 29, and Saturday, January 30, in Naropa University’s Performing Arts Center located at 2130 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, CO. Both performances begin at 8 p.m. and a $10 donation has been requested. For more information, call 303-245-4854 or email leahd@naropa.edu.

The concert will showcase twelve performances choreographed and performed by students, faculty, staff and alumni of the Naropa University Somatic Counseling Psychology Department.

Both evenings will open with a ceremonial dance presentation by Grupo Tlaloc Danza Azteca. Third-year Somatic Counseling Psychology student Veronica Ramirez-Wheeler is a part of Grupo Tlaloc. This group is a nonprofit traditional Mexica/Azteca group composed of Chicano/Mexicano families and students of all ages dedicated to preserving and nourishing the ancient knowledge of their ancestors.

“Hushed” was choreographed by Lisa Bradley and performed by Rebecca Finnoff, Rachel Haines and Himmat Kaur Victoria. The dance piece explores the experience of a post-abortion woman and the release of what it means to hush and be hushed. This emotionally charged performance aspires to bring hope and awareness to those who experience it. “Hushed” is based on Lisa Bradley’s personal experience with the subject.

“Two Worlds” is a duet by Jennie Gershater and Louie Lopez that takes the audience on a heart-opening journey through the diverse terrain of an intimate partnership. Their story confronts the depth of their souls as they weave love, humor, and mystery into their performance. Gershater is an alumna of the Somatic Counseling Psychology program, has a private practice, and is currently working as an adolescent therapist at Center for Change. Lopez serves as the coordinator of the City of Longmont’s Gang Response and Intervention Program.

“Birds,” a dynamic work of dance on video by Himmat Kaur Victoria, explores the communication between the spirit world and the physical world. In this work, she navigates how we as humans are protected and guided by divine forces beyond our physical existence and how this connection supports us as we travel in and out of dark places. With four dancers and a video camera, Victoria captures scenes of fluttering, flying, swirling and quiet intimacy.

All of the pieces in this dynamic dance-based concert are examples of embodied performance. What makes embodied performance unique is the empathy it creates between the performer and their audience. To embody means to give physical presence, form and tangibility to a feeling, idea or quality. This empathy changes the way the performance is received. Viewing honest expression through the frame of art inspires the audience to relate to universal human experience, fostering a sense of understanding and belonging.

Directed by students Lisa Bradley and Himmat Kaur Victoria, the concert allows students to translate the skills they are learning into creative work, as well as raise scholarship monies for the program. “Dance/Movement Therapy has roots in the modern dance movement and has always held, as one of its tenets, that the creative process is fundamentally healing and transformative,” says Leah D’Abate, academic advisor and admissions coordinator for the program. “In order to support that tenet, we devised this opportunity to give those involved a chance to come into intimate relationship with the creative process.”

History
The Somatic Arts Scholarship Concert was created in 1996 by Janice Beard-Bull, former director of the Somatic Counseling Psychology Department. The concert brings students, family, faculty and the Boulder community together to witness the creative and healing powers of embodied performance.

Naropa University was one of the first institutions in the nation to offer a degree in somatic counseling psychology. The twenty-year-old Master of Arts program is based on the belief that a functional unity exists between the mind and body and that therapeutic change occurs through direct experience of the present moment.

Within the Somatic Counseling Psychology Program, there are two areas of concentration: Body Psychotherapy and Dance/Movement Therapy. Both areas offer extensive psychotherapy study, training and supervision grounded in the integration of body, mind and movement.

Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association, Naropa University is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian liberal arts institution dedicated to advancing contemplative education. This approach to learning integrates the best of Eastern and Western educational traditions, helping students know themselves more deeply and engage constructively with others. The university comprises a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental leadership, psychology and religious studies.
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