Spring in the Air and a Spring in your Step.
Wonderful days despite cold winds circling around, sending celebratory pink and white blossom scudding to our feet as Tamarind and I tread, tread, tread the pavements and parks of Dublin. New soft buds are appearing, setting up a haze of green everywhere. There is a giddier feel to life as the light grows.First Stop: Ballytobin
This weekend I drove to Kilkenny on sunlit roads with beautiful skies above, alternating driving fast and empty motorways and slower, wending country lanes. A Workshop in Ballytobin was my end point on Friday. A wonderful diverse group of folk came for a Breath and Movement workshop as we explored uncovering vitality and how our breath connects us inwardly and to the outer world. Knowing ourselves in the midst of it all and trusting ourselves more fully as we discover the power of our own breathing rhythm is a mighty focus.Many reported next morning sleeping much better. Me too! I stayed over with Vlad and Douna in a wonderfully peaceful Camphill home where a harmonious hum was evident everywhere.
Kildare Steiner School
After a great morning of deepening with the breath, I set off once more with music from Mali on my sound system, driving merrily towards Kildare en route back to Dublin.Once again, the delightful alternation of sparkling fields and rural byways and onto a practically empty but speedy motorway that blended with the sounds pulsing through the car as hills and clouds scudded by. Kildare School had a conference that day, exploring the theme of Head, Heart and Hands in Steiner education.A very lively scene was unfolding here when I arrived with lots of good exchange happening in a beautiful spot, half an hour from the city centre of Dublin.I had a great time leading the drama workshop with a lively crew. Most folk want to play, experiencing everything first, as the most natural way to learn. The scope of The Twelve Phase Drama Lesson or how you can touch all the essential needs of learning in a 12 phase drama lesson was not what we could develop in the span of this time. We need a 3 day course for this!!
The Twelve Phase Drama Lesson: putting Drama at the Heart of the Lesson
This is the fruit of musing and writing and trying out over the years to see how much you can actually do with the elements of drama whether you are aiming to put on a play or not.We swim in the medium of metaphor that shapes our thinking and is the is the root of language. Metaphor guides the thematic approach. Drama can tie this all together This Twelve Phase approach can be taught to teachers of all ages, supporting practice and memorised as a Whole in a mandala visual form. It offers an easy guideline of 12 elements that overlap and reverberate with each other, just as the two hemispheres of our brain do. When we are in tune with how we function and how we are made, naturally we are going to learn better.
You can see the Sevenfold spiral on the website illustrating How to offer Artistry in Teaching in a Sevenfold Lesson. Understanding process and how much we can do in a span of time through a simple visual that offers both a gestalt and a sequence, feeds both sides of the brain. That way too we appease the Appollonian love of harmony and order while assuaging the rumbling and instinctual, creative murmurings of Dionysius. And when the gods are happy we come closer to Paradise! That's my goal anyway.
