Participants in the movement class, “Free to Move: Expressive Movement & Rhythm for Brain & Body Health,” taught by Greacian Goeke. Credit: Greacian Goeke
Lifetime Arts Roster Teaching Artist, Greacian Goeke, has taught her signature class, “Free to Move: Expressive Movement & Rhythm for Brain & Body Health,” at the Albany Senior Center outside of Oakland, CA for the last 10 years. The class is an opportunity to, “…interact and explore the expressive language of movement, sharpening both physical and mental agility.”
In each session, Greacian teaches elements of the BrainDance to her students, a full body-brain exercise developed by Anne Green Gilbert, Founder of the Creative Dance Center. This exercise helps students to not only get in touch with their physical bodies, but also to become expressive vessels and explore movement inspired by themes, diverse music, art, nature and images. The members of the class include dancers aged 50-90+, inspired Graecian to form a dance troupe, Impromptu No Tutu, that has performed in venues and festivals around the San Francisco Bay Area since 2011.
Greacian and her students were devastated when COVID-19 forced the Albany Senior Center to shut down. However, she immediately reached out to her students to propose continuing online via Zoom.
“The first couple of weeks were really exhausting,” Greacian expressed. “We were learning together. We met early every time to make sure that everyone could get on.” Greacian recorded each session and sent links to students so that they could participate independently on their own time.
Adapting Movement For “Homebound Times”
The leap that Greacian has helped students make is adapting movement explorations they used to conduct in the senior center space to their home environments. “We recently reflected on ideas of how to be ‘at home,’ both in one’s body and where we live, now in restricted conditions,” she said. “This led to a group creation that we are excited to share with others.”
Riffing on the BrainDance, Greacian and her students designed an eclectic and complete warm-up sequence called, “The Home/Body Warm-up for Homebound Times,” consisting of simple movements to help connect to their bodies, living spaces and each other, as well as build a collective peace of mind for facing uncertainty.
“The unexpected discoveries and inspiration that are coming from exploring isolation, home, and solitude through movement is comforting to the dancers,” said Greacian. “However, it is also [about] the artful expression and documentation of our time and the universality of experience that we all are going through as illuminated through dance.”
As Greacian has adapted her live-class format to a digital platform, she has kept all the rituals and structures that serve the physical needs of the students, and honors the artform.
Online Movement Class Tips From Greacian
If teaching a movement class, start with hand greetings close up to the screen and imagine you can break through the barrier. Practice ‘touching” classmates in the “windows” on all four sides, make unusual shapes with one or both hands, and mirror hand gestures of others. When two people are interacting, explore hand conversations and pass movement back and forth.
