Walk of Life Training in Non-stylised and Environmental Movement

Abstract

This article, written from inside the practice, is intended to offer an insight into the Walk of Life Training in Non-stylised and Environmental Movement. It commences with the antecedents of the programme. The structure, intention and underlying principles of this practitioner-level training in movement practice (rather than performance or teaching) are elucidated. The training is grounded in an experiential understanding of the body and the inter-relationship between the moving body, the self and the ‘natural’ environment. It is a process designed to embed an individual, ongoing and shared movement practice for participants from diverse creative backgrounds. An examination of the approach to the body and to space – including the integration of seeing in movement practice, and the inter-relationship between practice in the studio and on site – is provided. Helen Poynor’s exposition as founder and facilitator of the training is followed by a lively contribution from artist-researcher/movement artist Paula Kramer. Drawing on her memories and movement diaries from the Foundation and Continuation Training Programmes and the current development of her movement and research practices, she carves out which aspects of the training have left the strongest traces in her work. Established artist and mover/performer Hilary Kneale closes with a personal case study examining how the experience of investigating a specific project in the Mentorship Programme, alongside fellow practitioners also grounded in the Walk of Life training, opened a new understanding of her embodied working process.