Every sensation, emotion, thought, and movement we experience, we experience in and through our bodies. This year-long program explores how we fully know and express ourselves and our world through the study and practice of movement, music, expressive arts and writing. We will investigate the central role of the body in many aspects of our lives and including emotional intelligence, love, sexuality, health and self-image, decision-making and leadership. Importantly, we will use powerful frameworks for thinking about inclusion, diversity, cross-difference competence, and anti-oppression work. Our guiding question will be, “What is the role the body plays in our development as whole human beings and how can we best connect to its wisdom?”

We will take a three-fold approach answering that question. First, we will engage our heads by combining seminar on books and articles with films, faculty and guest lectures, workshops and time for student dialogue. Second, we will engage our bodies with weekly movement workshops designed to deepen our understanding of somatic concepts such as awareness, intention, centering, authenticity and the interplay of mind and body. We will scrutinize our habitual behaviors, examine the way we sit and stand, and learn how to shift our state of being so we can give more skillful responses in creating the more beautiful world we all know is possible.

Third, we will engage our individual creative processes. With this in mind, students will take up individual or group project designed to provide them with the opportunity to explore a topic that is central to our program’s guiding question, but also connected to their own personal motivations around creative, positive, and effective responses to the world in its current chaotic state. For humanity to take a step forward, we need fresh ideas and solutions on many levels: personal, political and relational. This project could look like service work, research and writing, creative performance and more. It is a good time to be excited about what lies ahead for us and each of us will play a different role in the future.

Throughout the year the program will work with multiple forms of intelligence, somatic practices, and integrative expressive arts approaches to learning. Students will explore practices of movement (such as dance or yoga), writing, drawing, and theater in order to cultivate the senses as well as the imagination and powers of expression. These practices will help us understand the deeper aspects of the human experience, which are the source of self-leadership, intentional living, and positive change.

Program Learning Goals

By pursuing answers to the complex questions discussed in the program description and completing all program work, you will demonstrate some degree of accomplishment with respect to each of the following learning goals, which are modeled after the “Expectations of an Evergreen Graduate”:

  1. articulating and assuming responsibility for your own work
  2. working collaboratively
  3. communicating clearly through writing, speaking and other forms of intelligences
  4. demonstrating integrative, independent, and critical thinking

and also these goals, which speak directly to the content and methodologies of the Dance of Wisdom

  1. understanding how the four dimensions of embodiment (mind, body, emotions and soul) are inextricably connected
  2. developing an understanding of the relationship between our bodies, other humans, and the environment
  3. living consciously by using signals from the body to gain awareness and insights
  4. developing full somatic awareness through experiential anatomy and dance kinesiology
  5. learning basic skills in dance composition
  6. examining prior knowledge, integrating new information and synthesizing insights from a broad range of resources
  7. developing and meeting your own intellectual goals within the context of our learning community.

I encourage you to discuss your progress toward these goals with your peers, in your self-evaluations and during conversations and conferences with faculty.

NOTE: This is a full-time program, which means that you are expected to devote at LEAST 40 hours a week (including in-class time) to your academic work. Please budget your time accordingly. If you successfully complete this program, you will earn 16 credits.

 

BOOK LIST

It is a good idea to have your own copy of these texts as full participation in class activities requires your own copy to work from.  Be sure to get the correct edition of the texts by buying them at the bookstore or by checking the ISBN at the bookstore before buying the books elsewhere.

  • Winterson, Jeanette, Written on the Body, ISBN-10: 0679744479
  • Jun, Heeson, Social Justice, Multicultural Counseling, and Practice: Beyond a Conventional Approach ISBN-10: 1412960576 [used both winter and spring]
  • Pollan, Michael, Food Rules ISBN-10: 014311638X  There is also a beautiful color version of this that is a bit more expensive but the art is gorgeous  ISBN-10: 1594203083
  • Lehmiller, Justin, The Psychology of Human Sexuality ISBN-10: 1118351215 [used both winter and spring]
  • Plus, articles tba to diversify our authors such as:
    • Lourde, Audrey, Uses of the Erotic
    • Selections from Muller’s Sabbath, Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in Our Busy Lives

For those working with creativity:

  • Cameron, Julia, The Artists’ Way, ISBN: 1585421464

OR

Tharp, Twyla, The Creative Habit:  Learn It and Use It For Life, 0743235274

Proposed  Reading Schedule

Week 1: Mind-body split

                                   Jung, Man and His Symbols, Part 1 pp. v – 56

                                    Jun, SJMCP Chapter 1: Introduction

                                    Pollan, Food Rules

Week 2: Mind-Body split

                                    Jung, Man and His Symbols, Part 1 pp. 57 – 95

                                    Jun, SJMCP Chapter 2: Intrapersonal Communication    

 Week 3: Mind-Body split

Jung, Man and His Symbols, Part 2 pp. 97-128

Week 4: Mind-Body split

Jung, Man and His Symbols, Part 2 pp. 128- 156 and Part 3 pp. 159-207

Jun, SJMCP Chapter 3: Assessment of a Practitioner’s Values, Beliefs, And Biases   

 Week 5: Emotions and Love in the Body

Jung, Man and His Symbols, Part 3 pp. 207-254

                   Lewis, General Theory of Love Ch. 1-3

                  Jun, SJMCP Chapter 4: Racism

Week 6: Emotions and Love in the Body

                                    Lewis, General Theory of Love Ch. 4-10

       Jun, SJMCP Chapter 5: Sexism

Week 7: Project work

                          Reading for your project

Week 8: Psychology of Human Sexuality

                                    Lehmiller, The Psychology of Human Sexuality: Chapters 1 -3

                                    Jun, SJMCP, Chapter 6: Heterosexism               

Week 9: Psychology of Human Sexuality

                                    Lehmiller, The Psychology of Human Sexuality: Chapters 4-5

                                    Jun, SJMCP, Chapter 7: Classism

 

Week 10: Student Presentations and Integration

                  Lehmiller, The Psychology of Human Sexuality: Chapters 6

 

THE WORK THAT YOU WILL DO

There are a variety of group and individual assignments in this program. You will find descriptions below, and will receive more detailed information for some assignments during program meetings and on our website.

****Unless otherwise specified, all work you submit to your faculty should be typed with a legible standard-sized font (11 points), and your pages should be stapled. ****

.two seminars each week

Seminar is a cornerstone of program work and a crucible for the life of our learning community. Traditionally, seminar is student centered and student led, but every seminar is different, and interpersonal dynamics have as much to do with a successful seminar as do preparedness and intellectual engagement in conversation. We will get plenty of practice at dialoguing together.

.assignments designed to make your thinking visible

Throughout the quarter we will be reading, reflecting on, integrating, and discussing several texts in our exploration of the body. To get the most out of this experience, you must complete your readings and assignments well before seminar and bring that week’s readings to class. An assignment designed to make your thinking visible will be due most weeks. These assignments will be given in class and posted on the website.

.Individual or group project and research (with an eye towards positive action in the world)

All students will complete an individual or group research project designed to provide you with the opportunity to explore a topic that is central to our program’s guiding question (What is the role the body plays in our development as whole human beings?), but also connected to your own personal motivations around creative, positive, and effective responses to the world in its current chaotic state.

 

You will begin your work by designing your own learning experience in conjunction with your faculty and colleagues. These projects, which are worth four credits of work, can be anything (walking, reading, creating community art, midwifery, doula work, an internship, writing, gardening, Aikido, hospice care, clothing design, cooking, meditation, a pilgrimage…let your imagination run wild). The only restriction is that the project must be something you can also write about. In other words, you must develop your independent project work so that you will be able to craft a good piece of writing at the end. Of course, this will by necessity mean that you find yourself reading the work of writers who have written about your topic. As always, rely on them to guide you. This project will improve your ability to conduct library research, create an annotated bibliography, and work collaboratively to present your findings in a professional manner during week 10. Designing an 8-credit, two-quarter project is also a possibility.

 

To begin, you must first determine what you want to learn and how you want to learn it. Keep in mind that learning means you will know something at the end of the program that you don’t know at the beginning. I am here to help, guide, and notice your learning, but am less interested in what you already know (not that that’s not important). This project MUST be new learning and you must make your learning visible to both me, and the learning community.

 

Mid-quarter presentations: Everyone will read a selection from their independent research. Each person will have ten minutes to make a presentation to the class. Remember that one of the premises of the class is that knowledge is sensual, not only mind-based. So your writing should put us on your Aikido mat, allow us to taste your salad dressing, see your dance, hear the rain and the footfalls during your walks…. Whatever you read, you get to engage the attention of 24 people for 10 full minutes. Do it!

 

Final Presentations: In the ninth and tenth week everyone will turn in final versions of their independent research projects. These are due at 10:00 am, Tuesday, March 7 or March 14. Actual presentations will take place during week 9 and 10.

.Peer Learning Group/Food Group

You will be meeting in small groups once a week to further explore your individual projects to seminar and to work on other assignments I give out in class. Peer feedback on papers and in-depth processing of the program content are associated with this learning group. This group will also work to provide lunch for other members of the program during one Tuesday.

 

Additionally, once a quarter, this group will prepare lunch in the farmhouse for the whole program, using at least 3 rules from our text, Food Rules.

.open space pedagogy

open space allows time and space for self-organization to manifest itself in our program. I can’t predict what will happen, but three times during each quarter I will make space in the schedule for whatever issues/ideas/skills you want to teach each other. There may be many inspiring results of this many of which may include joy, play and other surprises.

.Journal (hand-written)

Understanding the wisdom in your body includes learning about the connections between your mind, body, heart and soul. Using movement, expressive arts and time in nature, one of the student habits this program will interrupt is the habit of going to school as if none of us had bodies; one premise of the program is that true learning is fully embodied.

 

You will need a journal to record your weekly observations on these practices. This can be a simple notebook, something you make, or a bound journal—it is up to you. This should be separate from your class notebook. You will use this to collect reflective writings that I assign in class as well as writing that you will do at home. Please bring this with you to all our classes, whether they are movement labs or not. Again, please make sure you have your journal with you at all class meetings (starting week one) and your art supplies which you received fall quarter (or will be receiving if you are a new student).

 

This journal will be a place where you can begin to explore the patterns that have helped shape the relationship between your mind, body, emotions and soul and will guide you into developing a deeper understanding of the way program themes relate to you as an individual.   Once a week, you should enter a page (or two or three) that synthesizes what you are noticing both in your journal and in program readings and meetings with regard:

  • developing an understanding of the relationship between our bodies and the environment.
  • understanding how all the dimensions of the body (physical, emotional, mental and soul) are inextricably connected.
  • living consciously by using signals from the body to gain awareness and insights.
  • Other program themes and ideas as appropriate

These “synthesis pages” should have a minimum of three citations from readings, films, or conversations in class.

 

I will periodically ask you to share pages of your journals, which you choose, with me. Your journal will serve as a reservoir of information about yourself from which you will be able to draw rich material for many program activities.

.Concrete Strategies

We will work with Heesoon Jun’s book, which she wrote in conjunction with feedback from Evergreen students, to help us truly see our wholeness by identifying multiple identities and their intersections. We will complete the “Concrete strategies” homework in each chapter of her book. Evergreen students have said that by being honest and true with themselves and brave enough to truly see themselves without judgement or censorship, they were transform and embrace their differences on race, gender, sexual orientation, class, disability, religion, age, and region at the end of the year although they started out insisting otherwise.

.Program Portfolio

Documenting your work throughout the quarter will be critical. Obtain a 3-ring binder immediately in which you can keep all the program handouts and all your program work, including your self-evaluation. Don’t throw anything away anything until the program’s over in June. There will be no basis for writing your evaluations unless you can resubmit all your work in an organized fashion.

.Additional Assignments

Other assignments may include questions for guest speakers, unannounced in-class essays on the assigned readings, in-class writings etc.

 

Academic Standards

 

Late Work / Attendance Policy

This course requires self-discipline, individual work, and teamwork. Please follow the schedule closely and attend all movement labs, seminars, workshops, lectures, and team meetings. It will be hard to achieve the program goals of working collaboratively and communicating clearly without actively attending and contributing to class. I expect all work to be submitted on time. Late submissions communicate to me that you are not keeping up with your work. In all but the most extenuating of circumstances, work that is submitted past its due date and time will not be read by faculty and your evaluation will state that your work was not submitted in a timely fashion.

 

Failure to attend program meetings or to submit all work could result in a loss of credit; More than ten hours of missed class time (or approximately two full days) could result in a loss of credit.

 

During Week Five, you will receive a brief, written mid-quarter evaluation. This week also marks a cut-off after which work from the first half of the quarter can no longer be considered for credit.

Credit Policy

Credit is not the same thing as high quality work. Full credit may be given when students fulfill the college-level requirements and standards of the program. The evaluation is used to describe the quality of the student’s work. Thus, a student could actually receive credit, but also receive evaluations that reflect poor quality work. On the flip side, a student could attend regularly but receive partial or no credit because of work that is missing or below college standards.

Honesty

Each assignment must be an original piece of work for this program (i.e., the piece has never been submitted to nor has it been the basis for an assignment in another program). Ideas or written passages that are not yours must be correctly referenced so that credit is given to the original sources. If you are unclear about whether the work fulfills the letter or spirit of Evergreen’s Academic Standards, please bring it to our attention. Failure to adhere to these standards will result in a loss of credit.

Any student who plagiarizes material will lose credit, will be asked to leave the program, and may be required to leave the college. Ask your faculty members if you have any questions. The Evergreen writing center and the Library have links to discussions of plagiarism and other valuable advice

 

Housekeeping


Alcohol and Drug Policy

 

Absolutely no use of alcohol or drugs will be allowed in any class activity or field trip. Attending class events under the influence of or using these substances during program activities will result in loss of credit, expulsion from the program, and possibly expulsion from the College.

 

Scents

In order to protect the health and well being of students, staff and faculty, the college prohibits the wearing of scents in campus buildings. Because the right to teach and learn in a healthy, toxic-free environment is far more compelling than the right to wear scents that may endanger the health of others, the college policy will be strictly enforced in this program. If you wear a scent, perfume, cologne or other fragrant personal product to a program event, you will be asked to leave.

 

Smoking

Evergreen is a non-smoking campus except in designated areas.

 

Civility

Faculty have the right and duty to require a student to leave the program if the student is disrupting the learning environment of the group.

 

We expect to be talking about a number of complicated issues about which people will feel and think quite differently. We hope that you will all work at listening carefully to each other’s ideas and feelings, as well as at trying to understand what they are and the reasons for them, especially when you don’t share them. We also hope that you will all work at telling the rest of us what you feel and think about the things we’re reading and discussing, and why, even if you think that other people may not share your feelings and ideas. (We will be happy to talk about and try to help with either of these things, in the life of the program as a whole or in your own work, if you ask us.)

 

We expect you to promote a cooperative and supportive atmosphere within our program, helping to ensure that all people have the opportunity and encouragement to speak freely; to treat each person with respect, especially when disagreeing with their ideas, attitudes or assumptions; and to remain sensitive to any issues of racism, classism, sexism, homophobia or other forms of discrimination within the program context.

 

Getting Help

You are welcome to come to me to discuss assignments, problems, requests or suggestions about anything at any time. All of my contact information is listed above. Working with body-based practices often causes all kinds of unexpected feelings and emotions to arise. We have a very supportive counseling center that is here to support you. In addition, you can get assistance with your written work and your quantitative and symbolic reasoning work from the Evergreen Writing and Quantitative and Symbolic Reasoning Centers (also known as the Centers for Active Student Learning) in the Library.

In addition to seeing you in class, I may, on occasion, need to get in touch with everyone in the program via email. I will be using your Evergreen email address, so be sure to activate your account by the end of week 1 (make sure that your information is up-to-date). Please check your mail regularly—we will be checking ours. Much of our program communication, notices, documents, and schedule will be accessible on web site:

 

Welcome

 

There are many more resources available in addition to those listed here—just let us know what you need and we’ll hook you up. The most important thing to remember about getting help is seeking it out as soon as you think you need it—it’s what we’re all here for.

 

If for any reason you believe you need special accommodations in order to be successful in your academic work, it is required that you contact Access Services @ 867-6348, Lib 2129 immediately.