The point of this website is to give you a sampling of what people have been saying about water and conservation in dance, creative writing, and the church. We hope that this charcuterie board of information will spark your interest and be a spring board for you to do some embodied writing. 

You may find interesting things to write and move about from the prompts at the top of each page. Or, if you have other questions not in those prompts that you'd like to answer through your embodied writing, explore those. You may also want to do more of your own research around topics you found interesting in our December 3 meeting. Do that as well!

More than anything, we want you to get comfortable using embodied writing to generate text and movement ideas that you care about and that are informed by existing conversations. Sample away!

How to do Embodied Writing

1. Find a topic or a site that inspires you. Spend time immersed in it.  

2. Free write for several minutes. Remember, free writing is continuous writing, with the goal of mining your most descriptive writing.  

   • Access all of your senses: what does it look like, smell like, feel like, sound like, taste like? 

   • What memories does it conjure? 

   • What emotions does it conjure and why?  

3. Reread your writing.  Circle any words, phrases or sentences that seem most interesting to you. Pay special attention to writing that suggests movement potential (see attached "Dance is B.E.S.T." document for ideas)

4. Improvise for several minutes. The idea behind movement improvisation is similar to free writing: it unleashes the imagination to help you understand something more deeply.  So, think of this step as 'research': "What else is being revealed to you about your topic or your site through your moving body?"  Notice things like:  

   • What parts of my body am I using?  Are there other parts I could involve?  (B.E.S.T. - Body)

   • What kind of energy quality am I using? (B.E.S.T. - Energy)

   • How much space am I using? (B.E.S.T - Space 

   • Does this movement have a certain tempo, pacing or phrasing to it? (B.E.S.T - Time)

5. Finally, return to your writing and add to it.  What did moving reveal about your topic or this site? 

*credit goes to Alexandra Bradshaw-Yerby for creating this process of embodied writing

 Dance is B.E.S.T.  - resource sheet