FREE WORKSHOP SERIES FOR MUSICIANS AND SINGERS

FOR ALL MUSICIANS, SINGERS, MUSIC FACULTY, COACHES, AND MUSIC THERAPISTS

A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN TOOLS TO FREE YOURSELF FROM TENSION, PAIN AND INJURY AND FIND INNOVATIVE SOURCES FOR EXPRESSION, COMPOSITION AND IMPROVISATION

SF Community Music Center & faculty member Sonja Riket present a series of FREE educational workshops on the relationship of movement to music making/singing for creative expression and injury prevention/rehabilitation with special guest faculty Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of the groundbreaking, innovative Body-Mind Centering Method® of somatic education.

Human movement is a fundamental dimension of the musical experience.
In this series of free workshops spread over the year 2011, we will explore movement as a crucial element in music making:
-As a modality for expressive possibilities, as a tool for injury
prevention/rehabilitation, to embody music in a healthy, dynamic structure.
-How to use the body effectively to produce high quality musical performances
-How human developmental movement patterns: homologous, homo-lateral, contra-lateral are foundational elements of musical organization
-To improve breathing, tone, coordination, strength and technical proficiency

** Workshops will be taught by Sonja Riket, CMC faculty and Body-Mind Centering® and Feldenkrais® Teacher. The last integrative workshop on November 13 will be taught by Mrs. Bainbridge Cohen. **

DATES:
Sun 2/6: 12-3pm
Sun 3/13: 12pm - 3pm
Sat 4/2: 10am - 1pm
Sun 9/25: 12-3pm
Sun 10/16: 12-3pm
Sun 11/13: 12-3pm with guest faculty Mrs. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

(Workshops can be taken individually or as a series (recommended) to allow for deepened understanding as content will vary and build; material is sourced from the somatic methods of Body- Mind Centering® www.bodymindcentering.com and Feldenkrais® www.feldenkrais.com.
Participants are asked to bring their instruments and a piece of music to play or ideas for composition at the end of each workshop)

LOCATION: San Francisco Community Music Center, Concert Hall:
544 Capp Street – SF, CA 94110
415.647.6015 - www.sfcmc.org

***Please register your participation with Sonja Riket at: 415.661.1852 or
email at: sriket@earthlink.net Visit www.IntimateEmbraceTango.com

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, an Occupational Therapist and Registered Somatic Movement Therapist® is the developer of Body-Mind Centering® and the founder of the School for Body-Mind Centering®. For more than 37 years she has been an innovator and leader in developing this embodied and integrated approach to movement, touch and
repatterning, experiential anatomy, developmental principles, perceptions and psychophysical processes. She is the author of Sensing, Feeling and Action and currently has 3 DVD’s: Body-Mind Centering and Dance, Nervous System and Yoga and Four Special Children. www.bodymindcentering.com

Sonja Riket is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist®, a Certified Feldenkrais® and Body-Mind Centering® Teacher and faculty member at the SF Community Music Center. Her passion for dance and music began at age four and blossomed into a professional dance career spanning 30 years and four continents. For two decades she has been practicing and teaching somatic methods for dancers, musicians and general public of all ages. Sonja is the founder/director of the SF Somatic Wellness Program for low-income women and children at SF’s Women’s Building. She teaches somatically inspired Argentine Tango dance, and is the founder of the Tango Revolution Orchestra, which performs every Sunday at SF’s Caffe Trieste Downtown. Sonja is a humble student of the Bandoneon instrument.

TESTIMONIALS
“I HAVE USED BODY MIND CENTERING IN MY PIANO PLAYING AND TEACHING FOR THE PAST 30 YEARS. BODY AWARENESSIS A CRUCIAL ELEMENT IN MY ART; IT IS THE TOOL THROUGH WHICH I CAN REALIZE MY MUSICAL INTENTIONS. WITHOUT IT, I WOULD BE PRONE TO INJURY; WITH IT, I HAVE ACCESS TO A TREASURE-TROVE OF ARTISTIC POSSIBILITIES. I LIKE TO WORK WITH THE BODY SYSTEMS AS A STIMULUS FOR GENERATING NEW INTERPRETATIONS, AND I HAVE ESPECIALLY ENJOYED BONNIE BAINBRIDGE COHEN’S WORK CONNECTING THE SCAPULA TO THE FINGERS. AMAZINGLY, THAT WORK CORRELATES BEAUTIFULLY WITH CHOPIN’S IDEAS ABOUT PIANO PLAYING. BEING GROUNDED IN MY BODY ALLOWS ME TO BE EXPRESSIVE IN MY SOUL.”
-MONICA JAKUC LEVERETT
ELSIE IRWIN SWEENEY PROFESSOR EMERITA OF MUSIC
SMITH COLLEGE, NORTHAMPTON, MA

“WORKING WITH SONJA RIKET, HAS BEEN A TREMENDOUSLY REWARDING EXPERIENCE. HER
TEACHING, WHICH GRACEFULLY BLENDS THE SOMATIC METHOD OF BODY-MIND CENTERING® WITH ELEMENTS OF THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD®, HAS BEGUN TO INTEGRATE WITHIN ME A LEVEL OF DYNAMIC BODY BALANCE AND AWARENESS WHICH I HAD NEVER KNOWN EXISTED, AND WHICH I AM
CONVINCED CAN GREATLY BENEFIT ANY MUSIC STUDENT, TEACHER, OR PROFESSIONAL PERFORMER. I AM FINDING MYSELF PLAYING WITH MORE FLUIDITY, EASE, AND COMFORT THAN EVER BEFORE, AND CAN FINALLY BEGIN TO LOOK BEYOND MY HISTORY OF MUSIC RELATED INJURIES TOWARD AN OPTIMISTIC FUTURE PREVIOUSLY DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE. BUT FAR MORE THAN JUST INJURY
PREVENTION, SONJA’S “CULTIVATING CREATIVE EXPRESSION” COURSE AT SF’S COMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER OPENS UP CREATIVE AND PHYSICAL RESOURCES WHICH CAN POSITIVELY AFFECT NEARLY EVERY ASPECT OF ONE’S LIFE. THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN NOTHING SHORT OF A COMPLETE PERSONAL PARADIGM SHIFT.”
-PETER LEE, BACHELOR OF MUSIC, CLASSICAL GUITAR SAN FRANCISCO CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC.

“VERY FEW EXPERIENCES IN MY SIXTY PLUS YEARS HAVE BEEN AS REWARDING AND PRODUCTIVE AS THE BODY-MIND CENTERING THERAPY, INFORMATION, EXPLORATIONS AND EXERCISES I HAVE RECEIVED FROM SONJA RIKET. THIS FOR ME HAS BEEN A VERY POWERFUL HEALING EXPERIENCE, RESTORING MOBILITY TO MY PLAYING (53 YEARS OF MOVING NOTES ON A SAXOPHONE) AND
GENERALLY IMPROVING MY QUALITY OF LIFE AS I DEAL WITH AGE RELATED ISSUES AND PAST INJURIES. NO RISK, EXCEPTIONAL PERSONAL GAIN, THE BEST AND MOST PRODUCTIVE HEALTH RELATED SESSIONS OF MY LIFE.”
-BILL FIEGE, SENIOR FACULTY SF COMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER,
TEACHING & PERFORMING IN SAN FRANCISCO SINCE 1968

Body-Mind Centering® is a registered service mark of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen used with permission.
Feldenkrais® is a registered service mark of the Feldenkrais®Guild of No. America.