By Pam Walatka
Picture yourself moving with abandon to rhythmic music. Does that sound like it might feel good? If so, consider signing up for Keith Urban’s Joy of Movement class at Stanford Continuing Studies.
Urban, an accomplished dancer-choreographer-yoga teacher, is proud of his “wonderful course.”
“We do movement improvisation to inspirational music, after warming up with yoga and Pilates,” he said. “No previous experience is necessary or expected. I teach people to listen to their own bodies and find their own pathways in movement.”
Urban emphasized, “The body and mind together form an amazingly sophisticated, intelligent system. At any moment, there are trillions of actions going on in the body. You can trust that your body knows what it needs.”
After the initial warm-up exercises, Urban asks students to give attention to various parts of the body: “How does it feel to move your hands? Your back?”
Then students become inspired by the music, and find themselves wanting to move. They might be thinking of an image or narrative, or just exploring a quality of movement. Urban asks them to “dance as though no one is watching.”
Urban explained, “The body asks for attention, like a neglected child. By giving attention to various parts of your body as it moves, you give your body the attention it needs. The body thrives on that. We avoid judgment of the body. We use a meditative approach to self-deprecating thoughts, with a humorous, self-directed, ‘Thank you for sharing.’
“You can move with embarrassment, or move through that. Often, the censor in mind says, ‘Don’t,’ but something else says, ‘Do.’ We explore in gentle ways what sort of movement wants to come out. I create a safe environment for uninhibited movement.”
Rather than following traditional dance moves, students move however their bodies want to move. Sometimes that is slow and resting; sometimes it is running around the room. Many of the movements are not like dance, and the students are not trained dancers, nor are they trying to look a certain way. One thing leads to another.
“Surprisingly eloquent, authentic movements come up - authentic as in: You are the author,” Urban said. “This class is a wonderful way to feed the roots of your creativity. Writers and painters have reported that they were able to start working again after a dry spell.
“I ask my students to be aware of sensations - paying attention to messages from the body. If you take all of the sensations together, you get a ‘feeling picture’ of the body. Students who develop a friendly relationship with their bodies become more willing to listen to signals and messages from the body. The body might be saying, ‘Please stretch, breathe, or walk now.’ When the body knows you are listening, it is more likely to speak.”
Urban’s main influences are yoga, tai chi, training in and performances of ballet, modern dance and the type of movement classes that have been taught at Esalen Institute in Big Sur since the 1960s.
Urban teaches his class 6:30-8 p.m. every Wednesday at Flex-It, 425 W. Evelyn Ave. in Mountain View. There will be no classes in August. The fee for drop-in is $15. The five-week course is $205.
Urban said: “It’s a lot of fun.”
The Joy of Movement class is taught several times a year at Stanford Continuing Studies. For more information, visit continuingstudies.stanford.edu or call 725-2650. The next session starts in November and runs for 5 weeks.
With his wife, cellist Chi Chen, Urban runs UrbanChi Music, Design & Movement, 285 Castro St., in Mountain View. For more information, call (888) 633-8480 or visit urbanchi.com.
