April 11+12 Spiral Body Techniques® + Restart/Mark Workshop with Molly Shanahan

Spiral Body Techniques® + Restart/Mark Workshop

April 11 + 12

Saturday 11:30am–3:30pm | Sunday 1:00–5:00pm

Chicago | The Rooted Space | $160 | No one turned away for lack of funds.

This two-day workshop brings Spiral Body Techniques® (SBT) into active dialogue with Restart/Mark, a collaborative practice developed within the SBT lineage and a cornerstone of Molly Shanahan’s choreographic work with Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak.Each day begins with a Spiral Body Techniques® class with Shanahan, establishing shared physical and perceptual ground through spiral, yield, gestural-spatial relationship; and fluidity, falling, failure, and forgiveness. Rather than organizing movement through fixed shape or muscular control, SBT invites participants into adaptive, responsive and relational spiralic pathways that honor the intelligence of the material body and the complexity of lived experience.From class, the work shifts into Restart/Mark, which is a framework for spontaneous composition that centers spontaneity and self-trust, forgiveness of self and other as a rigorous practice, and shared responsibility as compositional tools.

Restart/Mark invites participants to engage movement as a relational, negotiated process, emphasizing decision-making, attention, interruption, and repair within live practice. The focus moves away from display or perfection and toward clarity of relation, adaptability-in-presence, and trust as an ongoing act.Central to this work is the discipline of benevolent observation: attending to oneself and others without judgment. Demanding and rigorous, this practice cultivates curiosity and compassion while creating a “safe-enough” container in which personal histories can be present without explanation or elaboration. This is not therapy, but it can be deeply regulating and affirming; it can open space for experimentation, risk, and collaboration without comparison or hierarchy.

Restart/Mark challenges traditional models of dance education and creation that rely on surveillance, competition, an external gaze, or reductive valuations of bodily aesthetics. Instead, it offers an inclusive and responsive approach to movement, teaching, and ensemble practice that values experimentation, failure, and spontaneity as essential components of skill-building and creative inquiry. Participants are encouraged to work with small doses of vulnerability held within a clear, time-limited structure, redirecting attention toward connection, presence, and creative agency.

This workshop is open to all movers with some experience in somatic or contemporary movement practices who are interested in this work. While grounded in Spiral Body Techniques®, the emphasis is on application and interaction.

Advance registration required.

Space is limited to 15 participants. We will open registration to single-day participants if space allows.

Please reach out with questions.