May 16+17 Spiral Body Techniques® + Teacher Inquiry Workshop with Molly Shanahan

Spiral Body Techniques® Open Class + Teacher Inquiry Workshop

May 16 + 17 Saturday 11:30am–3:30pm | Sunday 1:00–5:00pm

Open SBT class: 11:30-1:30 (Sat) and 1:00-3:00 (Sun)

Teacher Inquiry: 1:30-3:30 (Sat) and 3:00-5:00 (Sun)

Classes only: $25/class

Full workshop: $120

Chicago | The Rooted Space

This workshop combines open two-hour Spiral Body Techniques® (SBT) classes with a dedicated Teacher Inquiry Workshop for certified SBT teachers. The structure supports shared practice while also making space for pedagogical refinement, articulation, and stewardship of the work.

Each day begins with an open Spiral Body Techniques® class, accessible to experienced movers.

Following the open class, the work shifts into a Teacher Inquiry Workshop reserved for certified Spiral Body Techniques® teachers. This portion of the day centers pedagogy as a living, embodied practice. We’ll address key questions and issues to help teachers understand how SBT is transmitted across teaching contexts.

The teacher workshop invites a collegial, research-oriented exchange. Inquiry focuses on cueing and coaching ethics and logic, sequencing in service to teacher and student, observation skills and applications, and the relationship between somatic experience and language. Teachers are encouraged to examine how time, attention, and choice function as pedagogical tools, and how SBT principles support agency, adaptability, and care in diverse learning environments.

Central to this inquiry is the practice of benevolent observation, the discipline of attending to oneself and others without unhelpful or habitual judgment. Demanding and rigorous, this practice challenges hierarchical models of dance education and supports the creation of “safe-enough” studio spaces in which complexity, difference, and personal history can be present. This work offers teachers practical ways to steward inclusive, trauma-aware learning environments.

Teachers are invited to bring questions from their own teaching—whether in studios, universities, community settings, or rehearsal environments—and to consider Spiral Body Techniques® not only as a movement practice, but as an ethical and relational framework for teaching and learning.

Advance registration required.

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

Please always feel free to reach out with questions.