ACC's Somatic Movement Program is a one-year, 560 contact hour training program that employs a dance-based approach to healing and personal wellbeing through Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals. The program includes experiential, practical, and theoretical approaches to promoting body-mind integration, movement re-education, and hands-on physical and neuromuscular re-patterning.

Applicants must hold any degree (AA or above) or 3 years professional experience in one of the following fields: Dance, Kinesiology, Yoga, Physical Education, Psychiatry, Psychology, Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, Physical Therapy, Massage Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Health, Exercise, or Fitness.

The $25 fee is for student membership with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.

These are the required texts:

SMED 1071 Intro to Laban

1. Moore, Carol-Lynne. "Meaning in Motion: Introducing Laban Movement Analysis?" Movescape Center, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-9909680-0-9
2. Guest, Ann Hutchinson. "Motif Notation: An Introduction" Language of Dance Centre, 2007. ISBN: 987-0-9554305-0-3

SMED 1072 - Intro to Bartenieff

1. Fernandes, Ciane. "The Moving Researcher: Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis in Performing Arts Education and Creative Arts Therapies" Jessica Kingsly Publishers 2015. ISBN: 978-1-84905-587-1

SMED 1073 - Intro to Dance for Special Populations

No Textbook Required.

There is also one copy of each textbook on reserve in the library.

Completion of all 6 classes is required to obtain a certificate of completion and to apply through the ISMETA Independent track to become a Registered Somatic Movement Educator.

Yes, financial aid may be available for those who qualify in the form of the TPEG grant.

Having the ISMETA RSME status provides professional membership to a global community in the somatic field. It includes peer support, networking, and online meet ups with the international community to gain resources from other somatic practitioners. It is possible that in the near future, a qualification like this could be necessary to work in a hospital or with Physical Therapists or Occupational Therapists as the field is growing and emerging.

Each class is experiential and starts with self-inquiry and progresses to observations and ways of analyzing one another in the class. We then bring our observations and analysis out into the field. In each case the inquiry, observation, and analysis leads students to methods of recording growth changes in an individual and interpretation of findings.

The students in the program will work through a lens that supports their area of interest. Laban’s theories can be used with success in the emerging field of non-verbal communication, whether through dance, theatre, yoga, physical therapy, bodywork, psychoanalysis, gerontology. Students will learn movement analysis for pedagogy as a way of healing the body (their own or others), relationships to others, and how people move and relate to their environment.

Yes. Final Capstone projects will be designed in collaboration with the instructor and will include the following:

• The analysis of movement using Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff principals and a motif, SOAP notes, a video example of researched movement, an embodied offering for the observers to understand the project kinesthetically, the use of anatomy and body systems terms and references, needs assessment, and application of assessment, written and demonstrated (a paper and presentation).
• Identify a population and type of class/session, create a class with goals/outcomes and teach it to the class addressing a follow up proposal (a 45-60 minute class taught to us).
• Walk us through the research on the somatic field from a personal project (you can use a website, books, and periodicals, for example [a 15 min lecture, not experiential]).
• Observation and feedback on colleague's class/session (a rubric will be provided).

We will invite guest speakers to address different somatic modalities other than Bartenieff Fundamentals during the second semester. The first semester will incorporate foundational theories of Laban and Bartenieff.