MA-AI TRAINING LAB
Open Profi Training for Dancers & Performers While moving, dancing and researching, bodies need a span of time to really enter in its maximum capacity of possibilities and open creativity. It takes time within a “dance class” to go beyond to what we already know with our own bodies. We rarely give ourselves that time, we rarely arrive to that experience. That is why every session of Ma Ai Movement Training, is carefully designed to last 3 hours. The method is grounded in the embodied recognition of 5 main body- mind layers ( fluids, bones, flesh, skin and energy flow). The 5 layers interact dynamically with a blend of diverse essential principles found in contemporary dance, martial arts (internal and external styles), Body Weather Training and image work. The practice enhances and develops flexibility, creative physicality, endurance, precision, coordination and sharp body-mind awareness. Ma-Ai is a term usually used in traditional Japanese martial arts referring to the distance or emptiness between two or more people in motion. In each practice we move, dance and surrender into that “emptiness in between”. The work is complemented with an efficient system of Body Manipulations to heal and align the whole body mind unity.
Within this words you will find some concepts and ideas that are behind the practice and it is important for you to understand them so you can embody and experience them. Ma-Ai Movement Training is based on community and sharing. When we say community, it means that you are together with other people sharing a common experience. It is not just about a “personal” training to be in a good physical condition as a mover or dancer. Sharing, means to give the best of your self to the community you are working with. What are we giving during the practice? We are giving our best internal smile to our selves and our working partners. We are giving all our strength and energy during the practice (the more energy you give the more energy you get). We are giving our best intentions while working with Body Manipulations. We wake up our internal healer to give a great touch and relief to our partner’s body-soul unity. Many people around the globe have been inspired from this training and they have successfully been using it inside their own companies or as a strong tool within their teaching activities at theatre or dance schools.
Water Bag Body: at the beginning of all sessions we tune ourselves with the image and physical inward sensation that our bodies are like water bags where all bones, tissues and organs are just floating with no friction, tension, full of space between bones and joints.
Ma-Ai: dynamic empty space between the participants that should be kept and respected during the training. This term is usually used in traditional Japanese martial arts referring to the distance or emptiness between two or more people in motion. This distance is sacred as it creates the total awareness of us in community with others during our practice.
There is a whole section dedicated to the main physical principles driven from martial arts into dance and movements of great power and precision.
Connection & Rhythm: some of the movement patterns can be complex when you are just starting. The most important is to keep the connection with your partner, to have him/her always beside you. Keep the rhythm rather than just the forms of the movements.
Buddha Face: a little smile in our lips and relaxed forehead during the practice even in the moment of exhausting effort. The Buddha Face helps us and reminds us of keeping a relaxed body and a light and meditative state of mind during practice.
The 4 Movement layers: some sections of the training are made for a movement-dance research letting ourselves being moved by our blood, bone, flesh and skin systems.
The practice of Ma-Ai Movement Training can be a great mirror of our habits and personal patterns to encourage yourself to go beyond them. The training is based on circles across the working space and the unity with yourself, your working partner and the group, so do the exercises as best as you can in the whole circular trajectory.
Consider this practice as an “Embodied Philosophy” where the nature of human mind is totally connected and shaped by our body and the way we use and explore with it. Enjoy!!
For the last 14 years, theatre director and dancer Elias Cohen has trained, developed and modified this method, inspired from different sources, mainly Body Weather Training, dance techniques, rhythm studies and transpersonal psychology giving a specific emphasis on image work, coordination, and speed/precision driven from martial arts.