Begin with your body...

Leap out of your familiar patterns and find yourself embodying place, ideas, art and spirit!

Anatomy of Grace is an exploration of the art of living well and founded on an engagement with history, (ancient Rome is the mother of Western Civilization), landscape and movement, in community.

Our intention is not simply to have an Italian experience, but to engage in experiential learning together, catapulting us out of our familiar and working toward embodying place, ideas and spirit.

We study the poetry of Virgil in the very landscape in which he lived and about which he wrote so eloquently over 2000 years ago - reading in English translation and delving into the original Latin as well.

Every morning we learn how to pay very close attention to ourselves and our surroundings in Awareness Through Movement lessons. We take walks along the Adige river, visit cathedrals and basilicas, Roman ruins (for example, a huge Roman villa built on the site where the Latin poet Catullus lived), and discover something about our connection to our surroundings, how we fit in to this idyll.

Back at the villa, having observed the art and architecture, the perfect Renaissance proportions, we construct geometric designs with a straight edge and a compass. At the same time we experience these proportions, that harmony, in the structure of self - in our body, our mind and our spirit, in the structure of relationship, and in the structures of our Italian environs. We go further, moving together more formally in Connecting through Movement, working clearly and specifically with partners and discovering how to move in easy response to each other to develop spontaneity, intuition and creativity.

We cook and study, write and eat together and participate in local traditions,

 engendering community and relationship in myriad ways.


Verona, Italy
31 March - 14 April 2012

How we'll spend our days...16th - 30th April 2011

You might be wondering what our days will look like! This is a possible outline:

Buongiorno We'll begin each day with an Anatomy of Grace class - it will be a little like a daily moving meditation la meditazione on grace la grazia, refining how we move with elegance and balance, practicing precision in movement, and learning how to live a graceful life.
Take an hour to gather our thoughts (write? yoga? eat? mangiare?) and then explore the land, the place and history of Veneto. We'll visit Verona, the Lago di Garda, Grotto di Catullo, Roman ruins...we'll have gelato and coffee, walk across Ponte Pietra, soak up the atmosphere in the teatro romano...
Buon appetito! We'll have picnics at lunchtime en route, all the while discussing the Latin poets, chatting in broken Italian, and sensing our part in the landscape and our connection to the past.
In the afternoon il pomeriggio we'll return home and enjoy some time to ourselves until dinner ora di cena.
Buona sera! In the evenings we'll learn the gorgeous dances of the Italian Renaissance, embodying the Renaissance ideals of grace, beauty, harmony, proportion and symmetry. Then, perhaps, let it all go with some rollicking English country dances!
The last two weeks in Italy offer a plethora of activities and festivals to keep us busy. The middle weekend (April 23rd and 24th) will be free and you have the option of going off on a jaunt of your own or joining us on a pre-arranged activity.
We are planning a ball un ballo for our last night at the villa!
Scroll down for earlier blogs - nuts and bolts, minutiae, about this once in a lifetime program. And email me with any questions bridget@m-illumino.com


Also register now, before February 1st for 10% discount US$3040
After February 1st US$3400

Have you been dreaming about joining us this April?

Imagine: the food and wine, the quiet observation of your essential self, the exploration of the Renaissance ideals of beauty, grace, artificiosa, and effortlessness, the joy of dancing, the excitement of discovering these same attributes in lyric poetry and engaging fully with the landscape, with history and with each other.

Make your dreams come true

Register before 1st February 2011 for a 10% discount

$3400 ($3040 with discount) includes tuition, accommodation in our private villa for 14 nights, and food!

See earlier blog posts for detailed information 

and email Bridget Thompson, Bridget@m-illumino.com

Announcing an exciting Preview of La Bella Lingua

We are holding an informal preview of this sensational program on Saturday 22nd January from 3 - 6 pm.
A taste of la dolce vita! Come and find out what we'll be doing in Italy in April. There'll be food, wine and song, a convivial group, poetry, Renaissance dancing and Anatomy of Grace - a little Italian too. All welcome!
email Bridget@m-illumino.com for info and address in Seattle.
Un gioiso saluto, un caldo abbracio a tutti! Ciao!

Who are we?

Bridget Thompson - Anatomy of Grace
Feldenkrais Practitioner® and director of m’illumino, draws on her experience in dance, yoga, aikido, zazen (zen meditation), midwifery and the Feldenkrais Method®. For over 30 years she has studied what it means to learn and heal, teaching people of all ages in Africa, Europe and North America. Her emphasis, interest and passion are in the illumination of Self, and the expression of Spirit through the individual - but really she is simply compelled to MOVE and loves to find the most graceful, natural and effective way of doing just that. 

 Morna McEachern - Latin lyric poets and Dante

Morna has loved Latin lyric poetry since she was a little girl. When she was 14, her grandfather began sending her used, highly annotated books of Latin poetry and history-across an ocean and a continent-to support her study of Latin. She studied Latin and Dante as an undergraduate, then art, theatre and social work - then learned more while teaching these subjects. Along the way, she has wandered on and off the path of studying classics, but always returns to a deep love of Latin lyric poetry.

Anna Mansbridge - Renaissance danceAnna has been performing and teaching Renaissance dance for over 15 years.  She is originally from the United Kingdom, but has lived in Seattle for the past 12 years.  She holds a First Class Honors Degree in Dance and Education from Bedford College, U.K. and an M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from Mills College, California. Anna is the founder (in 2000) and Artistic Director of Seattle Early Dance, which specializes in recreating dances of the European courts from the 16th through 18th centuries.  She has also directed and choreographed a number of early operas. Anna teaches on a number of prestigious early music courses, including the San Francisco Early Music Society’s course on Renaissance dance and music, and The Academy of Baroque Opera in Seattle.

Valentina Turri - Italian!
Valentina was born and raised in Verona, Italy. Since she was 19 she's been traveling the world exploring foreign perspectives, and finding daily challenges very exciting. She has worked in various fields, from fashion, to import /export, from coffee shops, restaurants and bars, to television. For the past 6 years she has been in sunny San Diego, working for 3 of them at Local Television MyTV13 and Telemundo 33, as promotions and sales coordinator. Her job is very diverse and exciting, but often quite exhausting. This is mainly why, a few years ago, she walked into a yoga studio not knowing what to expect!  Since then she has never deviated from her yoga practice and lifestyle. YOGA changed her life. It helped her find her equilibrium, balance her mind, body and soul, so that she enjoys every beautiful aspect of this reality.

Study and Renewal

 

How much does La Bella Lingua cost? 

$3400

Here's what you get: 

two weeks in Italy during one of the more festival rich times of the year (Easter) - that's 14 nights in truly splendid accommodation, 

all your meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) that we'll prepare together in our fabulous kitchen,

full tuition for daily classes in Italian, Renaissance dances, the Latin lyric poets and Dante, and Anatomy of Grace. (see previous post for descriptions of these enriching, transforming classes)

$3400 does not include airfare or your own expenses

Only 12 places for this wonderful engagement through history, landscape and movement with la dolce vita!

You are full of heavenly stuff...           Shakespeare

La Bella Lingua - near Verona in April 2011

La Bella Lingua is not simply a program providing an opportunity to experience Italian culture, learn a little language and a few dances - a fairly typical consumer approach to tourism. The deeper significance is to create an opportunity for profound change in each one of us, in place.

A little more about what you'll be doing when you join us:


The Anatomy of Grace
Grace: the winning and elegant command of body and soul.
These fluent and gorgeous movement combinations are constructed around natural principles including effortlessness, grace, elegance and harmony. The sequences refine connections between apparent separate parts of yourself and uncover your integrated presence.  Practice precision and clarity. Practice sensing the invisible, Reveal your innate balance, dignity, poise, agility, suppleness, symmetry - grace! (Based on Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement)

Poetry: the Latin lyric poets and Dante
Virgil, Horace, Catullus, Dante; all four Italian poets resound over millenia, across oceans and continents. Selecting some of their most place explicit poems - speaking them in Latin, reading in English translation - we will explore the landscape of the poetry, the land, ruins of their homes, and our own somatic experience of place, poetry and time.

Dance: The Noble and Necessary Art of Dance
During the Renaissance dance was all about acquiring the Graces essential to the genteel life of a courtier. These Graces had to appear natural, without any suggestion of stiffness. In addition, dancing helped to keep the body healthy and fit, and enabled men and women to socialize and have fun together.
We'll learn some of the exquisite dances form the 16th century manuals of Fabrito Caroso and Cesare Negri, which embody the Renaissance ideals of Grace, Beauty, Harmony, Proportion and Symmetry. In the evenings, there will be more opportunities to dance (if so desired) with dances from the English Country Dancing repertoire. No previous dance experience is necessary.

Learn Italian!
Around the kitchen table, preparing food we'll buy in the village, travelling to ancient ruins in the stunning countryside....Appreciate the rhythm, expression, gesture, and structure of Italian."No other tongue offers so many sfumature (subtle shadings) that can foster understanding and cooperation. Italian, which has enriched the realms of art, literature, music, philosophy, cinema, fashion, and cuisine, embodies civilization itself. To me, it is the language of culture and humanity - and therefore everyone's mother tongue" (Dianne Hales author of 'La Bella Lingua', a must read).