"Moving with this body of life,
I see you, you see me

- as we are, as it is.”

Body Stories started in 2021 with a simple vision of “Every body has a story, every story has a place, and every place has a spirit”.

Today, Body Stories has evolved into a space for unearthing and nourishing what is within, alive, and arising. An invitation into being through movement.

Grounded in the source of presence, it is an embodied movement practice that roots in the art and play of improvisation and somatic explorations. 

Housed in the home of nature, it allows us to reconnect with our true nature and re-find the beauty in our land and people.

Body Stories is watered on a vision of celebrating ourselves as we are. Through connecting with ourselves, others, and our environment through movement and nature, we can come to know the waters of our inner and outer worlds more clearly and compassionately. This practice is a vessel to tend to what is arising, present, and within; a pathway to support and nourish our wholeness, creative energies, and well-being. We are also the vessel which the practice carries through. 

acknowledging the different sources

Body Stories started from a pure and strong love for improvisation. 

This seed of love took Cheryl to study dance in Switzerland, where she immersed in a theatre and dance school called La Manufacture - Haute école des arts de la scène, for three years (2016 - 2019). With a focus on discovering the infinite possibilities of the body through improvisation, it was her dream place to dive deeper into movement. Dance and movement to her, have always been an opening to understand how to live in deeper and fuller ways. The body is a powerful conduit.

With time, she began to realize that movement also allows her to be in touch with a very deep place within, that feels larger than life. When she moves and allows landing in the present moment to shape her breathing, movements, gestures, and stillness, there is a certain liberation and empowerment that keeps her hungry and alive. In her final year of studies for her Bachelor work, she started developing her improvisation practice into a more nuanced practice of real-time composition, guided by the prompt of mentor Eugénie Rebetez. 

In real-time composition, we take our awareness to another level, as we start noticing what we are creating as we are moving. Different layers of awareness and attention start to unfold, shift, and hone. Different artists have various approaches - for Cheryl, her practice of real-time composition is one of non-judgement, acceptance, and cultivating trust in a thinking body. It comes from her own life experience of going through depressive periods, breakdowns, and coping with a very critical self. Moving in the here and now becomes an essential place and practice for her to regulate her emotions and energies in a healthy way. Working with our creative energies is vital in cultivating this balance in our being.

Body Stories has a second essential element - the practice of moving and witnessing. 

From the same place of moving in the here and now, we are guided to take turns to move and watch one another move, as witnesses. In a safe space, we allow stories and experiences to be unearthed from the sea beds of our being. We let our fluids, sensations, thoughts, emotions, feelings, inner and outer movements, breathe. From an empty space, we let our bodies move and create.

This practice unfolded from one saturday morning in Switzerland, when a friend, Meriel, non-dancer, was curious to join her movement practice in the studio. She wanted to know how dancers and actors train. A theatre friend was supposed to come practise Taiji together (at our school, chinese martial arts is our common weekly training), but could not make it at the last moment. Cheryl told Meriel to join nonetheless, without knowing exactly what to do. When they met, she decided that they could take turns to move spontaneously for each other, since improvisation was her main field of interest and that was what she could share.

The moving went on without verbal exchange for at least an hour. They then processed their moving experience through drawing and automatic writing, before sharing their experiences of dancing and witnessing each other move. This experience is significant in Cheryl’s journey of finding her voice as a movement artist. She experienced a deep resonance in moving with someone who is not professionally trained, but shares a genuine interest in exploring herself and relationships to self, other, and environment through movement. This expression was far more meaningful than dancing with trained bodies who might not necessarily share similar interests.

This practice of moving and witnessing can be powerful in supporting us to embrace ourselves as we are, in an embodied way. Our whole body and being can receive this practice of love, as we begin to see ourselves and others more clearly and authentically. All that emerges is welcome, is raw material that we can work with to process life experiences and cultivate awareness, compassion, flow, restfulness, trust, intuition, balance, as well as resources for regulating our energies and sensitivities. 

This simple practice can be experienced by people from different walks of life and fields of work / interest, as long as there is an openness and curiosity to explore. 

The third element of Body Stories lies in being and moving with nature.

In moving outdoors, we invite freshness into our whole body and being. We can experience interconnectedness with diverse life forms, notice the littlest inhabitants and intricate movements of nature, in the process exchanging life force and energy with mother nature.

Nature has always been a teacher, companion, and inspiration. Spending time in the mountains and swimming in the clear lakes of Switzerland gifted Cheryl the revelation of how such experiences in nature are similar to the landscapes she traverses while she improvises. Between wild and subtle, quiet and loud, small and big, there are worlds that we can inhabit and open up within through listening to our body and earth body. She wants to share this freedom and connection with more people on the ground.

Since her time with artists of diverse improvisation and somatic practices in Switzerland, she has been slowly distilling her directions and approaches in conversing with our bodies and space / place. The evolution takes place in the shift from being curious about the infinite possibilities of moving and making, to being interested in deeper listening to the inner and outer movements that live in and around us. Perhaps also, the movements that are waiting to be unearthed. A process of constantly refining and rediscovering our relationships with ourselves, others, the earth, the universe.

… distilling into the now

What I would like to share, is an affinity with intuitive and embodied movement. What I would like to invite more people to experience, is inner spaciousness and deep listening through an intimate and generous connection with our body and earth body.

The teachers and practices of embodied movement, presence, and consciousness who are currently guiding and nourishing me include Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (Body-Mind Centering), Janet Adler (the Discipline of Authentic Movement), Andrea Olsen, Qigong, Nature, and Life itself.

In understanding how life moves and how we can move with life, we can start unearthing our Body Stories and cultivate ways of life that are gentle, easeful, and with vitality.