Body Memory with Leah Zeiger

Body Memory with Leah Zeiger

Sunday, May 26, 6–8PM

@ Studio A Dance, Oak Room:

2306 Hyperion Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Cost: Free

Max participants: 25

The Body Memory Method is a lens through which we can view, explore, or question our lives as a whole - our relationship to our body or to others, our memory, our approach to work, friendships, love, etc. The practice is best approached through movement, as we are attempting to open a portal of conversation between our conscious selves and our bodies, and the language our bodies speak is movement. Therefore, Body Memory workshops feature movement practices led by Leah, which involve very open ended guidance that is designed to be fully accessible to individuals with all ranges of physical abilities. The workshop will also allow space for personal and communal reflection and questioning.

The Body Memory Method is founded on four guiding principles:

1. My body is a knowledgeable being / My body’s knowledge doesn’t just come from my experience - it has its own intellect.

2. My body’s number one goal is to survive, and number two goal is to be free of pain / Everything my body does has these two goals in the forefront of intention.

3. My body is endlessly and unconditionally forgiving and empathetic / My body doesn’t hold grudges.

4. My body is the only thing that allows me (my conscious self) to experience the world / My relationship with my body has a defining impact on how I experience the world.

The Body Memory Method is designed to be accessible for anyone with a body. I find that having journals or paper and writing utensils on hand is very helpful as many participants take to writing during reflection periods.

Leah Zeiger is a choreographer, dancer, and activist based in Los Angeles. As a survivor of a teenage abusive relationship, Leah's work is largely derived from her lived experience as well as embodied research in the survivor community. Leah is the founder of The Sunflower Project - a nonprofit organization that educates young people on sexual violence and relationship abuse and empowers survivors to tell their story through artmaking. Leah’s methodology - Body Memory - invokes somatic principles, improvisational scores, and body-based research to explore the ways in which our bodies hold memory and how those memories shape our life experience. She has been commissioned to choreograph and present her work by entities such as the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company Choreographer’s Lab, and more. She will be presenting work in the summer of 2024 at Highways Performance Space and the Odyssey Summer Dance Festival.