Part 1 : Social Presencing Theater Basics:  A two day introductory program into the basic practices of Social Presencing Theater

Social Presencing Theater is an embodied method for change created by the Presencing Institute, under the direction of Arawana Hayashi, that enables individuals and groups to make their current situations visible, reflect on their potentials and blind spots, and allow them to move into a saner more compassionate future.

This workshop provides basic training in applying Social Presencing Theater in leadership and change work. SPT is a set of practices that cultivate a body-based, intuitive knowledge of self, groups and society. It is designed for facilitators, activists, consultants, performing artists and all leaders interested in creativity and social change.

You will learn to:

• Increase your embodied presence
• Access direct knowing of self and the social field through the senses
• Develop your inner condition as a practitioner and refine your deep skills for effective and compassionate leadership in the systems and communities you care about most
• Access direct knowing of self and the social field through the senses
• Discover non verbal practices that help individuals and collectives be more aware of themselves, allow surprising insights and connect to emerging possibilities
• Apply practices to your current, significant situations and cases

Drawing on the arts and contemplative traditions, Social Presencing Theater brings to the surface a clearer sense of the relationships, hidden dynamics, and emerging possibilities inherent in a team, organization or larger system.

“Theater” here denotes an empty stage or a blank canvas where the different aspects and roles of the system can be embodied. In that space, the roles can interact in fresh and creative ways to reveal emerging possibilities hidden in the system. It is the « Art of Making a True Move ».

Part 2 : Social Presencing Theater – Village Intensive : A one day deepening of the practice of the Village

This day is reserved to participants having already received the basic SPT training with Arawana or another certified teacher.

The Village is one of the foundational collective SPT pratices. It is specifically designed to explore and deepen our experience of the social field, the invisible part of all social systems we co-create and operate in, namely all the relationships (to self, to others, to the whole) and interactions that shape our social systems.

This day will allow you to:

• Explore the nature of social field
• Deepen you understanding of the essence of SPT, what it serves and how to facilitate it with teams
• Reflect on how to use the Village practice in your context

Learn to reflect on what you see and sense from an aesthetic point

Where: Paris France. Amphitheater 83 Bd Arago 75014

Arawana’s pioneering work as a choreographer, performer and educator is deeply sourced in Mindfullness and the art of collaborative improvisation. She currently heads the creation of Social Presencing Theater (SPT) for the Presencing Institute. Working with Otto Scharmer and colleagues at the Presencing Institute, she brings her background in the arts, meditation and social justice to creating “social presencing” that makes visible both current reality and emerging future possibilities.

Arawana is one of the foremost performers of Japanese Court Dance, bugaku, in the US. She has been Co-Director of the Dance Program at Naropa University, Boulder, CO; and founder-director of two contemporary dance companies in Cambridge, MA. She continues to perform in a multi-disciplinary performance ensemble, originating out of Naropa University and the ALIA Institute, where she currently teaches in leadership programs. Arawana is an acharya (senior teacher) in Shambhala – a global network of meditation centers dedicated to applying mindfulness to “creating enlightened society.” She teaches both meditation and art, based on bringing out the basic goodness of individuals, of relationships and of society.

Arawana has been a friend and visiting teacher at the Presence & Leadership Institute since 2009