FULL DROP

Exploration of altered states of perception

The workshops are an introduction to the sensation and state-oriented practice Full Drop. A practice which Icelandic choreographer Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir has been developing since 2010 in relation to and alongside her performance works. It focuses on deep fascial release through visualisation meditation and verbal dialoging aiming to guide participants towards a so called Full Drop into the body or a fully surrendered and released body state. Developing heightened inner listening and awareness of the multiple autonomous systems and rhythms of the body and how to be guided and moved by them and experience the various altered physical states that accommodate this type of listening. By fully dropping into the body and entering a meditative space where time ceases to exist, conditions have been created to release self-manipulation and control and allow active intentions to empty out. Through new subjective sensorial experiences unravelling, what was formerly unconscious becomes conscious, increasing awareness of the current as well as immanent inner states of each person. While the practice itself is gentle, the decision to let go of control and enter into the unknown, not yet discovered and subconscious parts of yourself is profound. In the greater context, the workshop offers an alternative way of approaching the body and those who work with it on a professional level, and creates a space for deconditioning formerly imprinted body memory, both motoric and in the form of memories, through releasing the tissue on all levels. A part of this work is thus as well releasing the professional dancer’s ‘outside eye’ that observes, judges and separates the dancer from the inner experience, and to practice connecting to and becoming conscious of that which goes on within, beyond the conditioned body memory.

Working with and sharing a practice of de-conditioning which is in itself directly healing and holistic is a conscious political gesture. It was developed whilst creating a body of artistic works that address the mental, emotional and physical states of the citizens living within the current social political environment, and how that reality expresses itself in our matter. It combines 24 years of research within the artistic field of dance and choreography, 14 years of studying the connective tissue and 6 years experience as a professionally practicing fascia therapist of the Fasciatherapy DB method. 

The Full Drop practice has been shared within these following contexts (selection); MA program in choreography at the Theater Academy of the Uniarts in Helsinki, MA Choreography program and BA dance program at DOCH in Stockholm, BA choreography program of the Academy National di Danza in Rome, The Icelandic Dance company, Cullberg Ballet dance company in Stockholm, Professional dancers training and workshop program at both Dansalliansen and Dance Centrum in Stockholm, Dansehallerne Copenhagen, Zodiak dance centre and theater in Helsinki, BA dance program of the University of Arts in Iceland, Praxis Festival in Oslo, Aaden Dans in Roskilde Denmark, RAVENDANS festival Norway, Kiezkieken- workshops for refugee women and children in Berlin, SKUDA Alliance for Actors and Dancers and PRODA classes for professional dancers Oslo, a. pass Research Center Brussels in Belgium, Hildesheim University Germany, Green Room training center for artists in Köln Germany,  Kiezkieken- workshops for refugee women and children in Berlin. As well as at various spaces in Helsinki, Oslo, Copenhagen, Berlin, Basel and at academic conferences around Europe, within the field of dance, artistic research, performance studies and philosophy and in relation to her performance work.