MOVESHOP: Embodying Opposites with Rachael Sharkland

If we stay with the tension of opposites long enough– sustain it, be true to it– we can sometimes become vessels within which the divine opposites come together and give birth to a new reality.

– Marie-Louise von Franze

We all carry divine opposites within us– a longing for connection and an impulse to return to self, a desire to slow down and an expectation to keep apace with the mind, a wish to be free and a fear of losing control– but we don’t often explore their generative qualities of complexity. As Jungian psychologist and scholar, Marie-Louise von Franze reminds us, when we engage strong polarities with curiosity and reverence something new emerges.

MOVESHOP: Embodying Opposites invites you to go deep into the messy mystery of the mixed state. Through improvisational and durational prompts and scores, we will explore oppositional dynamics (contraction/ extension, accumulation/ dispersion, inward/ outward, earth/ air) as an expression of contrast and continuum. With curiosity and imagination as our guides, we will embody edges and linger in transitions, exploring what blooms in the field beyond extremes, between states, and beneath surfaces.

MOVESHOPS are movement-based experiential workshops that explore embodiment as a means of empowerment, expression, and connection. MOVESHOPS incorporate solo and collective practices, inviting participants to follow pleasure and curiosity, to get to know themselves more deeply from the inside out. MOVESHOPS engage our four fields of our experience– interoception, proprioception, exteroception, and intercorporeality* – to expand awareness and the possibilities for how we may live in our body, among other bodies, and in connection to earth's body with more intention, freedom, and reciprocity.

Although each Moveshop unfolds in response to the group, there is a loose structure as follows:

Opening meditation inviting grounding and orientation

Warm up for breath and body (guided improvisation)

Exploratory movement practice and composition (movement scores, puzzles, and playful invitations to prompt spontaneous creativity)

Reflection and opportunity to share

Closing practice

Helpful Terms:

Interoception – awareness of sensations from inside our body

Proprioception – awareness that comes from the movement of our body in space

Exteroception – awareness of sensations from outside our body

Intercorporeality – awareness that comes from the relationship of our body to other bodies

Moveshops are for EVERYBODY; no prior experience required. This event is in-person only.

*This term was coined by the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Rachael Sharkland is a Certified Hakomi Practitioner (CHP), Certified Mind-Body Coach, mother, and artist. She offers individual and group somatic coaching sessions that combine therapeutic counseling with hands-on, creative and practical support to cultivate agency, clarity, and balance. Rachael offers an approach that is contemplative, nourishment-based, and life-affirming. She is dedicated to embodiment as a creative and healing force on the path toward liberation and wellbeing for all life. More about her somatic and expressive arts coaching practice here.

As a life-long dancer and movement educator, Rachael brings a reverence for the body to all her endeavors. She has fallen in love with various traditions and practices including contemporary dance and performance, improvisation, West African dance, experiential anatomy and developmental movement (e.g. Body-Mind Centering, Feldenkrais), Pilates, Qi Gong, and professional bodywork. Her performance work considers constellations of being (more than) human, exploring questions of power, identity, intimacy, wilderness, and belonging. For more information see here: https://rachaelsharkland.com/

As an entrepreneurial mother of two, Rachael has a depth of knowledge about recovering from burn-out and cultivating balance. Rachael studied ecology and landscape architecture at the graduate level and worked for over a decade designing and managing large-scale urban design projects. She firmly believes that it is within the context of our built environment and its legacies of discrimination that we must negotiate and actuate matters of human health, safety, and dignity. Rachael is a student of wilderness, and offers her practice in honor of all her teachers, ancestors, and our living earth. Rachael was born and raised in Oakland, on unceded Ramytush Ohlone land, and continues to call this place home.

Host or Publisher The Berkeley Alembic Foundation