Scottsdale EMP Residency begins

A 2-day drive to Arizona was actually a great way to relax and clear my head for the upcoming week. I am excited to work with the researchers and dancers who are interested in the mind and brain. EMP (Expressive Movement Processing), for those of you who haven't experienced it, it is a combination of my educational interests: BAE in Dance Education, masters degree in Choreography with a second emphasis in Kinesiology and a second masters degree in Dance/Movement Therapy.

While finishing my first masters degree, I began the pursuit of my second masters degree as a means to further my choreographic vision: engaging movement as a means for emotional expression. My masters thesis was on "Movement as Emotional Expression". My advisers suggested I learn about dance therapy because it accesses the emotions, and subconscious impulses, through movement. This course of study unleashed a whole new way of choreographing AND performing for me.

As I pursued the two masters degrees, I engaged the creative world of choreography, the scientific world of kinesiology and the psychological world of dance therapy in my quest for understanding how movement communicates, and more than that, to understand how movement touches the heart and soul of the viewer in an authentic -real and genuine- connection that is meaningful.

I began at first to call the product, the dances created, "Dances of Significance". This referred to the intention of the work: the art of dance as seen through the viewpoint of it's ultimate communication with the audience. But the title didn't covey the full impact of the process; a research tool that cultivated creative movement vocabulary for the choreographer, and unlocked the potential of the performer to reach into the recesses of his/her own experiences that are the source of powerful performance.

As I began to form the process, it became critical that it provide a manner to face the fears that prevent one from fully engaging in the creative expression of all emotions in their most valuable, vulnerable and genuine expression. It would be important also that the process then provide choreographers with a garden of uncultivated movement expressions, as I discovered come from intention and nuance, from movements unpracticed in the dance vocabulary and sometimes unbridled emotion expressed in raw movement that takes the witness on unexpected journeys.

Thus, as I began to understand that authentic expressive movement was the more universal product for which I searched, I utilized processes from dance therapy, improvisation, acting, dancing, choreography mixed together with a touch of scientific interest in the formula of the language of movement. Ultimately the name of this process thus evolved to become Expressive Movement Processing (EMP):

Expressive Movement Processing (EMP): Developed by Anandha Ray, EMP utilizes processes from improvisation, dance therapy and acting to (1) uncover and release blocks to creativity in performance, (2) formulate choreographic vocabulary, (3) understand and embody character development. EMP is a journey into the subconscious world in which creativity bridges the void between self and other. Through this process one surrenders control and follows pathways that allow the subconscious to reveal itself through artistic expression in movement. The process is both a deep exploration of self and personal motivations and practical education in the universal hieratic and culturally specific language of movement.