Embodied Rhythms for Older Women by EMPOWERED MOVEMENT COLLECTIVE

Monthly movement research gatherings for older women exploring embodied attention, natural rhythms, connection and belonging. Embodied Rhythms is a series of monthly movement gatherings for older women, created by Empowered Movement Collective. Through gentle movement, stillness, embodied attention and reflection, we will explore our connection with personal, collective and natural rhythms. Rather than being taught how the body should move, you will be invited to notice what is already present: sensations, impulses, patterns of effort and rest, and your relationship with the space, people and wider environment around you. WHAT WILL WE EXPLORE? Together, we may explore questions such as: • What helps us listen to the body? • When do we move with ease, and when do we override ourselves? • How do effort, pause and restoration move through us? • What can we learn by attending to personal, collective and natural rhythms? • What becomes noticeable when we move alongside others? • How might embodied listening affect how we participate in community and respond to the wider living world? The gatherings may include gentle guided movement, stillness, breath awareness, individual and shared exploration, reflection and conversation. Everything is an invitation to explore and you will be encouraged to work at your own pace and make choices that are appropriate for your body. A LIVING INQUIRY These are not conventional movement classes with prescribed steps or a performance outcome. They are participatory research spaces where we can investigate the conditions that help us perceive what may already be present but overlooked. Meeting across the changing seasons allows us to notice that our capacity, energy and needs are not fixed. Like the natural world, we move through cycles of activity, pause, change and renewal. We will explore how daily circadian rhythms, seasonal shifts and the rhythms we encounter in others may influence how we move, respond and restore. This is not about trying to imitate nature or achieve a particular state. It is an invitation to experience the body as part of a living ecosystem. FROM INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE TO WIDER COMMUNITY The inquiry begins with individual experience, but it does not end there. We will explore how listening to our own bodies may influence how we relate to one another, participate in community and respond to the world around us. There may be opportunities for our practice community to share what we are learning with others. Any wider sharing will be shaped collaboratively and allowed to emerge from the group’s experience and desire, rather than being set as a predetermined outcome. MOVEMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Our bodies are shaped by the expectations, inequalities and environments in which we live. This inquiry asks whose bodies, rhythms and ways of knowing are recognised, and whose are too often overlooked. Social justice is present not only in what we explore, but in how the space is held: through wider access, meaningful choice, shared inquiry and respect for each person’s embodied knowledge.