How to Give a Tantalizing One-hour Introductory Body Mapping Presentation
Jennifer Johnson
BME’s are frequently asked to give a one-hour introductory talk on what we do and how Body Mapping can help musicians. Often this one hour determines whether the institution or course participants will want to come back for more in-depth work. Nearly as difficult as the one-sentence “elevator speech”, being concise as we accurately describe Body Mapping in one hour is a challenge. In this presentation, I will talk through an overview of the 1-hr. presentation that I use that seems to routinely pique the interest of participants and whets their appetite for more and I will explain my choices as we go. The presentation, a hybrid of all of the sections of the course, includes a brief introduction of Barbara Conable and somatic methods, an outline of her vision to retrain movement, senses and awareness, and then examples of how to choose 4 or 5 of the most important mismappings that will be relevant for the largest number of musicians. Brief movement explorations are included, so that, even though brief, the presentation remains interactive. Also included are two very brief previews from the documentary I am presently making on Body Mapping that effectively illustrate “before and after” experiences of students I have worked with.
Jennifer Johnson, violinist and ST with ABME has been on faculty of the NY Philharmonic’s Zarin Mehta Program and has presented Body Mapping workshops around the world, including at Juilliard, The Finnish National Opera and AUSTA (Australia). She is regularly interviewed on podcasts such as Noa Kageyama’s Bulletproof Musician. Jennifer is on the steering committee of the Canadian Music and Health Research Institute. She has written three books on Body Mapping which have been translated into multiple languages and she continues to perform regularly with the NSO.
She is presently making a documentary about Body Mapping- stay tuned!