Have you experienced pain or performance-related injuries while playing your instrument, or are you interested in learning ways to prevent injury?
Several studies demonstrate that the majority of instrumental musicians will experience some form of performance-related pain or injury throughout their careers. I am one of these musicians who experienced a severe injury that eventually led me to taking an extended break from playing the flute. With proper medical care, consistent work with somatic methods like Body Mapping and Alexander Technique, and support from mental health professionals, I have been able to make a full recovery from my injury and now experience little to no pain while playing. I am able to enjoy playing much more and have learned how to be more musically expressive and feel more embodied in my playing through Body Mapping!
If this sounds familiar, or if you would like to learn more about Body Mapping, I would love to work with you! Please reach out to me at fleo@bodymap.org to schedule a private lesson or request a workshop, masterclass, or course to be presented at your organization or university, or click on the button below to fill out an interest form.
What is Body Mapping?
Taught in universities, colleges, conservatories, and private studios world-wide, Body Mapping encourages wellness, enhances musicians’ expressive possibilities, and fosters music making without limitations. Body Mapping invites us to replace our faulty body maps with anatomically correct maps in order to reduce tension, prevent injury, and allow for effortless and expressive movement.
In Body Mapping, one learns to gain access to one’s own body map through self-observation and self-inquiry. The student corrects his or her own body map by assimilating accurate information provided by kinesthetic experience, the use of a mirror, anatomical models, books, pictures, and teachers. One learns to recognize the source of inefficient or harmful movement and how to replace it with movement that is efficient, elegant, direct, and powerful based on the truth about one’s structure, function, and size.
Learn more about the Association for Body Mapping Education here.
Offerings:
- Private Body Mapping Lessons
- Body Mapping Masterclasses
- Body Mapping Workshops
- What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body™ course
Private Body Mapping Lessons
Private Body Mapping lessons are a great way to work 1:1 or in a small group on specific areas of concern while learning to integrate your whole body in your music-making, or to learn more about your body and ways to prevent injury through learning and correcting mismappings.
I am available for 1:1 or small group Body Mapping lessons in person throughout the Metro Detroit-area in Michigan or online via Zoom. Please email me at fleo@bodymap.org if you’re interested in scheduling a lesson!
Body Mapping Workshops and Masterclasses
Interested in teaching your students about a specific topic within Body Mapping or conducting a Body Mapping masterclass in your studio? Workshops are a great way to do a deep dive into a specific topic within Body Mapping such as breathing, support, articulation, the spine, the shoulder complex/arm structure, the leg structure, balance, and more. Please reach out to me and let me know what topic you are interested in, and we can work together to customize a good fit for the needs of your studio!
Masterclasses allow the opportunity for 1:1 work with your students in front of a group where a collective learning about Body Mapping can take place. Depending on time limitations, you may select 2-3 students to play a short excerpt of music they are working on and to share any concerns they have about pain or discomfort while playing, wanting to prevent injury, etc. Through the masterclass, I will address their direct concerns through Body Mapping while providing an enriching learning experience for the group.
What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body Course™
Helping Prevent Performance-Related Injuries, Unleashing Artistic Expression
Do you teach at a college, university, or arts organization who may be interested in hosting a What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body™ course? This six-part course can be formatted into one 6-hour event or a semester-long course for your students or colleagues.
In this course, musicians learn how to correct and refine the body map to produce efficient, coordinated, and effective movement. Body Mapping not only helps musicians avoid injury, it also enhances musicians’ technique.
THIS COURSE TEACHES
- An Introduction to Body Mapping: learn about how the way you think about your Body Map changes your movement
2. Balance: understand our six places of balance to find freedom and dynamic buoyancy in movement
3. Arms: map the whole arm and its relationship to the torso
4. Breathing: accurately map breathing structures for better breaths
5. Legs: move with a greater understanding of weight delivery
6. Body Mapping Masterclass: how to cooperate actively with your anatomy, in macro and micro movement while singing or playing your instrument
Benefits of taking the course for musicians:
- Learn to play with efficient and dynamic movement using the principles of Body Mapping
- Increase awareness of your movement habits
- Learn how common mismappings can inhibit expressive movement and technical facility
Please contact me at fleo@bodymap.org or click on the button below to learn more about pricing and availability! I would love to work with you.