Creative Process

When we learn deeply, our critical intelligence, our intuition, and our physical senses are all engaged and synchronized. Creative process sessions help prepare the ground for this kind of integrative learning. Exercises based on artistic disciplines — dance, theatre, jazz, calligraphy, spoken word — awaken and clarify sensory, intuitive awareness. Creative process also provides a bridge between the simplicity of mindfulness and the complexity of organizational dynamics. We can begin to make this bridge by bringing wakeful awareness into physical movement, into precise moments of listening and seeing, and into nonverbal collaboration.

Workshops

The Art of Making a True Move with Arawana Hayashi

Authenticity begins with an integrated relationship between body, mind, and environment. Discover your natural creativity through a gentle process of paying attention to the body, in stillness and in ordinary movement. In this workshop we will learn how to access fresh responses to the challenges of leading in the midst of the speed and fragmentation of contemporary life.

Calligraphy Mind with Barbara Bash

What is the experience of making our mark in the world? How do we show up? How do we follow through? How do we view what we've done? Working with large brushes and buckets of ink, we will bring forth our direct inquisitive calligraphic minds. The oriental principles of heaven, earth, and human provide a deep structure and guidance. Through the steadiness of straight lines and the risks of spontaneous marks, we appreciate the moment – and our lives – in fresh ways.

Deep Listening through Embodied Presence with Liane Stephan

Leading effectively requires deep listening and strong presence. In this workshop we will listen to our body and to space through martial arts and performance exercises. These will increase our ability to stay centered, focused, and present in both ordinary and critical situations. We will also explore nonverbally how we lead others. Do we listen more to ourselves or to others? What is the source of our motivation? Through improvisation in small groups we will experience different modes of listening, being present and leading.

Spontaneous Communication with Jerry Granelli

The ground of communication is openness to oneself and others. Musicians are constantly listening to the world around them and the world within, and surrendering to what is. In this workshop we will practice listening, hearing, and spontaneous composition and form, in order to open ourselves to the message of the moment.

Slow Down See Clearly with Helen Vink

When we synchronize eye and mind, we abandon all concepts and predispositions and become completely present in the moment.
The world becomes a magical display of vivid perception.
What do we perceive when we really look?
What do we perceive when we slow down naming and labeling?
How do we set our intention from looking to seeing?
Through visual exercises we explore the world of form, and we become available for the world around us.
See clearly, know what is, be decisive.
Seeing things as they are. Fresh.

The Presenters

Barbara Bash is a published author and performance artist who lives in the Hudson Valley of New York. She has worked for many years as a calligrapher and teacher of book arts and nature journaling. She was co-director of the book arts program at Naropa University and has collaborated over the years with musicians, storytellers, and dancers,exploring calligraphic performance art. Her study of Dharma Art with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Chinese pictograms with Ed Young contributed to her understanding of eastern principles as applied to western forms. She has written and illustrated many award-winning books on natural history for children and adults. Her most recent book is True Nature : An Illustrated Journal of Four Seasons in Solitude. She teaches Big Brush calligraphy workshops throughout the U.S. Barbara has been involved with Creative Process at the Institute since 2002. She has also been collaborating with Bob Wing and Toke Moeller in developing a leadership workshop that draws on the principles and practices of the "Circle, Brush, and Sword."

Halifax-based percussionist-composer Jerry Granelli grew up in San Francisco where he studied with Joe Morello and drummed for pianists Denny Zeitlin and Vince Guaraldi (he's on A Charlie Brown Christmas – on Fantasy Records and the Charlie Brown TV soundtracks). He pioneered world jazz fusion and electro-acoustic percussion during the 60's hippie era, established the music department at the Naropa Institute in Boulder in '76, and has had a continuous teaching career since then in Boulder, Seattle, Halifax and Berlin. In the early '80s he performed and recorded in a trio with Ralph Towner and Gary Peacock for ECM. He has recorded as a leader for Evidence, Intuition, ITM, Koch, Love Slave and other labels, and performed and recorded with longtime musical associates Mose Allison, Jay Clayton, Jane Ira Bloom, Glen Moore, Anthony Cox, Dave Friedman, and Jamie Saft, as well as projects with Bill Frisell, Robben Ford, Julian Priester, Charlie Haden, Kenny Garrett, and Buck 64.

Arawana Hayashi is a dancer and choreographer, with roots in Asian and Western arts. Arawana has been on the faculty of the Shambhala Summer Institute for Authentic Leadership since its inception. She also teaches extensively within the international network of Shambhala meditation centres and is leading the development of Embodied Presence Practice and Social Presencing Theater in collaboration with C. Otto Scharmer (MIT) at the Presencing Institute.

Liane Stephan is an executive coach and change consultant who has been working in the field since 1995. Her approach through systemic and hypno-systemic concepts, gestalt therapy, martial arts and body-awareness practices as well as theatre play assists business leaders and their teams in creating trust-based collaborations. Liane conducts master classes for future consultants and develops programs for international NGO's who are supporting traumatised women and girls in war or crisis zones. This includes ongoing work with women in Albania and with Afghan and Liberian women. Liane is a black belt Aikido instructor, a Feldenkrais bodywork teacher as well as a performer. She is trained in Biography work and Virginia Satir Organizational Constellations work. She is co-author with Mohammed El Hachimi of several books/articles on leadership and systemic consultation and guest faculty at Akademie Remscheid in Germany.

Hèlen Vink is a photographer and teacher in Miksang Contemplative Photography. She lives in the Netherlands, Amsterdam area.

Miksang is a Tibetan word and means "Good Eye," pointing to everyone's innate ability to see clearly. It was love at first sight with Miksang Photography when Helen participated in a workshop with founder Michael Wood in 2006. She continues to studies with him today.

Helen has been involved in the Shambhala Community for 14 years, beginning with studying Dharma Art and has since been living and working at International Shambhala landcentres, and is a senior student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

She teaches in Shambhala centres in the Netherlands where she has introduced talking circle principles, trained facilitators, and introduced the feminine and masculine principles.

Hèlen Vink started her Miksang Photography business in 2008 and is currently pioneering Miksang Photography throughout Europe.