Babette Lightner
Babette Lightner (She) from the Mississippi River Watershed near Rush Creek.
My work, Wholeness in Motion and Language of Wholeness, is an on-going synthesis of 40 years exploring movement, somatic work, nature, mythology, and culture. I am part of the faculty at the VoiceCare Network and co-creative director of the Center for Sound Music Education. I am a Certified Alexander Technique teacher (30 years) and a LearningMethods™ teacher (20 years). I taught in the Professional Actor Training Program and Music Department at the University of Minnesota and have lectured and taught for many universities, institutions and organizations including the Guthrie Theater, Sister Kenny Institute, Balk Opera Music Institute, Taipei National University of Arts in Taiwan, Western University in Ontario and many more.
My explorations into human movement have taken me around the world, from dancing with a folk dance troupe in the villages of South India to performing with a post-modern physical theatre company in the warehouses of Boston. These explorations in being of the earth are life long and endless. My garden and studio are on 47 acres in Spring Valley, Wisconsin. I maintain an active residency, workshop and lecture schedule - (pre-covid 19). I work extensively with on-line courses and trainings.
I have created many video resources and am the author of Your Inner Compass, Pedagogy of Empowerment, Coordination of Being for Conductors and other articles that elucidate how your magnificent system can work for you rather than against you. The Language of Wholeness text is in draft form. I wake up grateful each morning because seeing people awed by their own capability is like witnessing a miracle every day.
My writing, teaching and video work centers on co-creatively exploring what it is to thrive and how to counter the dominant hierarchical cultural framework that is embedded in our bodies and our strategies. The work is one voice in the global movement to embody Life-Giving paradigms on a personal level for global change.
A personal statement - origins of the work:
Questions underlie my life’s work.
ChildhoodJustice: Why would people kill all the whales when they make their living from whales? Why are the black kids bused to my white school and I’m not bused to their school?
Later personal: Why is my voice always hoarse? How is it possible that I go to sleep feeling like everything is a mess and wake up feeling fine but nothing in the situation has changed? How do I change patterns that interfere with a joyous life? How do I make my own discoveries? Why can three of us be in the same situation but have different reactions?
Later still: What is going on in this MFA program where I teach that the students arrive authentic and inspired and leave fake and forced? Why are so many classically trained musicians riddled with fear, tension and pain? Why is thought and humanity elevated over movement and earth? Currently: What are the microaggressions that I inflict in my work? How do we move from what I am coming to understand is the Competitive, Eurocentric, Scarcity driven, 'Pwer over', Industrial Growth Society to a Global majority, Sustainable, Cooperative, 'Power with', Life-Giving Society?
The books, the studies, the community and the work I do has been ignited by these questions. I join others with similar questions in my work with the VoiceCare Network and as co-creative director of the Center for Sound Music Education. My work, Wholeness in Motion, is about Wholefullness. It is an on-going synthesis of 40 years exploring movement, somatic work, nature, mythology, and culture. How do our underlying paradigms/stories support or interfere with our ability to thrive? How do I shift my ways of seeing, my words, my teaching methods to align with Life-affirming paradigms? Seeing the beauty and love that blossoms in a person when they sense the miracle of their being through simple, practical experiences like: being able to move without hurting or being less afraid to sing, being brave to speak truth or choosing to do less in a day, is the engine that powers my life. My writing, teaching and video work centers on co-creatively exploring these questions and possibilities. www.wim.life. The work is one voice in the global movement for a 'power with/power to' social relational model and the movement to embody Life-Giving paradigms on a personal level for global change.
Questions underlie my life’s work.
ChildhoodJustice: Why would people kill all the whales when they make their living from whales? Why are the black kids bused to my white school and I’m not bused to their school?
Later personal: Why is my voice always hoarse? How is it possible that I go to sleep feeling like everything is a mess and wake up feeling fine but nothing in the situation has changed? How do I change patterns that interfere with a joyous life? How do I make my own discoveries? Why can three of us be in the same situation but have different reactions?
Later still: What is going on in this MFA program where I teach that the students arrive authentic and inspired and leave fake and forced? Why are so many classically trained musicians riddled with fear, tension and pain? Why is thought and humanity elevated over movement and earth? Currently: What are the microaggressions that I inflict in my work? How do we move from what I am coming to understand is the Competitive, Eurocentric, Scarcity driven, 'Pwer over', Industrial Growth Society to a Global majority, Sustainable, Cooperative, 'Power with', Life-Giving Society?
The books, the studies, the community and the work I do has been ignited by these questions. I join others with similar questions in my work with the VoiceCare Network and as co-creative director of the Center for Sound Music Education. My work, Wholeness in Motion, is about Wholefullness. It is an on-going synthesis of 40 years exploring movement, somatic work, nature, mythology, and culture. How do our underlying paradigms/stories support or interfere with our ability to thrive? How do I shift my ways of seeing, my words, my teaching methods to align with Life-affirming paradigms? Seeing the beauty and love that blossoms in a person when they sense the miracle of their being through simple, practical experiences like: being able to move without hurting or being less afraid to sing, being brave to speak truth or choosing to do less in a day, is the engine that powers my life. My writing, teaching and video work centers on co-creatively exploring these questions and possibilities. www.wim.life. The work is one voice in the global movement for a 'power with/power to' social relational model and the movement to embody Life-Giving paradigms on a personal level for global change.
Dancing roots - Karagam in Madurai Tamilnadu India in the 80's.
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Publications
Click links below for full articles:
Pedagogy of Empowerment Patterns of Joy -- Your Inner-Compass Beyond The Body Coordination of Being -- Conducting The Coordination of Bliss |
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