Babette Lightner, RSME


Babette Lightner, RSME* (She/her) from the Mississippi River Watershed near Rush Creek.

My work, Wholeness in Motion,(WIM), is an on-going synthesis of 40 years exploring movement, somatic work, nature, mythology, and culture.  WIM informs my contribution as Co-creative Director for the Center of Sound Music Education and the workshops, residencies and courses I teach. WIM is informed by my training as a Certified Alexander Technique teacher and Registered Somatic Movement Educator, (RSME-30 years), and a LearningMethods™ teacher (20 years). I bring to WIM what I learned from years teaching with the VoiceCare Network, the Professional Actor Training Program and Music Department at the University of Minnesota and the lectures, workshops and course given 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 to testing theories of movement efficiency as a laborer in my wife's nursery business. These explorations in being of the earth are life long and endless. Our garden and studio are on 47 acres in Spring Valley, Wisconsin. This land was essentially stolen from Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Dakota) People in 1837 Cession 243. Understanding the significance of that fact continues to challenge and teach me.

Wholeness in Motion and my writing, teaching and video work centers on co-creatively exploring what it is to thrive and reclaim wholeness. WIM offers tools to counter the dominant hierarchical oppression based cultural framework that is embedded in our bodies and our strategies. The work is one voice in the global movement to embody, regenerative, Life-Giving paradigms on a personal level for global change.


I have created many video resources and am the author of Your Inner Compass, Pedagogy of Empowerment•Patterns of Joy, 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 maintain an active residency, workshop and lecture schedule - (pre-covid 19). I work extensively with on-line courses and trainings.  I wake up grateful each morning because seeing people awed by their own capability is like witnessing a miracle every day. I am actively working to understand the effect of my history and lineage on my life and work. My ancestors are predominantly white anglo-saxon protestants who colonized New England. I am learning about:
  • activists, like a lesbian great aunt who created a summer camp to empower young women in the 1930's,
  • colonizers, like the first school master of the Ipswich, Massachusetts colony school in 1634,
  • murderers, like the relative who left New England to fight in the 'Indian Wars' taking place in my current home in Wisconsin, (An English misspelling of a French fur trader's interpretation of the local Miami people's name for the river. The Miami language is now extinct).
I understand the privilege of even knowing my ancestry. Like all of us, my lineage is complex and full of contradictions. I am committed to continue to learn and hold these contradictions honestly.


*RSME - Registered Somatic Movement Educator - Link above to ISMETA the registering organization for details.
Picture
Dancing roots - Karagam in Madurai Tamilnadu India in the 80's.