There has been a growing subculture in the fitness world that shifts focus away from the amount of weight one can lift or how far one can run. The focus is movement and the patterns the body can create. This philosophy of exercise has gained momentum, through the work of movement guru Ido Portal and other teachers like the founders of Fighting Monkey Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek.
“Movers” are multi-disciplinarians, borrowing from different styles. The lines between health, fitness, philosophy and performance get blurred. There is a growing community of “movers” in Kuwait – and the idea of an event that brings them under one roof motivated the organizers to reach out to a group of movers in their circle to create the New Movement Collective Kuwait – a non-hierarchical, grass roots initiative which will bring Kuwait’s first movement festival – Yalla Move Kuwait – to Al Shaheed Park on the 12th of April. Inspired by volunteer-run movement festivals, like Move Copenhagen in Denmark, the intention of Yalla Move Kuwait is to celebrate diversity in movement. Monies received will be spent on charity. Meet some of the presenters and members of the collective, all movement professionals in different disciplines, who will participate in the very first Yalla Move Kuwait.
Reece Dunn
Reece is a calisthenics coach from London who uses breath as a tool in his training sessions. He will present the breathwork workshop that kicks off the festival. “Calisthenics is a tough sport in terms of disciplining the
body to be firm,” Reece says. “I use the breath to help people relax, so they can understand how to be firm. If we can’t relax, we will never really be able to grasp what it feels like to be firm and to do these advanced moves.”
Reece has won Calisthenics competitions in both Europe and the US before moving to Kuwait. “The biggest change in my training happened when I started to explore the movement culture. Calisthenics can be very linear and that’s OK. The movement culture is more about spiralling movements,” he says. “As adults we hold a lot of tension in our bodies. If I try to teach children gymnastics, they can learn very fast because they have very little mental emotional and physical fears and blockages in their body. For adults we need something to relax our nervous system and surrender to the process of learning.”
Khadija al Sheikh
Khadija Al Sheikh, a trained physician, left a career in medicine to pursue her calling as a dance teacher in what she calls a “leap of faith”. “I chose medicine. I was not pushed into it. I enjoyed the journey of medicine and learning about the human body and what it can do and what happens when things go wrong. I understand the value and the role of medicine and surgeries but when I started working in the hospital, I realized it was not my place. It was not how I wanted to heal people.”
She does not believe her dance and medicine journeys are fundamentally different. “The link between medicine and dance is healing. Dance is a form of healing. It is a healing of body, mind and soul,” she says. “People reconnect with their bodies through movement, release tension and feel great and happy afterwards. That is the soul and body connection. They challenge their mind by learning the choreography, that’s the mind part.”
Khadija has been dancing Hip Hop since the age of 13 and exploring different dance styles from Contemporary, Jazz Funk, House, Krump, Afrobeats and Dancehall. She started teaching dance while still in medical school. She now teaches Hip Hop, Afro Beat and brings her movement practice AbunDANCE to Yalla Move Kuwait which combines dance with yoga and meditation. She creates a safe and encouraging environment that helps her students connect with their bodies, and express themselves through different movement patterns.
Chris Johns
This will be Sydney-based Jivamukti yoga teacher Chris Johns’ fourth visit to Kuwait where he has run several workshops over the years. Jivamukti Yoga is a dynamic ashtanga-inspired yoga method founded by the influential American yogis Shannon Gannon and David Life. It has gained a devoted following all over the world, including New York, London, Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, Moscow and Sydney. Chris is an Advanced Certified teacher in the method and mentors new teachers. Music is a mainstay of Jivamukti yoga classes and Chris will teach a flowing yoga class at Yalla Move Kuwait choreographed to a deep vibrational electronic sound track.
We asked him if movement was the new yoga? “Yoga is the source of all mindful movement,” he says. “Many of us know what it feels like to be in yoga, when we become so immersed in our activity – be that running, surfing, skiing, cycling etc. that all thought stops, and we are totally absorbed in the moment. This is yoga, total flow. All mindful movement, no matter whether it is martial arts, dance or hula hooping can be yoga!”
He believes that yoga has a lot to bring to modern movement culture. “By developing the mind-body connection through yoga posture, and by deepening our understanding of the breath through pranayama (breath work) we release unnecessary tension and become more present. This provides us with the perfect groundwork to then explore our passion for movement no matter the modality.” He thinks modern movement has a lot to offer to yoga practitioners. “The new movement culture embraces all forms of movement and understands that each has something to offer. By embracing the new movement culture, yoga practitioners are opening the door to a myriad of pathways to assist them on their journey towards the state of yoga – pure flow!”
Visit www.eventat.com/en/e/yalla-move-kuwait to get your ticket. For more information follow them on Instagram @yallamovekuwait.
