Meytal Blanaru

Fathom High

/fathom/
Meaning:
To understand an enigma in depth;
A unit for measuring the depth of water, equal to a person’s arms reached out wide open for a hug.

FATHOM HIGH, a Feldenkrais® based dance technique, is the use of neuroplasticity to create a fundamental change in the way we move. It unlocks new movement patterns, rewiring the whole architecture of the movement, so we can change our habits from the core, and move beyond limitations.
It does so by entering a mindful state where learning is done with a sensation of constant child-like discovery, much in the same way that a baby discovers a movement for the first time.
FATHOM HIGH uses strategies like unorthodox coordination and attention games in order to:
Tap into a healthier, smarter, more resilient way of moving
Move beyond limitations
Overcome pain and injuries
Develop a kinder, more creative, perpetually curious approach to the body in movement
Redefine our concepts around learning and evolution, self-practice and the most fundamental way we meet our body

Words from Meytal:
My meeting with the Feldenkrais® Method changed my life in every possible way. After my first encounter with the method I felt so free in my body in ways I’ve never experienced before. I quickly saw the huge potential in bringing this method into my dancing.
So I decided to take time off from professional dancing for a year in order to dive into Feldenkrais. I left the dance company that I was in, packed a suitcase and traveled across Australia and India with an old tape recorder full of recordings of Feldenkrais classes. I practiced everywhere, day and night, in quiet spots, in cities, in parks, in nature, everywhere – practicing Feldenkrais and searching for a concrete bridge between Feldenkrais and my dancing. With time, through many experimentations the practice of FATHOM HIGH started to emerge. By the time the year finished, this research had deeply altered the way I moved and perceived my body.

Since then I’ve been devoting my time to crafting and developing FATHOM HIGH. I use it to constantly develop my abilities as a dancer, as well as a base for my choreographic work. But more than anything – I use it to feel happy and fulfilled in my moving body. In 2015 I completed my Feldenkrais studies and became a certified Feldenkrais teacher.

Strangely, before meeting Feldenkrais I never had the desire to create my own choreographic work. But through FATHOM HIGH I found my voice and the desire to create. Once I saw how deeply this practice echoed with my students, and started teaching more and more, researching and refining the practice, learning how to communicate its intricacies.

Everything I do is always rooted in FATHOM HIGH: To create, to teach, to perform – they’re all just different expressions of doing the same thing – sharing this subtle, rich, layered universe with others. To this day I keep staying deeply inspired by Feldenkrais, always seeking for new ways to integrate the wisdom of this method into new aspects of my life and my movement. FATHOM HIGH sustains and feeds my love for dance, since it’s always a huge joy to play and listen, which is essentially all we do in this practice.

More than anything else – FATHOM HIGH made me a good friend to my body rather than an outside observer or adversary. After years of formal dance education, where I was constantly told how I SHOULD move and carry myself, this practice liberated me and brought me back to reclaim my own body. It reconnected me to the basic joy in dancing. This is my deep motivation in teaching – to enable and support others through a similar process.

Meytal Blanaru’s biography:

Meytal Blanaru is a Brussels based dancer, choreographer and the founder of Fathom High. Since creating her 1st solo Lilly in 2008, she develops a personal movement research that deeply alters the way she moves and perceives the body. Inspired by the Feldenkrais method, her curiosity to create a fusion between Feldenkrais and dance leads her to slowly build a movement technique which she calls FATHOM HIGH. In 2011, she creates her second solo AURORA, which is selected to the prestigious AEROWAVES priority list 2015 and tours extensively between 2011 to 2018 across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In 2014, she assists Damien Jalet in YAMA – a creation for the Scottish Dance Theater. In 2015 she creates SAND, a piece for 10 young dancers, commissioned by the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance; Followed by ANITYA, a piece for 8 young dancers, created in 2017, commissioned by DanscentrumJette/Danske platform. In 2018, Meytal’s new group creation WE WERE THE FUTURE is the winner of the French CDCN Coproduction, offering a vast network of theaters in France that supports and programs the piece for the season 18/19. She then creates HOME, a dance piece for 26 young dancers at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. Meytal has been invited by the Scottish Dance Theater Company to create a newly commissioned piece for the company, due to premiere in August 2020. As a performer Meytal worked and collaborated with Samuel Lefeuvre/Groupe Entorse, Lisi Estaras/les Ballets C de la B, Damien Jalet/Eastman Dance Company, Roberto Olivan, Clara Furey & Martin Kilvady. Meytal is also a certified Feldenkrais teacher. She is devoted to the promotion of the Feldenkrais method into the dance community. As a part of this initiative she teaches regularly FATHOM HIGH workshops, with the aim of bringing awareness to the huge potential of Feldenkrais and neuroplasticity when applied in the dance field. She teaches in different companies and schools such as Carte Blanche, The Scottish Dance Theater, Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, P.A.R.T.S , Charleroi-Danses, DanscentrumJette and other schools in Europe, Canada and Israel.
www.meytal-blanaru.com

Dates and times:
June 16 – 20
Monday to Friday
14:30 – 17:30

Price:
50 € registration fee
180 € total

Package deal:
In the same week Ori Flomin is teaching in the mornings. You get a 15% discount for registering to both workshops.