Laban Movement Analyst/Registered Somatic Movement Educator/Choreographer
MOVE! DANCE! PLAY! Vitality through Movement
Artistic Director of Octavia Cup Dance Theatre
Spring SCHEDULE - Let's MOVE, DANCE, PLAY
Updated April 2025
All Listings in EASTERN TIME
Monday
9:00-9:50am SoMATic Mat - exercise/fitness - Zoom
5:30-6:30pm Ballet on Zoom
Tuesday - Private Sessions are available
TUESDAYS - Next MOVEMENT FOR MEDITATORS: Diving Deep Level 2 course starts April 15th
This is not available on a drop-in basis. You must register for the full course.
Thursday
9:00-9:50am SoMATic MAT Space, Mobility, Awareness on Zoom
THURSDAYS- MOVEMENT FOR MEDITATORS: Embodiment & FLOW Level 1 course starts April 17th
This is not available on a drop-in basis. You must register for the full course.
Saturday
9:30-10:20am - SoMATic Mat - exercise/fitness - Zoom
This is an opportunity to stay connected to your own BODYMIND
on ZOOM - After I receive your registration you will receive the ONE link for all classes- there is only one link- but be sure to make your payment in advance - so that I can send you the link.
Ballet Barre on Zoom (8 weeks)
This is an HOUR LONG ballet barre: Pliés, Tendus, etc.
Next session March 31-May 19th
Photo: by Mónica Lou Mercadé
Movement for Meditators: Embodiment & FLOW (Level 1)
Movement for Meditators with Laura V Ward
Thursdays from 5:00-6:15pm EST, 2:00-3:15pm PST
An 8-week movement & theory course on Zoom
Your bodymind has brought you this far in life, bravo, but could you be more fluid, feel freer, and easily tune into the flows of life? Could you go deeper into experience? Learn to recognize and release tension as it arises? Disentangle old holding patterns?
The Movement for Meditators: Embodiment and FLOW course offers an experiential reconnection of body and mind in the interest of integral vitality. What does that even mean? Integral vitality is coherent vitality. Your body is working in accord with itself. Head, heart, and guts are all on the same page. The orchestra is in tune and playing the same song. It is healthy entrainment.
If you want to release crusty old thinking, inhibitory armoring, and outdated holding patterns then this class is for you. If you want to access more energy and deeper states of embodiment, presence, and connection, sign up! Finding more flow in movement will lead to more flow in your day-to-day.
Meditation has probably taught you a lot. You already have experience with depth practice. It's just a jump to the left and then a step to the ri-i-i-ight to aim this skill at your own body. The same body you will be in for the rest of your life. We interpret our whole world through our physical body and our senses first, and through thinking second. This course will connect and open our bodymind through movement, sound, and vibration. We will be reconceptualizing embodiment and moving in ways perfect for meditation practitioners.
- The class will consist of: Warm-up/Tissue Prep: A Guided Free Flow Movement Exploration
- Rolling on the floor for mobility, tissue hydration and release
- Somatic Practice to go deeper into Awake Awareness while moving, staying present with your Self
- Using movement and dance as a means to free up expression and energy (don't be intimidated, it will be fun 🤩 )
- Simple exercises and mat work (like yoga, Pilates, functional mobility) focusing on specific exercises to relieve our bodies from excessive sitting and stillness and learn about healthy function
- Using sounding and vibration to engage with the wholeness pattern of your bodymind
Goals:
- Reconnect to movement and embodiment in a healthy user-friendly way
- Rethink and deprogram unhelpful social, cultural, familial, political, and historical biases that objectify and separate the BODYmind
- Renegociate flow to improve tissue hydration, healthy function, and expression
- Learn how to down-regulate and up-regulate through breath, sound, and movement
- Learn to move in novel ways, make space for new neural pathways, let go of old priors
- Better health, more flow, and resilience
Who is this course for?
- People who have achieved some depth in their mediation life and want to take their practice "off the cushion"
- People who are interested in approaching movement practice in the way they approach their mediation practice
- Analytical thinkers and people who spend a lot of time “in their head”
- People who want to grow and learn
What if I have limited mobility?
No problem. You can move at whatever level of ability you have. Breathing is movement. Bringing the concepts we will work with into your imagination with no movement will still greatly affect your bodymind.
Laura Victoria Ward is a maximalist artist, choreographer, somatic movement educator, consciousness explorer, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, teacher, musician, painter, somanaut (integral anatomist), psychonaut, and meditator. She is the artistic director of Octavia Cup Dance Theatre, and has been teaching movement, creating dance theater, and performing in New York State, the Hudson Valley, and internationally for almost 30 years.
Participating equally in both experiential and performative practices–including movement, awareness, and expression—lays the foundation for Laura's work, which includes creativity, play, inquiry, and the infinite wonder of existing in a human body. An expansive knowledge of diverse practices, hands-on bodywork, anatomy, and kinesiology underpins Laura’s playful investigation including Continuum Movement, classical ballet training, Laban/Bartenieff, physical theater, and nondual awareness meditation (with Michael Taft). She has been meditating for over 30 years.
photo: William Loeb
Movement for Meditators: Diving Deep - Level 2
FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY TAKEN THE COURSE and feel ready to move into deeper material.
Please discuss with me if you are uncertain.
Movement for Meditators with Laura V Ward
Tuesdays from 5:00-6:15pm EST, 2:00-3:15pm PST
A 8-week movement & theory course on Zoom
This course is for people familiar with Laban Space concepts, Continuum breath practices, and Laura-style somatic inquiry. I will be teaching with an emphasis on going deeper into experience.
What if I have limited mobility?
No problem. You can move at whatever level of ability you have. Breathing is movement. Bringing the concepts we will work with into your imagination with no movement will still greatly affect your bodymind.
Laura Victoria Ward is a maximalist artist, choreographer, somatic movement educator, consciousness explorer, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, teacher, musician, painter, somanaut (integral anatomist), psychonaut, and meditator. She is the artistic director of Octavia Cup Dance Theatre, and has been teaching movement, creating dance theater, and performing in New York State, the Hudson Valley, and internationally for almost 30 years.
Participating equally in both experiential and performative practices–including movement, awareness, and expression—lays the foundation for Laura's work, which includes creativity, play, inquiry, and the infinite wonder of existing in a human body. An expansive knowledge of diverse practices, hands-on bodywork, anatomy, and kinesiology underpins Laura’s playful investigation including Continuum Movement, classical ballet training, Laban/Bartenieff, physical theater, and nondual awareness meditation (with Michael Taft). She has been meditating for over 30 years.
photo: Monica Lou Mercade
The Thrum: Inception Dive
This guided meditation is a somatic inquiry practice inspired by Laban/Bartenieff, sacred geometry, Continuum, micro-movement, non-dual meditation, creativity, sound vibration, vocal toning, nature, the elements, free flow, dance, and inner space exploration. We engage in this work to down-regulate our bodyminds and to connect to our planet and our shared humanity.
During the Inception Dive, we will move inward and then challenge our awareness to go deeper.
We will offer our embodied awareness a chance to open into spaciousness with novel movement and vibration. Our guides along the way will be sounds and breaths from Continuum and pranayama, macro and micro-movement, and imaginal practice.
Bring your bodymind, some water, and anything you need to be comfortable on the floor or in bed. Feel free to build your own nest. Move as much or as little as your heart desires.
Laura Victoria Ward, BA, CMA, RSME, is a devotional maximalist artist, choreographer, somatic movement educator, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, teacher, musician, and painter. She is the artistic director of Octavia Cup Dance Theatre, a multi-disciplinary, multi-generational company. She has been creating dance theater and performing in New York City, the Hudson Valley, and internationally for over 30 years.
The Thrum: Motor Babbling on Zoom
This guided meditation is a somatic inquiry practice inspired by Laban/Bartenieff, sacred geometry, Continuum, micro-movement, non-dual meditation, creativity, sound vibration, vocal toning, nature, the elements, free flow, dance, and inner space exploration. We engage in this work to down-regulate our bodyminds and to connect to our planet and our shared humanity.
During Motor Babbling, we will move as if for the first time, giving ourselves freedom to babble. Trying on and trying out different ways of experiencing movement within a low-stakes learning environment. Time and space to PLAY and renegotiate what it means to exist in a human body.
We will offer our embodied awareness a chance to open into spaciousness with novel movement and vibration. Our guides along the way will be sounds and breaths from Continuum and pranayama, macro and micro-movement, and imaginal practice.
Bring your bodymind, some water, and anything you need to be comfortable on the floor or in bed. Feel free to build your own nest. Move as much or as little as your heart desires.
Laura Victoria Ward, BA, CMA, RSME, is a devotional maximalist artist, choreographer, somatic movement educator, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, teacher, musician, and painter. She is the artistic director of Octavia Cup Dance Theatre, a multi-disciplinary, multi-generational company. She has been creating dance theater and performing in New York City, the Hudson Valley, and internationally for over 30 years.