This dance/movement workshop will help participants explore their own internal resources and sense of empowerment through a guided and improvisational movement experience. Drawing from dance/movement therapy techniques, participants will have the opportunity to learn movement based self-regulation techniques that can be used to find a sense of safety and stability in times of turmoil. The second part of the workshop will focus on creating a collaborative choreography, bringing together group resources to create a sense of cohesion and connection.
Workshop Facilitator: Ashley Fargnoli
Ashley Fargnoli is a dance/movement therapist and dance activist who promotes the use of dance for post-conflict reconciliation and healing among marginalized populations. Ashley currently works as a dance/movement therapist with refugees and survivors of human trafficking in Chicago. She has presented her work with these populations at the National Refugee and Immigrant conference, the American Dance Therapy Association, and at the Alliance for Women Scholars and Scientists. Ashley has also taught Expressive Arts Therapy at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago. During her journey to becoming a dance/movement therapist, Ashley lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina for three years where she implemented numerous dance reconciliation projects as well as integration projects for Roma youth. In 2008, Ashley spent eight months in Kolkata, India working with Kolkata Sanved and learning about the use of DMT for psychosocial rehabilitation for survivors of human trafficking. Ashley is co-directing and producing a film about this organization’s innovative DMT program. Ashley's choreography focuses on the impact of trauma and capturing the resilience of the human spirit. Ashley is an alumna of the Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling program at Columbia College, Chicago and also holds a MA in Cultural Project Management from the Institute of Political Studies (France).