DANCE 289/HONOR 113: Rubric for Embodied TED Talk

Personal Practice (50 points):

Step 1: Review Glenna Batsons three key concepts in somatic practice (Sensory Attunement,
Novel Learning Context, and Augmented Rest) to help guide the design of your Personal Practice

.
Step 2: Write a first draft of your Personal Practice

in outline form, one-page maximum, including

the following:
Duration and frequency: How long is your practice? How often are you doing it?
Both qualitative (objective) and quantitative (subjective) descriptions: What do you do1 ?
How do you do it? What images and/or somatic methodologies/philosophies create and
support the movement of your body-mind during this practice? Feel free to draw from any of
the experiences offered in class or in the course materials.
Step 3: Do the

practice regularly.
Step 4: After a few attempts at your Personal

Practice, make adjustments and add details to your

outline based on your experience.
Step 5: Add the following questions to the second page of your document, the first one at the top,
and second one half-way down:
1. What do you feel in your body-mind when you are witnessing this persons presentation?
2. Using the ways of observing weve practiced in this class, what do you notice about this
persons embodiment as they share the information?
Step 6: Make thirteen, two-sided hard copies of your practice for your peers to bring to class on
Monday, December 12th, the day of your presentation. Your Personal Practice will be on one side of
the page, and the two questions will be on the other.
Step 7: Practice your presentation using this support of your
Personal Practice with someone
before you give it to your classmates during class.
Reflection (50 points):
After your presentation on Monday, December 12th, you will write a short reflection, due by
Monday, December 19th. Be specific! Include sensory information and your responses (thoughts,
feelings, judgements, re-focusing) to that information. The field for this Reflection will be in the Week
#16 folder under the Assignments tab.
What was the effect of your practice on your presentation/What happened when you added
presenting to your practice?
What was your bodys response to being seen/witnessed in your presentation?
How did the ways of being we practiced in this class support your delivery?
Did your delivery/performance come from your whole self? If not, what parts or aspects of
yourself felt cut off or disconnected in your awareness?
Did you feel a connection with others/the audience?
How did your practice delivery and delivery in class differ?

A note on breathing practices and the Breath Pattern of Total Body Connectivity: Since breath is fundamental, we expect
that you will include some

reference to it in your Personal Practice description. However, your practice must go beyond
breathing to include another somatic exploration.
1

Feedback (50 points):

This portion of the Embodied TED Talk assignment happens while you are witnessing your peers.
They will hand you their Personal Practice outline, and you will find the questions from Step 5,
above, on the back. Please respond to each during and after their presentation.
Regarding the subject matter of your 3-minute presentation
Choose something that is important to you and that you feel could be meaningful to others, and/or
information that may inspire others to make changes that have real impact in the world.
Your Personal Practice is meant to support the

presentation of your subject matter and need not be

related in any way to your subject matter of your presentation!
Your presentation is limited to three minutes, and if you collaborate with someone else, you will
have six minutes collectively. Do not try to cover too much information! Focus on the delivery of the
material, and be sure to credit your sources by sharing who the information is from and how you got
the information (book, article, webpage, video, podcast, etc.).
Write Leslie and Jess with any questions you have, or bring them up in class next Monday,
December 5th.