While our immersions are experiential and aimed at deepening your movement practice, as a teacher in training you will be required to complete 20 hours of practice days. Held in small groups, the practice days are dedicated to bringing the Open Floor curriculum to life in your teaching, and building the practical skills required for teaching Open Floor movement practice to others.

During practice days, you will learn:

• How to design movement scores to teach each of the 10 Core Movement Resources
• How to use physical anchors to keep bringing your students back to the body and learning through the lens of embodiment
• How to ask the right questions and give instructions to increase your students’ self-awareness and mindfulness
• How to include the 4×4 weave in your teaching
• How to create exercises using other modalities in addition to dance
• Understand different teaching styles and how to use them
• How to teach people of all ages and abilities
• Grow your insights into group dynamics and embody fluid authority

Part of your training will take place online engaging with faculty and other trainees in a series of live webinars, and viewing self-paced recorded webinars to further your study of embodiment and mindful movement. Each training phase will include a total of 9 webinars.

From DJ skills, to learning anatomy, to book clubs, our online courses cover a wide range of topics to support your learning and expand your skills as an Open Floor teacher.

As in any adult learning program, the work you do in between immersions and practice days is what will make the difference to the quality of your learning. Assignments include teaching practice classes, developing music skills, taking electives, reading, and writing reflections.

To share and demonstrate your growing skillset, you will be required to teach practice classes in your local communities or workplace that focus on specific elements of the curriculum.

Other assignments include:

• Developing your music skills through assignments in musicality, creating soundscapes, and music technology
• Completing a required reading list to enhance your theoretical knowledge of the work
• Sharing written reflections with your mentor to document and anchor your learning

Together with your mentor, you will decide on a number of electives to enhance your understanding and experience of other people’s teaching by attending Open Floor workshops.

You will receive mentoring throughout the training program, including both individual sessions with your mentor and group sessions with your peers.

By the time you graduate from the teacher training program, you must have completed: 

• 250 hours Conscious Dance practice* including a minimum of 180 hrs Open Floor Movement Practice
• One Libido Fundamentals workshop (15 hours) or equivalent study in embodied sexuality (coming up January 2023, Auckland New Zealand click her for more details)
• 20 hours Mindfulness study & practice 
• 15 hours Experiential Anatomy & Neurophysiology

These do not need to be completed in order to apply for the training, but are required in order to graduate from the program.  

*Conscious Dance Practices:  Open Floor, Soul Motion, 5Rhythms, Movement Medicine, Freedom Dance, Azul, Tamalpa Life/Art Process, Continuum, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies. Let us know if there’s another conscious dance practice you have studied that you would like us to consider. 

 Your teachers will be Geordie Jahner and Andrea Juhan

Training costs announced June 30, 2022

Payment options will be published 3June 30, 2022

Tuition fees include:

• Admission to all 4 immersions and practicums
• Group Mentoring sessions
• Individual Mentoring sessions
• Live and recorded webinars
• Coursework resources and documents
• Access to our training portal and online communities
• Administrative support

What’s NOT included:

• Living expenses or accommodations
• Meals
• Transportation for in-person events
• Books from required or optional reading lists
• Elective workshops
• Any additional training or mentoring needed to complete the prerequisites for the training

OFI has two scholarship funds that support those who are in financial need and wish to study.

MUDRA FINANCIAL AID SCHOLARSHIP FUND

A mudra is a position in which we place our bodies to cultivate a specific awareness. The spirit of the mudra of sobriety is “neither more nor less than necessary.”  This is what we ask you to contemplate, in consideration of your own true needs, and all others who need help too.

1. Find a quiet place where you can sit undisturbed for 5 or 10 minutes.
2. Sit with your legs crossed and spine straight, as best as you are able.  
3. Rest your hands on your knees, palms down. Breathe for several minutes and let yourself settle, until you have a sense of quiet.  Then consider:
   • What program do you want to attend, and what is the cost?
   • How much of that amount can you manage yourself?
   • How much do you need from the collective scholarship pool to attend?

When an answer comes to you, please request an amount that is neither more — nor less — than is necessary for you at this time.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION SCHOLARSHIP FUND

OFI provides scholarships to increase the diversity of OFI students and teachers. To qualify for the scholarship, prospective students demonstrate a commitment to diversity as it relates to their interest in mindful movement for personal healing, professional growth, and community building. Priority is given to applicants who belong to racial, religious, cultural, sexual identity, geographic, and ability groups that have traditionally been underrepresented populations in the field of mindful movement and conscious dance. 

Purpose of the Fund 

With this Scholarship, Open Floor International is taking a first step in reaching a goal of students and teachers being reflective of the world where Open Floor is practiced. The majority of OFI’s current teachers live in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Most are European or of European descent, speak English fluently, are 35 – 65, identify as women, and are able-bodied.  We are actively looking to expand our reach outside these populations with our scholarship fund. If you identify as Black, Indigenous, Person of Color (BIPOC), LBGQT+, gender fluid, differently abled, and/or you live in less wealthy regions, we would like to hear from you. 

There is a $50 non-refundable application fee. After paying the application fee, you’ll be directed to our application form.

NOTE: The form does not save your responses as you go along, so please be prepared to fill it out in one session. We suggest that you download the questions in advance, type your responses in a separate document, and then copy/paste them into the form.

After submitting the form, your references will be contacted and the faculty will review your qualifications. You’ll receive a response in no more than 30 days.

If you are accepted, you’ll then be directed to make a payment to hold your space on the Teacher Training.