Cerebral Posse
I have been taking Tamar's movement/dance/laboratory class for about ten years. I stopped going in 2011 when I developed a neurological disorder called truncal dystonia. I was barely able to walk and experienced a pulling feeling as if a cumberbund was being tightened around my waist. This feeling was severe and made me bend at the middle as if I was going to pick something up off the floor. I started seeing Tamar privately and
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While Tamar and I were down in Sarasota, Florida for the premier of Enter The Faun at the Sarasota Film Festival this past April, we conducted several workshops with the Dance and Disability communities. This resulted in the formation of a new Posse, led by my friend, Katie Calahan and Lynn Hocker, a dancer based in Sarasota. Katie was a few years below me at Boston University's School of Fine Arts. We have kept in
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An update from our Australian Posse leader Robyn Lambird: Robyn Lambird (center) at the 2014 Junior National Wheelchair Basketball Championships Since first seeing the trailer for Enter the Faun I have been immensely intrigued by the techniques used by Tamar and Gregg. From then on I have read multiple books and watched countless talks on neuroplasticity and have found myself more and more invested in learning about this little old brain of mine. So needless
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New York Posse member Christine Bruno: I know I had a breakthrough last week and really want to keep investigating with our posse and work toward a plan that keeps me on track between our meetings. I have been realizing the past few months - especially at last week's meeting - that I need to make this work a priority NOW! Note from Tamar: Christine was working with Gregg and Shawn Shafner, our newest Posse
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A few weeks ago in Tamar's class, Tamar started off the class by asking us where in our body we felt tight or stiff. I mentioned my feet, someone else mentioned their lumbar area and a third person said, their brain. We laughed, and then the laughter stopped. In the spirit of the class and following Tamar's lead, we began an hour and a half exploration of the brain as if it were just another
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I’m wondering about the role of empathy in healing. Is it true that scientists/doctors fear empathy because it may obscure the diagnosis/treatment process? Emotions might come in and we all know how unwieldy emotions can be—so it follows that getting to know your patient intimately might be a bad thing because you then could get confused on the scientific path. For me the empathy (I admit to being the empathy queen) sends me to the
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When the Cerebral Posse first met in March of 2014 several great things happened, but there were two big takeaways for me that evening: The first, I had something confirmed for me; that people with disabilities, and in this particular case, people with cerebral palsy, don't commune on a regular, consistent basis. At the start of the evening all of us acknowledged how strange this was. None of us had ever been around this many people with CP before.
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