Move as a Living System: An Improvisational Dance Workshop
MOVE AS A LIVING SYSTEM
An improvisational dance workshop facilitated by Rebecca Strull
📍 Upper Atrium of Mabuhay Gardens (435 Broadway, San Francisco)
📅 Sunday March 8th, 10am to 12:30pm
Please arrive on time. This is a closed container workshop, with material building as we go.
🎟️ Workshop is offered for free to the public by the Solarpunkification 2026 festival
How does it feel to move as a living system?
A living system isn’t controlled by a single part. It’s made of interdependent elements that influence one another, adapt to change, and generate intelligence through relationships. In this improvisational dance workshop, we’ll embody that reality—within ourselves and as a group.
In the body
We’ll begin by exploring the body itself as a nested system, where each part influences the others and leadership circulates rather than defaulting to the head. From there, we’ll refine our individual expression—experimenting with rhythm, speed, energy, and space—so others can clearly perceive and respond to us.
In relationship
In pairs, we’ll practice two-way communication: simultaneously leading and following, influencing and being influenced. We'll consider:
• How do I express direction without dominating?
• How do I remain responsive without becoming passive?
• What enables us to trust each other? To change together?
As a full group, we’ll experiment with co-creation, moving together as interconnected nodes within a dynamic network. In nature-inspired improvisations (flocks, swarms, ecosystems), we'll observe how information flows, power moves, attention guides emergence, and we reorganize in real time.
Throughout, we’ll pause to debrief and reflect on the broader implications of our discoveries.
Logistical notes
Open and accessible to anyone with a body! No dance experience needed. Physical touch will not be a focus.
This is a closed-container workshop; please arrive on time. Material will build as we go.
Wear clothes you feel comfortable moving in, pack a notebook and water bottle if you like, and bring your curiosity.
Why this matters @ Solarpunkification 2026
In Solarpunk, the future is not only imagined but practiced. In my work as a systems change consultant, I've seen that when a vision is practiced (rather than just talked about), change accelerates. Each interaction done differently becomes the future arriving now.
Improvisational dance allows us to inhabit futures we may not yet know how to practice or even imagine. Through the body, we bypass the mind’s limitations, finding new ways to create and relate that we can carry into our work and daily lives.
About Rebecca Strull
Rebecca Strull is a facilitator, designer, researcher, dancer, and artist who guides change grounded in relational intelligence and collective imagination.
She has spent nearly a decade partnering with public agencies, foundations, and mission-driven organizations to transform systems—including healthcare, education, childcare, agriculture, and immigration—so they work better for everyone, especially those historically excluded. Her projects have ranged from multi-country engagements with the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations, to hyperlocal planning processes engaging 300+ systems leaders and community members.
A lifelong dancer, Rebecca also teaches Contact Improvisation, informed by her studies in improvisational dance at Middlebury College and with respected teachers like Nita Little, Ezra LeBank, and JoAnna Mendl Shaw.
Whether facilitating in dance spaces or board rooms, she invites groups to discover new ways of moving together.
This workshop is happening within the larger Solarpunkification festival.
Solarpunkification 2026 Mabuhay Gardens, March 6th, 7th, 8th
Luma: https://luma.com/8u07vkhv