Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer

Dancing in the Living Room

My husband, Richard Kamler, who I’ve loved since 1971, died from cancer in November 2017. 

Richard was an artist, a person with a calling, who was driven to make a mark on the world with his art. His devotion to that work was an inspiration for me.

I am also an artist.

My work: acting, improvisation, dance, storytelling, writing, has always been a life line for me, a path to aliveness that’s seen me through depression, illness, care giving and profound grief.

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Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer

Warm Ups

Melt down into your mat and stretch out on your back. Relax and release, letting your weight sink into the mat. Take a moment to check into your body with a sensory body scan. Let your awareness move through your body from head to toe and toe to head. Where, in your body, are you released? Where held? Where warm? Where cool? Really notice the changes in your body and thoughts from moment to moment. Focusing on the breath, notice that the exhalation is the release breath, the relaxation phase of breathing.

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Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer

Introduction to my Full Spectrum Improvisation Book

It’s late December, 2014, and I’m driving across the Bay Bridge in heavy traffic & even heavier rain. Cars are speeding by me, going too fast for the wet road. I’m nervous. I turn off the news on the radio, not wanting to hear more about the housing crisis and income inequality in San Francisco, where I live. I’m all too familiar with these troubles.

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Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer

Full Spectrum Improvisation by Joya Cory

There is a word of ancient Greek origin, metaxis, which means belonging to two worlds at the same time: the inner world of the psyche and the outer world of material reality. It is the simultaneous awareness, and the merging of these realities, that I find most exciting about theater, especially improvisational theatre. From within this heightened state of aliveness we have full access to our imaginations, our intuition, our most resonant dreams and stories.

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Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer

Authenticity and Creative Collaboration in Full Spectrum Improvisation

Creating theatre from scratch is a great adventure that requires skill and an open heart, mind and body. One of the ongoing questions we embrace is: “How do I express myself authentically while connecting and co-operating with my partners?” This, of course, is a question that is alive in every relationship, on stage or off. Emotional safety is always an issue.

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Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer Joya's Teaching Patti Meyer

Stage Fright

The fear of being witnessed is the fear of being judged and found inadequate. People talk about wanting to disappear, to become invisible, when in front of an audience. We’re desperately afraid of “making fools of ourselves.” There is a profound and corrosive sense of shame that we have not lived up to our own or others expectations of us. It’s a fundamental human need to be accepted by our community.

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