Hormesis

Hormesis

The theme of the Play-Fight Camp this year, HORMESIS, is a concept intimately related to the very essence of how Play-Fight Practice has been growing and evolving in the past 29 years. Hornesis in the biology and medicine fields is defined as an adaptive response of the cells and organisms to a moderate and usually intermittent stress. In the Play-Fight language the stress is represented by the confrontational aspect present during the physical interactions, which are dealt with and cultivated from a space of cooperation, mutual respect and enduring playfulness. Play-Fight is not a way of fighting each other sweetly. It goes way deeper than that, our style proposes with crystal clarity a dwelling space for non-fighting cultivation. In the making of this safe container we may discover and realize the outlines of our own inner fighting patterns. Through a committed and respectful confrontation certain dysfunctional mental frames and other behavioral patterns may be potentially and gently revealed. In that sense the Hormesis concept offered through Play-Fight Practice by Formless Arts lens, we embrace not only the biological and physiological inherent positive adaptive responses on the cellular level, but invites each of us to undergo a profound emotional, existential and spiritual transformative process inasmuch as the nature of the practice brings light into concealed blockages locked into the body-mind organism. Participants don't need to occupy their minds by fighting others as there is none to fight against but the self. To remove the outer target requires tremendous individual integrity and a good sense of self-honesty to deal with the possible discomfort of facing our blind spots and self-deceptive mechanisms, albeit participants will always be invited and received from a space of sheer playfulness and sensitivity.

ARRIVAL DAY

11th July

Daily Activities

12th - 18th July

Departure Day

19th July

8:30 - 9:30 Breakfast and goodbye

7:15 - 8:15 somatic breath
8:15 - 9:15 breakfast
9:30 - 12:30 morning movement session
12:30 - 16:00 lunch break
16:00 - 19:00 afternoon movement session
20:00 - 21:00 dinner break
21:30 - 23:30 jams and other evening activities

19:00 - Welcome Dinner
20:30 - Opening Circle

Bruno Caverna

Founder of Play-Fight Practice,
Liquid Body Practice and Formless Arts Movement Philosophy

Bruno Caverna is the creator of Play-Fight and Liquid-Body practices as well as the founder of Formless Arts and GFP methodology. Since 1985 Bruno has been studying and integrating various body-mind practices such as Capoeira, Acrobatics, Contact-Improvisation, Contemporary Dance, Qi-Gong, Russian Systema Watsu, Freediving, Butyeko Method and Oxygen Advantage. Bruno has made his movement practices a "spiritual"path of self-knowledge and self-actualization, a way to connect to the essence of the being and to realize what human existence is about.

Bruno Caverna

Founder of Play-Fight Practice,
Liquid Body Practice and Formless Arts Movement Philosophy

Bruno's first teaching experience was in 1995 as a facilitator of capoeira activities for the inmates of a psychiatric hospital. For a couple of years Bruno tried helplessly to follow an academic path through the studies of Psychology and Physiotherapy. However he grew skeptical upon noticing how the perspective and tendencies of his professional future was sneakily being shaped and imposed onto him. In 2000 Bruno decided to take a radical decision and dropped out of his comfortable zone from a middle upper class in Rio de Janeiro to go wandering aimlessly alone in the Amazon rainforest. It was an important decision to consciously challenge the establishment at that time, not to conforme or succumb to the flow that society was trapping him into one very narrow life perspective. Such an action allowed Bruno to take the responsibility of his future and destiny back into his hands. Such an impulse led Bruno to leave everything he had behind, to merge into a huge dreadful unknown, facing his deepest fears. This amazonic experience profoundly transformed his perception towards life and death, work, purpose, relationships and even the meaning of love, fear and freedom. Ever since the Amazon experience Bruno has become a wanderer sharing his visions, practices and philosophy all over the world in more than 35 countries. In these past 30 years Bruno has been committed to teach from a place of authentic, integrative and holistic cultivation, weaving and honoring nearly 40 years of knowledge accumulation he was gifted by coming across distinguished teachers and masters. Alexander Solovev is one of those rare geniuses who has been directly transmitting to Bruno a concealed knowledge from ancient russian martial arts. The encounter with Alexander in 2016 had a major revolution on every level of Bruno's life and profession, particularly in the way of sharing the embodiment of a very unique falling principle. Currently Bruno is undergoing a creative process in structuring his own methodology and pedagogy GFP (Gravitational Field Principle) with a clear purpose to bridge this unknown gravitational language to a broader audience. By seeing the effects of this principle applied into people's life beyond the classes contexts, Bruno has become convinced that GFP has the potential to become a deeply transformative tool, a powerful healing knowledge in the individual processes, inasmuch as all of us relate to gravity carrying inevitably the burden of functioning in its field 24/7.

Cortijo Casería del Mercado

The Cortijo is located 1,250 meters high in the mountains bordering the National Park of Sierra Nevada. Nestled between the small villages of Almegíjar and Cástaras, 100 km from Granada. The closest town is Orgiva.