Our Chorus and my Hero :
a dialogue between the Me and the We

The practice of "our Chorus and my Hero" plays with dimensions of time, space, emotions, movements, and narration. Using  simple movements and syntax (e.g. walking, stopping), you move through space, learning to read each other.

These exercises allow a unique exploration of the conversation between the 'Me' and the 'We' : different ways of being together and cooperating. While moving through space, with guidance, questions may arise:

• What space do I spontaneously occupy and shape in relation to others ?
• What are my perceptions of leadership?
• What engagement or risk-taking does it require of me?
• What is my impact on the group, on the flow of the exercise?
• What support do I need? How does my supportship manifest ?
• On what and whom can I rely?

It's a journey through the roles of leader, supporter, or hero that explores and challenges your unique ways of making proposals, supporting others, or positioning yourself with divergent viewpoints, within the group.

A collective improvisation

The practice of "Our Chorus and my Hero" is based on collective improvisation, an essential pillar of UDN's sensory practices. When improvising, it's difficult to predict and control. The exercise  requires an embodied and engaged presence. Your ability to sense and adjust is stimulated, letting go is encouraged, and our common responsibility is central to the exercise. Instead of selecting a particular posture in advance and maintaining it throughout, improvisation requires us to shift with fluidity between roles, making this practice a condensed and compelling metaphor of a living organisation.

This introductory seminar is open to all and intended for anyone interested in a somatic exploration of cooperative postures.

           UdN's journey in the UK

Our adventure in the UK began in 2015, when we travelled across the English Channel to support the Transiton Network in their governance transformation.  This fruitful collaboration sowed seeds across various Transition hubs around the world, and influenced the early phases of the Transformational Governance Project in the UK. It was a pivotal moment for us as well, and we're excited to reach out for international solidarity once again.

Université du Nous is back to inspire and be inspired by other movements across the country, and you're invited to join our first bilingual seminar open to all.

Economic model

We have shaped and honed Conscious Participation as an economic model for our seminars, as a way to reclaim power over the market economy, to offer an alternative to the scarcity-based laws of supply and demand. A conscious and political way to explore what money and transaction can mean and look like, supported by the "invisible hands" of the gift economy.  Participants are asked to pay two fees at different stages in the process:

Security Framework

We decide by consent a collective security framework at the start of the seminar.  This process provides space for individuals to name access needs and for those needs to be integrated into the culture of co-responsibility we are creating together.

 

Martine van Ditzhuyzen

Commence son chemin professionnel au Pays-Bas en tant que comédienne, marionnettiste et metteuse en scène. Apres plus de vingt-cinq années de scène, elle entreprend des études à l’université et acquière en 2014 un master en science du théâtre. A coté de ce travail sur et pour la scène elle se perfectionne en mouvement/voix et improvisation avec le Body-Mind Centering, l’instant composition et le Viewpoints. En 2015 elle rencontre l’Université du Nous et décide de mettre son savoir-faire au service du changement sociétal. Aujourd’hui elle travaille en tant qu’animatrice senso-artistique au service de l’UDN et redécouvre le pouvoir stimulant et mobilisateur de la pratique sensorielle et artistique pour explorer les postures de coopération. Elle croit fortement en la puissance de l’imaginaire et en l’intelligence du corps pour réinventer d’autres façons de vivre ensemble et d’incarner la citoyenneté.

Martine van Ditzhuyzen

Commence son chemin professionnel au Pays-Bas en tant que comédienne, marionnettiste et metteuse en scène. Apres plus de vingt-cinq années de scène, elle entreprend des études à l’université et acquière en 2014 un master en science du théâtre. A coté de ce travail sur et pour la scène elle se perfectionne en mouvement/voix et improvisation avec le Body-Mind Centering, l’instant composition et le Viewpoints. En 2015 elle rencontre l’Université du Nous et décide de mettre son savoir-faire au service du changement sociétal. Aujourd’hui elle travaille en tant qu’animatrice senso-artistique au service de l’UDN et redécouvre le pouvoir stimulant et mobilisateur de la pratique sensorielle et artistique pour explorer les postures de coopération. Elle croit fortement en la puissance de l’imaginaire et en l’intelligence du corps pour réinventer d’autres façons de vivre ensemble et d’incarner la citoyenneté.

  
 After 10 years working in the paramedical field, I decided to give more space to my civic commitment. Trained and experienced in new forms of governance, I co-founded Université du Nous in 2010, where I share my skills as a trainer (shared governance, Game of Tao facilitation, collective intelligence methods) and leadership coach. I strive to use my skills in communication, rigour and federation both inside UdN and when transmitting to others. This way I work on my own capacity for change in order to contribute to a meaningful societal transformation. 

Lydia Pizzoglio

After a journey on stage as an actress and puppeteer, I encountered Université du Nous at a time in my life when I was questioning the impact of theater on our cultural and social environment, and its connection to change. Today, I put my expertise as a sensorial-artistic facilitator at the service of UdN, rediscovering the stimulating and mobilizing potential of artistic practices under a new light. I strongly believe in the power of imagination to reinvent new ways of living and embodying our citizenship. 

Martine van Ditzhuyzen

Université du Nous's on its way to meet you !  

Université du Nous is a Société Coopérative d’Intérêt Collective (Collective Interest Cooperative Society) founded in France in 2010, with its roots stemming from the Reunion Island. We are known in the social & solidarity economy for popularizing the notion of Gouvernance Partagée (Shared Governance), and for empowering hundreds of organizations and more than a hundred thousand individuals seeking radical and profound ways to re-organize their collective decision-making, cooperation and sharing of power in order to change the world.

Our seminars are designed to be transformative experiences, raising more questions than they provide answers. Journeys blending practical experience based learning, somatic and artistic exercices, metaobservation of shared phenomena, and a sharp awareness of the self as well as the politics of cooperation. 
We love to explore uncharted territories and realize we've been lagging behind on other ones, and love to experiment with the formats and content of our sharings. 
And this is what coming to the UK and holding our first open to all seminar feels like. This 

Reinventing and deepening our cooperation postures and skills is a political matter.

Deconstructing our relationships to power in order to shape radical, empowering and liberating cultures of cooperation requires a simultaneous transformation at both personal and organisational/community levels. They do not need to be opposed but articulated, and we believe this articulation to be an underestimated political matter. Resistance work, justice work, healing work - all benefit from a deeper and embodied approach to sharing and relating differently to power.

 

En savoir plus

Giving as a source of Abundance

Creative Commons & The Gift Economy

This work was impactful thanks to a decision we took early on to experiment radically with the gift economy, inspired by countless traditional and indigenous ways of being, and more recently by the  work of J.F Noubel . We continue to believe that “giving is a source of abundance”.

Our educational resources are stamped with the  CC BY-SA creative commons license  and most of them are accessible open-source for free. Many are already translated in english and a few other in dutch, spanish and portuguese. We're looking forward to translating the rest of these creative commons in english in the coming years.

To this day, this approach continues to generate genuine moments of awe and inspiration, confusion, and sometimes sheer frustration, confronting us with our relationship with money and its shadows.
Our collective has acquired more status and recognition over the years, and our senior members have acquired a precious experience that sometimes tempt us to yield to high price tags. The mega machine of the capitalist world system, and its toll on our minds and purses continues to make it a challenge to stand our ground and hold this radical proposition, that only functions when those who have more contribute more than those who have not.  

More details about this seminar's pricing below.

Check our Resource Page Here

Contact us directly to access our Resources translated in English.

Conscious Participation

We speak of ‘conscious’ to emphasize lucidity and awareness. By changing the usual rule, participants are encouraged to decide for themselves how much to give - and to reflect on why they give it.

Many questions arise :
What is the value of what I have received ?
What contribution would I like to make ?
How can I support this movement of transformation ?
Can I finance what I want to see happen in a shared future, beyond what I have just experienced ?

What we receive from some helps us provide to others. In this way, conscious Participation weaves a web of interdependence between thousands of participants engaging with our seminars across space and time.

The 4 Rules of Conscious Participation

1) It is explained at the beginning, due at the end
2) It is mandatory
It’s at least £1, and due from every participant; the Conscious Participation process is an integral part of the experience.
3) It is paid in main currency (GBP)
4) It is non-anonymous, with no justification asked
We will not disclose what you pay to the rest of the group, but you do share it with UdN non-anonymously. We will not ask you to justify or explain the amount. Whatever it is, we will take it as such.

Full version here 

Anne Cécile Trillot

Participante - Atelier Découverte - Chœur et Héros

   En quête de clés pour faire vivre le "Nous" au sein de mon projet, j'ai été guidée vers cette expérience "Chœur - héros·héroïne" de 3 jours. Une immersion comme une valse entre le "Je" et le "Nous". J'ai plongé à l'intérieur de moi-même, dans mon corps, dans ma chair. Je me suis sentie connectée au groupe comme par enchantement. Sans mot. Sans se connaître. Sans attente. Simplement par l'écoute subtile des mouvements & énergies qui nous entourent. Nous avons vécu la Beauté de la Création Collective. Telle une magicienne, Martine nous a fait expérimenter la Grâce du Je et du Nous. Et nous avons pu l'observer grâce au regard d'intelligence collective nourri par Laurent. Je repars de cette immersion profondément transformée, jusque dans mes cellules. Et j'infugre les bienfaits avec délice. Merci infiniment.  

Anne Cécile - Fondatrice "Du Corps au Coeur"

François Ledoux

Participant - Atelier Chœur et Héros

   Réunis pendant trois jours, 15 personnes, 2 encadrants pour vivre un formidable programme qui nous a placé hors du temps. Dans la grande salle, la personne d’avant s’arrête, tourne la tête puis le corps, et passe le relais. Vous voilà derrière à suivre ce qui est proposé. Les places et les rôles dans le groupe changent par les mouvements sensibles du corps et non par une décision murement réfléchie.  Chorégraphie joyeuse et sensée, lente et rapide, en l’air comme au sol, silencieuse ou chantée. De surprise en surprise le leadership s’apprend en glissant de l’un.e à l’autre.

Merci pour ces moments qui laissent de bien belles traces durables !