176: Becoming Friends with Movement (with Nuria Bowart)

🎙 Becoming Friends with Movement (with Nuria Bowart)

📌 Save the date: early December 2026 in Boulder, Colorado — as a result of their discussion here, Til and Nuria are teaching a collaborative workshop for bodyworkers, hands-on and moving, both. Details to come at https://advanced-trainings.com

Tell Nuria you’re “not really a mover” and she won’t argue. She’ll just say: maybe you’ve forgotten.

Most of us learned to work on bodies that hold still. Nuria Bowart — dancer, movement artist, Certified Rolfer, and a Mestra in Capoeira — lives at the opposite pole, where the body is always moving, listening, and playing. Til sits down with her to explore a deceptively simple question: how can those of us who work with our hands become better friends with movement — not as one more thing we prescribe, but as listening, relationship, play, and a way of being more at home in ourselves?

Along the way they get into Fascial Intelligence, the Axis Syllabus, Contact Improvisation, and Capoeira — and what each one teaches about touch, agency, aging, and befriending the unknown.

✨ We talk about:• Why “maybe you’ve just forgotten” is Nuria’s answer to anyone who doesn’t think of themselves as a mover• Fascia as a constellation of intelligences — and listening as the core point of access• What changes when we start with the body’s design and options, instead of fixing• What Contact Improvisation reveals about weight, gravity, and arriving together in the present moment• Capoeira as a healing art: play, risk, vulnerability, and responding creatively to danger• Aging as a “mystery school” — and movement as the micronutrient of longevity• A simple practice for the week: finding the moment you don’t know what to do, and staying there to listen

✨ Resources:• Nuria’s website: https://www.nuriabowart.com• Nuria on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nuriabowart• Berkeley Capoeira Collective: https://berkeleycapoeira.com• The Field Center, Vermont• The Axis Syllabus: https://www.axissyllabus.net | US events: https://axissyllab.us• Axis Syllabus literature and texts: https://www.axissyllabusforum.org/literature• Axis Syllabus socials: https://www.instagram.com/axissyllab.us | https://www.facebook.com/AxisSyllabusResearchMeshwork• Frey Faust, founder of the Axis Syllabus• Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen & Body-Mind Centering; Sensing, Feeling, and Action (Contact Quarterly)• Nita Little & the Institute for the Study of Somatic Communication — hear her in episode 140 of The Thinking Practitioner

🌱 Sponsor Offers:• Jane – Try it free for one month with code THINKING1MO at https://a-t.tv/jane• ABMP – Save on new membership at https://abmp.com/thinking• Books of Discovery – Save 15% with code thinking at https://booksofdiscovery.com• Advanced-Trainings – Try one month free of the A-T Subscription with code thinking at https://a-t.tv/subscriptions• Academy of Clinical Massage – Grab Whitney’s free Assessment Cheat Sheet at https://academyofclinicalmassage.com/cheatsheet

✨ Watch the video / connect with us:• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AdvancedTrainings/podcasts• Whitney Lowe – https://academyofclinicalmassage.com | https://facebook.com/WhitneyLowe | https://twitter.com/whitneylowe• Til Luchau – https://advanced-trainings.com | https://facebook.com/advancedtrainings | https://instagram.com/til.luchau

📧 Email us: info@thethinkingpractitioner.com

The Thinking Practitioner Podcast is intended for professional practitioners of manual and movement therapies — bodywork, massage therapy, structural integration, physical therapy, osteopathy, and similar professions. It is not medical or treatment advice. Rolfing® is a registered service mark of the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute®.