Begin with your body...

Leap out of your familiar patterns and find yourself embodying place, ideas, art and spirit!

Anatomy of Grace is an exploration of the art of living well and founded on an engagement with history, (ancient Rome is the mother of Western Civilization), landscape and movement, in community.

Our intention is not simply to have an Italian experience, but to engage in experiential learning together, catapulting us out of our familiar and working toward embodying place, ideas and spirit.

We study the poetry of Virgil in the very landscape in which he lived and about which he wrote so eloquently over 2000 years ago - reading in English translation and delving into the original Latin as well.

Every morning we learn how to pay very close attention to ourselves and our surroundings in Awareness Through Movement lessons. We take walks along the Adige river, visit cathedrals and basilicas, Roman ruins (for example, a huge Roman villa built on the site where the Latin poet Catullus lived), and discover something about our connection to our surroundings, how we fit in to this idyll.

Back at the villa, having observed the art and architecture, the perfect Renaissance proportions, we construct geometric designs with a straight edge and a compass. At the same time we experience these proportions, that harmony, in the structure of self - in our body, our mind and our spirit, in the structure of relationship, and in the structures of our Italian environs. We go further, moving together more formally in Connecting through Movement, working clearly and specifically with partners and discovering how to move in easy response to each other to develop spontaneity, intuition and creativity.

We cook and study, write and eat together and participate in local traditions,

 engendering community and relationship in myriad ways.


Verona, Italy
31 March - 14 April 2012

How we'll spend our days...16th - 30th April 2011

You might be wondering what our days will look like! This is a possible outline:

Buongiorno We'll begin each day with an Anatomy of Grace class - it will be a little like a daily moving meditation la meditazione on grace la grazia, refining how we move with elegance and balance, practicing precision in movement, and learning how to live a graceful life.
Take an hour to gather our thoughts (write? yoga? eat? mangiare?) and then explore the land, the place and history of Veneto. We'll visit Verona, the Lago di Garda, Grotto di Catullo, Roman ruins...we'll have gelato and coffee, walk across Ponte Pietra, soak up the atmosphere in the teatro romano...
Buon appetito! We'll have picnics at lunchtime en route, all the while discussing the Latin poets, chatting in broken Italian, and sensing our part in the landscape and our connection to the past.
In the afternoon il pomeriggio we'll return home and enjoy some time to ourselves until dinner ora di cena.
Buona sera! In the evenings we'll learn the gorgeous dances of the Italian Renaissance, embodying the Renaissance ideals of grace, beauty, harmony, proportion and symmetry. Then, perhaps, let it all go with some rollicking English country dances!
The last two weeks in Italy offer a plethora of activities and festivals to keep us busy. The middle weekend (April 23rd and 24th) will be free and you have the option of going off on a jaunt of your own or joining us on a pre-arranged activity.
We are planning a ball un ballo for our last night at the villa!
Scroll down for earlier blogs - nuts and bolts, minutiae, about this once in a lifetime program. And email me with any questions bridget@m-illumino.com


Also register now, before February 1st for 10% discount US$3040
After February 1st US$3400

Have you been dreaming about joining us this April?

Imagine: the food and wine, the quiet observation of your essential self, the exploration of the Renaissance ideals of beauty, grace, artificiosa, and effortlessness, the joy of dancing, the excitement of discovering these same attributes in lyric poetry and engaging fully with the landscape, with history and with each other.

Make your dreams come true

Register before 1st February 2011 for a 10% discount

$3400 ($3040 with discount) includes tuition, accommodation in our private villa for 14 nights, and food!

See earlier blog posts for detailed information 

and email Bridget Thompson, Bridget@m-illumino.com

Announcing an exciting Preview of La Bella Lingua

We are holding an informal preview of this sensational program on Saturday 22nd January from 3 - 6 pm.
A taste of la dolce vita! Come and find out what we'll be doing in Italy in April. There'll be food, wine and song, a convivial group, poetry, Renaissance dancing and Anatomy of Grace - a little Italian too. All welcome!
email Bridget@m-illumino.com for info and address in Seattle.
Un gioiso saluto, un caldo abbracio a tutti! Ciao!