moving out loud!
MOVING
OUT
LOUD!
Bold Living. Bold Leading.
mission
Every girl has the right to live a fully expressive life in and through her body. This includes the right to move with physical expression and conviction. Embodied expression inherently supports other abilities – the ability to connect, the ability to empathize, the ability to learn, the ability to persuade, the ability to lead.
A girl’s humanity is fully realized through embodied expression.
Moving Out Loud! exists to help develop powerful and empathetic female leaders by assisting girls (and women) in accessing the full range of expressive and functional capacity within her body, and then in making choices about how she will BE in her body, and how she will BE in her world.
vision
Moving Out Loud! will increase leadership identity in girls and women through the 8-part, 10-hour MOL! curriculum, delivered by a cohort of trained educators at the local, national, and international levels. Moving Out Loud! has developed historically through observed evidence and knowledge of best teaching practices in the field of Somatic Movement Education. A 3-year, short-term vision includes more formal training of facilitators and IRB-approved research, leading to results disseminated through publication.
2025-2026 Stage I: Facilitator Training. Training a cohort of MOL! facilitators who will deliver the program and measure impact
2026-2027 Stage II: Targeted interventions in schools, community programs, and non-profit organizations
2027-2028 Stage III: Public Database reporting on the relationship between girls’ level of kinesthetic awareness, physical expressivity, and leadership identity
Approach
Moving Out Loud! is a student-centered, multi-faceted, and highly interactive movement program that equips each participant with knowledge and skills needed to make more intentional choices about how she will BE in her body, and how she will BE in her world.
It accomplishes this in 4 ways:
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deepening kinesthetic awareness
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expanding range of movement possibilities
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providing language for describing movement
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identifying factors that shape individual movement habits
somatic movement education
How does your movement reflect what is important to YOU?
How do you use your eyes? Your hands? Your posture?
How do you fill space? How do you assert energy?
How does your movement reflect the way you think about yourself?
Somatic movement education directs attention to the physical sensations inside our bodies as a way to learn about ourselves. Moving Out Loud!, rooted deeply in principles of somatic movement education, equips girls and women with the skills to perceive, describe and understand their personal movement habits. By noticing movement patterns in their bodies, participants discover their patterns of relating to, and engaging with their world.
Through heightened somatic awareness, a girl can make more conscientious movement choices and harness the expressivity and power inherent within her own moving body.
Curriculum
Moving Out Loud! is a series of eight workshops for movers of all levels. Each class explores a specific movement principle and its application to Bold Living and Bold Leading, in and through the body. Workshops include:
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Claim My Space / AWARENESS
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Light My Way / PURPOSE
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Sense My World / CURIOSITY
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Find My Voice / MOTIVATION
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Hear My Roar / IMPACT
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Ground My Vision / INITIATION
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Connect My Community / EMPATHY
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Sing My Song / EXPRESSION
Moving Out Loud! learning activities include:
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lively guided movement explorations,
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partner and group discussions,
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reflective journaling,
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public speaking, drawing, and performing.
Sample lesson plans include:
Claim My Space / AWARENESS
Kinesphere is the space we flll without taking a step. In this class, we explore, "How do I fill INTO, or retreat FROM, space in different situations, and why does that matter?
Hear My Roar / IMPACT
Participants explore the full spectrum of Weight Efforts, from Light Weight to Strong Weight. Discussions help identify cultural values and individual assumptions about movement to help participants make more conscientious choices about how to relate to, and assert, their physical mass.
Benefits include:
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physical - a more functional, energized body
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emotional - improved self confidence and self image
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social - moving, creating, and sharing with others
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professional - opportunities to move, speak and express in front of others
Instructor
Marin Leggat Roper, MFA, CLMA, is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator certified in Bartenieff/Laban Movement Studies. In her work as dance artist and somatic movement educator, Marin champions the role of the moving body as a source of knowledge, empathy, and social change.
In New York City, Marin founded and directed M.E.L.D. Danceworks, a dance company committed to “dissolving religious and cultural barriers through the art of dance.” The U.S. State Department named her a Cultural Envoy to India. Her writings about dance and empathy are included in various books, journals and blogs.
Marin is Associate Professor of Dance at Brigham Young University (Utah, USA). She teaches studio and lecture courses including Contemporary Technique, Composition, American 20th/21st Century Dance History, Pedagogy, Principles of Somatics, and Dance & Identity.
"A critical element in our conversations about girls' empowerment is recognizing the BODY as a source of intelligence, empathy, and power. Full physical expression, in the through the body, is the right of every woman and man, adult and child. Through somatic based movement education, girls can better understand their embodied experience in context of their culture, and create individual and systematic change through their moving body" - Marin Roper
I learned a ton about communciation, and my students came away excited and empowered after the hour with Marin.
-Dianna E., educator
Your enthusiasm and presence made me want to come to class every day knowing I would discover new things about myself.
-Hannah A. , participant