Martha Russell first uncovered the principles that she called Creative Motion after a lengthy personal study. She traveled to London to study with Dr. Yorke at the Royal Academy of Music, and Jacques Dalcroze in Hellerau, Germany. She acquired a new awareness of the importance of the body, as well as the mind and spirit, in any form of creative expression. She advocated music "as an important fundamental for binding one's life into a unity... [T]he relation of feeling to action, inside to outside..." It was, at the time (1919-1921) considered new to the usual concept of education.
Image: Margaret Allen (far right) leads a
Creative Motion Class in her living room (circa 1968)
Image source: Allen and Niles "Creative Motion" published 1971
She invited students to her home near the sea in La Jolla, California who spent six weeks of intensive study in every aspect of music at her summer school workshop in Creative Motion, as she came to call her method.
Margaret Allen was one of those lucky few who were able to live, work and study with Martha Russell at her seaside home. After Mrs. Russell died in 1951, Margaret Allen played a key role in allowing for continued Creative Motion study by sponsoring a week-long workshop at her estate near Berea, Kentucky. The annual summer conference "Windswept" still bears the name of Mrs. Allen's mountain-top home. Workshop participants were housed in cottages throughout the grounds, and meals were prepared by the "kitchen crew" consisting of Mrs. Allen's piano students enrolled in nearby Berea College.
As the workshop's popularity grew and Mrs. Allen's health began to decline, the workshop housing was relocated the Berea College campus and participants traveled by bus to Mrs. Allen's home for classes held in her living room and on her mountaintop terrace overlooking the valley. After her death in 1982, it was through the tireless efforts of Eileen Auxier and others that the work continued through this transitional time.
In 1994 a new chapter began with the formation of the Creative Motion Alliance. Virginia Brown Murphy was elected the first president of this organization. Since that time the Alliance and it's elected leaders who serve on the Executive Board continue to pursue the goals and purpose of disseminating information about Creative MotionThe Alliance sponsors workshops where Creative Motion is studied including the annual week-long summer conference Windswept Music Workshop.
The Alliance provides financial support to organizations for weekend or day-long customized clinics in Creative Motion across the United States.
With the editorial guidance of Dr. Mary Ann Fritz, the Creative Motion Alliance publishes “The Journal of Creative Motion” annually which explores the application of Creative Motion techniques and principles.
Under the leadership of John Morrison, the Alliance has developed Certification procedures for helping teachers become certified Creative Motion Instructors. initiatives which help teachers become able to share Creative Motion with others. Our Mission Statement: The Creative Motion Alliance, Inc., is dedicated to the efficient use of energy to unify body, mind and spirit.
(approved July 25, 2001)
Creative Motion Class -led by Opal Gilpatrick
held on Mrs. Allen's terrace
(circa 1967)
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