The Inner Unfolding: From Self to Story

A Michael Chekhov – based exploration workshop for creative practitioners

16th to 25th March, 2026 in Auroville with Rukshana Tabassum & Alok Arora

What if story did not begin in the mind, but in breath, weight, rhythm, and sensation?
What if characters arrived not by effort, but by listening?

The Inner Unfolding is an immersive, body led exploration for creative practitioners who wish to return to the source from where impulse, image, and story quietly arise.
Set in Auroville, an international township founded on Sri Aurobindo and The Mother’s vision for human unity and inner transformation, the workshop unfolds within a living landscape. The red earth, trees, silence, shared meals, conversations, and the town’s socio ecological rhythm become part of the learning, offering a rare space where inner attention and outer life meet.

Rooted in the Michael Chekhov Technique, the process invites participants to approach creativity indirectly through imagination, movement, energy, and atmosphere. Instead of pushing emotion or mining personal trauma, we work with expansion and contraction of the energy body, qualities of movement (molding, flowing, flying, radiating), atmospheres, and ensemble presence. These tools allow authentic impulses to surface naturally, with care and freedom.

This is a space to slow down, to listen deeply to the body, to silence, to each other. Through guided movement, improvisation, reflective writing, visual exploration, and group processes, participants allow stories, images, characters, and relationships to emerge rather than be constructed.

The workshop is co facilitated by Alok Arora, Michael Chekhov practitioner and pedagogue, and Rukshana Tabassum, filmmaker and visual artist known for her process driven, human centred storytelling. Together, they hold a gentle yet rigorous container that supports both individual inquiry and collective discovery.

You may arrive as an actor, dancer, filmmaker, writer, visual artist, educator, or simply as someone in a creative pause. You will not be asked to perform, produce, or prove. What unfolds may take the form of a short scene, a movement score, a visual piece, a fragment of narrative, or something unnamed, and that is enough.

The workshop concludes with an in situ embodied sharing, open to the Auroville community, not as a performance, but as a moment of presence and reflection. A pause. A witnessing.

Participants leave with something quieter but lasting: a more available body, a listening imagination, a trust in inner rhythm, and a sustainable way of making, rooted in freedom, not force.

If you are drawn to process over product, presence over pressure, and storytelling as a living, breathing act, this space invites you.

WORKSHOP FLOW
The Inner Unfolding: From Self to Story
Duration: 10 Days | Daily Engagement: – 7 Hours

This workshop unfolds as a gradual deepening from self-awareness and embodied exploration to narrative creation and final presentation. Each day builds on the previous one, allowing participants to move organically from inner inquiry to collective expression and storytelling.
Day 1: The Inner Unfolding
Focus: Arrival, Self-Reflection, Energy Awareness
We begin by arriving into the space, into the body, and into the present moment. Through gentle introductions, participants are invited to ground themselves and acknowledge their personal journeys so far.

A paper-based reflective exercise allows memories, emotions, and lived experiences to surface intuitively. These reflections are then explored through body movement, encouraging participants to express their journeys beyond words. Participants may also choose to translate these reflections into an artwork or body movement expression. This becomes Draft 1 of their creative process.In a symbolic act of transformation, the written reflections are burnt, and the ashes are mixed into paint to create an artwork, turning release into creation, and memory into material.
Post-lunch sessions focus on concentration and imagination exercises, gradually introducing the concept of the energy body,laying the foundation for deeper embodied awareness over the coming days.
Day 2: Expanding the Inner Field
Focus: Energy Dynamics, Inner–Outer Dialogue
Day 2 deepens somatic awareness through intensive contraction and expansion of energy exercises (3–4 hours). Participants begin to sense how internal states shift, open, and transform through focused physical and energetic work.
The process then moves outward: participants step into the surrounding environment to collect objects that intuitively resonate with them.These found elements are brought back into the studio and integrated into the creative process, either by adding them to the artwork or their body movement exploration initiated on Day 1, which becomes Draft 2 of their creation.. The inner and outer landscapes begin to converse.
Day 3: Collective Rhythm & Personal Resonance
Focus: Ensemble Work, Individual Imagery, Integration
On Day 3, the focus shifts to collective expression. Participants engage in an ensemble exercise using poetry, thematic words, atmosphere and space as a stimulus, translating words into movement without speech. This non-verbal group exploration builds shared rhythm, trust, and attentiveness.
● The process then turns inward again, as participants add their experience to their
individual art work or body movement.
The day concludes with a merging of creative outputs from Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3, bringing together artwork, movement, and energy exploration into a single, evolving body of work.
Day 4: Mind–Body Dialogue & Narrative Awakening
Focus: Psycho-Physical Awareness, Story Emergence
Day 4 introduces Chekhovian psycho-physical exercises that strengthen the dialogue between mind and body, helping participants access emotional truth through physical presence.
Participants then exchange artworks created over the previous days. Each participant writes a character inspired by someone else’s work . This exchange invites new interpretations and shifts authorship and perception.
Homework: Begin developing a character emerging from this process, exploring nuances, inner conflicts, emotional textures, and backstories.
Day 5: Improvisation & Story Possibilities
Focus: Character Interaction, Narrative Potential
Through guided improvisations, participants pair different characters and explore how they interact with one another. These improvised encounters are observed closely to understand what kinds of stories naturally emerge.
The day ends with a group discussion on narrative possibilities,conflict, relationships, and thematic directions revealed through improvisation.
Day 6: Improvisation & Story Possibilities/Story Refinement
Focus: Clarity and Focus
Participants begin refining their stories, identifying the core idea, emotional arc, and central characters. Feedback and discussion help sharpen intention and remove excess.
Day 7: Structuring the Story
Focus: Dramatic Shape and Flow
Stories are given structure,beginning, progression, and resolution. Participants work on shaping scenes, transitions, and emotional rhythm, preparing the work for rehearsal.
Day 8: Rehearsal
Focus: Embodiment into Form
Participants rehearse their pieces, focusing on translating inner work and narrative clarity into performative form.
Day 9: Rehearse / Exhibition Planning
Focus: Final Shaping & Presentation Design
This day is dedicated to refining performances, and planning the final exhibition or presentation considering space, flow, and audience engagement.
Day 10: Presentation & Closure
Focus: Sharing, Reflection, Completion
● The workshop culminates in a presentation of the works, followed by reflection, dialogue, and collectible sharing. The process is gently wrapped up, honouring both individual journeys and the collective experience.

Interested participants are requested to submit a short application that includes:
Statement of Intent (up to 300 words)
Applicants should explain why they want to join the workshop, what draws them to this process, and what they wish to explore or learn.
Background and Interests
A brief note about the applicant’s background, current work, or areas of interest. This does not have to be limited to the arts, but should show curiosity, reflection, or engagement with creative or human focused work.

Mentor Profiles
Alok Arora
Actor & Michael Chekhov Practitioner
Alok is a trained actor from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and a certified Michael Chekhov Technique teacher (MICHA, USA). He is the founder of The Chekhov Lab under his creative enterprise The Artistic Self, where he leads actor-training and expressive development programs rooted in the Michael Chekhov Technique.
As an actor, Alok has worked across film, web, and theatre, bringing depth and authenticity to a wide range of performances. With over six years of teaching experience, including his tenure at Actor Prepares, he has trained more than 2,000 students, helping them connect imagination, body, and emotion into a unified creative expression. His work continues to explore the meeting point of acting, psychology, and transformation—empowering artists to discover truth, freedom, and presence in their craft.

Rukshana Tabassum
Filmmaker & Visual Artist
Rukshana is an Indian filmmaker, writer, visual artist, and educator. Her work explores inner worlds and everyday life, and how memory, emotion, body, and surroundings shape the stories we carry.
She grew up in the small town of Nagaon in Assam. From a young age, she was drawn to painting and classical dance, which taught her observation, rhythm, and emotional expression.
Visual art remains an important part of her practice, where she works with painting and mixed media to explore memory, inner landscapes, and interconnectedness.
Rukshana has trained in Bharatanatyam and completed her ‘Parangata’ (Advanced Diploma in Bharatnatyam) from the Nalanda Dance Research Centre. She continues to train under her guru, Elora Bora.
She studied Direction at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. Two of her films have received National Film Awards. Apples and Oranges won the National Film Award, and The Cake Story received the National Film Award – Jury Special Mention.
Her other films include Finding Nabi, Breaking the Feed, We Need To Talk, Mission Sunday, Sapno Ke Sikke, and Dammy, which have travelled to national and international film festivals, especially children’s and youth-focused platform.

QUERIES:
For queries, please write to: info@aurovillefilminstitute.com
or call/message: +91 9969879319 (WhatsApp & Telegram only)

TRAVEL GUIDANCE:
The closest Airport to Auroville is Chennai. With respect to Trains, Auroville is about 15km from Pondicherry railway station; about 75km from Villupuram and about 165 km from Chennai railway station. There are some weekly trains directly to Pondicherry, while regular trains from all parts of India to Villupuram and Chennai. There are several options of local buses and passenger trains from Chennai to Auroville; it takes about 3-4 hours approximately. For those preferring to travel by taxi, we recommend Auroville based taxi services as they can pick up from anywhere you are and drop straight to the respective Auroville guest house. Please check Auroville Shared Transport service.

Please visit www.auroville.org for orientation and additional information on Auroville.

Accomodation
Participants may look up Auroville Guest Accommodation Service. Feel free to reach out to us if you need recommendations. Also, for mobility, e-cycle / scooters can be rented at extra costs.