CD Magazine #21 + Upshift Guide

BODY TALES • ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH • UPSHIFT GUIDE

CONSCIOUS IOUS OUS DANCER SPRING 2013 ISSUE #21

movement for a better world

DJ’s SECRET SONG LIST

5Rhythms Flowing Staccato Chaos Lyrical Stillness Farewell to Gabrielle

How to Make HuMandalas EDUCATION 2013

Body Literate

Meet the new student body. A somatic surge is making waves in academia.

PLUS: 100 Danceformative Colleges & Modalities

Dancing The Form RHYTHM REVEALED $4.99US $6.99CAN

Expand your inner space.

yoga instructor lara catone photographed by jasper johal

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Departments

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26 photos: top left: courtesy of roth family; top right: melanie mactavish; bottom right: J. akiyama

features 26 Dancing with Gabrielle 5Rhythms creator Gabrielle Roth (1941–2012) blazed a new movement path. Our photographic retrospective on the woman who danced her map to ecstasy includes touching remembrances from people who danced their dreams to life.

13 InspIratIon: Love Informs Us Laura Cirolia on experiencing “the deep” with Bernie Prior and The Form–Reality Practice.

17 WarMUps • HuMandalas: Making Circles of Intention • Karina Schelde: Sounding it Out • Debbie Rosas: Inspired to Move 23 spotlIght: Growing a Tale Second generation storyteller Eden Castro finds there’s no place like home.

41 soUnDs: The Big Bang Theory Zorina Wolf shows us how falling in and out of rhythm is the key to rewiring the brain.

Plus: Taketina book review 46 DestInatIons: Boulder, Colorado The skiing is terrific, but the dancing is sublime.

48 resUlts: The Soul Voice Method Your voice is your most powerful instrument.

49 MUsIC reVIeWs To inform your playlist, DJ Franklin Markowitz shares 30 hidden gems.

51 MoVe MenU Spring Highlights • Education • Events and Performances • Festivals • Retreats and Workshops 56 ClosIng CIrCle Lean on Me Boulder Contact Improv community takes to the trees for a “Strawberry Jam.”

31 Meet the New Student Body Michelle Obama is encouraging dance in schools–even while doing math. We love it! Educators around the country discuss the body as the main subject and describe an evolving somatic syllabus.

We’ve asked movement teachers including Melissa Michaels, Sondra Fraleigh, and Emilie Conrad to share their vision.

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Danceformative guide: 100 body-centric degree programs

and mindfully moving modalities that combine nature, nurture, and academics to create an upward spiral. consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

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COntrIButOrs

BoUlDer, Co J. aKIYaMa

J. akiyama is a student of aikido, dance, and photography in boulder, colorado. his research into contact improvisation has taken him across the united states as well as to canada, Japan, the netherlands, germany, spain, and finland. his other interests include the feldenkrais method of somatic education and playback improvisational theatre. his photos are featured in our closing circle and destinations story. www.sharingweight.com

proVIDenCe, rI eDen Castro

eden castro is a senior at brown university, where she studies international relations. her mother, lysa castro, is a core body tales teacher, and eden grew up thinking of bt founder olivia corson as part of her family. between her sophomore and junior year of college she took a gap year to return to the bay area and study body tales for the first time. she intends to pursue her interests in writing, social justice, and healing movement modalities. www.bodytales.com

plaYa DoMInICal, Costa rICa BrenDan JaFFer-thoM

brendan Jaffer thom grew up in california and south africa, and has spent the last 21 years living in costa rica. he is an avid photographer, as well as cofounder of bamboo yoga play and envision festival. brendan is inspired by nature, surfing, yoga, dance, and his loving relationship. brendan’s portrait of his wife, sofiah thom, is featured on our cover. www.facebook.com/brendan.jafferthom

st george, Ut sonDra FraleIgh

sondra fraleigh, professor emeritus of the state university of new york, teaches international workshops through her eastwest somatics institute, which certifies somatic movement therapists through yoga alliance and ismeta. her seven books include Land to Water Yoga, BUTOH: Metamorphic Dance and Global Alchemy, and Dance and The Lived Body. in our feature story, she delves into the role of the teacher in somatic education. www.eastwestsomatics.com

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consciousdancer Conscious Dancer team, family, and facilitators in Mexico, Dancing into Love at Rancho La Puerta under the watchful eye of Mount Kuchumaa. Left to right, top: Paul Cirolia, Laura Cirolia, Samantha Sweetwater, Jo Cobbett, Julie Forrest, Mark Metz; bottom: James Marienthal, Adam Wohlberg.

WHO We are mark metz laura cirolia EXECUTIVE EDITOR rachel trachten GRAPHIC DESIGN AND PRODUCTION isabelle metz STAFF WRITERS rachel trachten, laura cirolia RESEARCH ASSISTANT audrey knight FOREIGN CORRESPONDANT lauren bedal TRANSCRIPTION GENIE dina hady COMMUNITY LIAISONS liz mac, samurai bennett DIGITAL CONSULTANT ryan dohrn ADMINISTRATION naias kabir, melanie lambur I.T. ANGEL luis echeverria LICENSING efrain correal BAND OF ANGELS pJ novotny, James marienthal PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CREATIVE DIRECTOR

FOUNDED IN 2007 BY

mark metz and aspen madrone PUBLISHED BY moving arts international ISSN 1937-8130

aDVertIsIng sales anD Dates SUMMER #22 – RESERVE 5–1 / STREET 6-15–2013 FALL #23 – RESERVE 8–1 / STREET 9-15–2013 ADS OR PROMOTIONAL INQUIRIES

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WWW.ConsCIoUsDanCer.CoM Conscious Dancer is a quarterly active lifestyle magazine.

We define conscious dance as “movement with an intention for greater awareness.” Conscious Dancer does not endorse any specific modality, practitioner, or product. please consult a health professional before attempting any new movement activities or health regimens. Conscious Dancer disclaims any liability for loss or injury in connection with activities portrayed or advice given herein. please send all editorial mail, manuscripts, letters to the editor, and address changes via email or to our Conscious Dancer address listed above.

photo: nicole arrell

© 2013 moving arts international. printed in the usa with post consumer-waste content using soy-based inks. please reuse and recycle. all rights reserved.

CoVer: Global muse Sofiah Jaffer-Thom on the beach in Costa Rica, near her Bamboo YogaPlay retreat and the site of the Envision Festival. She is a Naropa Institute alumna and student of Anna Halprin; her signature dance-yoga modality is Danyasa. photographer: BRENDAN JAFFER-THOM

CHeCKInG In

W

hat have you learned lately? When you pick up a new skill, technique, or concept, where does it land? Are you the same person before and after?

And why do we learn in the first place? As anyone who has had an “aha” moment surely knows, real learning is a non-linear process. The real grokking usually comes out of left field.

Education and learning are very different. Education is usually something we undertake by choice, while learning can happen when we least expect it. Imagine for a moment that learning is sort of a counterpoint to gravity. Just as gravity is a constant force that keeps us grounded and earthbound, learning opportunities are there to call us forth, outward and upward—there’s an irresistible force to go beyond, to manifest and expand. For me, progress equals growth, and there’s huge happiness in scaling the learning curve. One of my favorite metaphors applies—whether you are a fan of Spiral Dynamics or use the Hawkins Scale to understand levels of consciousness—that life is a spiral that naturally rises. We tend to live in ascending cycles and when progress (learning) stalls or gets stuck, we fall into the pattern of going around in circles (or worse, spiraling down). Constant learning helps us over the bumps in the road that naturally repeat in our lives, and it also helps us develop compassion for our former selves who knew not where to go. Also worth inquiry is the relation between learning and human connection. When we’re alone, transformation can be incremental and gradual. But when we’re surrounded by a community on the same path with similar intentions, the field of energy is heightened, and we can make exponential leaps forward.

With this issue of Conscious Dancer we’ve tried to weave together the widest possible community net around the topic of education, starting with our tribute to a maverick in the world of movement, 5Rhythms creator Gabrielle Roth. We’re also extremely pleased to roll out the new Upshift Guide, where we’ve gathered the most important modalities and venues to tell their stories in a cohesive format, providing a clearinghouse of information for people deciding which training or practice to pursue. (Concise listings are here in print, with companion full-page details included in our online edition.)

Thank you for being part of our community. We work hard to create the unique cultural container you’re holding in your hands and trust you will feel the energy and excitement that goes into every page. A special note of gratitude is in order to all the great products, services, and practices that help build the framework for this container.

In a magazine, ads are a welcome part of the engagement experience. Please close the loop by letting your favorites know you heard about them in Conscious Dancer.

I wish you a moving and loving spring season, and invite your thoughts, letters, and comments if you are so inspired. We’re glad to be working with you creating a movement-filled world!

With love,

MARK METZ ,

Editor - in - Chief consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

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sHareBaCK LEARNING SIGN LANGUAGE The air was thick with humidity as I breathed in night’s darkness and sank into each footstep on the sand. Tired, yet propelled by curiosity about the rhythms pouring out of a brightly lit, open-air bar at the far end of the beach, I quickened my pace. I came to an unforgettable scene: a packed wooden dance floor bending under the weight of barefoot dancers pounding beats to a live salsa band, hips jiving and bodies spinning. Intimidated, I stood quietly in a corner until I met eyes with a gray-haired woman dancing her freedom on the sand just outside the bar. Her smile drew me towards her. Without a single word we began a conversation, discovering the language of our movements as expressions of emotion.

We explored how these movements interacted to create a dialogue, influenced by the music, our pulsing hearts, and the falling rain as it began to add its own rhythm to the night. Hours later, after losing myself in the dance, my body was covered in sweat, Ecuadorian ocean mist, and rain. I felt more alive than ever before.

Back at college in Middletown, Connecticut, three weeks later, I sat up late one night biting my fingernails, anxiously combing my mind for some impressive thesis statement for my end-of-semester paper. I felt stuck. As an undergrad I had learned about the power of words. Yet all I could think about was the expansiveness I had felt dancing and communicating with that woman on the beach.

My head teemed with questions: What about when words fail to express the emotion I feel in my body? How can my heart express itself through my eyes and my movement? What

about the space before the words?

Three months later I boarded a plane back to Ecuador with a strong calling to experience other realities, other ways to be in the world, and determined to find the woman who had taught me so much through her dance. Stripped of verbal language as a communication tool, I turned to other methods.

My body became my guide; I could ask for directions, express my needs, and even describe my reaction to a situation all through body gestures and facial expression. This led to fast friendship with a group of circus artists. We spent hours getting to know each other by miming stories, sharing tricks, and joking with our bodies.

After several weeks I found the grayhaired woman, Alicia Cavallero, and she invited me to her Biodanza class. We formed a circle holding hands and I glanced around at the others, my eyes darting and hands sweating with anticipation. Understanding little of the verbal instructions, as the first song began to play I closed my eyes and let my nervous excitement and the circle guide my movement. Encouraged by the supportive presence of the others, I opened myself to a dance that leaped up the walls, expanded continued on page 10

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consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

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shareback continued from page 8

throughout the space, and finally surrendered to the loving caress of hands on my feet. I stared into the eyes of a woman whose gaze smiled such kindness that a tear rolled down my cheek. When we finished the journey, I was instructed not to talk about my experience, but rather to let it settle into my body.

I came back the next week, and the next, and for the following three years heeded my calling to become a Biodanza facilitator, completing the training in Colombia and Brazil.

The explorations I had in Biodanza classes could not have better supported my experiences living in a new culture. Out of my regular routine and lacking sufficient words to express myself and define my identity, I discovered new parts of my being. As my mental and verbal chatter quieted, I found stillness in my body and from that place of stillness arose an emotion, a voice deeper, stronger, and more truthful to the expression of my essential self. Creativity that never before had the language to express itself began to flourish through explorations in movement, music, and emotion. I became attuned to a different cultural frequency and a different me. I discovered how to communicate with my heart, allowing the emotion of the moment to be included in my interactions. I expanded the tools I have to express myself in the world by honoring my body’s wisdom as equally important to my mind’s knowledge.

Today, in a room full of people, it feels more natural to express myself through dance than through spoken words. Within moments I arrive at the heart of what I want to share, and it is not only intellectually understood by others, but felt. I am able to express what exists in the space before words.

– LAuRA CAmNER, California

THANKS FROm STOCKHOLm I am a 5Rhythms dancer, and this magazine has filled in the picture of the map around 5R, what its relations are in the world of movement modalities. These weeks of course are bittersweet, remembering and reflecting over Gabrielle Roth’s work, and then over Sandy devastating the coast where all my family lives!

Something else I get from CD is being jealous of all the “dance-goodies” available in California, which are so clearly communicated in CD. Slowly but surely the dance community grows here in Sweden too.

Also appreciate that CD explains how to attend workshops, what to eat to dance, what 10

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to wear to dance etc. because I come to the movement world from being an over-intellectual computer nerd for the first 44 years of my life and knew nothing of these skills/abilities/ tips for getting the most out of movement experiences. I have given back issues to friends here in Stockholm to spread the word, and it is really like giving a delicious treat to give a CD magazine.

Thank you to you and your staff for what I imagine is a lot of hard work on this publication!

Reading on in Sweden, – SuE COHEN, Stockholm

AmBASSADOR OF LOvE Reading your first articles and images gave me a sense of belonging and shared understanding. You affirmed to me that there are many of us out there with the same knowing, same passion, same heart and soul calling!

In my jubilation and desire to support your birth and longevity, I immediately responded to your call for “Ambassadors” and I became your first ambassador in Toronto, proudly.

My story goes back to the 1920s when my grandmother was a young teenager in Poland, living in a strict Jewish Orthodox family where dancing was forbidden. She was sure that God would strike her dead for dancing. Seriously!

At the end of one year, finding herself still alive, she sensed that God might actually be okay with her dancing, and continued to dance for the rest of her life. When she moved to Canada she passed the love of dance on to her daughters.

I started off my dance life in Russian ballet as a child, but left it to travel the world and live a bohemian life of adventure and flow. My first encounter with ecstatic dance, not that I had a name for it then, was when I was 19 years old in 1973, living on a beach in Goa, India, dancing to drums, the ocean, and around crackling fires.

For over 30 years, I have travelled the world exploring a variety of modalities. In 2001, I co-founded, with my friend Nan Keyser, a beautiful women’s dance practice, Dance Our Way Home (DOWH), which recently won a national dance award for bringing wellness to communities through dance. I co-founded and regularly DJ at Toronto’s largest ecstatic dance community, The Move. I am grateful to you, dear Conscious Dancer magazine, for continuing to blossom and bring conscious dance into the awareness of these shifting times.

In gratitude and love, – ERICA ROSS, Toronto CORRECTION: On p.21 of our last issue, we mistakenly

referred to Genia Zilberstein as a woman. Our apologies.

consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

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Greater Bay Area “5Rhythms is a moving meditation that directs us back to the here and now, to the vast and wild wisdom of our own bodies – the only place to begin any search for truth.” – Lori Saltzman C CO ON NT TA AC CT TS S F FO OR R C CL LA AS SS SE ES S ,, W WO OR RK KS SH HO OP PS S A AN ND D S SW WE E AT AT Y YO OU UR R P PR R AY AY E ER RS S BELLA DREIZLER

CLAIRE ALEXANDER

Sacramento bodyjoy.net 916.267.5478

Mountain View ecstaticproductions.com 408.829.7366

CHARLIE KORDA

JENNIFER BURNER San Geronimo & Santa Rosa sweatyourprayerssg.com 415.200.7559

San Francisco 5rhythmssanfrancisco.com 707.295.5841

KATHY ALTMAN & LORI SALTZMAN

Mill Valley – Sausalito – San Rafael movingcenterschool.com 415.887.9399

STACEY BUTCHER

Mill Valley – San Geronimo – Berkeley staceybutcher5rhythms.com 415.755.7905 SYLVIE MINOT

Sausalito syzygydanceproject.com 415.272.1896

“ We all share the wound of fragmentation. And we can all share in the cure of unification. Healing is the unification of all our forces -- the powers of being, feeling, knowing and seeing.” – Gabrielle Roth

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inspiration LOvE INFORmS uS Reshaping reality with Bernie Prior and The Form. l by laura cirolia

O

n a strong recommendation from a friend, I packed a bag and headed north to the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS).

I was ready to embark on a five-day intensive retreat led by self-realized visionary Bernie Prior, the originator of The Form–A Reality PracticeTm. Perched atop a hill in Sonoma County, California, IONS has been an evolutionary’s ideal wellspring for decades. Because of its mission to support human transformation through consciousness and explore the powers of phenomena beyond our current awareness, it seemed like the perfect place to meet Prior and learn The Form.

Prior, originally from England and transplanted to New Zealand, looks like an ordinary guy, with a culturally textured accent and accessible manner. Yet he proved to be the most extraordinary person I’ve had the opportunity to spend a week with—ever.

His attention to what was real, human, and loving remained steadfast at the forefront of his conversation. “Where I come from,” he says, “there are no positive and negative, there’s only love.”

Prior has created his life as a picture of his message, living in what he continued to point to the entire time, “The Deep.” By this he means the deepest, truest, most loving awareness where our One True Self resides.

This teaching seems vastly different from the concept of “We are all one,” but rather there is only One and we

Spiritual teacher Bernie Prior demonstrates the power and potential of The Form–A Reality Practice.

photo:

continued on page 15

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inspiration continued from page 13

are acting as this One. Prior seemed very specific in his word choices to distinguish his exact meaning.

On day one, we began to learn the first part of The Form, which currently has a series of five parts, danced around a seated partner for about 20 minutes. Dancing The Form is begun by attuning to your heart, the still point, the center where everything happens. “In that, we are knowing the Masculine and Feminine principles of the universe that are unchanging, where the two are One,” Prior teaches. While easily learning the movements, I found myself accessing something far deeper. This was what Prior continued to point to the entire time: “The Deep.” I began to recognize when I was in that place, and wanted to stay there as long as possible. To live from that place all the time.

I could see and feel how it had the potential to transform relationships both within myself and with those I love. “You can enable that power in your everyday life,” Prior says. “Enable it or it is not yours. Be the movement of what you know is finer. Give yourself to the smallest bit of clarity, the smallest bit of love.”

And that’s what I was there for. I was available for more truth and more love. “You introduce yourself to places in yourself you’ve forgotten. Don’t look for comfort,” suggested Prior. And there it was—up came my old behavior patterns, as obvious and uncomfortable as a tight pair of shoes. Some, while very subtle, were profoundly out of sync with my intentions to meet others in the heart. My ears and gut instincts were supra-attuned to every action and word coming from my mouth; it

Dancing the Form is begun by attunement to your heart, the empty point where everything happens. was as if the actions, words, and intonations were on a scale of consciousness and I was conducting them. Dancing The Form brought them to light, requiring a steady stream of selflove and compassion during and after the retreat. With each part and each movement of The Form, I felt as though a new spiritual scaffolding was arising from the ground up—for a more evolved Being to come into existence.

Most noticeable about Prior was his intense presence in every moment. The group had a lot to learn, both with the integration and transmission of The Form. Prior encouraged us to go slowly, feeling into each gesture to “move with delicacy and tenderness.” In moving very, very slowly, I noticed finer and finer frequencies of Source entering through the doorway of my heart and into my body. The group got a solid grasp of each new distinction Prior languaged and demonstrated as we progressed through all five parts with their symbolic choreography, recognizing the meaning and value of each aspect for ourselves.

“Bernie lovingly held the group the whole way through. No one was left behind,” one participant noted with appreciation.

“There is so much that we do know that is unseen,” says Prior. “The dance enables one to trust the unseen and bring it in to seen.”

Prior uses The Form to bring us down into the body where we have the potential of becoming heart-connected with each other and observing our unseen nature come into form.

“The practice unfolds reality,” says Prior, “ever deeper, ever finer.”

Learn more about The Form—A Reality Practice and find international workshops, trainings, and Bernie Prior’s schedule at www.bernieprior.org

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Thank You Michelle.

Let’s Move! and Michelle Obama say dance-fitness and learning go together.

Let us show you how! Bring this movement into YOUR classroom.

Dance is coming to a classroom near you with Teachers Dance leading the way. We’re excited to share the secrets of bringing expressive movement into your curriculum.

With Teachers Dance, your students gain access to deeper understandings in every subject, and connect to the joyous vitality and positive power that comes with self-esteem and fearless learning.

We make it fun and accessible to add somatics to your syllabus–- for you and your students.

Let’s give every student the key to academic success and every teacher an opportunity to stay connected to the love of teaching. Teachers Dance methods do that. Join us for a new “movement” in academic history, where the student body is the main subject.

“ Liz really makes both sides of my brain dance together! I love it. Her teaching style is eclectic, exciting and joyful.” – TEACHERS DANCE PARTICIPANT

TEACHERSDA NCE www.TeachersDance.com

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FOR YOUR STUDENT BODY!

WiggleGiggle (AGES 3–6+) Learn through danceplay!

MathDance (AGES 7–12) Rhythm and play adds UP!

BAY AREA EVENT

TEACHERSDA NCE

SATURDAY WORKSHOP SERIES June 22, 29, July 13, 20, 2013

(10am–5pm) For teachers, movement facilitators, parents and caregivers.

Level 1 Certification and workbook with completion of 4 days.

COMMUNITY INVITED– Bring the kids! (ages 3 to 7) 4:00pm–4:45pm Sample our Saturday Master Classes by facilitator Liz Mac. $25 per family– free for TD series participants

info@teachersdance.com

warmups

faves, raves, and fun stuff for our community to appreciate

MaKe a HuMaNDala

Circles of intention are instant icebreakers. Try one of Daniel Levy’s nature-inspired designs or discover your own.

“It’s an instant connection and instant union with a group of people,” says Daniel Levy, creator and teacher of Humandalas. To form a Humandala, a group will synchronize their bodies, movements, and sound with natural rhythms and universal patterns.

Levy developed the idea through his study of sacred geometry, especially by drawing an image called the flower of life. “When I close my eyes,” says Levy,

Levy teaches Humandala workshops at schools, community organizations, and on the West Coast transformative festival circuit. The process serves as a powerful embodied icebreaker that quickly brings a group to a deeper level. “It’s a tool to help people get in sync with the harmonies of nature,” says Levy.

“From that point we can co-create a world together that is more in harmony with our true selves and our environment.”

Eighth graders and their teacher melanie macTavish at the Blue Oak Charter School in Chico, California, try their hands at Humandala making.

(Top: student Butterfly Leger; Daniel Levy shown bottom right in orange.)

PhotoS: MElaNiE MactaViSh

photos: aBoVe courtesY oJai foundation / top and right: marY dawson

Information, animated tutorials, and interactive game at www.humandalas.com

consciousdancer.com | summer 2012

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warmups

SOuNDINg IT OuT

Give yourself permission and set your voice free. Reveal your innate expression and magnify your soul by exploring your greatest potential–your own voice. Danish born Karina Schelde, creator of The Soul Voice method, brings you the tools to liberate yourself and illuminate your inner wisdom. InTeRVIew By LAuRA CIRoLIA CD: Can you talk about the tongue, and how we use our words and tones?

KS: The tongue is the instrument that enables us to speak and sound, thus it determines how we are seen and heard and ultimately how we manifest. The tone of our voice never lies! The tone of voice reveals what is hidden beneath the linear, spoken words. Our tongue’s flexibility and alertness is related to how well we listen and take responsibility for dealing with any underlying hidden agendas and issues that may be held in our resonance or lack of resonance.

CD: How does intention add power to our sounding? What else adds power to our sounding?

KS: When we allow ourselves to feel fully and to be in a state of absolute presence, we may start to surrender and relax into the flow of the unknown. For me the unknown is living each precious moment in trust, so that true spontaneity can emerge. When we are one with our inner power (and what we may name as guidance or Source), we will start to fuel our entire system with energy, with power beyond measure, and become very effective in our intuitive sound frequencies. I have structured a method that enables practitioners/students to use the information that wants to come through them, in a grounded way, using a rich kaleidoscope of practices and techniques.

CD: What do people notice in their lives when they have more access to their soul’s voice?

KS: You will come to listen and express yourself more freely in an empowered and grounded way, thus you will be heard in unexpected and maybe surprising ways, which will enable you to become a better manifestor and communicator. You may be able to better relax, release, and let go when needed, to surrender to “being-ness” rather than coming from a “doingness-state,” which often is stress-related. You may find your inner power and center quicker, which can open to greater inner and outer expansion in your life. You may be able to then let go of old habits or beliefs that don’t serve you any longer .

CD: How does sounding differ from using an instrument that is not of the body?

KS: Focusing on the voice only with no instruments or remedies allows us to realise that the voice itself is indeed the finest and most effective of all instruments, as it has heart and soul and higher consciousness.

CD: What are some of the benefits of practicing The Soul Voice Method?

CD: Can you share some Soul Voice exercises and what you’ve discovered doing them?

KS: The baby sound practice is a wonderful exercise to reconnect with the origins of the voice, allowing playfulness and innocence to emerge. The experience of maybe sensing your tongue for the first time; in this way the release of childhood memories to a depth never experienced before.

Primordial sounding through identifying with the animal kingdom is fun and truly inspiring, as you may discover that those guttural and growling sounds bring you closer to your spiritual being, your raw alertness, and true aliveness. This practice may stir up deep rooted fears; however, it is also able to release them as you access your center and grounding with a new perspective.

•

For information about Soul Voice sessions, workshops, and facilitator trainings visit www.soulvoice.net/home.html.

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“....the voice itself is indeed the finest and most effective of all instruments, as it has heart and soul and higher consciousness.”

Photo:

KS: On a physical level, working with this method benefits well-being and aliveness, a sense of being able to simply relax when needed. Other benefits include highly enhanced oxygenation and the body’s own ability to detoxify and rejuvenate on a more permanent level. On an emotional level SV brings greater access to authentic feelings, calms the busy mind, and brings the ability to communicate more clearly and effectively from the heart.

Super-sonic sounder Karina Schelde is living proof that the voice is a powerful instrument.

r e V i e W : EXPRESSION INTO FREEDOm: vOICE AND SOuND YOuR DESTINY

By Karina Schelde Step into the world of sound. It’s where we live, yet we may be missing the beauty and the power of sound and of silence. Karina Schelde’s Expression Into Freedom takes us on a journey to the soul’s essence through sound. We are instantly immersed in the sounds within and around us, through compelling and often poetic writing and exquisite photographs. The book is chock-full of simple exercises and includes a CD that you can use over and over again.

We learn that the tongue is an instrument of remembrance, that “every cell in our body is an ear,” that emotions are the bridge to our subconscious. We learn what it means to listen from the soul. We learn how relevant our “inner child” is to our emotional health. We learn about the relationship of breath, heart, and rhythm. And all along the way, we are offered concrete methods for how to expand, how to contain, and how to develop our awareness, intuition, and healing.

photo:

Case stories and anecdotes from Karina’s Soul voice students and practitioners provide first-hand evidence about the effects of sounding and toning in your daily life. Instruction on setting boundaries, working with the elements, and regenerating exercises are all surprisingly accessible. Final chapters on compassion and oneness and telepathic planetary sound healing give inspiration.

Sounding and toning with the human voice is simple and it is profound, just like this book. Dive in and go deep! The water is glorious. – L O R I L E W I S

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warmups

The Body’s Business

by Debbie rosas

THe Nia TeCHNique: My DaNCe THrougH life As I look back on the dance of my life as a woman, wife, mother, and founder of the Nia Technique one thing is clear—the stages of my life and profession are the same stages I go through as a choreographer to come up with a final dance I can be proud of. It all begins with inspiration, the stimulation needed to begin my process of change and the beginning of the dance of life.

This year I am celebrating Nia’s 30th birthday. What began in 1983 and sparked a new industry called mind-body fitness by bringing consciousness into exercise was not a conscious act. I never could have dreamed of a movement and lifestyle practice based on sensation science. I’m grateful to have listened to the voice inside me. an intuitive inner voice urged me to seek pleasure and move away from pain.

“Debbie,” the voice said, “there is a better way, slow down, sense, breathe, emotionally connect, express, lead, don’t follow!” Looking back, I see how the decision to take my shoes off and stop jumping up and down started the very moment I took my shoes off in a martial arts dojo and felt my feet, as well as the earth beneath me.

Life and business are a dance. you have to follow the flow and the direction without resisting, over-thinking, or questioning. you have to remain sensitive to your foundation and to the subtle energetic and emotional shifts that beckon you to do it differently. you have to keep changing and trusting yourself.

The biggest challenge came when I moved from marin County, California, where nia was created, to Portland, oregon. my marriage had just ended, and I was in a state of pain and disbelief. It was hell.

How did i survive? i danced. I used dance as the medicine for my heart and soul. And I applied to my own life all of the things I taught others. I walked the talk and gained amazing insights into who I was, into movement, into my body, and into my life.

People who do nia receive so much more than traditional fitness benefits. They receive the kind of stuff that makes living your life consciously possible no matter what your circumstances. So many times during challenging moments in my life I left class having such respect for the fact that nia provided me a place to use my voice, to yell “yes” and “no,” to punch and kick out stress, and then, in an instant shift, to connect to my heart. nia presses you to your safe edge to change and grow, as well as to not wallow in your habits.

Nia gives me all this: creating shapes, manifesting the voice of modern dance, eliciting the sensuality of jazz, invoking the dynamic alignment of yoga, following the wisdom of Alexander Technique, and breathing to connect to my own skin by following the teachings of moshe Feldenkrais, all in 60 minutes. photo: Jeff stewart

i have survived and ultimately thrived throughout every stage of my life (including my 62nd birthday in January of 2013) because nia gives me the space to sense my now, in-themoment physical body; to connect to my real emotions without faking it; to use my mind and imagination; and to dance my way, the only way my spirit does what she does—with love, gratitude, and respect for the body, the universe, my body, and my life. consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

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CONSCIOUS DANCER movement for a better world

Discover treasure on the movemap* *A world of movement from your community!

aSy iT’S e To uP SigN Ne oNli

We’re on a mission to empower a million movement professionals around the world with tools to connect and succeed. are you in?

faCiliTaTorS: PoST your eVeNT, reaD uS iN PriNT. The movemap connects you with local dancers. iNSTiTuTioNS: Tell your STory WiTH a Page iN THe uPSHifT guiDe. Help people understand your important work.

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spotlight

Second generation storyteller Eden Castro lets her body explain.

groWiNg a Tale

A daughter of Body Tales revisits her own biography with surprising results. l by EDEN caStro

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s a child I wished that others could read me like I read the characters in books. I was sure that if they could understand my inner experience, they wouldn’t be able to help loving me. I also craved the chance to know others as intimately as I witnessed storybook characters, though this hardly ever seemed possible.

I felt this possibility blossom when my mother, Lysa Castro, took me to a Body Tales class performance during the summer after my sophomore year of college. She had been a core teacher of Body Tales, working alongside founder, Olivia Corson, since I was five. But I had never wanted to participate in a class and I hadn’t been to a performance in years. At this performance I felt myself seeing Body Tales with new eyes. The performers told true stories from their lives, improvising with their whole bodies to convey memories and emotions. My legs felt the impact as they jumped, my lips stretched and parted as they smiled, and my eyes welled up when they sobbed. I was witnessing inner experience in the way that I had wished to since childhood, and I felt a deep longing to be witnessed in this way too.

Two weeks later I joined my mom, Olivia, and 12 other participants for a weekend of Body Tales in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Olivia welcomed us with the chance to spend some time focusing in with our bodies. I chose a place on the smooth wood floor and soon felt myself sinking into her invitation to feel myself just as I was at that moment. My thoughts stilled and slowed as my awareness awakened to my sensations in the moment. I started to dance and my mind found itself witnessing, rather than directing, the sweeping movements of my arms and the slide of my feet along the floor. Judgment, embarrassment, and nervousness relaxed. Compassion for my own experience emerged as my

body moved and made sounds with a life and purpose of her own. I began to feel ready for the first Body Tales “pieces” of the weekend, which would involve both movement and storytelling.

I paired with a long-time participant whom I didn’t know well. Olivia explained that we would take turns being mover and witness; one of us would move, speak, and sound as the other offered her silent support. I began as the witness, giving full attention to my partner, while practicing staying present with my own sensations and emotions. She jumped right in, exploring and sharing some of the deepest struggles and joys in her life. I was her sole witness and I felt honored by her trust in my ability to receive her story.

When Olivia signaled that the time for the first piece was over, my partner found a pause and we thanked each other. We spent a few moments remembering her piece by recalling her movements and words just as they had been, rather than trying to explain their meaning. Then during some guided blessing and healing time she had the opportunity to ask for what she wanted and needed—to have her head gently cradled in my lap. As I stroked her hair I felt grateful to be able to offer her the tenderness that had awoken in me during her piece, without wondering if I was offering the right thing. Then, before transitioning to my piece,

photos: raLph paterno

i was witnessing inner experience in the way that i had wished to since childhood, and i felt a deep longing to be witnessed in this way too.

BoDy TaleS, developed by Olivia Corson, is a creative and healing practice that integrates movement, voice, and personal storytelling. Combining elements of dance, theater, and expressive arts, this unique somatic form offers avenues for coming home to your body and senses. Body Tales is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Corson and Lysa Castro lead classes and workshops. They also offer retreats in beautiful rural settings including the Esalen Institute and in Costa Rica, Hawaii, and Mexico. www.bodytales.com

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we were encouraged to open our voices and thoroughly ground, as I became the mover and she the witness.

When I stood up I felt shy and embarrassed. It was difficult to find the ease I had felt moving alone; I wanted her to like me, to be entertained and impressed by my story. But I remembered the judgment-free empathy I had felt for myself during the solo movement time and for my partner during her piece.

Sensing her calm presence, I thought, she must be feeling that same way towards me.

And I felt myself sink in. Words rose up as spontaneously as movement did, and I discovered feelings and memories I hadn’t realized I was holding—my daddy’s big scratchy beard casting a shadow over a sweet patch of sunlight on our dusty wood floor and a halflistened-to argument between grown-ups,

Compassion for my own experience emerged as my body moved and made sounds with a life and purpose of her own.

N E WI O N !

AT 5 T H 1 LO C P R IL A

while I carefully drew a little woman whose hair became the sea. As my piece came to a close I was left with a sense that it had revealed something sweet and genuine to both my partner and myself.

I’ve continued to dive deeply into Body Tales over the past couple of years. Sometimes I experience the embarrassment and anxiety I felt on that first day. But most of the time, I find myself dropping in—feeling wonderfully free to express whatever is true for me. My relationships with my mother and Olivia have strengthened during this time; not only have I come to feel more deeply known by them, I also understand them and their work in a new way. I’ve also become more authentic and creative in my daily life. I ask for hugs when I want them and laugh or cry more freely than I used to. My ideas burst forth with a confidence that has grown, and this is helping me discover passions I hadn’t noticed in myself before. Body Tales is an exquisitely whole art form that integrates storytelling, dance, theater, and healing, summoning up a powerfully authentic form of creativity.

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“ I am The sTuDeNT Of These rhyThms.”

In honor of Gabrielle, we are reprinting sections of the piece she wrote for Conscious Dancer in fall, 2008 (Issue #4).

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eaching is my spiritual practice. I am the student of these rhythms, and of all the amazing people who seek their wisdom. We recognize each other; we recognize our need for freedom and expression. The question I ask myself and everyone else is, “Do you have the discipline to be a free spirit?” Can we be free of all that binds and bends us into a shape of consciousness that has nothing to do with who we are from moment to moment, from breath to breath.

We are now living in a time dominated by the rhythm of chaos, and to learn to move with it is our survival art.

The world moved to a staccato beat for 2000 years and we were able to hide behind all kinds of structures. Now we need to shed skins, tears, masks, molds, and experience the breakdown–the shattering of borders between body, heart, and mind, between genders and generations, between nations and nomads. We are the transitional generation. Our grandchildren will be born and live in this rhythm of chaos, and they won’t have to deal with the same resistance to it. It is our responsibility to know it, to become comfortable with it, to embrace it and all its teachings, and to pass this on to future generations.

1941– 2012

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photo: tristan savatier

5Rhythms GabRielle Roth FlowinG staccato chaos lyRical stillness

photos: archival photos from cd files and friends and family of g. roth

C o n T i n u e d o n pa g e 2 9

Snapshots gathered from the journey of Gabrielle Roth, lovingly known as The Raven by those who were close.

and silent spaces. I vow as I did all those many years ago to you, to continue my service to all the people who show up wanting to dance. –Vinn Martí

“ dance why you can’t be present right now.”

Gabrielle’s work hasn’t just informed my creative life—it is my creative life. In fact, before I came across the rhythms I never considered myself a creative person at all. Gabrielle showed me that magic is real, pleasure is possible, and everything can be a creative action. The rhythms are simply a map—it’s the spirit inside of them that is the real deal, and that has got into my bones, blood, and breath so that everything I am is infused with that aliveness. –ADAM BARLEY When I first met Gabrielle 34 years ago she didn’t just wear black—she wore purple, lavender, pale pink, and grey. She once carried a plastic pistol into the workshop room to “shoot us alive” and often danced us till dawn until we were too spent to resist the insistent sound of our own rhythm. She taught me to never judge a book by its cover, never consider myself an exception, and never be stingy with myself or anyone else on the dance floor, even when that meant a full-hearted “no thank you.” I miss her wit, her wisdom, and her ability to wordsmith the most complex issues into a simple, digestible bite. She was a shaman for our times, a person who has been wounded, mapped the path to wholeness, and then lit the course for others to do the same.

–KATHY ALTMAN The spirit of Gabrielle Roth and the 5Rhythms informs every moment of my waking life. All that I am given is a gift. All of life is a dance. I practice turning my suffering into art and my art into healing. I practice sharing this gift with all those who cross my path. Life happens for me, not to me. To practice the art of life is to practice grace 28

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When I became a 5Rhythms teacher, my dream was to bring dance to people who couldn’t come to our dance floor. Ten years later when Gabrielle was diagnosed with cancer, I realized that this was the time to do what I have always wanted to do.

Gabrielle had started 5Rhythms Reach Out then, and I felt that I needed to go out there and volunteer in the jails, VA hospitals, and recovery centers rather than waiting for the money or for whatever else we thought we should wait for. This was in April 2010, and now we have created Syzygy Dance Project, a non-profit organization, and have 5–7 weekly classes all over the Bay Area working with veterans, inmates, women in recovery, and at-risk youth. –SYLVIE MINOT I was in a weekly class that Gabrielle taught and she somehow got a bit agitated with us. Then she came up with an idea/exercise: she asked us to dance why we could not be 100 percent present right now. Basically she asked us to dance what we were resisting at the moment. I totally went for it and it was so freeing. Still nowadays this is the key to lots of stuck aliveness in the body. Dance what is. –Eva Vigran

and change. In all of my teachings and all of my dances, I find the spirit of Gabrielle guiding me. I dedicate my teaching to all those who wish to come out of suffering and into peace. –LUCIA HORAN My grandma was an extraordinary person. She knew what to say, what to do, and how to shop. She had the coolest style, and I just adored her! She was an incredible lady and had a very humorous side to her. My father used to say that she would talk about the silver desert, the heaven where she will fly away to. She would say, “Dance is the fastest, most direct route to the truth.” I love this quote, and I love my nana.

–SOFIA ANSELL This conscious dance practice of Soul Motion has had many fathers: meditation, theater performance skills, yoga, formal dance training from modern and post-modern teachers, spiritual chaplaincy and prayer practitioner, children’s storytelling, and other influences both artistic and spiritual, and yet there has been one mother to this work—Gabrielle. Thank you Gabrielle for your straight-ahead no nonsense view of what we are here to do as holders of the dance spirit, to sweat our ecstatic prayers and dance until we drop inward to the still

I first met Gabrielle in 1979 at Esalen. I was 17 years old and in a huge life crisis that included the death of my mother.

Gabrielle’s teaching showed me, step by step, rhythm by rhythm, how to move back into the bones of my own existence. Her basic teaching I believe can be summed up as the possibility of saying an embodied YES to all that we experience, including our difficulties, through finding a way to move with it. This YES has been the foundation of my spiritual practice as it has for many of her students. –ANDREA JUHAN I remember a time in the early ‘80s when we were dancing in our studio in Red Bank, New Jersey, and I had to leave early for my Gurdjieff meeting; if I was literally one minute late, they would not let me in. As I was leaving the room, Gabrielle danced over to me, grabbed me, and whispered in my ear: “You do know that he is dead, don’t you?” Then she went back to dancing.

–Jeffrey Hoffman One day in 1977 I was breezing out of Gabrielle’s kitchen as she was having a deep discussion with Dr. Jay about his girlfriend woes. As I was waving a quick goodbye, I overheard her say, “Jay, you need to be with someone less like you, someone more like...” (she looked up at me as I was about to leave) “like Amber!” We both laughed. Gabrielle married us May 17, 1984. We have been together since, raising our three daughters and dancing the 5Rhythms in every aspect of our lives! – AMBER AND JAY KAPLAN

“If yOu haVe a bODy, yOu are a DaNCer.”

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my lIfe ChaNGeD when I met the work and the woman. I was moved to follow, to explore and to continue a journey of empowerment.

It changed my life in many ways; my career shifted, my heart opened. I went from being a visual artist to a life of service, to the dance and the moment. product was replaced with process, and my mandate as a teacher became to expand the heart’s capacity for joy.

I have moved from one side of the country to the other. I met love on the dance floor, and stayed. I opened my circle to a global expression and travel to teach. I made friends with fears and released limitations. Gabrielle was not a gentle soul when I met her; she was fierce and seeing through the layers of what limited to the core truth; she had little patience for all the ways I hid. she was surrounded by people’s desires to be free and whole at the same time as she was seeing all the ways we defended ourselves from living that freedom. I watched her move into a more spacious, compassionate, and tender approach to working with others. That call has also been an ongoing inspiration. – JO CObbeTT

he 5rhythms were born in dialogue with the great emptiness I found in my dance when I moved to the edge of myself and leapt without knowing where I was going or why.

They were my language, my way to communicate all that I was experiencing, feeling, seeing.

They came to me in the night, in the sweat of dreams, in the dance that never stopped moving, in the peak of an orgasm, in the prayer of childbirth; they came to me raw in their silence, they came to me in waves that washed over me and emptied me and filled me with their aliveness, their presence, their spirit. – GabrIelle rOTh

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a pure organic moisturiser hand crafted in new zealand

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meet the New student body

moving energy in the wheel of life, prescott College dance students communicate their hearts’ intentions.

photo: hagen caldWell

eDUcation 2013

educators across the country are tuning into the mind-body connection and adding more movement to the mix. switched-on students seeking an embodied learning curve now have more options than ever, and the list keeps on growing. first lady michelle Obama, wise to the ways that movement enlivens the brain, just launched let’s move! active schools to increase physical activity in our schools. among the ideas put forward—dancing in math class and flash mob dances between classes.

The bold ideas emerging across the land are good news for people of all ages and stages—signs that a somatic syllabus is coming to life.

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“movement is the message and the messenger. life is speaking through you.” – Emilie Conrad “this symposium is a chance to share what’s inspired us, and to see what sparks you.”

– JudithA ston

Sparks Fly spiral movement symposium, ca

Above: Movement mavens convene at JFK university (left to right): Judith Aston, Theresa Silow, emilie Conrad, and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. Below: Cohen and friend.

Last fall, JFK University in Northern California united three somatic pioneers—Judith Aston, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, and Emilie Conrad—for a powerful exploration of the moving language of the cosmos. Theresa Silow, director of somatic psychology at the school, was seeking an interactive model and was jazzed by the energy that bubbled up. “The thing I loved most about the Spiral Movement conference was the collaborative spirit that was generated,” she says.

“We wanted a situation where we could actually see what it looks like when each of these different practices [Aston Kinetics, Body-Mind Centering, and Continuum] interweave with each other. It was this tapestry that got presented. There was a sense that they got where the other one was going, they picked up from that, took it further—there was a layering of different modalities and therefore extraordinary richness. That for me was the most exciting piece. There was a sense of what it is like when you create a field that is more of a collective, and what is the potency of that?”

PhotoS: SPiRal woRKShoP, maRghe millS-thYSen; CenteR:CoURteSY oF UniVeRSitY oF RoCheSteR PRogRam oF danCe and moVement Photo:

eDu 2013: the new stuDent boDy

emilie Conrad on being an educator: “engaging interest, where there is a pool of excitement, so that there is real stimulation, so that we are doing it together. The spark of interest, that’s the whole point.”

Dr. rachel jorDana horoDezky: embracing movement

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Getting Aligned university of rochester, ny Students at the university can choose among four dance clusters, including one in mind-body somatics. Course work explores the mind-body relationship, with a focus on finding connections between the inner physical world and the external environment. Missy Pfohl Smith directs the university’s Program of Dance and Movement.

y vision for the future of movement in education is to bring it into mainstream psychology courses. While getting my doctorate in psychology, I was required to learn multiple theories of therapy: psychodynamic, narrative therapy, family therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, and more. In the third year of my education, I realized that something was missing— the body. I asked my advisor if I could take an independent study course on using movement in therapy. Her response: “Oh honey, I think you will have to come up with something more legit than that.” It was in this moment that I became determined to be part of the driving force to make movement a “legit” part of therapy. a challenge: Masters and doctorate psychology programs

photo: right: laura cirolia

are long and costly, yet many of them do not teach holistic health. Mainstream psychology focuses on the mind. Yet, when we only work with the mind, we are losing a really important part of the picture.

Some fantastic dance/movement therapy masters programs are available, although they are relatively expensive and require a great deal of time and effort (two to three years). The benefit to this is that there are real specialists in the field of movement therapy.

The downside is that it makes using movement in therapy relatively inaccessible to non-DMT therapists, thus limiting the use of movement as therapy with clinical populations.

An even more limiting factor is the strong trend toward using evidence-based practice (manualized treatment with research to back it). This means that if a style of therapy has not been proven with scientific research, it is less likely to be covered by insurance companies. The community has yet to develop an evidence-based practice that incorporates movement.

Two students in Contemporary Dance: Context and Practice take turns palpating the scapulae to investigate its many possibilities for movement.

a solution: I founded Creative Dance Psychology (CDP), a combination of group process, movement, and art. It is the intersection between clinical psychology and conscious dance. In workshops we use movement and group process to shed layers of stuck-ness and create momentum in healing.

My main goal for this work is for it to be used clinically in institutionalized settings. I am developing a structured seven-week group therapy manual and treatment program for teaching CDP to psychology students who want to use movement in their therapeutic repertoire. The research and structured outline will allow for this method to develop credibility in the mainstream scientific community, given the trend toward evidence-based treatment. My vision is to make this a course that is taught in mainstream psychology classes (just as my training included other types of therapy). Although one course is not enough training, it is a start and intended to be a catalyst to get students and patients into their bodies, out of their heads, and curious about movement in general. At the moment, I have the good fortune of teaching Creative Dance Psychology as an elective at John F. Kennedy University in Northern California this spring.

Dr. Rachel Jordana Horodezky, Psy.D is the founder of Creative Dance Psychology and teaches workshops internationally. She holds a private practice in Santa Cruz, California. www.creativedancepsychology.com

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eDu 2013: the new stuDent boDy

melissa michaels: birthing emboDieD global leaDers

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Lucia Rich taps into the spirit moving all of life at Surfing The Creative, the first contemporary rites of passage camp rooted in dance.

ill you help me create a degree program in Movement and Education?” a young woman recently asked after my Dancing Beyond Boundaries workshop at the University of Colorado.

“Sure,” I responded without hesitation.

For 30 years, since I graduated from that very same university, I have been preparing to answer that question.

At 21, with my undergraduate studies completed, I was hungering for something I had not found in academia. Longing for connection with something bigger than the world as I knew it, I chose to journey far from the safety and routine of my life. I landed in a small village in South India, where I taught dozens of Tamil children, ages 4 to 8. Our classes were held in the embrace of the branches of a huge banyan tree. With no knowledge of their language, I turned to the only vehicle for communication we had in common—our bodies.

Each morning I was greeted by bright-eyed children, each delighted to imitate my every gesture. I found myself moving in ways I never imagined possible. My enthusiasm guided me to jump and roll, to do whatever it took to explain to these curious young learners the basics of addition and subtraction. I would contort my body into funny shapes, creating moving images to describe their words.

julianne corey: nia moves on campus

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perfect fit for lesley, which encourages interdisciplinary approaches to learning. the primary objective of our coursework is sensory awareness, and our primary tools are the principles of the nia white belt, the foundation of nia. Students learn about the body via the experience of moving in their bodies, stepping into the role of “sensation scientist.” each week, we embark upon a focus such as “the base of the body” or “Freedance,” bring that focus into an hour-long nia movement experience, and then turn to our journals, everyone writing about their own experiences with the movement. in the discussion that follows, some students sit with and digest what they noticed, while others can’t keep from sharing: i could sense the soles

of my feet, felt the vibration of the music in my bones, i felt my heart pumping, i remembered to breathe and stopped feeling awkward. by the midterm, students embark upon a personalized self-care plan, laying the groundwork for a final research project including a proposed mind-body program for a target population. this fall, students

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proposed integrating nia into work with dementia and people recovering from cancer, strokes, and eating disorders as well as young women entering business careers and innercity youth. at the end of 14 weeks, the students have embraced somatic practices that support their own needs, developed plans for integrating somatic tools in working with others, and practiced using movement and awareness to keep professional burnout at bay. the writing generated reveals a myriad of responses to movement. there is no telling which 18–21 year old will embrace “Freedance” and which might resist the kicks and punches, but to be in dialogue on the page between one’s physical experience and the ideas of theorists, students must begin to

identify what they encountered— physically, mentally, emotionally. they take ownership of their experience of living in their own bodies, sealing their “aha” moments with cognition, self-awareness, and connection to a learning community. one student summarizes her course experience: i learned that i

can’t ignore what my body is saying, because it is greatly affecting my emotions... it is trying to tell me something important. through teaching this course, i’ve come to consider these personal findings a most valid form of “first-person research.” and while also drawing on more traditional forms of validation, these students demonstrate that the data they gather from their bodies matters. their most compelling advancements in knowledge come from a union between outside and inside authorities. they dance to discover that inside voice, the examiner and authority of their lived experience.

Julianne Corey holds a Nia Black Belt and an MFA in creative writing and has taught Nia since 2001. www.nianow.com/julianne-corey

Photo: toP: Jane Smith, bottom: hagen Caldwell

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t lesley University, students enroll in nia: mind-body movement without knowing quite what they have signed on for. they are undergraduates, most of them preparing for careers in human services and taking the course to fulfill a requirement for holistic Counseling or expressive therapies. they expect to move, and we do—a lot, and they know that there will be homework and there is (perhaps more reading and writing than they expect from a movement course), but few anticipate the shift that occurs in the ways they perceive the body and the mindfulness and healing that result from a course based on a modality their mom might take at her health club. while a handful of colleges offer survey courses that explore somatic movement across a range of modalities, in the lesley nia course we both study and apply a variety of somatic methodologies through a singular lens of the nia technique.

Created in 1980 by debbie Rosas and Carlos aya-Rosas, nia draws from dance and martial and healing arts: holistic by design, nia is a

emboDieD leaDers ContinUed

Meanwhile, my young Tamil “students” were busy teaching me. Their nimble hands crafted beautiful dolls from scraps, as they learned to sew and weave with their mamas. They constantly tended to one another, brushing and stroking each other’s hair with great devotion. Out of nowhere, their voices would spontaneously rise up together, simply because someone felt like singing. These young people were naturally embodied, a state of being that I, as a Western girl, would take years to access.

One morning when I was alone with the children, a demanding voice began speaking to me from within. Disoriented, I leaned onto a wide root of our Banyan tree as a wave of intense energy washed through me.

I felt like I was hearing the cries of the children all over the world, delivering a message: You will help raise the children that will help raise the children of the world.

Decades have passed since that fateful day. Over the years, I have responded to the call by creating movement-based education programs for diverse people of all ages throughout the life cycle. Responding to the evolution of my students, I now have the privilege of working with hundreds of gifted and open-hearted emerging leaders around the world who also aim to serve children and youth through the somatic arts, particularly conscious dance.

All of these young people have told me that movement has been key in helping them move out of their own suffering into their greatest joy. Because dance has been a powerful portal to their own healing and actualization at all levels of their beings—physically, emotionally, socially, creatively, mentally, and spiritually—they want to translate their dances from the personal to the public.

photos: top: hagen caldwell; bottom:J ane smith

AnSWeRinG The CALL

In response to this collective longing, I have developed SomaSource, a path of practice, study, and service. Over the years, I have noticed that most young people who come to me seeking mentorship come with some sense of how he or she would like to show up to serve. In order to become an inspired leader in one of these fields, I suggest that we each awaken our capacities in several realms.

Each of us has a natural point of entry. For example, some people know that their primary medium of leadership is to be an educator.

Yet, to inspire learning, it is beneficial to call forth the artist within; the one who is able

to creatively improvise curriculum or see the social dynamics of their groups non-linearly.

We each have a unique journey to make along this dancing path of awakening. Yet there are some basic steps to follow that likely will lead us onto the sacred soils of our own souls and our service in this world. The first step is to say Yes, it is my intention to fully feel, live, and serve life. Yes! FRoM The MAny To The one

Once there is that resounding yes, the quest turns away from the collective and towards the self. The first phase of SomaSource® begins with an element of personal initiation, a descent and return. A deep inquiry into one’s biography, when sequenced through, is a powerful doorway to the discovery of one’s destiny.

PhASe i: iniTiATion

In order to embody the purpose of transformational teacher, healer, artist, or activist, the work of inner excavation, finding our own capacities for resilience and renewal, and awakening our capacity to love is essential.

Over time, we become grounded and open channels through which the limitless and wild creative force can freely move through us.

As a path towards these states of being, we also embrace these fundamental areas of inquiry during this first phase of the SomaSource process: • Somatic Practice • Body Mapping • Experiential Anatomy and Physiology • The Resolution of Shock and Trauma • Embodied Empathy® • Creative Process • Personal Biography Work through Rites of Passage

This inner work can happen anytime there is a sincere aspiration to become a teaching.

I recently received a video clip from one of my Middle Eastern students, a 19-year-old gal in the Israeli Army. The film showed her on guard duty with her gun at her side. She danced in the silence of the night watch.

Amidst barbed wire and concrete, this brave young woman has turned her dance into medicine for herself and her small group of guard mates.

PhASe ii: inquiRy

Once we truly begin to show up as inspired models of what we aim to teach, we can ask ourselves: What are the principles and practices that will support our work in diverse settings around the world? Who are the people we aim to serve? What are the skills we could gain to respectfully and effectively support our people?

I encourage students to study and eventually embody these fields: • Ethics, Safety, and Container Building • Compassionate Communication • Human Development • Cultural Diversity, Structural Equality, and Inclusion • Environmental Literacy • Community Development and Collaborative Leadership • Ritual, Ceremony, and Rites of Passage

Top: Mentor Melissa Michaels offers movement-based education across cultural and generational lines.

Bottom: Michaels teaching dance in Africa.

continued on page 50

eDu 2013: the new stuDent boDy

“as a dance/movement therapist my main goal is to work with the healing inherent in dance that allows us to be fully present and able to take the next steps, whatever they may be— historical, creative, or spiritual.”

Danielle Fraenkel teaching Somato Respiratory integration at a LivingDance~LivingMusic retreat in Corfu, Greece.

– Dr. Danielle Fraenkel, Kinections emilie conraD: bioception–the choreography of abunDant life

“i

consider Continuum to be an inquiry,” says somatic scientist Emilie Conrad, creator of the groundbreaking self-discovery and movement modality Continuum. “Part of the work of Continuum is to be dwelling in the state of discovery. When you love something, it reveals its secret to you.”

And the secret of the body is now for everyone to share. Conrad is a key figure in learning and teaching how to access new understanding about the body and the resonant stream that is our bioconnection. Her trainings are world renowned, and her book, Life on Land, the Story of Continuum, is both inspirational reading about her early years

and what led her to realize her purpose as a somatic pioneer, as well as a wealth of information about her extraordinary body-centric understandings. Page after page, she makes clear the wonder of the human body as a source of astonishing intelligence.

“What we call ‘our body’ is part of the planetary existence,” says Conrad. “It’s a program for basic survival. In the survival package, we have proprioception, exteroception, and interoception. I have developed another part called bioception, that has to do with living systems. It is not an academic thing. It is experiencing the choreography of abundant life. That is our connection.”

It’s no wonder that Conrad recommends

movement training for everyone and a somatic advisor in every occupation, particularly architecture, noting that “houses are an extension of the body.” Emilie gives meaning to the value of self-awareness.

“In my work,” she says, “I call it modern indigenosity, which is saying that we are of this biosphere. The enormity of what it takes to be a human being is our birthright. I find it impossible to teach this without looking at the social body as well. It is about bringing awareness of our social body. Without a sense of self-knowing, you are giving your authority to someone else.” – laura cirolia Emilie Conrad teaches Continuum worldwide. For more information, visit www.continuummovement.com.

eXcerpt: life on lanD by emilie conraD i dwell sweetly. it is important for me to feel this sweet flurry just for itself—not to manipulate it in any way, not to force it one way or another, but simply to experience the aesthetics of being alive.

The concert of existence places me in resonance with our biosphere—meaning that at this moment there is no “body,” no separation; i am part of the swirl of bio-morphic unfolding. i feel my breath as one with my world. i am not bound by culture or language. The deepening of sensation allows me to be without category. i transfer the moisture of my cells, join the wet of the grass, the pour of the ocean, the stars that watch over the night.

“look at how water moves. that’s choreography. the flow of life is ongoing. it’s not a conclusion. it’s an inquiry.”

The plants breathe, my skin is wet, we are here.

This fundamental umbilical to life without category is for me the first stage of sanity.

Wave motion is a healer in which all aspects communication. of our existence can move increasing wave motion permits for biologienhances cal life to communicate with itself. Fluid health and well-being and has far-reaching r capacity to name.

Again, it’s our breathing that begins our terrestrial dance. All our planes of motion—intrinsic extrinsic—begin with breath.

36

consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

Photo:photo: lauren deVon

All breath is movement. All movement originates with inhaling and exhaling. All movement becomes elaborated by the breadth

Dancers at eastwest Somatics explore Contact unwinding, a form much like Contact improvisation, except that one partner matches the movement of the other, and supports and guides it through touch. This somatic dance form involves attunement to small details by recognizing and matching movement patterns spontaneously, as well as following the unfolding of large movements through space. Below: Sondra works with Ruth Way, who heads up the Performance Studies department at Plymouth university in england.

sonDra fraleigh: eDucare in Dance: rewriting the past if we look closely, we see that all human movement has emotional congruence. motion is part of e-motion, and vice versa, as somatic studies account for, first nonverbally, and subsequently through non-invasive verbal communication.

Somatic practitioners and teachers learn effective communication skills that focus on listening and not assuming answers. in the spirit of listening, discovery modes of learning and healing are encouraged in somatic practices. Command is discouraged. the teacher doesn’t assume to know the answers. Rather, she is in a process of discovery with students. as Plato taught, the student already has the answers. teachers simply provide the circumstances for their arrival. education derives from educare, to draw forth.

photo: bottom: darbY sheridan

in the body, teaching and learning ensue from the throat, the energies of the voice, and from the eyes and ears. in owning our body, we say, i can speak, i have a voice; i can hear and see, learn and know. the archetype of the teacher and student appear psychologically in tandem. one doesn’t exist without the other, and they are not merely essences of the head, but of the whole bodymind. teaching and learning expand through speaking and listening. likewise, we learn and discover through moving, acting, and making choices. Consciousness expands in the process. it might expand still further when we present or portray our learning, whether verbally or in action. when we externalize through problem solving, through speech, dance, music, or in painting and architecture, we engage a transformational process, converting the soma, or internal milieu of the bodymind, into external signs of life so that others may participate in the current of our knowledge. presentation is a necessary cycle of transformational learning, and certainly of transformational dancing. it is not enough to keep learning private; we have to share in order to grow the self, and this can be risky. when the inside moves out, we disclose something of ourselves, and this takes courage. the teacher, i believe, is at best a non-judgmental witness to the student’s transformation, and maybe at times a cheerleader. there is nothing so exhilarating for me than a beautiful question or risked performance, especially from a student who is just testing the dancer in himself. maybe it is just the shaking of his hands that i appreciate in his dance, or finally the energy of heart and breath lifting his arms.

somatic practices do not develop exercises; rather, they create frameworks (or maps) for movement and dance experiences. as a somatic practitioner and teacher, i sometimes think of myself as an archeologist, or a treasure hunter on a dig, excavating body memories and possible-selves. i have mapped falling movements, for instance—guiding students incrementally toward existential modes of falling. the affects evoked range widely. Some people experience fear, and others pleasure. Some just can’t fall on purpose, but that is okay. we are always in a process of learning, of falling down and getting up. maybe those who can’t fall easily will never learn how, and that is all right too. there is no goal but the learning. i have made frameworks to explore heaviness, peering below the murky surface. heavy movement commonly drags us down, for instance, but if one makes a conscious choice to move in a heavy way, the process can be undertaken with curiosity toward the result. then one gets a chance to observe heaviness as an aspect of self without being caught up in depressive states. heaviness (and lightness) is part of the body story of everyone, but our stories are individual. when we tell our stories directly through dance and movement, we can heal emotional wounds, letting go of unwanted weight, not merely of pounds, but of worry and habit. Such dances are ultimately insubstantial. they will vanish in thin air, but in the dancing, we risk and test our self-understanding. often we learn about what we share in common with others through the miracle of forgiveness. in moving our stories out, we glance ourselves, and through the vision, we get a chance to rewrite the stories that hold us in their thrall.

Yes, we can rewrite the past, in our bones, somatically. the teacher is not an innocent bystander in transformational dance somatics; rather she is a living part of it. her consciousness, her past and future also converge in the present moment of transformational dance.

Sondra Fraleigh is founding director of the Eastwest Somatics Institute for Dance and Movement Studies and Professor Emeritus of the State University of New York. www.eastwestsomatics.com

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edu 2013: The neW sTudenT Body

Students celebrate the fall’s harvest, en route to perform at the weekly farmers market. .

Primary Resonance PrescoTT college, aZ With over twenty years of dance and somatics under its belt, Prescott College knows the student-body is the subject matter.

Caleb Wilcox pausing with nature in the Nature and Dance class.

“the more we know nature and its process, the more we come to know ourselves and how we communicate. When we go out in nature and climb on its different surfaces, it reminds us of where we came from and reminds us we are a part of that movement.”

– Delisa Myles, Dance Teacher Prescott College

Theresa siloW: co-mingling in The fields of somaTic Psychology and dance TheraPy

H

istorically, dance therapy and somatic psychology arose out of two distinct fields. Dance and movement therapy clearly came more out of the dance world. Joseph Laban’s system of Labanotation, Judith Kestenberg’s Movement Profile Analysis Method—they were primarily focused on exploring movement as a way to understand what is going on in the individual’s experience as well as to support healing and integration. When we are talking somatic psychology or psychotherapy, the grandfather of this is often considered to be Wilhelm Reich, not the only one, but he is one main figure. I think the origin was more out of the psychologically oriented community, in those days the psychoanalytic community; there was initially more focus on posture, on breathing practices, on what Reich called “armoring,” not necessarily the focus on movement that keeps coming in more and more nowadays, so the distinctions get blurrier and blurrier. Somatic psychology works with posture, it works with

gesture, it works with movement. It is used in the trauma field, dealing with the activation of the nervous system and helping a client regulate their activation.

When I have looked at some curriculum for dance and movement therapists, there is a great subtlety around the quality of movement, the range of movement, the force, all of that. When I look at somatic psychology, we include that more and more but we also include a developmental perspective. What happens in the infant in terms of developmental movement and the quality of the bonding to one or two caregivers? What happens to the psyche as the organism develops?

On one hand I think there is definitely value to having those distinct fields, but it is also important that we have in common a deep understanding that the body is the foundational place for experience. You can’t separate—that is where we are—we are all working on that same level. • Theresa Silow, Ph.D, is the director of the somatic psychology program at JFK University in California.

photos: top left: delisa myles; left center: courtesy of prescott; Bottom left, top right, Bottom right: liZ faller

Top: Prescott alumni at their 2012 college dance reunion revive their wild nature selves with the ocean waves at Indian Beach, Oregon.

Above: Beloved dance teacher Liz Faller guides students in sensing the ancestral drumbeat of their heart. Below: Phoebe Sheldon Young resonating with nature in an elm on the campus.

d a n c e f o r m aT i v e

e d u c aT i o n

g u i d e

This is your list of somatically supportive programs for experiential learning with the body as the point of entry. colleges

www.brockport.edu

Antioch University Keene, NH www.antioch.edu

Texas Christian University Fort Worth, TX www.dance.tcu.edu

California Inst. of the Arts Valencia, CA www.calarts.edu Columbia College Chicago, IL www.colum.edu Concordia University Montreal, CA www.dance.concordia.ca Denison University Granville, OH www.denison.edu Drexel University Philadelphia, PA www.drexel.edu Emory University Atlanta, GA www.dance.emory.edu Franklin and Marshall College Lancaster, PA www.fandm.edu/dance Goddard College Plainfield, VT and Port Townsend & Seattle, WA www.goddard.edu Hollins University Plainfield, VT www.hollinsdance.com

University of California World Arts and Cultures/Dance. LA, CA www.wacd.ucla.edu

self-reflective students in dance therapy class.

University of Illinois Urbana, IL http://dance.uiuc.edu University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI http://dance.umich.edu University of Oregon Eugene, OR www.dance.uoregon.edu Tamalpa Institute SF Bay Area www.tamalpainstitute.org University of Rochester Rochester, NY www.rochester.edu University of San Francisco SF, CA www.usfca.edu/artsci/pa Wayne State University Detroit, MI www.dance.wayne.edu

Hunter College New York, NY www.hunter.cuny.edu

lesley university offers graduate programs in expressiveTherapies with specializations in art, dance, music, and psychodrama/drama therapy.

JFK University New York, NY and Costa Mesa, CA www.jfku.edu

Teacher Trainings and cerTificaTe Programs

Lesley University Cambridge, MA www.lesley.edu

Alexander Technique www.alexandertechnique.com

Gyrotonic Expansion System www.gyrotonic.com

Luther College Decorah, IA www.luther.edu

American Institute of Holistic Theology www.aiht.edu

Hellerwork Structural Integration www.hellerwork.com

Middlebury College Middlebury, VT www.go.middlebury.edu/dance

Aston Kinetics www.astonkinetics.com

Body and Earth Training Programs www.resouresinmovement.com

Mills College Oakland, CA www.mills.edu Naropa University Boulder, CO www.naropa.edu New York University New York, NY www.tisch.nyu.edu Oberlin Conservatory Oberlin, OH www.oberlin.edu/dance Ohio State Columbus, OH www.dance.osu.edu

Authentic Movement www.authenticmovementinstitute.com www.authentic-movement.org

YogaFit www.yogafit.com

hoT sPoTs for Trainings, residencies and reTreaTs

Interplay www.interplay.org JourneyDance www.journeydance.com

Bamboo YogaPlay Dominical, Costa Rica www.bambooyogaplay.com

Laban/Bartenieff Institute www.limsonline.org

Blue Spirit Retreat Nosara, Costa Rica www.bluespiritcostarica.com

Body-Mind Centering – BMC www.bodymindcentering.com www.bmc-nc.com Celebrant Foundation and Institute www.celebrantinstitute.org

Pratt Institute Brooklyn, NY www.pratt.edu

Center for Movement Education and Research www.movement-education.org

Prescott College Tucson, AZ www.prescott.edu

Continuum Movement www.continuummovement.com

Princeton University Princeton, NJ www.princeton.edu

Core Connexion Transformational Arts www.coreconnexion.net

Rudolf Steiner College – Eurythmy Fair Oaks, CA www.steinercollege.edu

Dancing Freedom www.dancingfreedom.com

Sarah Lawrence College Yonkers, NY www.sarahlawrence.edu/dance

Eastwest Somatics – Shin Somatics and Land to Water Yoga www.eastwestsomatics.com 5Rhythms Moving Meditation www.movingcenterschool.com Feldenkrais Method www.feldenkrais.com

LivingDance & LivingMusic www.kinections.com Kinetic Awareness www.kineticawarenesscenter.org Life Movement Mindfulness Psychotherapy www.leveninstitute.com Moving for Life www.movingforlife.org Moving On Center www.movingoncenter.org National Holistic Institute www.nhi.edu Nia Technique www.nianow.com

Vermont’s Middlebury College dance major engages somatics, environmental awareness, and the creative process through dancing and dance making. Left: Dance student Jessica Lee, engaged in site-specific dancing.

Breitenbush Hot Springs Detroit, OR www.breitenbush.com Butopia Whidby Island, WA www.butopia.net Crazywood Huntsville, TX www.crazywood.org Earthdance Plainfield, MA www.earthdance.net Earthrise Center at IONS Petaluma, CA www.earthriseions.org

Prana Flow Yoga www.shivarea.com

Esalen Institute Big Sur, CA www.esalen.org

Psycho-Physical Therapy www.psychophysicaltherapy.com

Garrison Institute Garrison, NY www.garrisoninstitute.org

Rolf Institute of Structural Integration www.rolf.org

Harbin Hot Springs Middletown, CA www.harbin.org

Rosen Method www.rosenmethod.com

Hollyhock Retreat Cortes Island, BC www.hollyhock.ca

Sensory Awareness Foundation www.sensoryawareness.org Shen Tao Approach www.shentaostudio.com Somatic Experiencing www.somaticexperiencing.com Soul Motion www.soulmotion.com Stott Pilates Training www.mindfulmovementcollective.com Surfing the Creative – Youth and Adult Empowerment www.goldenbridge.org Tamalpa Institute SF Bay Area www.tamalpainstitute.org

SUNY Brockport Brockport, NY

Yamuna Body Rolling www.yamunabodyrolling.com

Biodanza west - www.biodanza.us east - www.biodanza-usa.com

Breema Bodywork www.breema.com

Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, NY www.skidmore.edu

Integral Transformative Practice www.itp-international.org

Vividly Woman www.vividlywoman.com

BellyFit www.bellyfit.com

Pacifica Graduate Institute Santa Barbara, CA www.pacifica.edu

Sofia University Palo Alto, CA www.sofia.edu

photos: top: courtesy of lesley univeristy; Bottom: alan Kimara

Texas Woman’s University Denton, TX www.twu.edu/dance

Kalani Oceanside Retreat Big Island, HI www.kalani.com Kripalu Center Stockbridge, MA www.kripalu.org Moving Body Resources NY, NY www.movingbodyresources.com Madrona Mind Body Institute Port Townsend, WA www.madronamindbody.com Omega Institute Rhinebeck, NY www.eomega.com Soma Space Portland, OR www.somaspace.us

Teachers Dance www.teachersdance.com

Spirit Rock San Geronimo, CA www.spiritrock.org

TaKeTiNa Rhythm Process www.taketina.com, www.taketina.org

Still Meadow Retreat Damascus, OR www.stillmeadowretreat.org

The Pilates Method www.pilates.com

The Still and Moving Center Honolulu, HI www.stillandmovingcenter.com

Trager Approach and Mentastics www.trager.com

The Synergy Studio San Antonio, TX www.thesynergystudio.com

consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

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SOMATICS

Dancing Freedom

EarthRise Center at Institute of Noetic Sciences

© 2009 steve uzzell

easTWesT somaTic insTiTuTe yoga, dance, and movement

dancing freedom™ • WorldWide emBody your freedom. live oneness

earThrise cenTer • norThern california WORKSHOPS • EVENTS • RETREATS

eastwest institute, founded by sondra fraleigh, features Shin Somatics – an approach to healing and personal transformation.

dancing freedom training is a practice of liberation. it is a somatic, ecstatic and shamanic dance practice supporting the emergence of living oneness.

earthrise is a beautiful, semi-rural, 194-acre education and retreat center with five meeting rooms and overnight lodging for up to 120 guests.

this approach focuses on moving with ease and pleasure– just as nature allows everything to be itself, to grow and to change. We offer the following opportunities:

it is fun, easy, elegant and empowering. it heals. it reveals. it welcomes. any person of any age, size, color or creed can do it. When we come together we come in peace to create a deep space of shared practice, transformation and community.

one of northern california’s premier retreat sites, we have become a meeting place for renowned thinkers in fields that promote healing and interconnection. With the mission to nurture transformative processes that foster connection, collaboration, community, and sustainability, we “hold the space” for leaders in their fields, the beauty of nature, exceptional meals, and attentive staff to support this vision.

Intuitive Dances Somatic Bodywork Experiential Anatomy Repatterning Whole Body Responses Land to Water Yoga and Meditation Somatic Movement Therapist (RSMT) Certification Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200 and 500 hr.)

www.EastWestSomatics.com

dancing freedom training is an invitation to step into the next level of your life as a vibrant co-creator of a new humanity using dance as key tool for awakening, healing, earth, connection, soul empowerment, healthy intimacy and prayer.

VISION QUEST: Aug 1–8, 2013 • mount shasta, california INTERNATIONAL FACILITATOR TRAINING: Nov 2–26, 2013 Bali, indonesia

www.DancingFreedom.com

Ways to Engage • Host an event of your own by renting the facilities.

• Present an event sponsored by EarthRise Center.

• Participate in short or multi-day events or workshops.

For information: dschneider@noetic.org, 707.779.8202

www.EarthRiseIONS.org

CrazywoodW

village heartbeat

whole person drumming

Art and Movement Center

Zorina Wolf, founder of Village Heartbeat

village hearTBeaT * home of Whole Person drumming® • WorldWide discover hoW rhythm can change your life offering drum and rhythm classes, intensives, and rhythm boot camps throughout the us and at the village heartbeat studio in sequim, Wa celebrate the vitality and creativity of drumming, and the inherent power of rhythm to inspire, integrate and heal us individually and in community. We teache drumming and rhythm as a path to vitality and awareness.

The Whole Person durmming curriculum includes: • techniques and exercises that increase fluidity, alignment and strength-building • embodied understanding of rhythmic structures • building a cooperative learning container • experiential training and practices which guide our whole being to enter rhythm with the drum, voice, and movement.

• developing the rhythm orchestra and repertoire.

www.VillageHeartbeat.com 40

consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

melissa michaels & friends • Boulder, co movement-Based rites of passage

craZyWood arT and movemenT cenTer artistic forest retreat venue availaBle

Moving Journeys – dedicated to Building connections Within. with the World & the spirit moving all of life Inspiring Young People into Collaborative Action

crazywood is an unexpected refuge nestled in a historic forest village of east texas, located between austin and houston. created as a regional and community haven for movement and artistic expression, crazywood feels more like a bohemian oasis than your average retreat center.

in response to young people’s longing for deep exploration and cultivation of themselves as creative change agents, golden Bridge offers movement-based rites of passage experiences around the world. our work together weves somatic resourcing, creative expression, service learning, and the natural world into a proccess that is both healing and awakening. it continues to catalyze life changing experences that invite emergence for each individual and for our ever growing community of dedicated youth and adults.

June 23–28th, 2013 StarHouse – Boulder, Colorado please contact us for more informatin about other rites of passage Journeys

www.Bdanced.com

our 2000 sq. ft floated maple dance floor, adjacent water spafeatures, art gallery and full kitchen has been a joyful and welcoming home to ecstatic dance styles, contact improvisation, yoga, dance meditation and more. a destination site for weekend workshops, crazywood has unique and aesthetically pleasing facilities to host your next conscious movement or healing retreat.

Programming is seasonal Oct–May. Contact crazywoodgallery@gmail.com or call 936-291-1466

www.Crazywood.org

Expanded Upshift Guide

in the online edition of Conscious Dancer Magazine

BREEMA BellyfiT inTernaTional empoWering Women

breeMa cenTer • oakland, ca & worldwide the art of Being present

sPiriTdance/soulsonG • biG sur, ca international healing arts

many women are seeking a deep, meaningful conection with their own soul and with the women in their community. Bellyfit® delivers full body, soul soothing workout that encourages women to love their bodies!

Blending modern aerobics with cultural dance and yoga, Bellyfit® is pioneering a fresh, new ‘holistic fitness’ genre designed exclusively for women.

Breema is a simple, natural form of touch and body movement supported by universal principles. the aim of Breema is to bring us to a tangible experience of presence.the more you are present, the more you can connect with others, and with all life.

Module I Teacher’s Training: SpiritDance & SoulSong: cultivating your chi, deepen your dance, sing your song May 27– April 2, 2013 mimpi-menjangan, Bali, indonesia

BHAKTI FEST

teachers: ellen Watson, daphne tse & ronan tang

www.MovingVentures.org

www.Breema.com

EAST COAST USA

TAMALPA e Th

BI DANZA

™

www.BellyFit.com

Empowered to use your voice, you WILL discover that ‘Your Body is a Musical Instrument’, and that keeping it tuned will keep you in vibrant, dynamic physical and metaphisical health. Singing and dancing are the oldest spiritual practices around the planet.

ic e

Elizabeth, PA ~ March 2-3, 2013 Fayetteville, NC ~ April 13-14, 2013 Ventura, CA ~ May 25-26, 2013 Riverside, CA ~ August 3-4, 2013

Breema classes and workshops worldwide are opento all, with Intensives at the Breema Center each February, July, and October and a 165-hour Practitioner Certificate Program.

around the globe, conscious dance is joining yoga as a preferred wellness practice. the spiritdance practice is accessible to all ages, levels of experience and fitness. this practice promises to: open your heart, free your breath, strengthen muscles and bones, get you sweating, build strength, enhance flexibility, and free your voice.

F

o

bhakTi FesT • Joshua Tree, ca & madison, Wi come Be uplifted!

school of BiodanZa • md/dc dances of vitality and Joy

the spiritual Woodstock of the new millennium!

Biodanza is a powerful fusion of authentic movement, fabulous music, and heartfelt emotions that opens a space for you to explore your inherent human potentials such as vitality, sexuality, creativity, affectivity and transcendence. a weekly Biodanza practice will open the space for you to explores life and integrate your thoughts, deeds and words through expressive movement within a community cultivating joy and vitality, personal transfomation and a profound connection to life.

Bhakti Fest 2013 offers three amazing multi-day retreat style events. Shakti Fest • May 17-19 – a celebration of the divine feminine, Joshua tree retreat center, ca Bhakti Fest Midwest • July 5-7, alliant energy center madison, Wi Bhakti Fest West • September 5-8 celebrating our 5th anniversary, Joshua tree retreat center, ca

ct

the Bellyfit instructor training course offers two days of extraordinary training, to teach this fun and innovative fusion of Belly dance, Bollywood, african dance, pilates, yoga and meditation.

Breema bodywork and self-Breema movements give ideal support for practicing body-mind connection and the art of of being present, by working with and experiencing the nine principles of harmony. practicing Breema allows you to experience how nurturing it is to stay connected to yourself as you support others.

rm

Reality

Pr

a

Bernie Prior–The form realiTy PracTice™ WorldWide ...an instrument of aWaKening the form–reality practice™ is a profound conscious movement and instrument of awakening. it is an engagement of innermost experience through conscious movement, evolving life from the core of one’s being. the movements and symbols contained within ‘the form’ open ever-finer frequencies of consciousness. they reflect and evolve the eternal dance of the pure masculine and feminine principles, clearing the path to a profoundly inspired life of limitless potential. the movement of life becomes freedom’s dance; fully ‘in’ the world, but not ‘of’ it.

these events offer a heart opening experience like no other festival! immerse in Kirtan, yoga and spiritual workshops with renowned artists and teachers as well as the best up and comers; Krishna das, shiva rea, Jai uttal, deval premal & miten, dave stringer, snatam Kaur, saul david ray, Bryan Kest, elena Brower, dharma mittra, guruganesha Band, sara ivanhoe, siana sherman and more! come be uplifted through Kirtan, yoga, and conscious community!

the rolando toro system (rts) of Biodanza emerged in the 60s in chile from the pioneering work of rolando toro araneda. the east coast school will host the personal development program/training school, weekly classes and workshops.

Becoming a Biodanza facilitator requires 30 weekend workshops over a 3 year-period, presenting a thesis, and completing supervised facilitations.

12 Day Programs: Australia APRIL; Italy JULY Bernie Prior in California, March

www.BhaktiFest.com

www.Biodanza-Usa.com

www.BerniePrior.org

the movement arose in realized consciousness, through evolutionary teacher Bernie prior in the 1980’s.

consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

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conTinuum movemenT • WorldWide “movement is something we are, not something we do.”

nia TechniQue™ • WorldWide somatic training for Body and life

continuum is an extraordinary awakening to the fullness of what it means to be alive. in continuum we experience the interconnection of our origins with the larger currents of all organismic life, beginning with the first cell and ultimately layered into the intricacies of human form.

a movement practice based on the Body’s Way. suited for all levels of students and professionals in fields of health, wellness, dance, and fitness. over 30 years’ success in teaching the art of moving and living in a body.

one aspect of the entire human system is comprised of a vast communication network within our bodies. continuum uses movement, the dexterity of breath, the resonance of sound and the value of meaning to amplify and refine this far-reaching communication with ourselves, others and our world.

the White Belt, first of a five belt level system, somatically explores anatomy and sensation science, music and the language of sound, structured and free movement and choreography, and nine movement forms that provide nia variety and flavor: martial arts, dance and healing arts. leadership and communication skills, and the philosophy: through movement We find health provides the foundation for healing and human development.

We become liquid streams capable of a vast range of resources moving through domains of burgeoning life. liberated we are encompassed by a world of creative inspiration fed by the passionate fire of universal love.

www.ContinuumMovement.com

7-days, 50+ hours. extensive Pre and Post Training support with the opportunity to become a certified licensed teacher.

www.NiaNow.com

Center for Movement Education and Research

kinecTions ™ • rochesTer, ny connection not perfection – est 1984 Kinections, the home of livingdance~livingmusic™, is the only free-standing institute in the usa offering all dance/movement therapy courses required for certification by the american dance therapy association (adta). dr. danielle fraenkel, director, now offers a hybrid section of her course, dance/movement therapy theory & practice i: foundations & principles – eight video conferencing classes and a week in residence during June at Kinections. this course is essential to dance/movement therapy training, and required for certification in livingdance~livingmusic facilitation – dr. fraenkel’s unique approach to dance/movement therapy practice.

• Dance/Movement Therapy Theory and Practice I: Foundations and Principles begins April 11 • LivingDance~LivingMusic—Monthly workshops (Rochester); extended retreats (Costa Rica, Greece)

www.Kinections.com

TAMALPA

INSTITUTE

photo by rick chapman

Journeydance™ • WorldWide emBody, empoWer, eXpress, elevate! toni Bergins’ Journeydance™ is an hypnotic container weaving expressive movement, guided imagery, ritual, voice and affirmation. embody your temple on an evocative, grooving soul ride through the Journeydance’s flow of experiential movement and musical qualities. liberate yourself on this spiritual and emotional journey that inspires uninhibited free expression of the true self. let your mind become clear, free, and positive; and your body fluid, energized, and powerful. Journeydance reconnects us with our innate state of joyous, funky and divine well-being. facilitator trainings worldwide. see our website for details. “you are the Prayer: your body, your movement, your breath. you are the goddess: your passion, your emotions, your sensual heart. you are the inner shaman: your power, your intentions, your life’s journey.” –Toni Bergins, founder

www.JourneyDance.com 42

consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

educaTion and healing Through movemenT cmer classes integrate the educational and healing poWer of movement Training in Dance/Movement Therapy longest running alternate route dmt training in california. course syllabi are approved by the american dance therapy association (adta) and all faculty are board certified dmt’s. (Bc-dmt).

Workshops Leading an Embodied Life in our increasing “virtural” and computer driven world, our bodies and senses are easily ignored. this workshop is designed to bring you into yourself using movement, sensation, feeling, thought and action. no prior movement training is needed.

TamalPa insTiTuTe • WorldWide eXploring the Wisdom of the Body tamalpa institute, founded in 1978, offers certification programs and workshops in the life/art process, a movement-based expressive arts approach that integrates movement/dance, visual arts, performance techniques and therapeutic practices. our approach is based on the relationship between body and movement. for us, movement is synonymous with life. it is the body’s primary language, serving as a connection to a more creative and purposeful life. our comprehensive training programs with tamalpa life/ art process can be utilized in fields such as expressive arts therapy, education, consultation, health care, organizational development, community service and the arts.

Courses Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) understand human movement based on the theories of rudolf laban and irmgard Bartenieff.

Training programs begin in September, as well as weekend training programs beginning in April. Public workshops are also offered throughout the year.

www.Cmer.info

www.Tamalpa.org

sounds

Celebrating Solstice at Stanford University, 2010.

The Big Bang Theory The ups and downs of falling in and out of rhythm. l

I

n 1960 I met the Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji, who came to my grade school in Baldwin, New York, for a cultural enrichment assembly. I was 11 years old.

Even now I can remember feeling mesmerized when first listening to the sounds of drum orchestration. I convinced my parents to buy Baba’s first album, Drums of Passion, and told them that I wanted to learn to drum. They had no idea what I was talking about, but bought me some kiddie plastic mylar bongos, and that was that.

Many life-chapters later, I arrived at Esalen for a weekend and met Baba 28 years after I’d first heard his music. I was in awe of this gracious Nigerian gentleman who had shaped my childhood with his incredible voice and pulsating rhythms. I went to one of his workshops with the mistaken assumption that Zorina Wolf drumming and dancing might be easy for me. keeping time in By the second day of the workshop I the sunshine. wanted to leave. The precision of being with the beat was elusive.

And then there was the dancing. I knew ballet and turning out at the hips. I knew wild dancing at rock concerts. But isolations? Feet and hip and rib cage and shoulder and head all doing different things? I was out of my element, and every part of my being and body was hurting.

But there was one amazing moment. After floundering for four days, I “fell” into the rhythm for a brief and timeless eternity. There

BY ZORINA WOLF

was no effort. The rhythm was playing through me.

After three years of study I formed a drumming band, Village Heartbeat, and a few years later I started teaching. It took me two more years to realize what was holding me back. My nemesis was understanding the richness of the interval between the beats. I could play but not relax. I couldn’t solo and find my way back into rhythm.

My drumming was harsh and rigid.

A year later I found TaKeTiNa, a profound body-based rhythm work, and spent years studying with its originator, Reinhard Flatischler, and his wife Cornelia. TaKeTiNa teaches you to drop into rhythm with no instrument other than your body. I learned to do it, and to lead TaKeTiNa workshops and witness the profound transformation that can occur in a weekend of rhythmic immersion.

With time and study, I began to synthesize what I had learned. I knew that there must be others who had a hard time sensing and feeling the magic of being transported by rhythm without thinking it. I wanted to help people like myself learn what I had learned.

Rhythm lives in direct experience or presence. We cannot think rhythm without being out of time. But there are lots of other ways to learn about rhythm: by movement, by becoming curious about intervals, by breaking down rhythmic elements and becoming familiar with them. Polyrhythms, sometimes

photos: courtesy of village heartBeat

When you fall into rhythm, all of a sudden, you are in. you don’t know how you are there.

continued on page 42

consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

43

sounds called cross rhythms, involve two or more separate families of beats, each with its own interval and feeling. Through their agreement in tempo they come together to become a third “song.” The challenge is to feel all of these rhythms at once, through direct experience. It takes time, trust, and immersion to enter the feeling of rhythms.

Whole Person Drumming is the set of techniques that I’ve adopted, adapted, and developed to help us use our whole being to enter rhythm. How we can profoundly open ourselves to rhythm by dancing and singing with the drum. How we can learn through our mind as well, to analyze structures of time.

We learn as individuals, and we also learn in the group. Together we can sense when it is time to let go and receive the rhythm and when it is time to be the active creator.

There is room for everyone in Whole Person Drumming, no matter what level of skill, to be a valued participant in the creation of groove.

interview with Zorina Wolf cd: How would you explain the process of “falling into rhythm”?

ZW: Falling into rhythm is very different

from entering into rhythm. Entering rhythm is done with your conscious awareness, through initiating movement. When you fall into rhythm, all of a sudden, you are in. You don’t know how you are there. You could have been out a second before. cd: What does being in rhythm do for you?

ZW: The first time I fell into rhythm, I

was completely present in the moment.

There was this disappearance of the ego, the disappearance of Zorina who wanted to become a drummer. All that was left was rhythm. It was such an ecstatic feeling to have a quiet mind, to feel this oneness with something bigger than myself. And then, the next moment, I was out.

The other thing is the feeling of passion.

When you are playing with others, who are also engaged in rhythm the same way, there is kind of a passion. I call it a passion because it is almost like a sexualized feeling. I don’t want to trivialize it. It is like a union: a complete whole-body emergence in what you are doing. cd: What does being in unison create for us?

ZW: I think that the more experiences we can

have in the state of universality with others, being in play or in some sort of agreed venture without personality being a dominant issue, 44

consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

Zorina with lifelong influence and mentor Baba Olatunji.

I love him so deeply as my teacher and for what he did to this world.

He made drumming accessible to everybody. the more chances we have of healing our culture. I can never back that up. I can just say this: in the 20 years I have been teaching, I’ve worked with very diverse populations. I mean gay or straight, age differences, disabilities, non-disabilities, and every time, we come together as a group. All the individual things like, “I don’t like this about them” or “I agree with them here,” all of that disappears. The rhythm and the music seem to wash away all those differences so when we come out of it, we are not so stuck in our positions anymore.

In terms of human communication, there will be a lasting resonance that will come the next time you encounter people different from yourself. You already realize you can play with those people. cd: Does the unconscious have a role in drumming?

ZW: When we are learning rhythm, we are

learning on two levels. One is the level of the mind. You are learning how to drum, how to step, how to clap, what the rhythms are.

Another level of learning happens while you sleep, and that is magic because one day, you can do things that you couldn’t even imagine you would be able to do. That comes from the self-organizing principle behind rhythm.

When we measure growth in rhythm, it is not just about how many rhythms you have learned. It’s how easily you can find that entry point and join with something that is already there, guiding you. cd: Can you tell us about your teacher, Babatunde Olatunji?

photos: courtesy of Zorina Wolf

continued from page 41

ZW: He is a really interesting character

who was not really a musician. He grew up in a small fishing village in Nigeria and was fascinated by drummers. By a bizarre set of circumstances, he and his cousin applied for a rotary scholarship through the Reader’s Digest. This was 1952, I think. They got the scholarship to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and they came to the United States. While he was on this boat for months, because, of course, they did not have airplanes in Africa at that time, Baba brought this little drum with him and he used it for keeping himself occupied and playing little songs.

When he got to Morehouse College, there were very few Africans there. Even though this was a black college, they had a very warped idea of what Africa was like. So, he formed a little drumming and dancing group with his cousin.

That’s how the whole thing started. He was actually going to study international diplomacy. African nations were just beginning to achieve independence, and Ghana was the first to have done this. He wanted to go back to Africa and become a diplomat. But the president of Ghana, said, “No, no, no. Your job is to become a diplomat of African music by introducing African music to the West.”

There was no one before him who introduced the drum as an orchestral instrument on its own. His first album came out in 1959, and it was the first album to have the drum as the only instrument and it changed everything.

I love him so deeply as my teacher and for what he did to this world. He made drumming accessible to everybody.

photos: courtesy of taKetina international

cd: Could give us a description of TaKeTiNa? ZW : It is a system for allowing the thinking mind to take a back seat from experiencing the complexity. It opens up multiple channels of awareness and learning through a simultaneous channel of perception. There are two things that are part of that. One is the ability for people to synchronize. Synchronization is when everybody is joined together, doing one thing, in this case: stepping. As long as the body no longer has to track the stepping, the stepping become automatic. Then, there are more channels open to more complex things.

By doing that, the entire being begins to relax more and more into a complex structure that cannot be found through the mind. It can only be experienced, and by staying in it, people begin to experience an expansion of time and space. They begin to feel connected to something.

For info on Zorina Wolf ’s workshops and classes, visit www.villageheartbeat.com.

•

review TakeTina: The Power of rhyThm by reinhard flatischler

I

s it possible to write a book about rhythm? Rhythm is something that is tangibly felt in the body—after all, for nine months, we were all bathed in rhythm, listening to and feeling our mother’s heartbeat and the fluids that enveloped us. When we listen to music, we may unconsciously tap our feet or move our hands.

Reinhard Flatischler has attempted to describe this. Taketina: The Power of Rhythm is a revised edition that begins with an intriguing story, “The Buddha is My Refuge,” meant to be a metaphor for Flatischler’s belief that “rhythm is a power which unites all living things.” In the first chapter, Reinhard offers several evocative stories of his journeys (physical and rhythmical), including an epiphany when he was ill and running a high fever in Korea. Then he invites the reader to experience and reflect. No sooner have you read a few pages and bam! You are invited into an experiential exercise. This is no musical couch potato book.

There is plenty here to appeal to both your left brain (the analyzing, rational side) and your right brain (the holistic, intuitive, creative side). The book suggests taking time to allow the exercises to unfold in your body. Rather than try to get through its pages in a few evenings, you might try one chapter a week, allowing time to reflect on what you have read, and more importantly, to experience the rhythm exercises.

In particular, the relaxation and breath exTaketina trainers relaxing around their berimbaus.

ercises may help to de-stress your daily life.

The book includes an audio CD, which was worth the price of the book. Twentyfour musical samples take you on a world rhythm journey: sambas in Brazil, African talking drums, Korean bells and percusssion, the Indian drum language. As a percussionist, I found that the audio samples provided a library of rhythm guidelines for improvising and composing.

Twelve years after reading this book, I read it again and I discovered I understood so much more the second time. I’ve gained knowledge about the physics and vibrational science behind sound and rhythm, and I have a clearer understanding of rhythm intervals, cycles, and polyrhythm.

If the topic interests you, try a Taketina workshop—the exercises will make more sense in a collective and communal setting.

While some of the chapters devoted to descriptions of archetypes of rhythm, pulsation, cycles, and intervals may leave both the layperson and the musician scratching his or her head, as Reinhard would say, “not knowing is a good place to be.”

When I lead Taketina workshops, I see that staying curious and not knowing what will happen allows participants to do the same, and to encounter rhythm in a unique way.

Flatischler aptly ends his book with a picture of a flower unfolding, the petals symbolizing a mandala, which further symbolizes a form of rhythmic notation.

I highly recommend this book as a multilayered guide for creating pathways to rhythmic maturity and internalization.

– BY ELAINE FONG

Elaine Fong is a certified Taketina teacher and a professional taiko drummer.

destinations

Movers and mountains inspire natural connection, indoors and out. l

A

majestic “bubble” in the heart of Colorado, Boulder sits at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, offering breathtaking views from everywhere in town. Famous for outdoor sports and fitness, it’s also a college town, home to the University of Colorado and Naropa University. The vibration is high energy and health conscious, and revolves around active lifestyles. Boulderites love hiking, biking, skiing, and snowboarding—and the city is a paradise for spiritual movement through dance, meditation, and yoga.

I consider myself a full-blown Boulder gal. My career and being an amateur but enthusiastic dancer have led me to a wide variety of dance classes, teachers, and styles, and I am in awe of the expansiveness this place offers. Boulder is a mecca for a mover like me. My two sisters and I (we’re triplets!) own Shine Restaurant and Gathering Place, a downtown community hot spot for nourishing food, handcrafted drinks, and community events.

Conscious Dance has a strong foundation in Boulder thanks to Melissa Michaels, a first generation teacher of the work of Gabrielle Roth. Melissa hosts Movement Mass, the Sunday gathering where locals honor the seasons and cycles of life. Every summer Melissa offers intensive dance-based leadership camps and trainings for youth and adults. Melissa lovingly holds space to awaken the soul and explore the body through the natural rhythms of the universe.

Another key mover and shaker here is Kimberly Jonas, creator of BodyMantra. “It’s my personal favorite,” says local dancer James Marienthal, owner of the Silver Wave music label. “It’s an intentionally focused practice of personal inquiry, and a safe container for freeform movement and authentic expression.” Jonas hosts the Saturday morning session, and Jeannie Brisson leads the Wednesday evening class.

The Contact Improv community is also vibrant here, adding an important element to the movement milieu. The Sharing Weight and Tumblebones collectives lean and lift together often, and the weekly Boulder Contact Lab is a consistent favorite.

BY JILL EMICH

The Ritual Dance of Rhythm Sanctuary is widely popular and beloved in Boulder. It’s a community dance that starts with a short warm-up followed by a welcome circle. Local DJs lead the group on a musical journey and movement meditation. At Shine, we have our own version of Rhythm Sanctuary in our monthly Sundance events that include a nourishing dinner and organic elixirs.

Hoop Dance is another growing and flowing dance form in Boulder.

It integrates dance, prop manipulation, meditation, flow, and exercise into one deliciously healthy movement journey. Kristina Sutcliffe of O Dance teaches a variety of classes around town, including a monthly Hoopy Hour at Shine.

The African dance community is also flourishing here, with highenergy dance classes, often accompanied by live drumming. Boulder hosts the annual Baobao festival, with theater performances, dancing, drumming, and education workshops. Latin dance classes featuring samba, salsa, and Puerto Rican bomba are popular too, and Latin bands play nightly around town to packed dance floors.

Something magical happens when women dance in sacred space together, and Boulder is rich in women’s dance groups. Women’s Dance Ritual, led by Ixeeya Beacher, is a practice of honoring our feminine bodies, each other, and our planet.

Ixeeya also leads trainings, workshops, seasonal dance ceremonies, and more.

The University of Colorado at Boulder as well as ecumenical Naropa, a Buddhist-

The vibration is high energy and health conscious, and revolves around active lifestyles.

Hoops are happening at Shine, the gathering spot and restaurant owned by Jill Emich and her sisters.

PHOTOS: BELOW: COURTESY OF SHINE; ABOVE: J. AKIYAMA

boulder rocks

Contact Improv dancers in Boulder explore weight and balance at a Holiday Jam.

inspired university, both offer strong dance programs. Naropa’s beloved annual Somatic Arts Scholarship Concert brings students, family, faculty, and the Boulder community together to witness the creative and healing powers of embodied performance.

Just 26 miles southeast of Boulder, the milehigh city of Denver also boasts a very lively dance scene, including its own weekly Rhythm Sanctuary. Visit both towns for their spectacular scenery, outdoor fun, and inspiring dance communities.

•

BOULDER’S ExPANSIVE OFFERINGS of movement A vibrant community offering of daily dance and strength training classes in a non-competitive atmosphere. 2436 30th Street. www.alchemyofmovement.com

Alchemy

to B Classes include hula, tribal belly dance, sword masters, and royal Chinese dance. 1750 30th Street. www.boulderdancestudio.com

A PlAce

AvAlon BAllroom A social dancing venue featuring contra dance, swing dance, salsa, waltz, and zumba.

6185 Arapahoe. www.avalonevents.org

Study Somatics in Depth Pacifica Graduate Institute’s M.A./Ph.D. Program in Depth Psychology with Emphasis in Somatic Studies Neuroscience has now convincingly demonstrated the functional unity between mind and body. This validates one of the foundational principles of depth psychology—an understanding that there are forces of the psyche that stimulate the body’s capacity to heal itself. This new paradigm has led Pacifica to offer this exciting new degree program specialization.

BodymAntrA Classes and events that invite a con-

scious approach to life. Pearl Street Studio on Saturdays (2126 Pearl St.); Solstice Center on Wednesdays (302 Pearl St.). www.body-mantra.com

Boulder contact lab A place for ongoing personal

exploration and deepening through Contact Improvisation. Locations on web. sites.google.com/site/bouldercilab

community

dAnce

An Accredited Graduate School with Two Campuses near Santa Barbara, California

805.969.3626, ext. 305 | www.pacifica.edu

collective Offers classes in

ballet, African, modern dance, and medicinal movement dance for the soul. 2020B 21 Street. www.communitydancecollective.org dAnces of universAl PeAce Some of the largest circles in the US convene weekly and on holidays in both Boulder and Denver. www.dup-co.com movement mAss 5rhythms Sunday community dance

with Melissa Michaels, usually at the Circus Center (4747 N 26th St) and occasionally at the Avalon Ballroom (6185 Arapahoe ). www.bdanced.com Featuring Hoopy Hour, O Dance hula hoop instruction, Sundance, First Friday’s Samba Dance Night, and mindful movement showcases. 2027 13th Street. www. shineboulder.com

shine restAurAnt & GAtherinG PlAce

street side studio An all-ages community dance cen-

ter for classes, training, and performance. 6681 Arapahoe Road. www.streetsidedance.com

the stArhouse This venue is a community treasure

hosting a variety of consciousness raising events.

3476 Sunshine Canyon. www.thestarhouse.net

Women’s dAnce community WorkshoPs with Ixeeya

Beacher. www.womenstentix.blogspot.com

DENVER’S DIVERSE NATURE rhythm sAnctuAry Community conscious dance held

every Thursday at Sons of Italy, 5925 W. 32nd Ave. Wheatridge CO. www.rhythmsanctuary.com

mudrA dAnce Owner Namita Khanna Nariani brings children of diverse backgrounds together with contemporary and traditional East Indian Dances. 18757 E. Hampden Ave #162. www.mudradancestudio.us sol vidA dAnce Fusion dance studio and community

space for the arts offering exciting Afro-Caribe, Zumba, and specialty workshops. 4926 East Colfax Ave. www.solvidadance.com

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results

SOUL VOICE METHOD Liberate your voice–one of the most powerful tools available to humankind.

IN THE SUMMER OF 2007 I saw a picture of Karina Schelde

on a Soul Voice flyer and my heart started to dance. I had been curious about sound work for a long time, and something about the energy in her body captivated me.

I TURNED UP TO THE FIRST WORKSHOP confident, having done lots of voice work in drama school and recently toured with a theatre company. However, as soon as Karina started sounding to set the space, I felt chills and pangs deep inside.

I knew I was in for something I’d never experienced.

DURING A TRAINING KARINA TOOK US through the emo-

tional body beginning with fear. Working in pairs, we began by formulating our intention,

which for me was to get into surfing. I live on the east coast of Australia, and had dabbled a bit as a teenager, but never crossed the threshold to competency due to a fear of big waves. Whenever a big set came through the fear would kick in and cut me off from my strength, power, and courage. But my body loves the water, and I knew that surfing would be wonderful if I could get past the fear.

THE FIRST STEP WAS TO BREATHE INTO THE FEAR with all parts of my physical and emotional body, balancing the inhale and the exhale. Almost instantly I became numb to my feelings and Karina told me to sound whatever I was present with. The sound instantly dissolved the numbness, which brought me to a state of vulnerability, but the reassuring touch of my partner helped me surrender into it. The fear began to surface as a contracting, irregular breath rhythm with short sharp inhalations. My partner and Karina encouraged me to put sound to my experience, and the sound moved and shifted to different frequencies, taking me deeper into my psyche. I was amazed at my body’s ability to intuit the frequencies I was kinesthetically feeling. At one stage my awareness drifted off and Karina came along and thrust her hand into my guts. I released a whimper like a trapped dog. I could feel a worry of not coping, being overwhelmed, and getting hurt. I saw images of situations where I’d been fearful but unconscious to the fear.

I could see how this had been stopping me from surfing.

I FELT THE COURAGE TO EMBRACE THE FEAR and stared it straight in the eyes. I made a sound that hit the mark exactly, shattering a barrier between the world and myself.

I allowed myself to experience these feelings through the tangibility of the sounds, and the fear transmuted into pure, raw, available energy. I felt highly energized and fully present.

Everything around me seemed clearer, like I’d had a sensory upgrade. I softened and grounded into this until I heard a voice prompting me to share my new self. I met Karina’s compassionate gaze and felt a wave of inner strength pour out of me with beautiful tones of celebration. I knew I had transformed something of consequence.

THE NEXT TIME I WENT SURFING I FELT the butterflies in my stomach. I consciously

I was amazed at my body’s ability to intuit the frequencies I was kinesthetically feeling.

For more information, visit www.soulvoice.net 48

consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

CHAD BECKETT Physical therapist; voice and movement teacher for actors Byron Bay, Australia Passions: surfing, dancing, drumming, and singing

PHOTO: LAURA CIROLIA

embraced my feelings, which changed my internal atmosphere to one of thrilling adventure. Today surfing is a core part of my life. •

reviews

MUSIC Lost Treasures: Record collector turned DJ Franklin Markowitz unearths great dance music you’ve never heard.

Looking forward to finding a new piece of music that gets your feet flying on the dance floor?

Ever think there might be a cut or two you’ve missed? You can stop wondering—there is! So much music is released from alternative sources that you defi nitely have yet to discover an array of great dance grooves.

As a DJ I love presenting music that my audience has not heard, so I spend a lot of time searching, and occasionally I find a treasure or two. Spreading the word about these tunes helps our dance communities and also supports the musicians who’ve created them, so I’m sharing a few of my discoveries. Some are just a single piece and others are a full CD. If you’re new to mixing, an easy way to view a typical wave (the common term borrowed from the 5Rhythms map) is as a ten-step compilation. The Bookends (numbers one, two, nine, and ten) are usually laid back, building or ebbing slowly in energy. Transitions (three, four, seven, and eight) lead into or out of high energy, and five and six (Peaks) are full on. Seven and eight are similar to three and four but in reverse, and nine and ten are similar to one and two, also in reverse. Of course there’s overlap on these placements, and individual tastes influence choices dramatically.

Here are 30 pieces from my collection, along with additional info I have to help you find them. If you have any obscure pieces to share, I’d love to hear about them. Happy hunting!

BOOKENDS SUVARNA: Completion (EthereanMusic.com) ADRIANA CASTELAZO: In Love With You (rasamusic.com) SEOAN: Far From Paradise; Heaven Voices Mix (droeastwest.com) ADRIAN ENESCU: Invisible Movies Pt.1 (Published by Media Pro Music) CHOYING DROLMA & SINA VODJANI: Dancing Dakini (choying.com) LA CROSS: Save Me (Licensed from VMP International Publishing Ltd.) SPACE BROTHERS: Your Place In The World (Licensed from Universal Music) CELLOMAN: Always (celloman.co.uk) BASQUE: Let All Mortal Flesh Be Silent (basque music.com) FLESH & BONE: Prayer For Home (From Silver Wave Records 1993) TRANSITIONS RAFE PEARLMAN/GREG ELLIS: Ascension (download from bandcamp.com) MARYAM MURSAL-HAMAR: The Big City (realworld.caroline.com) IZ & DIZ: Magnificent; Justin Martin’s No Heart & Soul Remix (dirtybirdrecords.com) MASSIVAN: Daydream (pmusica.com) BUDDHA NATURE: Buddha Nature (subatomic.com) BUGGE WESSELTOFT: You Might Say (sixdegreesrecords.com) AD FINEM: Angel; M.A.S. Collective Vocal Mix (news.be) MELIH KIBAR: Mesaj (On CD “Siddharta: Spirit Of Buddha Bar”) OUT OF PHASE: Orion Is Watching (email: catherine@claudechalle.com) SUPERVIELLE: Leonel; El Feo (bajofondo.net) PEAKS ABOVE & BEYOND: Far From In Love (On CD “Choice: John Digweed”) MADE BY MONKEYS: I Think Of You; Pablo Ceballos Timeless Mix (On Kult Records) GALACTIC AGENTS: Afro Tech Suite: Far Away From Africa (newearthrecords.com) LEXICON AVENUE: From Dusk Till Dawn (On CD “Renaissance: Revelation”) KIKO NAVARRO: Perceptions; Richard Grey Remix (swank recordings.com) JACO: Show Some Love; Original Dub (On Warp Records,U.K.) LA ROCA: Drama Of Japan (On CD “Buddha Bar II”) CANDAN EREETIN: Kaybettik Biz (From Topkapi Music Ltd.) ASTRO BLACK STEREO: Zoom Wave (shadorecords.com) HOUSE OF CHAOS: Oeh Lalalala (Published by Frontdyk Music, Netherlands)

•

consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

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EMBODIED LEADERS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35

PHASE III: INTEGRATION

Each leader needs a context to begin to test his or her emerging theories and styles of leadership. Towards the end of our youth and young adult rites of passage processes, I ask my students: Who are your people? Where is your place? What is your most natural way of service?

Through this process, students learn to use their tools and adapt them as necessary, inevitably beginning to find their own original medicine. In this phase, research and documentation of the work helps the individual move forward and reflects back to our whole field of embodied global leadership ever more grounded information about who we are and the positive impacts of our personal work.

Many of our leaders work on the borders of race, class, gender, and culture. One team is wrestling with the dynamics of Blacks and Whites in South Africa through their courageous work of initiating diverse young girls as they journey into womanhood. And here in the United States, our youth leaders are bring-

ing conscious dance to children in schools, to people in recovery, to kids living on the streets, and to youth wrestling with sexual identity.

This process of birthing inspired global leaders cannot be rushed. As individuals step

solidly into their place in the circle of community, one by one, they must be celebrated.

FROM THE ONE TO THE MANY

We are gifted each time one person turns their pain into medicine, their personal journey into a gift for the world. These three phases of Initiation, Inquiry, and Integration

describe the scaffolding for such a process.

What truly births embodied global leaders is the field holding each and every one of them as they navigate the narrow passageways of their own biographies into the vast terrain of their destinies. The field is you and me. It is the work of generously tending to our students’ processes day in and day out. It is the return again and again to our own movement practices.

And, it takes a mature mentor to witness and nurture our students as they rise up and in many cases, fly right past us. As these students test their skills and theories in our presence, we can bless them as they do so. Let’s work together to birth an entire generation of embodied global leaders in service of life … dancing fools whose visions are shining bright, whose creativity is liberated, whose hearts are beating to the songs of the wonder and the wailing … Finely tuned instruments who harness the Spirit as it effortlessly moves through and as them.

The whole world is calling.

•

Melissa Michaels, Ed.D., is the founder of SomaSource and Surfing the Creative in Boulder, CO. www.goldenbridge.org

T H E DA N C E O F L I F E

BIODANZA T O R O

S Y S T E M

FLORIDA SCHOOL OF MASSAGE • GAINESVILLE, FL TaKe Your dance inTo THe HeaLing arTs

SCHOOL OF BIODANZA • WORLDWIDE THe poeTrY oF Human encounTer

PACIFICA GRADUATE INST. • SANTA BARBARA, CA Forge a career THaT is uniQue and auTHenTic

empowering students to turn their dreams into reality for nearly 40 years, The Florida school of massage offers students a holistic education in the art and science of massage therapy. We offer you a safe and nurturing community environment where you will be supported in your journey of personal growth and transformation.

Biodanza is a powerful somatic practice that activates such inherent human potentials as vitality, sexuality, creativity, affectivity, and transcendence. a weekly Biodanza practice cultivates pleasure, sweetness, community, and profound connection to life.

pacifica’s unique mission attracts innovative and creative working professionals who are interested in a rigorous intellectual experience that connects with their souls and positively transforms how they see the world. graduate degrees are offered in somatic studies, community psychology, counseling, depth psychology, depth psychotherapy, mythological studies & the humanities.

our heart-centered and mindful environment can help you discover and experience the full potential of transformation for yourself and the lives of those you touch. simply put, your experience at Fsm can empower you to create the life you want and help your clients do the same.

670 Hour, 6 month, Nationally Accredited Massage and Hydrotherapy Certification

The rolando Toro system (rTs) of Biodanza emerged in the 60s in chile from the pioneering work of rolando Toro araneda, a clinical psychologist and anthropologist. it was introduced to the us in 1998. Today there are many schools worldwide and two in the us: east coast (www.biodanzausa.com) and west coast (www.biodanza.us). They host the teacher training and point to weekly classes and workshops.

Programs begin in January, May and September.

Becoming a Biodanza facilitator requires 30 weekend workshops over a 3 year-period, presenting a thesis, and completing supervised facilitation. The training forms Biodanza facilitators and enriches the work of wellness educators.

www.floridaschoolofmassage.com

www.biodanza.org

Financial Aid Available

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pacifica has developed educational formats that are particularly well suited to individuals who wish to pursue graduate education while continuing their existing professional and personal commitments.

Pacifica’s eight graduate degrees are accredited through WASC and financial aid is available.

Pacifica is currently accepting applications in all programs.

www.pacifica.edu

PHOTO: TOP:KAT SHEA

R O L A N D O

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movemenu

Education Festivals Events & Performances Retreats & Workshops

Visit www.ConsciousDancer.com for the MoveMap, and join the mailing list!

SPRING HIGHLIGHTS EDUCATION

The 39th Annual Dance & Movement Workshop for Educators Jul 9–14 • san diego state university, cA This year’s workshop, sponsored by the chapman dance department and organized by the california dance and movement Workshop for educators, contains some outstanding educational opportunities to train in a variety of dance techniques at all skill levels, explore pedagogical practices, study compositional processes, and share ideas and successes with other dance educators. planned by teachers, for teachers, we will be offering a forum for the exchange of talent and ideas among workshop participants. www.danceandmovement.com/workshop.html

Kidding Around Yoga Three-day Training APr 5–7 • holliston, mA This training is not only for yoga teachers who want to work with kids, but also great for anybody who works with kids on any level. it teaches children coping skills for stress, games and activities that help them learn how to breathe, meditate, and calm themselves down. We offer a system that is easily duplicated and a course outline to follow that makes it simple to share the science of yoga with your students. our training will enhance your career and change your life, as well as the lives of all those beautiful kids you work with. www.kiddingaroundyoga.com

PHOTO: TOP:COURTESY OF PILOBOLUS, CENTER PHOTOS COURTESY OF RESPECTIVE EVENTS

Aerial Yoga Teacher Training–Wendi Lynch

AXIS Summer Intensive Awakening Aphrodite Retreat – pg 53

APr 8–13 • oahu, hi This 40-hour comprehensive aerial yoga teacher certification program will provide you with the necessary tools to teach safe and effective Leva aerial Yoga classes. The hammock supports the weight of the body in order to attain optimal alignment in yoga postures. it also creates support for safe and accessible inversions. during this course you will learn more than 150 aerial yoga asanas and how to safely adjust and modify these poses for your students. The Leva Teacher Training course fulfills Yoga alliance qualifications for continuing education hours at the 200 level. This training may also be taken for personal development without receiving the certification to teach. http://stillandmovingcenter.com

JourneyDance™ Teacher Training Module 1: Five-day Intensive APr 10–15 • synergy studio, san Antonio, tX For dance enthusiasts, including yoga teachers, dance instructors, and movement therapists.

Toni Bergins’ Journeydance™, a union of dance, visualization, voice, and ritual, calls you to become funky and divine. in module 1 we weave together expressive and ritual movement, guided imagery, affirmations, and sounding. You learn and experience Journeydance qualities and the conceptual flow of a class; how to create moving visualizations with dance and music; the Journeydance embodiment, energy, and vocal awareness series; mindbusting techniques to eliminate negative and limiting self-talk; and your own spiritual dance practice to take into your community. www.journeydance.com

Aug 4–10 • oakland, cA dancers, choreographers and teachers with and without disabilities from the u.s. and abroad are invited to attend aXis’ annual summer intensive.

This week-long creative laboratory is guaranteed to push your limits and break new ground as you experiment, collaborate, and create. attendees will participate in a creative exchange alongside aXis’ talented dancers as all share their knowledge and experience. aXis performs nationwide and also brings physically integrated dance outside the studio and into schools, community centers, independent living centers, and to organizations seeking to learn more about dance, disability and collaboration. www.axisdance.org

Dancing Freedom International Facilitator Training Biodanza Music and Sound Immersion – pg 53

noV 2–26 • bali, indonesia Join us for an extraordinary dance journey on the sacred, volcanic island of Bali to embody your practice and learn to teach. our training blends deep somatic, ecstatic and shamanic movement work with collaborative leadership training, soul empowerment, sacred ceremony and community mentoring. We support you to deepen and widen into your psycho-somatic awareness, your emotional intelligence, your mindfulness, your compassionate responsivity, and your resiliency as a leader and community co-creator. www.dancingfreedom.com

Readers Note: Find community events near you on the MoveMap. www.consciousdancer.com/move-map

Learn more about the movement modalities online in the Upshift Guide.

Sweet Retreat in the Dominican Republic – pg 53

www.consciousdancer.com/upshift-guide

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WORLDWIDE: Pilobolus dancers perform the powerful duet Symbiosis.

The company also offers workshops that explore the creative process within a group setting. pg 55

Pilobolus: Teaching Teamwork Pilobolus invites you to tap into your own creativity and collaborative spirit.

The company that dazzles audiences with its intricate shapes and bold colors is offering workshops for dancers of all levels.

Bali Spirit Festival: An Annual Celebration of Yoga, Dance, and Music mAr 20–24 • ubud, bali, indonesia entering its sixth year, and attracting top yoga and dance instructors, healers, musicians and several thousand guests over five days and four nights, the event is set in two spectacular venues in ubud, Bali’s cultural and arts capital. The high quality and diversity of daytime workshops, world music concerts, holistic healing sessions, and eco-friendly vendors combine to create this one-of-a-kind event in asia. www.balispiritfestival.com

13th Annual Ontario Regional Contact Improv Jam mAy 3–5 • Kitchener-Waterloo ontario, canada Join some of Kitchener-Waterloo and surrounding area’s best movement teachers for an annual weekend of contact submersion! The weekend will feature workshops and special sessions with these guides: Tanya Williams, Fred Hunsberger, adam eurby, charlie Halpern-Hamu, and ian d. allen. Beginners and newcomers and mixedability persons with all levels of dance experience welcome. if you can get to Kitchener-Waterloo from wherever you live, the warm faces of the ontario community will welcome you like family! Bilingual english/Français facilitation (as volunteers permit). www.contactimprov.ca

Bhakti Fest Midwest 2013 Jul 5–7 • madison, Wi Bhakti Fest is a yoga/dance /music festival that celebrates the devotional path that has its roots in yoga, kirtan, and meditation. it embraces ancient and modern sacred wisdom and traditional and non-traditional spiritual practices. Bhakti Fest builds a community of people drawn to follow the path of the heart, a devotional, prayerful, loving, healthful, respectful family. all the artists, presenters, and vendors embody, practice, and share the spirit of Bhakti in ways including continuous kirtan music, yoga classes, meditations and prayer, teachings and workshops, fire ceremonies (pujas), wellness sanctuary, and more. in the spirit of service, a work exchange program offered. www.bhaktifest.com

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EVENTS & PERFORMANCES 2013 International Shimmy Mob mAy 11 • cities worldwide Take part in the largest belly dance event of its kind for an honorable cause! shimmy mob is a “Flash mob” type of event, creating awareness for women’s and children’s shelters. We dance united with the same song, same choreography, same t-shirt, same goals, on the same day anywhere in the world. all levels welcome, beginner-friendly choreography. This year’s choreography has been donated by world renowned belly dance superstar Bozenka. www.shimmymob.com

33rd Annual Planetary Dance with Anna Halprin Jun 2 • mt. tamalpais state Park, cA Join anna Halprin and the planetary dance association for the 33rd annual planetary dance—a call for peace among people and peace with the earth. create a unified voice so vibrant it will renew energies to end war, violence, inequalities, pollution, and global warming. The gathering includes a sunrise ceremony at the top of mt. Tamalpais, the main event at 11:00 am at santos meadow, and a potluck celebration. “When enough people move together in a common pulse with a common purpose, an amazing force eventually takes over,” says Halprin.

“This is a power that can renew, inspire, teach, create, and heal.” www. planetarydance.org

Why do some groups fizzle, while others thrive? Kubovy and company are sharing the expertise they’ve developed over decades of collaborative work. Pilobolus dancers offer workshops for groups as diverse as employees of Fortune 500 companies and youth in urban middle schools. With all participants, the group process is worked on as choreography develops. Summer workshops, held in Washington Depot, Connecticut, will be open to the general public this summer.

Dancers at any level as well as nondancers are welcome (see page 55 and Pilobolus.org). –RT

The West Coast Contact Improvisation Jam Jun 29–Jul 3 • berkeley, cA This five-day jam held the weekend before July 4 will be at the sawtooth Building in Berkeley, from 10am to midnight each day, saturday Jam until 2am.

Join us for the five full days of classes, labs and jams, or design your own schedule. This year’s class series will feature a different West coast ci teacher each day. our incredible line-up includes Keith Hennessy, scott Wells, shel Wagner rasch, alicia grayson, Brenton cheng, and more. There will also be ongoing labs and presentations designed for sharing work and research. www.wccijam.org

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF PILOBOLUS

FESTIVALS

To create their hugely inventive repertoire, Pilobolus relies on its dancers to play a key role in developing choreography. “The power of making something with a lot of people is enormous; many minds are better than one,” says Executive Director Itamar Kubovy. “But there are also a lot of pitfalls and problems when you work with a lot of people.”

RETREATS & WORKSHOPS Soul Voice Two-day Workshops MAR – see website schedule for dates • Vancouver, Toronto, and Maui, HI come immerse yourself in two days of high vibrations as Karina schelde, founder of the soul Voice™ method, guides you safely through a step-by-step process. Learn exercises for letting go of judgment, for allowing the inner child to play, and for accessing the primordial energy through your own frequencies. You will also be working with the emotional body, the key to developing intuition and liberating authentic self-expression. applicable to everyone, no experience necessary. (note: maui workshop taught by amira pacentra.) contact Lori Lewis, bamboolori@gmail.com, 808-269-5985. www.soulvoice.net

Biodanza, Voice and Percussion Immersion with Belisa Amaro mAr 16 • san Francisco, cA our bodies are powerful musical instruments. Let yours vibrate in unison with life to express who you are! all-day immersion for anyone interested in deepening connection with the authentic self and community through song, dance, and play. These harmonizing vivencias (Biodanza sessions) will invite you to follow the organic movements of life, its biological rhythms, the pulse of the earth and the heart, the impulse to connect with others. open to all levels. no singing or dancing experience necessary. please bring your instruments to join our in-house percussionists (optional). iBF certified facilitator and trainer Belisa amaro pioneered Biodanza in the united states, where she has been teaching since 1998. she is the founder and director of the san Francisco school of Biodanza. www.biodanza.us.

Stories from the Heart: Solo Performance Workshop mAr 23 • bay Area, cA Facilitated by suraya Keating, mFT/rdT and nicki Koethner, mFT in this solo performance workshop, we hold that our stories are gifts, and we as storytellers are bringers of sacred gifts to the world. When we share stories from our soul, we create medicine for ourselves and those who witness us. in this solo performance intensive, we journey into the art of solo performance, building skills of storytelling, acting, voice, and movement. With the guidance and coaching of the facilitators, each participant will uncover, write, refine, and perform a story based on their own life, their imagination, or both. The workshop culminates with a performance for invited guests. www.suraya.org/for-everyone/

open up the huge potential energy contained in our fears, learn to embody and express anger while staying in touch with vulnerability, and surrender to the renewal and release of grief. With these three foundational feelings alive and well, then joy and compassion have deep roots and bold possibilities for our emotional freedom. www.thestarhouse.net

Action Theater Workshop with Ruth Zaporah April 11–14 • berkeley, cA once-a-year chance in the Bay area to explore action Theater with originator ruth Zaporah, visiting from santa Fe. This is physical theater improvisation: it cultivates presence in the moment through movement, sound-and-movement, and physical narrative (very unlike conventional improv). The practice appeals to performance artists and people in all walks of life. The workshop is open to improvisers at many levels. Two-hour sessions on Thursday and Friday evenings; four+ hours on the weekend days. contact claire peaslee for info or registration. www.actiontheater.com

Playful Oasis at Harbin Hot Springs APr 12–14 • middletown, cA Join us for this weekend immersion into creative play, dance, relaxation, and community. There’s an array of scheduled activities, as well as plenty of opportunity just to soak and relax with friends. playful oasis includes three full days/two nights of fun and connection (noon on Friday through 10 pm on sunday); our own private space and warm pools at the conference center; camping indoors or outdoors; all meals and snacks; and full access to mainside Harbin facilities. www.wildoasis.net

Sweet Retreat: Circus/Fitness/Yoga in Paradise APR 19–28 (Beg/Int) and MAY 2–12 (Int/Adv) Cabarete, Dominican Republic Train with world class teachers offering classes in aerial arts, yoga, strength training, flexibility, flying trapeze, general fitness, handstands and acro yoga.

Tuition is inexpensive, the environment is ideal, and the food is fresh, local,and amazing! our mission is to create environments that inspire wellness, play, physical activity and creativity with a strong focus on community and functional fitness. This is a way to kick start new life choices and integrate physical training with a positive attitude into your life at home. www.sweetretreatsdr.com

Tango in the Jungle: a 7-night Tango and Yoga Retreat APr 27–mAy 4 • cahuita, costa rica Join Tango dancer ms. maraya Loza-koxahn, a graduate of La escuela del Tango in Buenos aires and ms. Jacqui Kain, a yoga instructor with many years of experience, for a week of dance, yoga, and relaxation. marcelo ruiz will be the master of ceremonies and help to make this event an unforgettable experience. You will learn to dance argentine tango and yoga asanas will complement the dance. www.thegoddessgarden.com

Weekend Mindfulness Retreat mAy 3–5 • camp rogers retreat center, Rogers, OH mindfulness is the simple practice of being in the moment, noticing without judgment, and accepting everything as it is. mindfulness is the art of paying attention, and the benefits of its practice have been documented in the areas of stress reduction, physical health, and overall wellness. mindfulness retreats are designed to immerse you in this practice, helping you to relax and ultimately reconnect with what’s most important in daily life.

The weekend experience includes yoga, meditation, dancing mindfulness, drumming, and the sweetness of fellowship. Facilitated by maureen Lauer-gatta, e-rYT 500 & Jamie marich, ph.d. accessible to the pittsburgh airport. www.mindfulohio.com

Awakening Aphrodite Retreat for Women, with Erica Ross mAy 18–19 • salt spring island, b.c., canada rediscover the pleasure of being female—the soft, courageous beauty and wisdom of your own feminine essence. Join erica ross, co-creatrix and

EAST COAST: As part of their residency at Skidmore College, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company performs North Star, their 1978 signature piece performed to the music of Philip Glass.

PHOTO: TODD ROSENBERG

BIODANZA – Dare to Fly mAr 23 • Ashton, md springtime is approaching! Whenever we enter another stage in our lives a natural process of shedding, nurturing, regeneration, and emergence takes place. as we move into the new we need to emerge from the chrysalis. We need to dare to fly. in the Biodanza safe space we do this from a place of progressive preparation that enables us to embrace life in all its glory. no dance experience required. Just the desire to explore on the dance floor. come fly with us! www.biodanza-usa.com

Men’s Heartbeat: A 5Rhythms Weekend Workshop with Adam Barley APr 5–7 • sunshine canyon, co dancing men, let’s gather to dive into our emotional nature through gabrielle roth’s 5rhythms practice.

National Dance Week: April 26-May 5 EVENTS NATIONWIDE, FLASH MOB DANCE ON APRIL 27 It’s time to fi nd your fl avor and discover a taste of dance that’s right for you! For one magical week many dance studios and groups across the United States throw open their doors and welcome one and all to free classes, workshops, and fl ash mobs. Broaden your somatic horizons; this is the week to take a chance on a new dance.

BAY AREA DANCE WEEK: Around the Bay, the tradition is strong and opportunities abound. From the ultra-urban ODC Dance Commons in San Francisco’s Mission district to Anna Halprin’s historic Mountain Home Studios in Marin, explore your way across the Bay and dance to your heart’s content.

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New York Dance Parade: May 18th EVERY DANCE UNDER THE RAINBOW! Thousands of dancers, hundreds of organizations and upwards of 70 unique styles of dance represent the joy of diversity. Across Manhattan from Broadway to historic St. Marks Place, the parade culminates in an all-day, three-stage festival in Tompkin’s Square Park. Parade Director Greg Miller says, “This year’s theme is Unity Through Dance, which we practice year-round through our outreach into schools and community centers.” www.danceparade.org director of Toronto’s award-winning dance our Way Home (doWH) practice, in this succulent women’s retreat on beautiful salt spring island. Together, we will dance with goddess aphrodite, our loving and powerful guide of embodied awakening. in the sacred container of doWH (ecstatic dance, guided imagery, and life-affirming inspiration) you will connect with your own natural impulses, with a more gentle and loving space for your personal unfolding. Your sense of self will expand and melt into the glorious pool of self-remembrance and love, interconnected with the great whole. www.danceourwayhome.com

beautiful and gentle stanislaus river, an easy drive less than two hours from the san Francisco Bay area. dance with samantha sweetwater (dancing Freedom) and mark ameba (dJ and publisher of Conscious Dancer magazine). dive inward with dana dharma devi (clarity Breathwork), with more guest artists TBa. enjoy music, dance, yoga, rafting, art-making, breathwork, swimming, healthy meals, and deluxe shaded camping at the most magical private riverfront playground this side of the sierras! paradise has at last been found—come and share it with us. information and additional dates at www.riverguidess.com.

Multi-day TaKeTiNa Workshop

Pilobolus Summer Workshops and Camps

Jun 7–9 • concord, mA TaKeTina is a powerful process that can rapidly quiet the chatter in your head and bring you into connection with your inner core. Through vocalization, stepping, and clapping you are guided into three separate rhythmic layers which directly affect your nervous system and bring a more clear and direct experience of the world. The TaKeTina rhythm process was developed by reinhard Flatischler in 1970. experience the deep neurological effects of a multi-day TaKeTina workshop. To register, info, and questions: enf1234@att.net

Jul & Aug • Washington depot, ct Level 1: July 15–19 Welcoming all to the pilobolus creative process, this session is playful, groupdriven, physically challenging, and fun, resulting in participants’ access to untapped areas of creativity and improved effectiveness in a group.

Level 2: July 22–26 expand on the basics of pilobolus improvisation, partnering, and performing techniques. This week will increase movement vocabulary and explore weight sharing and the creation of individual pilobolus-style movements.

Level 3: July 29–Aug 2 For trained movers, this session explores a collective choreographic framework relying on a working knowledge of complex partnering, choreography, collaboration, and direction. camps for children ages 3–13 available too. www.pilobolus.org

pHoTo: cHarLes eVans Jr

Barcelona Breema Intensive: Presence in Touch and Movement Jun 28–30 • barcelona, spain Breema can connect us to the harmony of life as it is in this moment. When you are present, you receive energy from your interactions. This three-day intensive course is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in Breema’s nine principles of Harmony by practicing Breema bodywork and self-Breema movement. Led by salena gissola schenatto irion and Felipe Wilhelm de oliveira, directors of centro Harmonious Life in Barcelona, the weekend takes place at a lovely “macia” in the hills near Barcelona.

Lodging and freshly prepared meals are included.

The workshop will be taught in spanish and english. www.breema.com

As One We Flow, with RiverGuidess Adventures July 4–7 • stanislaus river, oakdale, cA This holiday weekend, let’s celebrate our interdependence as we paddle, dance, and play on the

International Core Connexion Dance Workshop in Castle Glarisegg Aug 10–15 • castle glarisegg, switzerland coreconnexion invites us to explore our movement creativity and to get in touch with the deep aliveness at our core, which lies beyond gender, roles, age, or race. each day begins with a meditation preparing body and mind to embark on a journey that invites movement and stillness, listening and expression, body and soul, community awareness and co-creation. in the afternoons we will play in nature to get in touch with our inner nature. There will also be free time to explore the wonderful surroundings of castle glarisegg. www.coreconnexion.net consciousdancer.com | spring 2013

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boulder’s touching community • PHOTOGRAPH BY J. AKIYAMA Contact Improv dancers from Boulder, Colorado, move in harmony to “Internal and External Landscapes in Nature,” a score created by Bay Area artist Kristen Greco. The event was the Strawberry Contact Jam, held in the woods outside of the Perry Mansfield Performing Arts School in Steamboat Springs. This loving and supportive collection of movers embodies the power of a group joined in community. When group member Michael Mathieu was severely injured in a cycling accident last summer, the others took action—dancing outside of Michael’s hospital window, organizing fundraisers for his needs, and forming a care team to help. www.LoveForMichael.com

MovementUpshiftGuide spring 2013 issue #21

movement for a better world

BellyFit BhaktiFest Biodanza East Biodanza West Body Tales Breema CMER Continuum Crazywood Dancing Freedom Dancing in the Morphic Field Danyasa DJ Ra So Earth Rise at IONS East West Somatics

conscious dancer

upshift guide Because you’ve been asking, here is the start of a wonderful relationship.

The modalities you have been curious about all in one place. Flip through and see which ones are calling your name.

There’s something here for every age and stage of your dancing journey.

Enjoy!

Brooklyn-based JourneyDance facilitator Jeanine T. Abraham, aka The Dancing Chef, wearing Ula Sport.

Florida School of Massage Fumbling Towards Ecstasy JourneyDance Kinections Mandala Yoga Mndeful Movement Nia Technique SomaSource Soul Voice SpiritDance Taketina Tamalpa Institute Teachers Dance The Form–Reality Practice Village Heartbeat

conscious dancer movement for a better world

Discover treasure on the MoveMap* * A world of movement from your community!

asy It’s e to up Sign ne onli

We’re on a mission to empower a million movement professionals around the world with tools to connect and succeed. Are you in?

Facilitators: POST YOUR EVENT, READ US IN PRINT. The MoveMap connects you with local dancers. institutions: TELL YOUR STORY ON A PAGE IN THE UPSHIFT GUIDE. Help people understand your important work.

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consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

BELLYFIT ®

EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH HOLISTIC MOVEMENT, MUSIC, COMMUNITY AND CULTURE. www.Bellyfit.com

ENJOY BELLYFIT ANYWHERE The Bellyfit Elements™ video series includes 5 body sculpting, spirit lifting, consciousness raising workouts with Cardio, Strength and Stretch. All 5 of the Bellyfit Elements™ videos are designed for women of all ages and abilities. Modifications and levels of intensity and impact are given for all moves and postures. Enjoy a journey through the elements and experience holistic fitness!

Many women are hungry for deep, meaningful connection with their own soul and with the women in their community. Bellyfit delivers this and more in the form of a one hour, full body, soul soothing workout that encourages women to love their bodies, now!

Blending modern aerobics with cultural dance and Yoga, Bellyfit® is pioneering a fresh, new ‘Holistic Fitness’ genre designed exclusively for women. One that addresses not only physical health, but also mental, emotional and spiritual wellness.

Bellyfit classes offer a fun fusion of Belly Dance, Bollywood, African Dance, Pilates, Yoga, and Meditation.

Join our team of empowered women leading the way in holistic fitness at a Bellyfit Instructor Training course.

consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

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bhaktifest

come be uplifted through kirtan, Yoga & conscious communitY!

www.bhaktifest.com

featuring world renowned artists and teachers plus the best up and comers Krishna Das, Shiva Rea, Jai Uttal, Deva Premal & Miten, Dave Stringer, Snatam Kaur, Saul David Raye, Bryan Kest, Elena Brower, Dharma Mittra, Guruganesha Band, Sara Ivanhoe, Siana Sherman and many more!

To see full line up for each event please visit bhaktifest.com

the spiritual woodstock of the new millennium! bhakti fest 2013 offers three amazing events: shakti fest, May 17-19, Joshua Tree, CA bhaktifest midwest, July 5-7, Madison, WI, bhakti fest west, September 5-8, Joshua Tree, CA. Offering a heart opening experience like no other.

Immerse yourself in non-stop Kirtan, all day yoga classes, wellness workshops, and more.

Details and tickets for all events are available at bhaktifest.com.

Use the promotional code consciousdancer when purchasing your ticket to save $50.00.

“ What a nurturing, nourishing festival. Thank you for your love, vision and devotion, gifting me and all our community with the sweet homecoming to our hearts.”

– dawn cartwright 4

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BIODANZA

EAsT COAsT UsA DANCEs OF vITALITy AND jOy www.Biodanza-usa.com

BECOME A BIODANZA FACILITATOR Becoming a Biodanza facilitator requires 30 weekend workshops over a 3 year-period, presenting a thesis, and completing supervised facilitations. The personal development course comprises the first half of the training. Those whowish to facilitate continue with the second half. This profound training will enrich your life!

Come dance with life!

Biodanza, the dance of life, is a powerful fusion of authentic movement, fabulous music, and heartfelt emotions that opens a space to explore your inherent human potentials such as vitality, sexuality, creativity, affectivity and transcendence. A weekly Biodanza practice cultivates pleasure, sweetness, community, and profound connection to life.

The Rolando Toro system of Biodanza emerged in the 60’s in Chile from the pioneering work of Rolando Toro Araneda. The School of Biodanza MD/DC will open under the direction of Michelle Dubreuil Macek who facilitates weekly classes/workshops in MD, NYC, DC, and PA for adults, children and families.

“ Every human being is miraculous and extraordinary with many possibilities in the universe.” – ROLANDO TORO ARANEDA consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

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Biodanza the poetry of human encounter biodanza.us

“ The light that exists in each human being exists to allow us to see each other.

To relate with one another. To love and feel loved... I love, therefore I am.”

– rolando toro, creator BECOMING A BIODANZA FACILITATOR Becoming a Biodanza facilitator requires 30 weekend workshops over a 3 year-period, presenting a thesis, and completing supervised facilitation. The training forms Biodanza facilitators and enriches the work of wellness educators. “ Biodanza is a way to share what is marvelous about the human experience with others.”

–Rolonado Toro Come dance with us Your 2nd class is always free.

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Biodanza is a powerful somatic practice that activates such inherent human potentials as vitality, sexuality, creativity, affectivity, and transcendence. A weekly Biodanza practice cultivates pleasure, sweetness, community, and profound connection to life.

Biodanza The Rolando Toro System (RTS) of Biodanza emerged in the 60s in Chile from the pioneering work of Rolando Toro Araneda, a clinical psychologist and anthropologist. It was introduced to the US in 1998. Today there are many schools worldwide and two in the US: east coast (www.biodanza-usa.com) and west coast (www.biodanza.us).

fi n d a bi o da n za c l a s s i n y o u r a r e a EAST COAST

NOrthern CAlifornia SAN FRANCISCO

EAST BAY

NYC & WASHINGTON DC

Belisa Amaro School Director & Teacher Trainer Tuesday 7:45 –10pm by registration only James Howell Studio: 66 Sanchez St. biodanza@pacbell.net (415) 339.8739

Laura Camner & Mirjam Krohne Oakland Thursday 7:30–9:30pm Jeffrey Bihr Studio: 5390 Miles Ave. Laura: lauralouc@gmail.com (253) 279-4086 Mirjam: krohnem@galileoweb.org (415) 272-8027

Michelle Dubreuil Macek NYC– School Director & Trainer Monday 7:00–9:00pm Dancing Classrooms: 25 W 31st St., 4th floor

Tim Lorenz Sunday 3 – 5:00 pm Shotwell Studio: 3252 19th St. @ Shotwell St. tim@biodanza.us (415) 994-6017 Clara Rubin-Smith Thursday 7:45–9:45pm James Howell Studio: 66 Sanchez St. claruluz@gmail.com (415) 694-8843 MARIN Tatayna Jardine Sausalito Monday 7:30–9:45pm 420 Litho St. Sausalito tatanyaj@hotmail.com south BAY Hildegard Flemming Please contact teacher for details flemming_21@hotmail.com (650) 704-4449 NORTH Bay Vicky Combs Cotati Wednesday 7:15–9:15pm Songbird Community Healing Center: 8297 Old Redwood Highway vicky@theancientwisdom.net (510) 725-9225 humboldt county barbara tapia salvans garberville – Contact facilitator biodancelife@gmail.com (707) 499 8545

Zora Coeur de Roy berkeley/ Oakland Monday 7:30–9:30pm intermediate Finnish Hall: Chestnut St., Berkeley Tuesday 7:30–9:30pm beginner Jeffrey Bihr Studio: 5390 Miles Ave., Oakland Zorabiodanza.com, zoradragonfly@gmail.com (510) 904-2297 Julie Neustadter & Cecilia Reus Oakland Wednesday 7:30–9:30pm Location listed at www.biodanza.us/class Julie: savorysong@gmail.com (415) 717-3578 Cecilia: cecireus@yahoo.com (415) 505-8492

SOuthern CAlifornia LOS ANGELES Carmen Aranda Los Angeles Tuesday 7:00–9:30pm Kaxan, Talleres de Vida: 12807 Halldale Ave. Gardena kabir.biodanza@gmail.com Marla Leech & Linda Torres Los Angeles Monday 7:30-9:30pm Pilates and Arts Studio: 1844 Echo Park Ave. Marla: orr40@hotmail.com (415)336-0751 Linda: bla.lindis@gmail.com

Washington DC Friday 6:30–8:30pm Church of the Holy City, 16th and Corcoran MARYLAND Paola Bolzan Bethesda Tuesday 7:30–9:30pm Michelle Dubreuil Macek Ashton, Maryland Wednesday 10:00am –12:00 Thursday Evenings 7:30–9:30pm Biodanza: Creative Moves for Kids with Autism Wednesday 4:00–5:00pm Blueberry Gardens, 237 Ashton Rd. FLORIDA & MIAMI Hilda Elana Restrepo FLORIDA & MIAMI Thursday 12noon – 2pm, Alce Art Studio Weston: 1960 N. Commerce Parkway #610, FL Thursday 7pm – 9:00pm, Healing Hands of Gaia, 2150 NW 7Oth, Miami Tuesday 2nd & 4th of month, 7pm – 9:00pm, The Goddess Store and Studio, Hollywood, FL Stephanie Bloch Miami Wednesday 7:30–9:30pm 9550 Bay Harbor Terrace,Room #215 2nd floor Bay Harbor Islands, North Miami 33154 oklahoma city Denise Melo Oklahoma City Wednesday 7:30–9:30pm

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Body Tales® Bring your sTories To life

www.BodyTales.com

come home To your Body and Bring your sTories To life We invite you to learn more about Body Tales and more about Authentic Movement — a related movement practice. Follow your movement, free your stories; gain skill in integrating and expressing essential body wisdom. You are invited to expand your creative and healing capacities by trying out our classes, workshops, retreats and private sessions. Come see Body Tales in action — check out a performance! easT Bay & norTh Bay We offer ongoing classes, monthly groups for women, workshops and retreats in several beautiful Northen Califorina settings throughout the year. Join us for in-depth training, Soul repair, creative renewal and deep rest in nature and a loving environment.

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Body Tales is a creative and healing practice that integrates movement, voice and personal storytelling.

This unique form combines elements of dance, theater, therapy and expressive arts. It encourages and supports an embodied value system in which the well-being of the Earth is central. Body Tales brings people together from varied walks of life– including educators, artists, therapists and professionals in many arenas – and welcomes diversity in ethnicity, spiritual practices, age, sexual orientation, body size and physical ability, etc!

“With humans, stories matter. Stories weave the fabric, sometimes whole, sometimes torn, of every family and culture.

When we move and speak our embodied stories, and they are received and valued, we reclaim our humanity.” – olivia corsen

BREEMA THE ART OF BEING PRESENT

www.Breema.com

BREEMA VISIT OUR CLASSES & WORKSHOPS The emphasis is on experiential learning that you can apply and benefit from in your daily life. No prior bodywork experience is necessary, but please be comfortable sitting and working on a padded floor.

INTENSIVES Attend any Intensive at the Breema Center or in Europe for an optimal opportunity to immerse yourself in practicing “the art of being present” with an international group of students.

CONTINUING EDUCATION The Breema Center is approved to offer continuing education for MFTs and LCSWs by the California BBS (#PCE5069), massage practitioners and bodyworkers by the NCBTMB (#145251-00), and registered nurses by the California BR(#CEP3852).

Breema ® is a simple, natural form of touch and movement supported by universal principles. The aim of Breema is to bring us to a tangible experience of presence. The more you are present, the more you can connect with yourself, with others, and with all life.

Breema bodywork and Self Breema movements offer ideal support for practicing body-mind connection and the art of being present, by working with and experiencing the Nine Principles of Harmony. Practicing Breema allows you to stay connected to yourself as you support others.

“When we let go of assumptions of separation, we let go of force.”

– JON SCHREIBER consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

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CENTER FOR MOVEMENT EDUCATION AND RESEARCH NON-PROFIT

www.CMER.info

THE CENTER FOR MOVEMENT EDUCATION AND RESEARCH (CMER) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the use of movement and dance as a creative and integrative source for improving medical, social, and cultural domains.

Our curriculums are founded on the premise that movement has the power to facilitate education and healing, to foster learning, creativity, and health.

LAbAN MOVEMENT ANALySIS Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and Bartenieff Fundamentals (BF) is a system for analyzing the complexity of human movement based on the theories of Rudolf Laban and Irmgard Bartenieff.

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CMER– Move to Learn and Learn to Move • Dance/Movement Therapy • Laban Movement Analysis • Leading an Embodied Life All classes are small, using dance, somatics, dance therapy, and creative movement principles.

Training in Dance/Movement Therapy CMER offer the longest running Dance/Movement Therapy Alternate Route Training program in California. Our DMT course syllabi are approved by the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) and all our faculty are board certified DMT’s. (BC-DMT).

“ Incredibly Engaging. At the end of each day I felt I came away with a lot of valuable tools.” – CMER STUDENT

CONTINUUM MOVEMENT

THE ART OF SELF RENEwAL

phOTOs: WWW.LaurendevOn.COm

www.CONTINUUM MOVEMENT.COM

Emilie Conrad, Founder and Author of LIFE ON LAND

ELEMENTS OF CONTINUUM BREATH: All movement originates with breath. Our history and patterns are all maintained in the movement or inhibition of breath.

Our creativity and all mobility whether physical, emotional or spiritual are enhanced by the dexterity of breath.

SOUND: Sound is audible breath, penetrating the density of locked tissue. It eases mobility while releasing areas of stagnation and stress. By coupling sound with movement, we increase the agility of both.

MOVEMENT: A full range of non-patterned movement, from dynamic full-bodied expression to subtle micro-movements, stimulates neurological growth and vibrancy. Undulating wave motion permeates tissue, softens boundaries and amplifies sensation.

Continuum is an extraordinary awakening to the fullness of what it means to be alive. In Continuum we experience the interconnection of our origins with the larger currents of all organismic life, beginning with the first cell and ultimately layered into the intricacies of human form. One aspect of the entire human system is comprised of a vast communication network within our bodies.

Continuum uses movement, the dexterity of breath, the resonance of sound and the value of meaning to amplify and refine this far-reaching communication with ourselves, others and our world. We become liquid streams capable of a vast range of resources moving through domains of burgeoning life.

Liberated we are encompassed by a world of creative inspiration fed by the passionate fire of universal love.

Continuum offers a wide range of classes, workshops, retreats and professional programs for movers, shakers, practitioners and teachers of all kinds. There are Continuum teachers and practitoners world-wide. Contact us for more information.

“ Movement is what we are, not something we do.” – EMILIE CONRAD, FOUNDER consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

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crazywood art and movement center

www.crazywood.org

crazywood is an unexpected refuge nestled in a historic forest village of east Texas, located between Austin and Houston. Created as a regional and community haven for movement and artistic expression, Crazywood feels more like a bohemian oasis than your average retreat center.

Our 2000 sq. ft floated maple dance floor, adjacent water spa features, art gallery and full kitchen has been a joyful and welcoming home to ecstatic dance styles, contact improvisation, Yoga, Dance Meditation and more. Crazywood has unique and aesthetically pleasing facilities to host your next conscious movement or healing retreat.

“ One of the most beautiful spaces I have danced in, the floor feels like velvet on your feet.” –participant of dunya’s

dance/Meditation retreat

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DanyaSa™ Dance your DreaMS inTo realiTy

BambooyogaPlay.com

Sofiah ThoM co-teaches month long Danyasa™ Inspired Body Temple Yoga™ Teacher Trainings at Bamboo YogaPlay in Costa Rica.

ParaDiSe awaiTS; open and receive the vital creative life force that naturally wants to move through you. Immerse yourself in Danyasa, a new branch of the evolution of yoga, where the power of yoga meets the playful expression of dance.

Danyasa™ weaves the masculine roots of yoga with the feminine grace of ecstatic expression. The Danyasa movement journey encourages practitioners to listen to their inner teacher and the wisdom of their body as the impeti for movement. Danyasa™ takes you past the confines of the mat and into the space around you, exploring your artful nature through a flowing fusion of yoga asanas and expressive movement.

Paint your dreams with your body. Danyasa uses the imagination and creativity to dance your edge and awaken your fullest individual expression. Learn to infuse yoga and dance into every aspect of your life.

“Sofiah’s classes have opened me up in ways I never thought were possible.

Danyasa has inspired me to dance my dreams into reality, I am forever grateful.” – Blakely STein, Natural Food CheF & YogiNi consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

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DANCING FREEDOm

EmbODY YOUR FREEDOm. LIvE ONENESS. DancingFreedom.com

JOIN US FOR A LIFE-CHANGING JOURNEY INWARDS... to the depths of your body and soul wisdom and outwards to your evolving contribution to life, humanity and consciousness itself.

DANCING FREEDOm FACILItAtOR tRAINING offers you the wisdom we have gained over 27 years of practice, research and teaching, and all we have learned through the last five training cycles, during which we have worked with 110+ Dancing Freedom Facilitators.

It has been designed so that you can immerse yourself fully, embody the practice with every cell of your being, and gain all the tools needed to facilitate movement for a better world.

We believe in YOUR vision of a better world through dance.

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Dancing Freedom is a global community of people who love to dance and are passionate about co-creating a better world. Our training blends deep somatic, ecstatic and shamanic movement work with collaborative l eadership training, soul empowerment, sacred ceremony and community mentoring.

We support you to deepen and widen into your psychosomatic awareness and skillfullness, your emotional intelligence, your mindfullness, your compassionate responsivity, and your resiliency as a leader and community co-creator. We provide an initiatory container to assist you to further mature as a loving adult and visionary steward.

“ I have danced because it was in me to do so–the most natural and unavoidable expression of my soul.”

– SAmANtHA SWEEtWAtER, CREAtOR

find dancing freedom in your area canada Helen Patison – Vancouver Island, BC Kalibri – Riondel, BC mexico Ethan Feldman – San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato australia Lydia Moralda – Melbourne, Australia Richard Tronson – Melbourne, Australia Adrian Mornaila – Sydney, Australia Monica Blossom – Sydney, Australia united Kingdom Sarah Bullock – London thailand Daisy Kaye – Thailand international Magalie Bonneau-Marcil Nancy Parker Nature (Nate Hogan) Rebecca Reeves Samantha Sweetwater – CA, USA & International Sheya – Costa Rica & International Susan Marjanovic – Bay Area, CA & International

united states arizona Ashley Klein – Sedona David Reichenbach –Sedona southern california Sarita Vasquez – Santa Monica Atasia (Kenneth Ferguson) – Los Angeles northern california Erin Hampson – Arcada Christopher Campbell – Middleton Jia Love – Middleton Ayla Nereo – Nevada City Earthy Beaudry – Concow Jennifer Jerebek – Mt Shasta Lali (Leslie) Knowles – Grass Valley Eden Trenor – Pt. Reyes

minnesota Teresa Reid – Minneapolis, colorado Lotus – Boulder Ana Cladny – Colorado Pennsylvania Betsy Reiling – Pittsburg michigan Miriam Dowd – Michigan

Bay area, california Lyndsay Morris – Bay Area Carolyn Scoville – Bay Area Mary Shindler – Bay Area Rebecca Elswit – San Francisco Ben Flanigan – Oakland India Harville – Oakland Sarah Mackota – Oakland

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DANCING IN THE MORPHIC FIELD A 2–DAY LIFE CHANGING TRANSFORMATIONAL DANCE EXPERIENCE www.Dancinginthe morphicfield.com

Join us for a 2–day experience that will transform your life.

Euphoria: A Dance Odyssey A seamless wave of music, facilitating a journey through your inner landscape where you may discover energetic and emotional issues buried in your subconscious. Hold the positive aspects of what emerges as a creative intention.

The Morphic Field: A Dance of Creation Another seamless wave of music to support focusing on your intention while reaching into the Morphogenetic Field to manifest it in your life now.

Immersion: Devotion In Dance Developed with Brooklin Kayce A down-tempo, chill mix to offer gratitude, prayer and meditation for having already received that which you identified earlier.

See website for dates, locations and brochure.

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Dancing in the Morphic Field unites ecstatic dance, conscious language, the law of attraction and the morphogenetic field to maximize your innate power of creation.

Dance your dreams into life, NOW! Our time together offers the opportunity to explore the power of the present moment as you bring body, mind and spirit into harmony through language and dance. From this vantage point you will enter alignment with the universal creative force, the sacred place from which all personal manifestation originates. Movement and the addition of Conscious Language activates ability to create and shape our reality with specificity.

“ We create our reality! Become the author of your life as we embody ecstatic dance and conscious language filtered through the morphogenetic field.” – FRANKLIN MARKOWITZ

DJ RA SO

PSYCHEDELIC GLITCH-HOP LEFT COAST UNDERGROUND soundcloud.com/ra-so

RA SO offers his skills as a producer and DJ of conscious dance music to play at both private, intimate events/ gatherings as well as larger, public conscious dance events.

He’s played at Ecstatic Dance Oakland since 2009 and has shared the stage with Random Rab, David Starfire, Freq Nasty, The Polish Ambassador, Tommy SIdecar and David Satori (of Beats Antique), Love N Light, and many more.

His original compositions lend themselves to deep journeying and are utilized frequently by Liz Mac and the Nia Community and Samantha Sweetwater and the Dancing Freedom Community. Many find their way into the playlists of other dance/movement therapists throughout the Bay Area and beyond.

Contact: ralunasol@gmail.com

Ra So – I have always found music to be food for the soul. Whether playing at Burning Man, Ecstatic Dance Oakland, the clubs in SF and Oakland or private parties for the conscious dance community, my sets are always a journey through the archetypes of human consciousness, peppered with subtlety and meaning… at once, touching the eternal and embracing the humanity that lies within every heart. The music I produce and play is an auditory expression of the love, compassion and emotion I experience day-to-day. Expect a journey through many layers, genres and tempos. And prepare to be engaged through mind, body and spirit in waves of rhythm and bass, harmony and melody and auditory love…

“ Bass-heavy, psychedelic glitch-hop, mid tempo, and a little downtempo, heavily infused with the Left Coast Underground sound.” – DJ RA SO consciousdancer.com consciousdancer.com | | upshift upshift guide guide

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EaRthRisE CENtER

at iNstitutE Of NOEtiC sCiENCE www.EarthRiseions.org

ExplORE cutting-edge thoughts from science and diverse wisdom traditions worldwide ...dREam together and share our stories of transformation and healing ... disCOvER insights from visionaries in science, health, education, the environment, and the media.

15th iNtERNatiONal iONs CONfERENCE July 17–21, 2013 Celebreate the 40-year legacy of IONS with a stellar lineup of presenters and an always amazing community of people! ways tO ENgagE • Host an event of your own by renting the facilities • Present an event sponsored

by EarthRise Center • Participate in short or multiday events or workshops For information: dschneider@ noetic.org, 707.779.8202 18

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EarthRise is a beautiful, semi-rural,194-acre education and retreat center with five meeting rooms and overnight lodging for up to 120 guests for conferences, workshops, retreats and events.

One of Northern California’s premier retreat sites, we have become a meeting place for renowned thinkers in fields that promote healing and interconnection. With the mission to nurture transformative processes that foster connection, collaboration, community, and sustainability, we “hold the space” for leaders in their fields, the beauty of nature, exceptional meals, and attentive staff to support this vision.

“ The presence of divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes.” – dR. EdgaR mitChEll

EaStwESt SoMatIcS InStItutE

yoga, dancE, and MovEMEnt EastwestSomatics.com

IntuItIvE dancES SoMatIc BodyworK Land to watEr yoga and MEdItatIon • Flow Repatterning • Workshops for Personal

and Professional Growth • Summer and Winter Retreats • Home Stay Mentorships • Recieve RSMT, Registered

Somatic Movement Therapist through Eastwest and ISMETA, (see www.ismeta.org) • Yoga Certification

(RYT 200 and 500 hr) through Yoga Alliance www.yogaalliance.org

Eastwest Institute features Shin Somatics® an approach to healing and personal transformation developed by Sondra Horton Fraleigh through her teaching of dance and movement, integrative bodywork, philosophy and meditation. Her work is informed by her certification in the Feldenkrais® Method — as also her study of Effective Communication, Japanese Butoh, Yoga, and Zen meditation.

Moving with nature is the core principle of Eastwest Somatics - just as nature allows everything to be itself, to grow and to change.

“ As an educator, somatic movement specialist, and author, Sondra outshines them all. Her workshops are infused with brilliance that cuts to the core of somatic integration.” – cathErInE SchaEffEr consciousdancer.com consciousdancer.com | | upshift upshift guide guide

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5rHYTHMS FloriDa gabrielle roTH.coM ScHool oF MaSSage ProviDing reSourceS For boDY MaSTerY

www.FloridaSchoolofMassage.com

becoMe a cerTiFieD MaSSage THeraPiST We offer a 670-hour COMTAaccredited course of massage therapy study that will give you the foundation you need to create a fulfilling and successful career as a professional massage therapist.

Classes provide you with the indepth mastery of hands-on skills in 6 modalities: Swedish Massage, Neuromuscular Therapy, Reflexology, Connective Tissue, Sports Massage and Polarity Therapy.

Our 26 week Therapeutic Massage and Hydrotherapy Program is offered three times per year with classes beginning January, May and October. Classes are scheduled from 8:00 am to 2:30 pm, Monday to Friday. Student clinic, required massage therapy treatments, and optional electives are scheduled after class hours.

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The Florida School of Massage offers students a holistic education in the art and science of massage therapy. Empowering students to turn their dreams into reality for nearly 40 years, we offer you a safe and nurturing community environment where you will be supported in your journey of personal growth and transformation. our heart-centered and mindful environment can help you discover and experience the full potential of transformation for yourself and the lives of those you touch. Simply put, your experience at FSM can empower you to create the life you want and help your clients do the same.

“ Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word... all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” – leo F. buScaglia

FuMBlIng TOWaRdS ECSTaSy vITalITy In MOTIOn

Movinground.com

Harkened voices of 5Rhythms® Soul Motion™, Continuum Montage™, Turning The Wheel™ evolving into a compelling emergence of creative aliveness through dance. Writing, theater games and visual play enhance workshops.

WEEkly ClaSSES Sunday, 11:15am–2 Wednesday,10am–12 All ages, backgrounds and souls welcomed BalI –7 day RETREaT SEpT. 29 – OCT. 5, 2013 Join us for 7 days in Bali.

Weekends will be held all over Australlia in October and November. See website for complete details.

(Regular practice continues in Los Angeles)

“ There is immense freedom and letting go in doing this work with Jo Cobbett......

Begin as soon as you can.” – jO TERRy

On this dancing path we lift each other from separateness to our zenith. We connect through earth, source and center to discover the ground of love where connection to self and to oneness is fostered. This is a path of embodied presence, a restoration of the natural principles of being: recovering our vitality, our joy, our generosity of spirit and emerging fulfilled. This is transformational work.

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy has been in motion for 18 years in Los Angeles and in dance spaces world-wide.

Helmed by Jo Cobbett who brings her passion for creative play into the space, you are invited to rise listening within your skin and follow the yearning that soul calls forth.

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JOURNEY DANCE™ EMBODY, EMPOwER, ExPRESS, ELEVATE!

JourneyDance.com

BECOME A FACILITATOR Module 1: JourneyDance Apprentice Training–JourneyDance Flow & Qualities as a Personal Practice.

Module 2: JourneyDance Guide Training– The Processes, Rituals, and Holding Sacred Space.

Module 3: Certified Facilitator Training–Tapping Inner Resources, Workshop Design & Facilitation.

Mentorship program available between modules.

JourneyDance™ Philosophy RITUAL focussed intention and expanded awareness makes magic IMAGERY and gestalt processes take us on an inner journey MUSIC is the portal to emotion and limitless energy CREATIVITY is the unique expression of each soul AFFIRMATION we see with compassion and align with our highest potential 22

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Toni Bergins’ JourneyDance™ is an hypnotic container weaving expressive movement, guided imagery, ritual, voice and affirmation. Embody your temple and connect with your heart, on an evocative grooving soul ride through the flow of experiential movement and musical qualities.

Liberate yourself on this spiritual and emotional journey of dancing rituals for release and manifestation, that inspire free expression of the true self.

Let your mind become clear, free, and positive; and your body fluid, energized, and powerful. Journeydance reconnects us with our innate state of joyous well-being.

JourneyDance is an integral pathway back into the body. Fueled by the nectar of community, we become expressive and empathic, empty and empowered, sensuous and psychic, funky and divine! Join the dance!

find journeydance in your area A selection of JourneyDance teachers creating community in their areas:

Northwest

Brittany Berman San Francisco, CA Lori Andrus Portland, OR Lori Krell Arcata, CA orsi Foldesi British Campbell River, BC

southeAst

Barbara Gail Grand Rapids, MI J anet Lee stinson Clearwater, FL Carol suhr Pompano Beach, FL racehl Levy Miami, FL Nava sabag Hollywood, FL

southwest

Adelle Brewer San Antonio, TX tracy McDowell San Diego, CA Joanie Brooks San Antonio, TX Katie toohil Dallas, TX Monica Blossum Dallas, TX Angie Blaswell San Antonio, TX Melissa Fritchle Santa Cruz, CA Kiera einhorn San Rafael, CA Lana Baumgartner San Francisco, CA Luna Baron Sonoma, CA

Northeast

Joan white-hansen Burlington VT Lisa Buell Johnson, VT Pascale Arsenault Montreal , QC raji New Hampshire, ME edwin ortiz Boston, MA Julie Barnes Boston, MA Corey McGloughlin Boston,MA Deneen Mcqueen Boston- Metro, MA

sage Peeler Lenox, MA traca Marshall Portland, ME Julia Vishapolsk i Boston, MA tara Nieves Boston-Metro, MA DJ root Northhampton, MA

NYC AreA

Jeanine t. Abraham NY, NY Joanne Keane Newtown, CT esther Fink Clifton NJ Yael schonzeit NY, NY rachel Frank NY, NY Yiska obadiah NY, NY eleanora Lupyan NY, NY

GreAt LAKes

Daisy Contreras-rojas Elgin, IL Jori Azinger Greater Milwaulkee, WI Kathleen Morri s Albany , NY rebecca Jean Boston – Metro South, MA Kritsen helal Mystic , CT

MiDAtLANtiC

Padman Leesburg , VA Deborah rolig Snow Hill, MD D enise VanBriggle Harrisburg, PA wendy rosner Philadelphia PA Jade Groff Philadelphia, PA thomas Moore Nirvan Philidelphia, PA

iNterNAtioNAL

Monika Nataraj Thailand Barbara szorad Copenhangen, Denmark elizabeth escardo St John Virgin Islands elsa Nassar Queretaro helen Babalis Honolulu , HI Lykke Junker Copenhagen, Denmark tammy hayano Tianjin China

“You are the Prayer: your body, your movement, your breath. You are the Goddess: your passion, your emotions, your sensual heart.

You are the Inner Shaman: your power, your intentions, your life’s journey.”

– toni bergins, founder

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kinecTiOns cOnnecTiOn nOT PerFecTiOn www.kinections.com

Founded in 1984 by Dr. Fraenkel Our services incLuDe: Alternate route Program in dance/movement therapy for those seeking certification as dance/movement therapists, taught in accordance with ADTA. Dance/Movement Therapy Theory and Practice Foundations and Principles ~ Begins April 11 A new hybrid combining eight video conferencing classes and a June residency week at Kinections. Essential to dance/ movement therapy training, and required for certification in LivingDance~LivingMusic facilitation. Kinectionsinfo@kinections. com for applications.

LivingDance~LivingMusic™ workshops ~Monthly workshops (Rochester); extended retreats (US, Europe, Central America, the Mid East, and Asia).

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LivingDance~LivingMusic™ – attests to the healing inherent in dance and music. Originally developed for people with eating disorders, it addresses a range of prevailing concerns including the positive desires to grow and create. No dance experience is necessary.

LivingDance™ synthesizes knowledge of human development, creativity, dance, and neurobiology, works with natural elements of dance that cut across all styles, and powers the song and response of LivingMusic™. What emerges is up to you and the collective unconscious.

“ You probably had the skills of LivingDance before kindergarten, but all too often, they submerge. LivingDance—in consort with music — helps you reclaim them, tapping your creativity and innate capacity to heal.”

– Dr. DAnieLLe FrAenkeL

Mandala Yoga

eMbodiMent pRactices foR ReclaiMing balance within the web of life www.MandalaYoga.us

Mandala Yoga Recognizing the poweR of eMbodied collaboRation as a catalyst for connection, healing and innovation, Deborah Dove Eudene presents Mandala Yoga and other embodiment based practices at gatherings, conferences, land based communities, retreats, corporations and teambuilding events in Hawaii, the US, and internationally.

Mandala Yoga is an evolving ModalitY that can be especially beneficial to build group cohesion and explore interactions amongst people and organizations that are engaged in collaborative efforts. Sessions and trainings are also instructive for individuals who wish to learn more about their patterns in relation to personal power, group energy, and the web of life. Workshops can be tailored to the specific needs of your group.

Mandala Yoga is a dynamic exploration of the art of relationship. As we dance in and out of sacred geometrical patterns, we form beautiful mandalas through our collaborative interactions.

We traverse a rich landscape empowering individual contributions and unified field alignment. Through this process, we sharpen somatic communication skills, build community, attune energetically, cultivate joy, and gain profound insights about how we show up in relation to others and our surroundings.

“Every person has their unique role to play that is indispensible to the whole.

In Mandala Yoga, as in life, fluidly maintaining one’s center while harmonizing with the whole is essential to building a collaborative culture.” – deboRah dove consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

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mindful movement collective

STOTT PILATES™ Licensed Training Center www.MindfulMovement Collective.com

We are proud to be the premiere STOTT PILATES® Licensed Training Center in the San Francisco/Bay Area.

STOTT PILATES (www.merrithew.com) is a contemporary approach to the original exercise method pioneered by the late Joseph Pilates.

Our mission is to provide a warm, tolerant, and inviting space where individuals may pursue the betterment of their health and sense of well being through movement.

We believe that conscious or “mindful” movement is a vehicle toward good health. When our bodies can move freely and without pain, not only are we physically more comfortable, but we are also able to function with greater mental clarity and we feel better emotionally – we are closer to bliss.

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STOTT PILATES instructors are sought after worldwide due to the phenomenal reputation of the method.

Co-founders Moira and Lindsay G. Merrithew, along with a team of physical therapists, sports medicine and fitness professionals, have spent over a decade refining the STOTT PILATES method. It’s used by rehab and prenatal clients, athletes, celebrities and everyone in between. With 4 Instructor Trainers on staff and a combined 20+ years teaching the program, we provide first rate Pilates education in a nurturing environment.

“ Contrology [Pilates] is complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit. With this method you first purposefully acquire complete control of your body and then through proper repetition of its exercises you progressively acquire that natural rhythm and coordination associated with all your subconscious activities.”

– Joseph Pilates

Nia

GeT IN YouR BoDY www.NiaNow.com

Nia WhITe BeLT Somatic Dance Training Body-Centered Awareness Become a Sacred Athlete 7 Day, 50+ Hour Trainings Global Locations

Awaken the Joy of Movement in Your Body!

I was not born a teacher, but made wise from living in my body and teaching others how to get into their bodies through a somatic training I created called Nia. The White Belt training is the culmination of 35 years of teaching conscious dance, blending martial arts, dance arts, and healing arts.

I invite you to fall in love with the magic of your body. Take your dance to the next level with me or a member of the Nia Training Faculty at a Nia White Belt training.

Love, Debbie Rosas

“ An emotional fitness odyssey, Nia is just plain exhilarating.” – NY TImes consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

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soMa souRcE® lifE cyclE lEaDERsHiP TRaining

www.Bdanced.com

“ No Words, Acts.” – THE MoTHER DancE BasED RiTEs of PassagE anD EDucaTional PRocEssEs sERving PEoPlE of all agEs anD sTagEs include the body as a pathway for repair, education, initiation, and empowerment into your work with children, youth, families, and adults of all ages. Somatic Educators, Therapists, Parents, Youth Workers, Rites of Passage Guides, Healers, and Spiritual Counselors –You are all welcome.

Daily, July 26–august 7, 2013 starHouse, Boulder, colorado Pre-requisites: Participation in at least two previous intensives with Melissa or equivalent training with other 5Rhythms® Practitioners and/or Somatic Trainings.

To Register: Download application online. Please email to: office@bdanced.com or send your form and fee to: PO Box 7478, Boulder, CO 80306 28

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Join Melissa Michaels, Ed.D. and a team of seasoned and gifted educators for this experiential inquiry into each of Life’s Cycles. Our work will be rooted primarily in the works of Rudolf Steiner, Gabrielle Roth, our Elder Educators, and Melissa’s decades of working somatically with individuals from conception through death.

Each day will invite a moving journey into our personal biographies throughout the life span coupled with a pedagogical study of the developmental tasks for each phase.

Utilizing the expressive arts, ceremony, and scholarly study, we will further befriend our own stories so that we can serve one another and the next generations from a place of innerfreedom and consciousness.

Together, we will access developmentally sound ways to somatically heal and serve in the world. Our journey will also consider the unique assignment each soul has been given pre-conception and how that blueprint unfolds through birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, into old age and death.

Soul Voice™ Unleash The power of your innate voice

www.SoulVoice.net

The Soul Voice Method™ gives you concrete steps for freeing your voice and discovering your core essence.Applicable to everyone, no experience necessary, the teachings go beyond what you can imagine is possible to express and heal with your voice.

Karina Schelde is an internationally recognized pioneer of sound therapy and voice healing. Karina presents her final Introductory workshops before returning to Europe and Australasia.

2–Day Soul Voice Workshop May 11–12 • Victoria, Canada 5–Day Soul Voice Workshops (prereq., 2–day Workshop) April 26–May 1 • Badger, CA May 14–19 • Vancouver, Canada May 24–29 • Ontario, Canada For details go to: www.soulvoice. net/courseandschedule_north_ america.html

The human voice is the most powerful tool available for the healing of humanity and a shift in consciousness. Every word we speak carries the tone of our sound as an instrument of communication and healing.

Understanding how to tune and use this instrument effectively shifts not only our own consciousness, but also that of those who receive (hear) our sounds.

As you let yourself go into the feeling of your sounds and allow them to guide you, you start to unravel the layers of your own subconscious. This is where genuine healing can really take place and where you find your unlimited creativity.

“ There is a cry, a call deep within our hearts that wants to be heard. We long to liberate our voice and rediscover the grandeur of who we truly are: a force of the highest vibration and creation.” – karina schelde, founder consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

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spiritdAnCE soulsong AwAkEn to your possiBilitiEs through song And dAnCE movingVentures.org

ComE dAnCE, sing And ExprEss yoursElf during An inspiring rEtrEAt! EsAlEn June 21–23 September 1–29 work study September 13–15, weekend retreat BAli March 26–April 3 October 10–17 March 17–April 15, modular, work study tEAChEr’s trAining Daily QiGong practice, SpiritDance class, SoulSong class, Nada (sound class), Training booklet, 2 disk compilation of music, shared hotel accommodations, 2 delicious meals daily, welcome dinner & farewell party, 1 Mimpi Herbal Salt Scrub Spa Session, 1 Full Moon Temple visit instructors: Ellen Watson, Daphne Tse, & Ronan Tang 30

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Around the globe, Conscious Dance is joining yoga as a preferred wellness practice, for both physical and metaphysical fitness. The SpiritDance Practice is accessible to all ages, levels of experience and fitness.

SpiritDance/SoulSong promises to: open your heart, free your breath, strengthen muscles and bones, build strength, enhance flexibility, and free your voice. A full body, mind, and spirit workout!

Empowered to use your voice, you WILL discover the ‘Your Body is a Musical Instrument’, and that keeping it tuned will keep you in vibrant, dynamic physical and metaphysical health. Singing and dancing are the oldest spiritual practices weaving the fabric of community life in tribes and villages around the planet.

“ Open the door in the center of your chest and let the spirit fly in and out.”

– rumi

taketina

The intersection of Chaos Theory, Neuroscience and Movement www.taketina.org

Curious about TaKeTiNa? To locate a class in your area visit www.taketina.org The 2013 North American Tour: TaKeTiNa – The Yoga of Rhythm Experience the deeply profound and neurological effects of Taketina when founder Reinhard Flatischler leads weekend-long workshops in the Fall 2013: Oct. 1–13, 2013 • San Francisco Info, James Word jamesword@gmail.com Oct. 18–20, 2013 • Atlanta Info, Colleen Caffrey colleen@drumrise.net Oct. 25–27, 2013 • Boston Info, Elaine Fong: enf1234@att.net Become a TaKeTiNa Teacher Enrollment for the 5th U.S. TaKeTiNa teacher training will begin in Fall, 2014. Learn more at www.taketina.drumrise.net

TaKeTiNa is a group process for activating human and musical potential through rhythm. Your body is the instrument – you are guided into voice, steps and claps to create layers of rhythm.

Your innate rhythmic awareness can be reawakened in Taketina, as it conveys rhythm in a way that is accessible to everyone - by direct physical experience of fundamental rhythmic movement.

In the realm of music, TaKeTiNa can help you to stay in the “groove“ and “flow“ and to develop improvisatory and compositional abilities In daily life, TaKeTiNa can help you to enter a state of deep relaxation; stay focused for very long periods and you deal creatively and effectively with chaotic phases.

“ [Taketina].. came out of my own desire to connect healing with music”

– reinhard flatischler, founder

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tAmALPA ceLebRAtINg 35 yeARs of emboDIeD cReAtIvIty AND HeALINg

PHoto by Rick cHAPmAn

www.tamalpa.org

movemeNt AND DANce Movement is the body’s primary language. We believe that movement/dance is for all people a way to connect deeply and authentically, and to live a more embodied and creative life. What are the dances that our souls call for?

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tamalpa Institute, founded in 1978 by dance and expressive arts pioneers Anna Halprin and Daria Halprin, offers a certification program and workshops in the Life/Art Process, a movement-based expressive arts approach that integrates movement/dance, visual arts, performance techniques and therapeutic practices.

Enter into life/art dialogues as a moving, imaginative, art-based process. Use artistic processes and the expressive arts to explore and deepen your relationship to psychological life, to social issues and to creativity itself. Explore the living myths and metaphors that speak to your life.

PHoto by LAUREncE DEmont

tHe boDy We live in and through our bodies. The body contains and reveals our entire life experience. It is through the body that our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels become connected.

It is through the body that we come to know ourselves and the world. Expression, healing, change and transformation are acts of embodiment.

“If your body could speak, what would it say?” – DARIA HALPRIN

Teachers Dance with Liz Mac for your sTuDenT boDy TeachersDance.com

WiggLegiggLe (ages 3–6+) Learn through danceplay!

MaThDance (ages 6–9) Add dance and rhythm to your math class for fearless learning.

Teen nia+ Give teens access to their happy spirit, true power and potential. aDuLT nia+ Somatic dance training and body-centered awarenes for vitality and happiness.

Teachers Dance Workshop saturdays series (10am-5pm) June 22, 29, July 13, 20, 2013 Let’s Move! and Michelle obama are encouraging teachers and caregivers to bring dance-fitness into the classroom. Let us show you how! Bring dance into YOUR classroom. This series begins with WiggleGiggle and MathDance. info@teachersdance.com

Dance is coming to a classroom near you, with Teachers Dance leading the way. We’re excited to share the secrets of bringing expressive movement to every subject. With Teachers Dance, your students gain access to deeper understanding and connect to the joyous vitality and positive power that comes with self-esteem and fearless learning.

We make it fun and accessible to add somatics to your syllabus–- for you and your students. Give every student the key to academic success and every teacher the opportunity to stay connected to the love of teaching with Teachers Dance methods.

Join Liz Mac for a new “movement” in history. This millennium, the student body is the main subject.

“Liz really makes both sides of my brain dance together! I love it. Her teaching style is eclectic, exciting and joyful!” consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

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5rHYTHMS THe ForM – gabrielle roTH.coM realiTY pracTice™ bernie prior

F

o

ct

e Th

ic e

™

www.realitypractice.org

rm

Reality

Pr

a

inTiMacY oF being…

The Form is either danced alone or shared with another, who is seated without moving. Both partners enter a profound depth of being.

Wholeness on all levels of experience naturally occurs. Sharing The Form is pure intimacy of being.

The movements and symbols contained within ‘The Form’ open everfiner frequencies of consciousness.

They reflect and evolve the eternal dance of the pure Masculine and Feminine Principles. In consciously sourcing one’s every movement from the deepest place within, from Truth, Love or God, Reality is re-made moment by moment. cosmoForM™ – a powerful gateway for higher consciousness arising from ‘The Form’. Experience and learn cosmoFORM™ online NOW! www.bernieprior.org/Features/cosmo FORM.html streetForM™ – ‘The Form’ offered freely on the streets of the world.

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“What opens up in moving in ‘The Form’ is vast space with no one in it. There is movement as pure Self, inside a place that has no self. This is the union of form and formlessness.” – bernie prior, originaTor The Form – reality practice™ is a living transmission of the eternal dance of life. The movement awakens you to ever-finer frequencies of innermost experience, leading you beyond the confines of who you believe yourself to be. It is a pure and powerful tool of transmutation and self–mastery.

Moving from a place of pure being frees you of past and realigns you with the majesty of your true creativity.

The movement of your life becomes freedom’s dance; fully ‘in’ the world, but not ‘of’ it.

‘The Form’ arose in realized consciousness, through Evolutionary Teacher Bernie Prior in the 1980’s.

5rHYTHMS Village gabrielle roTH.coM HearTbeaT HoMe of wHole PerSon DruMMing®

VillageHeartbeat.com

Zorina Wolf, founder of Village Heartbeat

waking uP wiTHin rHYTHM Offering drum and rhythm classes, intensives, and rhythm boot camps throughout the US and at the Village Heartbeat Studio in Sequim, WA Stepping into the world of rhythm in a non-competitive, open minded, and relaxed way brings us into the magic of the present moment.

“ Celebrate the vitality and creativity of drumming, and the inherent power of rhythm to inspire, integrate and heal us individually and in community.”

– zorina wolf, creator of whole Person Drumming

Working with the drum, our bodies, and then adding our voices, the rhythm begins to naturally carry us.

Village Heartbeat offers a range of courses and workshops throughout the US and Canada. Home of Whole Person Drumming, this curriculum takes drumming and rhythmic training into new evolutionary territory that is as much about personal growth as it is about musical education.

“THe DruM inViTeD You.” We experience how rhythm itself is a powerful path, by which each of us are allowed to take all the time we need to experience and learn, and a path which simultaneously includes/ everyone in the ‘village’ within the healing of the music. Come and join in.

whole Person Drumming teaches drumming and rhythm as a path to vitality and awareness using techniques and exercises that increase fluidity, alignment and strength and enable embodied understanding of rhythmic structures.

Enter rhythm with the drum, voice, and movement, develop the rhythm orchestra and repertoire and experience the healing power of WPD for the individual and collective. consciousdancer.com | upshift guide

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