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Western Mass. Moving Arts Festival

August 7 (Thursday evening) - August 10 (Sunday afternoon)

This is Earthdance at its best: A chance to study improvisation intensively as well as to sample from an array of local and national teachers (and did we mention the inspired students, sacred sunrises, and homegrown food?) Morning mini-intensives are an opportunity to dive deep, while the afternoon schedule rotates so that you can try out diverse modalities. Evening events include a not-to-be-missed performance by festival faculty and a jam with live, improvised music.

Come for the whole festival, or just for individual classes and events! This event is also a part of the larger SEEDS Festival. Come for just the moving arts Festival or for longer.

Intensives:

Transitions: From and To. Jennifer Monson. The focus of this workshop will be transitions- motion to stillness, day to night, growth to decomposition, image to structure. Using processes that have developed from a wide range of dance and environmental research we will develop systems to both observe and create transitions in our own dancing and dance making in relation to our environment.

The Art of Making a True Move. Arawana Hayashi. A true move is the powerful expression that emerges moment by moment from a space in which self and the world are playing. The workshop explores genuineness, expressed as the harmony of attention, body and environment. Participants practice four forms – the Twenty Minute Dance, the Village, Duets and the Field Dance -- to deepen improvisation capacities.

ReWilding. Aaron Jessup. Using Contact Improvisation, nature awareness and wilderness survival skills we will slip between the cracks in the walls that separate us from nature, ourselves and each other.  Lets have fun, get dirty, experience intensity and reconnect to our instincts as we move our bodies, explore the land and expand our senses. 

Afternoon Classes:

Afternoon classes have not been finalized yet. Check back later for full details.

Faculty Bios:

Arawana Hayashi 's work as a choreographer, performer and educator is deeply sourced in improvisation, collaboration and the ancient Japanese court dance, bugaku . She directed the Jo Ha Kyu Performance Group in Cambridge, MA until 2000. She currently teaches at Shambhala Institute for Authentic Leadership, Nova Scotia; the Presencing Institute, Cambridge, MA; and the Naropa University Authentic Leadership program, Boulder, CO.

A second-generation professional juggler, Aaron Jessup's first movement discipline was circus acrobatics but his first movement love was Contact Improvisation, which he began teaching in 1997.  In 2006 Aaron completed a yearlong wilderness skills, animal tracking and ecology training at the Wilderness Awareness School.  In 2007 Aaron attained a Level 1 "Animal Track and Sign Interpretation" Certification from CyberTracker Conservation.  His current passion involves leading awareness-oriented wilderness trips for the Institute for the Study of Awareness in Nature, which he recently founded ( www.isantrips.com ).

Jennifer Monson is artistic director of iLAND – Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance. Her work grows out of the combined practices of dance and environmental research. She is a professor at the University of Illinois and teaches to a wide range of communities internationally

Registration and Fees

Entire Festival (3 Tiers Available):
   Student Rate: Economically challenged students and the unemployed: $245
   Regular Rate: Employed but struggling (teacher, librarian, lots of kids, etc.): $270
   Professional Rate: Actually contributing to your retirement plan (support the arts!): $295
Single Day (Includes Classes, Meals and Evening Activities): $75
Early Registration Discount: $25 off if registered by June 15
Deposit Required: $75

Arrival Thursday, August 7, after 5 p.m.
Last session ends Sonday afternoon August 10

*You will not be officially registered until we receive your deposit.