Heed the call of the winter as it beckons us to gather.
Come rejoice in a delightful evening and be swaddled in song by Faith Rathbun, Mindy Grossbard, and James Bird.
As we journey through this evening we invite you and your be-loving ones to get cosy in an Earthdance studio and be steeped in musical musings. Gentle movement is welcome in the space while attuning to the performers and the container. Listening room vibes, yanno?
A musical debut for two young songstresses and a deepening of relationship with Earthdance for one blessed bard, the intent of this evening is to be with the wolf pack and cultivate warmth and connection while soaking in the stylings of a few humble song carriers who aim to bless.
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $15 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before as we do not offer refunds if you catch COVID. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Faith has lived in rural Massachusetts her whole life, fostering the feral and aiming to humbly be a good vessel for it’s song. For as long as she can remember she has been walking the earth, singing, often under her breath and occasionally, by the grace of the diving her beloved community, in full expression. Her prayer is to call gently upon truth while ebbing in the mystery and returning to love and gratitude for the whole holy thing.
Mindy Grossbard
Mindy is a musician and singer bridging worlds. She sings of the soul spirit. Originally hailing from a traditional Jewish shtetl, she carries ancient chassidic melodies, vocal improvisation, and Yiddish folk sprinkled in the mix. She is a unique voice in contemporary society, transporting listeners and herself to wandering souls of centuries past.
James Bird
James Bird is a facilitator, poet and multi-instrumentalist musician hailing from Shelburne Falls, MA. James aims to invite the magic out of seemingly ordinary moments, using improvisation or one of his many mythic songs, weaving atmospheres that invite us to feel and to remember. Bird is a threshold bard, playing for those journeying through life’s many thresholds, including marriage, birth and death. He also teaches “Bardic Embodiment”, for those wishing to expand their experience as songwriters and song carriers from the vantage point of the old bards.
Argentine Tango and Contact Improv are two emerging dance vocabularies gaining worldwide popularity. They have vastly different roots, yet both are based in improvisation, and have many interesting intersections which offer and provide opportunities for dancers to expand our social consciousness and movement skill sets. Both dances have performing arts and social trajectories, each offering dancers a wide range of explorations which will inform our dances as both art form and social container.
In this class Erica and Daniel will share elements from the language of Tango tailored for expanding the improvisational vocabularies of the dancers, strengthen attunement skills & develop conversational skills to engage with dancers who have a different improvisational vocabulary. The material will explore overlapping commonalities and distinctive differences of the two forms. We hope to encourage dancers to widen their improvisational vocabularies and explore and overcome any confusions about how these two divergent forms of improvisational dances can inform each other.
We invite you to join us, both new and experienced dancers from either form, in a structure that honors all and different abilities. If you are worried about steps – our approach to teaching this material is focused on improvisation. We specialize in dancers with two left feet. We will have fun doing it!
Fusion & Improvisation October Costume Dance Party
We want to dress up and dance and play together! We hope that the themes of listening and tuning into our partners, conversation, and fusion will filter into a dance party, with music, costumes, improvisation, and fun!
Wear fabulous costumes & what you feel comfortable in! Earthdance has some costumes available to borrow for the night!
*** Please ONLY bring leather or rubber soled dedicated dance shoes or socks (no heels or shoes worn outside)
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SCHEDULE
Workshop: 3 – 5pm
Potluck: 5:30 – 6:30pm
Fusion & Improvisation October Costume Dance Party: 7 – 9:30pm
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this special workshop, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $15 processing fee (Workshop+Jam) and $8 processing (Jam).
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after cancellation dates.
Health Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before arriving. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
COMMUTERS:We ask that you please use caution when commuting and limit, if possible, to just commuting to and from your home and Earthdance, staying away from large crowds to maintain the health and well being of the other Summer Jam participants.
Daniel’s first introduction to Improv and Contemporary Dance was with Bill T Jones, at the American Dance Asylum in 1975. He began his own Jazz Improv group in 1978 whilst dancing with Brenda Bufalino, and has been involved with Contact Improv since 1980, first with Steve and Nancy’s cohort on the East Coast, and then with the men of Mangrove on the West Coast.
He traveled widely in the 1980s teaching Contact, BMC, Tap, and Contemporary Dance. His travels led him to Argentina in 1987, where he taught at the State School of Contemporary Dance for the next 7 years, and began his Tango obsession, one which eventually redirected his career.
He has become one of the prime movers in Tango’s modern revival, touring widely in North America, helping create the Tango tourism industry in Buenos Aires, and the first Tango store in the US. He is one of the founding cohort of Earthdance, senior faculty at DNE, and a co-owner of CTT. He taught Tango and Salsa at the Five Colleges for 14 years before the pandemic.
He resides in Florence, MA, where he is the owner of a co-living experimental dance house, and his in residence/ online Tango Archive.
Erica Skye Roper
Erica’s first memory is learning folk dances with their grandparents. Erica began performing folk dances at ten and began learning Argentine Tango at nineteen. Erica played at the edges of Contact improv and tango fusion for more than fifteen years before diving in and studying Contact Improv in 2019.
Erica began teaching dance around 2007 and is available to teach or co-teach Tango Fusion, ConTango Fusion, Salsa Rueda, and Taking-Back-Boundaries workshops. Erica brings a devotion to life long learning through a continuing study of dance and movement as well as the desire to strengthen and build community into the center of all of her teaching.
This is a time of year for giving and receiving treats, for delighting in abundance, for appreciating the warmth of family & community.
Many of you have experienced the nurturance and growth that comes from spending time at Earthdance. This place is a wellspring for meeting some of our deepest human needs. We are so happy to be providing this space of connection, exploration, healing and creativity. And it takes all of us in the Earthdance community to keep the wellspring flowing!
You are invited to join us for a night of swanky celebration, as we gather to honor this beloved community and raise funds for its continual growth.
This benefit event is an opportunity to embody deep support for Earthdance (and to glam ourselves up a bit!). Falling in the midst of the holiday season, let’s end the year by giving this community some love!
Our evening program will connect us deeply to our personal and collective relationships with Earthdance. With a decadent three course meal and an array of facilitated group rituals, the evening promises to leave you with both a deliciously full belly and a brimming full heart.
Shine your shoes and dress to the nines! You don’t want to miss this once a year celebration of community, charm, and loving goodwill.
May we all be healthy and happy this winter season, and bask in the riches of community together!
With this donation you will receive a 3 course meal with a tea room experience and more evening offerings!
Financially Wealthy – $500 Financially Abundant – $325 Financially Stable – $200 Financially Coping – $120 Financially Strained – $80 – Early bird pricing is still available!
There will be an option to donate any amount above $80 that you desire.
STAY OVERNIGHT
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Akil Apollo Davis is a full-time performing artist, Theatre Professor of Mask and Art Aesthetic and owner of over 200 original Masks. He is multi-disciplined: a dancer/choreographer (Hip-Hop, Balinese, Thai Classical, Butoh, African, Modern and more). Akil Rapper and avid impromptu poet- with songs on Bandcamp, co-composing his music and avid impromptu poet), Actor (bachelors from New York University), MC and award-winning Director. Akil has also worked with Monks in Thailand, Brahmins in Bali, Witches in the East Village of New York and a myriad of esoteric philosophies.He is an organizer, mentor to leaders and proud son of Rosie Phillips Davis, the 2019 President of the American Psychological Association. He works to bridge the gaps between esoteric philosophy, classical education and art. Akil believes that his karmic purpose is to increase understanding, empower, catalyze self-healing and spark the illumination of the soul. His personal mantra….“there must be more light” Follow him for more works of art and access to Mask work so unique that only 3 humans on the planet teach it.
OUR CHEF
Faith Rathbun
Faith is the kitchen coordinator at Earthdance and has spent that last few years honing the craft of hearth-rich cooking with a deep love and gentle fire in her heart for the comfort of nourishment. She aims to serve this tether well so we may gather in feasting in a good way and carry the glory of each of our meals into our bodies and homes and out into the world.
Experience the gorgeous resonance of the Umbrella Barn in a profound way with musician and sound healer Charlotte Malin. First, take a luxurious restorative journey to the sounds of singing bowls, violin, viola, etheric vocals, harmonium, drums, tuning forks and more. Lie down, sit, or cuddle with a friend and receive vibrations to restore the heart and spirit. Live sound medicine profoundly assists the practitioner in reaching states of elevated consciousness and emotional release. Additional benefits include regulating the nervous system, creating harmony between body systems, aligning and clearing the energetic field, activating your creative channels, and so much more.
Bring your own blankets/pillows/mats to be as comfy as possible, an eye mask, a water bottle, and your journal.
After this delicious restorative attunement, Charlotte will offer Bach In Your Body, an embodied classical music experience. After a short guided workshop on listening to classical music with the body, Charlotte will perform the music of Bach on violin and viola. During the concert, the space is open for movement, dance, meditation, journaling, and art-making (bring your own materials). Consider wearing comfortable clothes and bringing your own seat cushion and water bottle.
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this special workshop, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $15 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Charlotte Malin is a charismatic and versatile musician with a unique range spanning classical violin and viola, intimate and ethereal songwriting, and improvised live-lopping. Her many creative offerings sit at the intersections of classical music, holistic wellness, creative empowerment, ritual, and community-building. As an artist and facilitator, she hosts “Now/Hear” conscious & connective classical concerts, Sound Baths, multi-disciplinary Salons, workshops, creativity retreats, community open mics, and more. She performs internationally, including in a string quartet with violinist Midori, and has served as Principal Viola of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and a member of the Hartford and Albany Symphony orchestras. She holds degrees in violin and viola from New England Conservatory and Northwestern, where her principal teachers were Kim Kashkashian and Almita Vamos. Malin currently serves as the viola instructor at Amherst College and curates a community hub for embodiment, arts, and spirituality in Florence MA called The Hidden Temple.
You are invited to join in dance, movement, stretching, releasing and recharging ~ be as you are ~ Let’s co-create a safe place to get into our bodies and celebrate the begins of Winter!
A Winter warm up! Lets move our bodies until our bones are all toasty warm in this colder weather. Winter is a beautiful time of year where the extra hours of darkness give us time to explore our inner worlds. Let us enter with health, joy and vibrancy as we allow nurturance, care, and nourishment to flow through our bodies. Get on your magic horse and fly above the clouds. Travel where you will. Gather what you need.
We will begin with an opening circle that melds into a soft ambience of sound. Leading into an upbeat ecstatic blend of live guitar/electronica/R&B and soul/funk fusion/d&b/Hip hop/house/organic bass and a blend of old classics turned new.
Overnight in our Gratitude Lodge: If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight: A dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
CJ is a multi instrumentalist, collaborator and producer with a burning passion for listening, playing and creating music of all forms! Growing up in the greater Boston area, he has worked as an audio engineer and played in multiple rock, funk and ska bands. With a vast understanding of the electronic genre umbrella and involvement in dance and movement events, his understanding of rhythm and flow is felt through his performances. Now living in the hills of Western Mass his music style focuses on harmony with nature and playing with the sounds of the forest. Connected to the moment of improvisation ~ his talents revolve around feeling into an environment and enhancing it with sonic frequencies.
This beginner/intermediate Contact Improvisation workshop will explore spirals, falls, basing, and flight, while attuning to tone and states of awareness. Moving through different levels, we will start with rolling on the floor and work up to flying. We’ll leave newcomers with enough movement patterns to thrive in Contact Improv jams, and everyone with some more skills and avenues of exploration.
Liana and Jason have been dancing together at jams for about 20 years. We invite you to come play and explore with us for the day at Earthdance. We encourage bringing a beginner’s mind and an openness to the delight of newness and the present moment.
WORKSHOP with Lunch ONLY – Does not include Dinner or Jam
Financially Wealthy – $400
Financially Abundant – $270
Financially Stable – $170
Financially Coping – $100
Financially Strained – $50
JAM ONLY
Financially Wealthy – $240
Financially Abundant – $120
Financially Stable – $60
Financially Coping – $30
Financially Strained – $15
SAUNA
$10 with towel rental
STAY OVERNIGHT
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this special workshop, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $20 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Liana Foxvog finds joy and presence in dance, and has studied and practiced Contact Improvisation for more than 20 years. She originally trained in gymnastics and later explored various other movement forms before finding a home in CI. Liana brings curiosity and playful exploration to the dance, whether experimenting with lifts or investigating the edge of balance. She especially appreciates tuning into and cultivating mindfulness through CI. Liana has co-facilitated multi-day jams at Earthdance and participates in a regular Underscore practice. Additionally, through her work as a global justice organizer and advocate, Liana has extensive experience as a facilitator and trainer.
Jason Woofenden
Jason Woofenden has always enjoyed agility and physical play. Throughout his childhood, that was climbing trees, sledding, soccer, exploring streams, etc. In his early twenties, he discovered a passion for dance; first, at a freestyle dance, where the wide variety of dance styles helped him be comfortable exploring his own movement inclinations. Through that community, he discovered Contact Improv, which fills him in so many ways. He’s been dancing, exploring, and growing through this form for 20 years, and teaching it on and off for the last 6 years.
Contact Improvisation and the Argentine Tango are two improvisational forms and emerging dance vocabularies gaining worldwide popularity. They have vastly different roots, and yet have many interesting intersections which offer opportunities for dancers of each form to expand their social consciousness and movement skill sets. They are both forms which have performing arts and social trajectories, offering their dancers a wide range of explorations in which to build dance as both an art form and a social container.
In this Workshop, Erica and Daniel will explore some of the overlapping commonalities and distinctive differences of the two forms. They hope to encourage dancers to widen their improvisational vocabularies and overcome any confusions about how these two divergent forms of improvisational dance can inform each other.
We invite you to join us, both new and experienced dancers from either form, in a structure that honors all and different abilities. If you are worried about steps we specialize in dancers with two left feet. We will have fun doing it!
THE JAM
We want to build something new from the familiar. Contact has the Jam, Tango has the Practica. They are both spaces where dancers can build the dance skills they have been learning in class, build social awareness of the forms, experience social codes and boundary keeping, all in the context of safe, conscious, and joyful interaction.
We will seed these experiential spaces with structured warmups, one where the different social codes and rituals can inform each other. Contact is often danced in silence, tango mostly to music. We will have some of each. Contact encourages spontaneous movement in and out of partnership, tango has a set of codes for beginning and ending dances together. We will endeavor to find common ground for our dance and play. We will begin and end with sharing circles, because we acknowledge that we are evolving something new and we want your feedback.
Wear comfortable clothes.
*** Please ONLY bring leather or rubber soled shoes or socks, no heels or shoes worn outside to dance in.
$15 when you register. $20 if you choose dinner when you arrive.
SAUNA
$10 with towel rental
STAY OVERNIGHT
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this special workshop, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $20 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Daniel’s first introduction to Improv and Contemporary Dance was with Bill T Jones, at the American Dance Asylum in 1975. He began his own Jazz Improv group in 1978 whilst dancing with Brenda Bufalino, and has been involved with Contact Improv since 1980, first with Steve and Nancy’s cohort on the East Coast, and then with the men of Mangrove on the West Coast.
He traveled widely in the 1980s teaching Contact, BMC, Tap, and Contemporary Dance. His travels led him to Argentina in 1987, where he taught at the State School of Contemporary Dance for the next 7 years, and began his Tango obsession, one which eventually redirected his career.
He has become one of the prime movers in Tango’s modern revival, touring widely in North America, helping create the Tango tourism industry in Buenos Aires, and the first Tango store in the US. He is one of the founding cohort of Earthdance, senior faculty at DNE, and a co-owner of CTT. He taught Tango and Salsa at the Five Colleges for 14 years before the pandemic.
He resides in Florence, MA, where he is the owner of a co-living experimental dance house, and his in residence/ online Tango Archive.
Erica Skye Roper
Erica’s first memory is learning folk dances with their grandparents. Erica began performing folk dances at ten and began learning Argentine Tango at nineteen. Erica played at the edges of Contact improv and tango fusion for more than fifteen years before diving in and studying Contact Improv in 2019.
Erica began teaching dance around 2007 and is available to teach or co-teach Tango Fusion, ConTango Fusion, Salsa Rueda, and Taking-Back-Boundaries workshops. Erica brings a devotion to life long learning through a continuing study of dance and movement as well as the desire to strengthen and build community into the center of all of her teaching.
Hello to all the seekers, curious minds, artists, dance enthusiasts, actors, performers, public speakers, and those who are looking for healing, self-discovery, and self-expression!
We’re thrilled to introduce a new collaborator who brings one of the most unique, powerful, and magical forms of Mask Work to the spotlight: Akil Apollo Davis. He’s one of only three Master teachers of The Brahe-Davis Method of Mask in the world. Masks have always held an intricate connection to the depths of the human psyche, a tangible bridge to archetypal images and centers that are within us all.
As we embark on this collaboration with Akil Apollo Davis, we’re excited to offer a special opportunity for both the Earthdance (ED) community and the local community to explore this groundbreaking work. This introduction evening to Mask Work won’t just prepare you for upcoming classes; it will also reshape the way you see yourself, your body, your understanding of images, our cultural influences, and your potential to transform.
Akil aims to make this experiential knowledge accessible. So, this opportunity comes at a discounted price and is open to those aged 13 and up. Join straight after work, we’ll provide snacks, and wear comfortable clothes for dancing and moving. It’s all about free-form movement!
Transformation is one of the most potent forces within us. It’s how we grow, learn, heal, and inspire. The Brahe-Davis masks directly engage your body’s natural transformative ability. Here are the benefits you can expect:
– Seekers and the curious: Dive deep into your SELF, exploring images, thought patterns, and cultural influences that both hinder and empower you. This is about unlocking your transformational potential.
– Actors and Performers: Experience astonishing expansion in physicality and find new dimensions of inspiration.
– Movers & Dancers: Enhance and enrich your expression, adding a unique “transformation” to your dance journey.
– Healing: Akil reveals a fascinating insight – “Did you know that trauma is the German word for dream? It’s an image that isn’t real, yet it lingers.” This underlines the power of images. The MASK WORK delves into negative images and replaces them with true self-images, facilitating profound change from within.
– Play and Exploration: The Masks liberate! Akil’s workshops create a space for intentional exploration. It’s a space for unleashing your inner child, creativity, and self-expression. It’s invigorating, joyful, and enlightening.
Here’s the schedule for the evening:
– 6:00 pm – Doors open (arrive shortly after)
– 6:15 pm – Open dance session
– 6:30 pm – Talk on “The New Definition of Narcissism”
– 9:00/9:30 pm – 9:30/10:00 pm – Reflection, discussion and movement
PRICING
Financially Wealthy – $250
Financially Abundant – $175
Financially Stable – $100
Financially Coping – $50
Financially Strained – $30
Sauna with use of 2 Earthdance towels for $10
Stay Overnight: If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this special workshop, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
These masks are unlike any you’ve encountered before. Beyond mere accessories, they hold the key to your inner transformation. While other masks may change your external appearance, The Brahe-Davis Method of Mask sparks change from within. As Terentius wisely said, “Nothing Human is far into me.” We possess the innate ability to embody various facets of human experience, often blocked by guilt, shame, and limiting beliefs. Each mask carries an intentional image, infused through a sacred process. This image connects with your body, tapping into the Egyptian concept of over 100 senses, including sensitivity to images with potent intentions. Just as plucking a guitar string creates resonance in the same string on another guitar, these masks resonate the image within you, facilitating your transformation.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $20 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Akil Apollo Davis is a full time Performing Artist and Theatre Professor. Akil grew up with Hip-Hop dance in the everyday culture of Memphis TN (watch “House Party” the movie) and began theatre at 12 years old, and got his Bachelors in Theatre from the prestigious NYU TISCH School of the Arts. During that time his dance, music, and performance training and practices intensified dramatically.
He is the teacher of an extremely rare form of Mask work: only 3 human beings teach it. The Masks are designed by Akil and/or his mentor, Per Brahe. After being hand carved from wood and painted by a Balinese Mask-Making Brahman (Priest), they are taken through a cleansing ceremony in a special temple. In this work, the Masks use the power of image to aid in transformation.
Akil is an avid and professional dancer. He has received extensive training in 4 forms of Balinese dance, 3 forms of Thai Classical dance, Modern, Butoh, African, Ballet, Jazz, Butoh, multiple styles of Fan dancing, contact improv and Acro yoga.
He is a an award-winning playwright and director (NYC Fringe Festival “SUMMER BLUE”: Winner: most innovative production) an MC, poet, and educator.
Akil is also a lyricist, freestyle rapper (improvisational verse) poet and composer. He has collaborated with many musicians to create music and video content for himself and his alter-ego “Diamond Adronica De La Funk”.
Akil has taught Theatre and Dance all over America, in over 12 countries, and is now a Professor of Mask and Art Aesthetic at William Esper Studio (previously NYU and SUNY Purchase).
He has trained with Brahmans, Witches in the East Village and Monks in Thailand and works to bridge the gaps between classical knowledge and esoteric education. This has led to inspiring collaborations and panel discussions with psychologists at Pace University, University of Memphis, and NYU on emotional development, Suicide prevention and awareness, and the power of image.
You are invited to come dance, move, stretch, release and recharge ~ Come as you are ~ Let’s co-create a safe place to get into our bodies and celebrate the begins of Fall!
A space to reflect and harvest all the goodness and growth of the Summer. A space to feel free in our bodies and express our desires in through movement in the moment. Sharing a dance with each other and the trees as they begin their beautiful transitions.
TIME and PRICING
Potluck at 6:30pm, Opening Circle starts at 7:30pm
Dance: $20 – $80
Potluck: Bring a dish to share OR donate $10-$15
Sauna (with 2 towel rental): $10
Overnight in our Gratitude Lodge: If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight: A dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
CJ is a multi instrumentalist, collaborator and producer with a burning passion for listening, playing and creating music of all forms! Growing up in the greater Boston area, he has worked as an audio engineer and played in multiple rock, funk and ska bands. With a vast understanding of the electronic genre umbrella and involvement in dance and movement events, his understanding of rhythm and flow is felt through his performances. Now living in the hills of Western Mass his music style focuses on harmony with nature and playing with the sounds of the forest. Connected to the moment of improvisation ~ his talents revolve around feeling into an environment and enhancing it with sonic frequencies
We offer an invitation to come together in community to grieve, assisted by music and song. What is the medicine of grieving in ritual containers? Unprocessed grief compounds and becomes a toxic emotional energy, which can create violence and perpetuate intergenerational trauma. Singing and sounding together helps vibrate our grief loose from these stuck places in our individual and collective bodies and make more space within us. This gives us a sacred opportunity to choose aligned action and to show up in the ways we truly want to show up in the world.
Many cultures have shared traditions around grieving, which could sometimes last for days at a time. We as Western ritualists aim to co-create spaces that honor the wisdom of our lineages as well as the many generous teachers who have brought their practices to the West.
For this ritual our intention is to invite gentle movement of our bodies and the emotions held there. We will utilize the medicine of communal song and live music to call forward what is ready to be released at this time. We recognize that forgiveness and compassion are essential ingredients of our grieving process. We are holding these as the foundation for this ritual.
Following our ritual, we will share a potluck meal together at Earthdance, and then delight in a Dance Jam together.
This ritual is for you if:
You need support processing grief and would like to do this in a held container with others.
You understand that grief is both a personal and collective experience and you’re willing to hold your grief as a way to heal both self and community.
You understand that this space will be one piece of healing and are willing to seek ongoing support such as co-counseling, bodywork, nature connection, medicine ceremony, therapy, dance jams, etc.
You are willing to be with your pain or discomfort and be witness to others’ without needing to fix it.
It’s not the right time for you to join this ritual if:
You are in an active trauma state on the day of the ritual.
You feel unable to moderate your nervous system when activated, for example, by noticing if you are dissociating and grounding, asking for support, or taking a break etc.
You are unwilling to be with your own and others’ pain or discomfort without needing
Potluck Dinner: Please bring your favorite dish or donation of $10-15
Overnight stay: If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight: A dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge is $40, camping is $35. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15)
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this special workshop, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $20 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Chaya Leia Aronson, RN BSN is a mother, partner, lover and ecosensensual earth worshipping clown goddess. Chaya maintains a private practice offering Maya Abdominal Massage, Holistic Pelvic Care and Health, Movement and Sexuality coaching for over a decade. Chaya has also facilitated a number of transformational and alchemical rituals related to grief, wombs and eros. She has great passion and skill in supporting people and relationships to have clear conversations about desires and boundaries and to unpack our wounds and traumas gently to find more capacity for love and pleasure. She has a private practice, Your Sacred Pelvis, where she sees clients in person and virtually based in the Northampton, MA area.
Kaitlyn’s inner flame exists in the intersection of mycology, creativity, and the continued dedication to learning from the life and death cycle. She hopes to actively take part in decomposing our fears and limiting beliefs around the dying process and help to reestablish Death and grief on the sacred altar of Life.
Amanda Turk
Amanda holds the generational beat of the drum in her blood. Both her father and her maternal grandfather were drummers. She grew up in the epicenter of the music world with her long standing family business, Colony Records, in NYC. In 2006 she discovered the darbuka, a type of tabla, and passionately began her study of Middle Eastern percussion under the guidance of contemporary masters Raquy Danziger (Brooklyn/Istanbul), Bunyamin Olguncan (Istanbul), Todd Roach (Brattleboro, VT), Zohar Fresco(Israel) making regular pilgrimages to Turkey to delve deeper into a style called the Turkish Split Hand Technique and applies these techniques to a variety of drums including frame drum, riq, handpan and cajon. When her hands are not on a drum, Amanda nurtures her community with her passion for bodywork in a 22 year massage therapy practice in Northampton, MA.
