ALL of us, no matter what kind of lives that we have lived, have tales to tell that are compelling to others. Sometimes these are stories of our peak highs and other times, our heartbreaks. They may be stories of the mundane, a funny anecdote or a frustrating family gathering. No matter what the topic, when we share our stories with each other, we find a sense of shared humanity that is deeply satisfying.
In this embodied approach to personal storytelling, we use movement as the ground and inspiration for our stories. We slow down and connect to our bodies which lands us in the present moment where the magic happens. We move and speak, speak and move, not knowing what we are going to say; the words are waiting just beneath the surface. While it may seem like walking and chewing gum, it quickly becomes quite natural.
Using improv games, we get comfortable speaking small vignettes of our life and have fun exploring together. Then we share longer stories with each other. We do this in a supportive container, witnessing each other from a place of care, encouragement and non-judgement. This is about authentic human expression. No performance experience or skill is needed.
Come experience the richness of this work! I hope you will join me for this nourishing soul play. Part of the workshop will be outside, weather dependent.
Potluck Dinner: Please bring your favorite dish or donation of $10-15
Sauna and towel rental: $10
***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.***
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.
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.
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.
Mandy Snyder is a Somatic Healer and group facilitator who is passionate about creating spaces for embodied self-discovery. With warmth and welcoming, she guides others to make contact with self-compassion, a balm that makes everything just a little easier. Her individual sessions, groups and workshops draw from her training in Somatic Experiencing, study in Internal Family Systems and 25 + years as in movement studies, including Authentic Movement, Body Tales and Contact Improvisation. A lover of nature and laughter, Mandy has spent many years in Vermont and California, and now makes Western Massachusetts her home.
This summer, Loom Ensemble is bringing together a racially diverse team of professional dancers, musicians and theatermakers, to invite you into an outdoors experience of Dance Theater for Collective Liberation. Loom’s newest piece “Tell Me How You Breathe,” brings us to a world where climate crisis has progressed slightly more than our present day, to play out the interrelationship of institutional power structures and ancestral healing practices. Playful humor, live music, and beautiful storytelling help us lean in to meet these pressing issues.
The story centers on the lungs, as the site of interconnectedness and the organ of grief. “Who gets to breathe freely, fully, with ease,” is a necessary question for our time, right at the intersection of eco-activism, social justice, and public health. With the nourishment of participatory ceremony and song, Loom grounds this political conversation in the physical body, to incite the radical act of collectively imagining a more just and beautiful world.
This is a body positive, queer, anti-racist space. The work is explicitly political, leaning into raw conversations, but centering wellbeing and respect for the artist throughout.
“Loom Ensemble can do it all–act, sing and above all dance!” –Khaleej Times
“Loom Ensemble brings fresh ideas, inspires the local community and helps showcase the community’s talent.” –Art Kentro
EVENT DETAILS
Friday and/or Saturday options include:
Performance: 6pm – 7:30pm
Dinner: 7:30 – 8: 30pm
CI Integration Jam: 8:30pm
*** These performances will be outside on the grass in our orchard. We have limited folding chairs. Please bring a blanket or camping chair to sit on and bug spray.
*** RAIN or SHINE the show will go on! We will move the show indoors to accommodate the weather.
Earthdance offers a sliding scale payment for participation in this event, please take a moment to reflect as you decide on where you best fit.
Your level of contribution is self selected and does not need to be advocated for. However, we invite you to remember this contribution is currency and we ask that you stretch where you are able so that those who cannot stretch as far of a financial distance may also have potential access to community events. As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership, both currently and anticipated in the future.
The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other intersection marginalizations for you and your family.
The regional ease of your attendance, while some community members can drive to Earthdance, others will need to consider tuition based on their ability to travel longer distances.
Earthdance is a community and rental funded organization which recently, historically and uniquely through the Covid-19 pandemic has struggled to have viable income.
Performance Offerings
Friday August 4th and/or Saturday August 5th
Event Package includes – Performance, Dinner and CI Integration Jam: $50 – $150
Performance Only: $20 – $80
Dinner: $15
CI Integration Jam: $20 – $80
Sauna $10 (includes 2 towels rental)
BIPOC spots and children under 12: Pay what you can! Please reach out to programming@earthdance.net if you would like to register before the event. Otherwise, you can pay onsite.
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this special event, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in a dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge for $40 or camp on our land for $35. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
Refund available up to 10 days (July 21st) before the event less a $25 processing fee for the full package, $10 for individual.
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.
Participant Community Support
Earthdance runs as a community, thus part of the participation is that all individuals contribute to cleaning up after meals throughout the event. This is a great way to connect more with your fellow participants and Earthdance staff, and to feel more at home in the Earthdance buildings & grounds. Your contributions to this collective caring of this space are invaluable!
Loom has been devising interdisciplinary theater for culture shift for 13 years from NYC blackboxes to stone monasteries in Italy, repurposed industrial warehouses in Dubai and to the fields and forests of Vermont.We use our performances to open difficult conversations, and then facilitate community discussion to unpack the emotional vulnerability and cultural taboos of each show. In that shared space, the social value of art made from a place of deep integrity becomes clear: our actions matter, new ways of living are possible, together we can build a more loving world.
As a direct response to broken patriarchy, lonely individualism, and shame-inducing capitalism, our performances call audiences home to themselves and their communities. Our work is to reconnect with the earth, with emotional integrity, and with each other.
Loom Ensemble devises “dance-theater” in the most literal sense, using character, story, and dialogue to ground abstract dance in emotional specificity; and using full-bodied contemporary choreography to deepen the resonance of our narrative storytelling. Mix in group songs to connect the body of the performer with the hearts of the audience, and you’ve got Loom Ensemble’s interdisciplinary approach to live theater.
Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.
Eliana Bonard is joining us all the way from Argentina!
Following *Fedora Aberastury’s fundamental principles and Contact Improvisation, we awake our “energy centers” in order to make energy flow freely. In so doing, subtle and authentic movement happens. Expanding the volume of our body, by opening joints, by moving our spine and by letting go unnecessary tensions, we generate a true presence. Then we get to Contact with the earth and the others, deepening our senses and hearing , unfolding communication. We will practice specific contact improvisation exercises in order to develop skills, and we will explore ways in our language of improvisation for solo, duo, and larger groups.
Fedora’s System is based on conscious thought. The word resonates and gives power to action, to movement. Movement is life, Fedora used to say. By awakening the energy centers from conscious thought, we allow their free flow that produces movement, a genuine movement born from within, without any pretension, giving space to our own dance. The spinal cord energetically connected to the tongue can move like a snake. Rivers that flow “undoing the muscular armor little by little”… as Wilhem Reich said.
Bringing to our dances a bit of the quality of water, which makes up more than 70% of our body. The planet is also a body, a large body with continents – islands floating in oceans, land floating on water. Wet earth, plants and animals, sap and blood flowing, watery plasma in each of its cells.
With this quality, we will approach contact improvisation by spreading our weight on the floor, practicing shapes and technical details. We will build solid but fluid structures to offer support. We’ll explore in detail how to share weight on rolls in order to be light. We will try slides, falls, effortless flights and dynamic weight transitions. We will include the relationship between eyes and movement in improvisation.
All levels of experience in CI and movement in general are welcome!
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Event Details
Workshop: 10am – 1pm
Lunch: 1 – 2pm (lunch will be provided)
Workshop: 2pm-4pm
PRICING
$400 – Financially Wealthy
$260 – Financially Abundant
$160 – Financially Stable
$100 – Financially Coping
$80 – Financially Strained
Sauna and 2 towels: $10
***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.***
A dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge: If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight it is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
Earthdance offers a sliding scale payment for participation in this event, please take a moment to reflect as you decide on where you best fit.
Your level of contribution is self selected and does not need to be advocated for. However, we invite you to remember this contribution is currency and we ask that you stretch where you are able so that those who cannot stretch as far of a financial distance may also have potential access to community events. As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership, both currently and anticipated in the future.
The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other intersection marginalizations for you and your family.
The regional ease of your attendance, while some community members can drive to Earthdance, others will need to consider tuition based on their ability to travel longer distances.
Earthdance is a community and rental funded organization which recently, historically and uniquely through the Covid-19 pandemic has struggled to have viable income.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $30 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.
Participant Community Support
Earthdance runs as a community, thus part of the participation is that all individuals contribute to 1-2 work shifts (typically meal cleans) throughout the event and participate in a final house clean on the last day of the event. These are great ways to connect more with your fellow participants and Earthdance staff, and to feel more at home in the Earthdance buildings & grounds. Your contributions to this collective caring of this space are invaluable!
Since I was a child, dance has always meant pleasure, health and freedom. At age fifteen I began my path in movement improvisation through the Aberastury System. My training includes contemporary dance, ballet, tango as well as yoga, eutony and somatics, I also nourished my practice with theater and clown.
I like to experiment with hybrid/juxtaposed languages on scene. I have choreographed dance-theater pieces, aerial dance, dance for children and also made site specific and street performances.
I fell in love with Contact Improvisation in 1987 and I began teaching CI four years later. I have been a CI teacher at the School of Artistic Education (ESEA) since 2012. I was co-creator of Eimcila, Latin America CI Teachers Meeting in 2011, co-organizer of the Buenos Aires CI50 Celebration, as well as ongoing Jams in my city. Another passion of mine is to work in heated water and I give Aguahara sessions and facilitate @milon.gota mixing CI and tango in water.
I love simple things, like practicing yoga at the seaside, cooking or collecting grapefruit in my neighborhood and sharing time with my beloved 20 year old son.
Eliana Bonard – Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Desde pequeña concebí la danza como placer, salud y libertad. Comencé a los 15 años mi camino en la improvisación de movimiento a través del Sistema Aberastury. Me formé en danza contemporánea y ballet como en yoga, tango, eutonía y somáticas. Nutrí mi práctica con actuación y clown.
Me interesa la experimentación escénica en el cruce de lenguajes. Realicé varias obras coreográficas de danza teatro, danza aérea, danza para niños y performances en espacios no convencionales.
Me enamoré del CI en 1987 y lo comencé a enseñar cuatro años más tarde. Dí clases en varias ciudades y festivales internacionales en América y Europa. Soy profesora de CI en ESEA, profesorados oficiales de danza desde 2012. Soy co-creadora de Eimcila, Encuentro internacional de maestros de CI en Latinoamérica en 2011, co-organizadora de Celebración 50 CI Bs As, y actualmente coordino Jams en mi ciudad. Otra de mis pasiones es trabajar en agua climatizada dando sesiones de Aguahara y facilitar la @milon.gota, lab en el agua cruzando CI y tango.
Amo las cosas simples como hacer yoga en la playa, cocinar, cosechar pomelos y paltas en mi barrio y compartir tiempo con mi amado hijo de 20.
Eliana’s Historical review with The Fedora Aberastury Conscious System:
I began to investigate movement evoking water more than 10 years ago.
The Fedora Aberastury Conscious System revealed several axes on which to experiment. The tongue, a powerful energetic center, is perhaps Fedora’s most important discovery. The tongue that expands like a sponge and connects with the the marrow and spine, invites the nervous system to relax, and the entire volume of our body to expand. Top of the head, center of thought, tongue, cardiac plexus, solar plexus, lower center or aura, energy centers coinciding with the chakras evoked from thought, and the centers at the tips of our ten fingers and toes, where energy can flow and connect us with the source of the bio electro magnetic field.
I was lucky to meet my teacher Ana Labat when I was fifteen. She taught the principles of Fedora’s System to me for seven years. Fedora’s System matured in Buenos Aires from the 60’s, without school, without diplomas, founded on a conception of human being and a rigorous practice. I was also lucky to meet Fedora. She would come to see us practice. We were the youngest, the ones that would succeed her.
It is a System that is transmitted, like martial arts, from master to disciple. I used to attend Ana’s classes every day. Her studio was open to me and she welcomed me with joy. When I was eighteen one day she spoked to me very seriously and told me that I was ready, that I had to start transmitting it. And I did it. In my own bedroom I would raised the mattress and received a group of friends and relatives for classes every week.
A year later, I met CI through Daniel Trenner, who taught his first CI intensive in Buenos Aires. It was a quantum leap. Since then I knew that this dance would stay with me forever with its infinite possibilities. We organized the first jam in my city in 1988. Alma Falkenberg, who was one of the first CI transmitters in Argentina, was my teacher at the dance school training I was attending. Foreign teachers visited Buenos Aires every year and I didn’t miss any of them. Dany Trenner, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson, Danny Lepkoff, Alito Alessi, Karen Nelson, Luc Petton, Sue Lauther, Martin Keogh, Camillo Vacalebre, and more. I started teaching CI in 1991. Eight years later I traveled to deepen my practice (San Francisco, CA) with Martin and Ray Chung, and then I organized Ray Chung ́s visit Buenos Aires. I went to Europe to deepen the Underscore with Nancy (Arlequi, Spain). I was invited to teach at international festivals in Argentina, in Brazil (Sao Paulo, Florianópolis, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro), and Freiburg Contact Festival in Germany…
In 2007 in Buenos Aires with my colleague Paula Baratta I began to investigate the connections between Fedora Aberastury System and CI. Several years ago they invited me to my first jam in heated water. In 2019 I began my Aguahara Training. Currently I offer Aguahara sessions. Last year, I co-created @milon.gota, mixing contact and tango in water.
*Fedora Aberastury was born in Chile and moved to Argentina at a young age where she began her musical training. She moved with her husband to Washington for a while and studied in NY with whom she considers her masters Claudio Arrau and Rafael da Silva. It was the sound she was looking for with the neccesary emotional charge. Back in Buenos Aires, she developed her System, researching for decades with countless students and various disciples. The System’s protagonists are the tongue and the hands , a legacy of her training as a pianist. She passed away in 1985. “I’ll be, no matter when. Life is inside me”
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 gifts of Summer!
This will be a dance of celebration with Summer. To celebrate the sun, the fire in our vitality, the fruits and crops growing upon the fields and orchards. Giving our gratitude for the abundance of Mother Earth. The love for our friends and families as well as our safety and protection. We come together as an ocean and flow with the waters ~ counting our blessings and dancing with the forest, the nature spirits and fairies.
A message from an Apple tree:
‘I. the Great Mother Apple Tree, send you the full sun of summer and the sweetness of my fruit. Notice that there are many kinds of apples to choose from. As a species, I represent variety. Your species is the same. Each of you is a unique and wonderful gift from the universe. I represent beauty and choice. I represent the Goddess in all her manifestations. Think of healing when you focus on me. Think of magic and the unseen fairies and devas of the nature kingdom, who secretly go about their work of caring for the flora on the planet. Think of the realms of imagination and myth, where dragons and unicorns still live. Take a moment to close your eyes and remember the innocence of childhood and the awe of mystery. Take a day off from worries and concerns. Travel to Glastonbury in your mind’s eye and have a conversation with the Goddess. Choose a variety of apples and bake a pie! Close your eyes and imagine a beautiful apple tree full of beautiful apples. Look at each apple as if it has a particular choice written on it. Let the many choices you are contemplating appear. Look carefully, and when you are ready, choose an apple that represents a choice. Take a bite.
Enjoy it thoroughly. Then go ahead and move towards that beautiful choice. Be willing to fully taste and experience it.’
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TIME and PRICING
Potluck at 6pm, Opening Circle starts at 7pm
Dance: $20 – $60
Potluck: Bring a dish to share OR donate $5-$10
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 the workshop. 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.
Come join others on a path of self-discovery for a fruitful dive into your inner world. Drawing from IFS (Internal Family Systems), also called Parts Work, we will root into our centered self, that inner witness, and attend to the parts of us that hold challenging emotions or thought patterns, such as depression, anxiety, judgment, and jealousy, from a place of curiosity.
As we do this, we learn that all parts of us are simply trying their best to help us. One role they play is trying to shield us from pain, harm, discomfort or overwhelm. These are called our “protectors”. Often their strategies aren’t so great: They may distract us, lead us toward addictive behaviors, ignite anger or cause endless mental loops. Pushing these protectors away or ignoring, often makes things worse. Here, we learn to partner with them and support them. We get more familiar with their strategies and discover their deepest needs: to feel more safe and connected. We also take time to meet these needs, as best we can.
The practices we engage with are somatic skills, such as breath, sensing and movement, as well as writing, drawing, sharing and creativity. Some practices are done alone, others in small groups or the whole group.
It’s important to know this work may unearth feelings or sensations that can feel uncomfortable. While I will be offering strategies for working with these feelings, please come with a tool or two for getting back to center if you feel triggered or overwhelmed, for example, taking deep breaths, grounding practices or taking breaks. I will encourage self-care and give opportunities for co-regulation. You may want to schedule a little time after the workshop or the next day for rest and self-reflection. Reach out if you have any questions about this workshop. I hope you will join me for this rich opportunity to receive personal insights, to grow in self-acceptance and to experience the joys of learning together.
Potluck Dinner: Please bring your favorite dish or donation of $10-15
Sauna and 2 towels: $10
***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.***
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.
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.
Mandy Snyder is a Somatic Healer and group facilitator who is passionate about creating spaces for embodied self-discovery. With warmth and welcoming, she guides others to make contact with self-compassion, a balm that makes everything just a little easier. Her individual sessions, groups and workshops draw from her training in Somatic Experiencing, study in Internal Family Systems and 25 + years as in movement studies, including Authentic Movement, Body Tales and Contact Improvisation. A lover of nature and laughter, Mandy has spent many years in Vermont and California, and now makes Western Massachusetts her home.
Bring attention to sensations, starting this “micro” journey inwards – a journey that connects us to what’s small and concrete, that enables us to perceive physicality from a contemplative state.
It could be the first impulse towards embodying movement, towards awakening instinctive-intuitive memories of what it means to move, explore space, explore the relationship with the floor and the interaction with others, giving rise to the state of presence that curiosity offers us.During the workshop we will explore through different somatic approaches (Body-mind-centering, Feldenkrais and Dinamic Anatomy), inviting attention to become body and presence, testing how to distribute weight, and how force travels through bodies in different directions. Ideas of weight, counterweight, falls, lifts, dynamic architectures and adaptations to a mutable form will be present.
Potluck Dinner: Please bring your favorite dish or donation of $10-15
Sauna and 2 towels: $10
***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.***
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) or $30 to camp* Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
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.
Dancer and practitioner of Contact Improvisation. Dedicated to the transmission of the C.I since 2013. With learning in different somatic approaches such as: B.M.C, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique and Topf Technique. Craniosacral Therapist ( Upledger Institute and Biodinamic aproach) with diplomas in Osteopathy and Somatic education.
Teachers who have inspired his training: Marin Keogh, Karen Nelson, Kirstie Simnson, Cristina Turdo, Autarco Arfini, K.J Holms, Alessandro Rivellino, Ricardo Neves, Javiera Sanhueza, Marcela Ortiz de Zarate, Barbara Mahler and Gustavo Lecce.
He was a manager and co-creator of various projects and festivals in relation to Contact improvisation and somatic disciplines, to name a few: Mueves: platform for the production of festivals and workshops in relation to the practice of C.I. (Year 2013-2018 Chile) Cuerpo inteligencia : Dance Training Program (year 2016-2019 Chile) Movere: International Dance Festival (year 2020-2022 Mexico) Immersion: International Contact Improvisation Festival, January 2023.
Sharing his work and research about Contact Improvisation, somatic practices and Craniosacral therapy in universities and independent spaces in the following countries: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Mexico and the United States.
A kind of “living map,” Family Constellations is a unique, phenomenological approach that invites you to make peace with your past. It is a way of seeing and knowing your history, and discovering what belongs to you and what doesn’t. When you know what belongs to you, the burdens of the past drop away, allowing you to step into a new spaciousness and vitality.
You can find a more in-depth description of what Family Constellations are in this 5-minute video.
Join us for the workshop from 2-5pm. A potluck and option to enjoy the sauna afterward.
Sauna and 2 towel rental is $10 (which will be paid to Earthdance)
The Countertechnique® class is a contemporary dance technique class. It stretches, coordinates and strengthens the body, making the dancer sweat, build stamina and really move.
The class starts with a recurring set of exercises, allowing dancers to investigate the Countertechnique® principles in detail. The second half of the class consists of changing components, working towards luscious movement combinations and jumping at the end.
The Countertechnique® class results in dancers using less energy, losing their fear of taking risks and gaining speed in changing direction.
What folks should be aware of for the class / dance levels:
In Countertechnique® classes, dancers are introduced step-by-step to the various tools – making sure, however, that the priority always lies with experiencing and enjoying the difference in moving, rather than first having to understand the tools intellectually. Classes are therefore very accessible, and can be taught to participants of all levels. Even so, gaining a full understanding of the different tools and being able to apply them in complex movement, instantaneously and often simultaneously, involves a learning process of several years, even for professional dancers. Throughout this process dancers increasingly become their own teachers, allowing them to practice and progress even at times when a teacher is not available.
Countertechnique® encourages dancers to take control of their own training and accept full responsibility for their personal development. The Countertechnique® system offers the tools to do so, enabling dancers to get the maximum out of their career, while – of equal importance – continuing to enjoy it to the full!
Potluck Dinner: Please bring your favorite dish or donation of $10-15
Sauna and 2 towels: $10
***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.***
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) or $30 to camp* Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
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.
Maya LaLiberté was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, and now lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. She first connected with Countertechnique in 2014 during her undergraduate studies at Smith College, and subsequently participated in multiple workshops with various teachers in NYC. She attended One Body One Career (OBOC) intensives in Amsterdam in 2019 and 2022, and became a certified teacher after successfully completing the Countertechnique Teacher Training (CTTT) in 2022.
Maya studied at Smith College, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Dance in 2018. Upon graduating, she worked in NYC as a freelance dance artist, collaborating and performing in many projects throughout the Northeast. Since returning to Western Massachusetts in 2020, Maya has deepened her creative practice and strengthened her commitment to building community through dance and collaborative art-making. She is currently a faculty member at the School of Contemporary Dance and Thought, and teaches classes within the Five College Consortium and in NYC.
Join others on the path of self-discovery in a supportive workshop for attending to our inner world.
Drawing from IFS (Internal Family Systems), also called Parts Work, this workshop is about rooting into our centered self, that inner witness, and attending to the parts of us that hold difficult emotional and mental states, such as depression, anxiety, judgment, and jealousy, from a place of curiosity.
Our aim is not to fix ourselves or to analyze, rather, our goal is to listen. When we turn towards ourselves with compassion, we find parts of us, who are sometimes frozen at a young age, are simply trying their best to help us and get their needs met. They want to feel safe, to be connected to others and to contribute to life in a way that is meaningful. We can help them to get these needs met and this is where lasting healing happens.
In this introductory workshop, we will explore some of the foundational skills of Parts Work, get to know some of our parts, and connect more deeply with at least one part of us.
Somatic skills such as breath, sensing and movement are woven in to help us to regulate our nervous system, gain greater awareness of our feelings and nurture connections to each other. Writing and drawing are incorporated as well. Some practices are done alone, others in small groups and some in the big group.
Come for personal insights and to grow in self-acceptance. Experience the joy of learning together and embracing our shared humanity. Bring a journal.
Potluck Dinner: Please bring your favorite dish or donation of $5-10
Sauna and 2 towels: $10
***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.***
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.
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.
Mandy Snyder is a Somatic Healer and group facilitator who is passionate about creating spaces for embodied self-discovery. With warmth and welcoming, she guides others to make contact with self-compassion, a balm that makes everything just a little easier. Her individual sessions, groups and workshops draw from her training in Somatic Experiencing, study in Internal Family Systems and 25 + years as in movement studies, including Authentic Movement, Body Tales and Contact Improvisation. A lover of nature and laughter, Mandy has spent many years in Vermont and California, and now makes Western Massachusetts her home.
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. (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.
Charlotte Malin is a violinist, violist, singer/songwriter, teacher, and healer guiding people into direct, communal, and transformational encounters with music. She is passionate about bringing audiences, clients, and students into aliveness and authenticity through music. Her offerings and projects include holistic classical concerts, sound healing journeys, vocal improvisation workshops & song circles, and compositional sound projects for dance, film, and podcasts. She is currently working on her first full album of original music, titled Welcome Home. Malin currently serves as the Viola Instructor at Amherst College and lives in Northampton, MA.
