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.
“The body is a mystery moved by tangible and intangible forces”
These forces can originate in interaction with other people, the relationship with space and also from the memory of our tissues and cells.
During these sessions, we will initiate explorations that allow us to make contact with the information received from the skin inwards. In this way, it will generate a sensitive record of the internal universes that can be decoded through the “sensations”, which in some way, could be the gateway to physicality.
Through different somatic dynamics and Contact Improvisation we will seek to sensitize our state of presence and attention in the body. This, in order to awaken a record of the different impulses which can originate from the inherent vitality of the organism, cellular memory, or the interrelationship that appears when inhabiting space and linking with other dancing bodies. These registers and connections could allow us to find a better state of presence and to see what is happening in our dance.
We will try weight exchanges with different qualities, dancing off the axis without losing connection with our bodies and our weight, exchanges of strength in connection to the earth, and we will explore how to take advantage of the momentum to fall in multiple directions.
Is it possible to fall upwards?
We will search how we can allow the creative power that inhabits each participant to unfold freely to improvise, play, and dance collectively. During the weekend, information from somatic disciplines, craniosacral therapy and other movement arts will be integrated.
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for participants on Friday, October 27th from 1:00pm-4:00pm.
Friday CI Workshop: Friday, October 27th from 4-6pm, Dinner is at 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Saturday, October 28th at 10am
Saturday, October 28th Drop-In Day: Arrive/Check-In between 8am-10am, Breakfast is at 8am-9am, Opening Circle 10am and Departure at 11pm day of.
Weekend Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, October 29th.
COVID Testing: Please make sure that you have tested for COVID on the day of arrival for weekend and drop-in days. If needed, participants may purchase tests from Earthdance for $10 each.
Our Fees Explained
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.
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships this year, we’re excited to offer up to 3 Discounted Tickets to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized groups. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge, and can feel vulnerable.
For those who do not identify as marginalized and are in a represented group, we invite you to stretch in your payment to help support those who cannot stretch and create a more diverse jam experience for all.
Note: While Earthdance is making efforts to better support Equity & Access at all its events, the event offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
Reduced pricing offered to people self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized.
Classes and discussions that aim to bring up the level of awareness and inclusion at the event as a whole.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event offerings, and food during the jam.
The Gratitude Lodge (a.k.a. the Earthdance dorm) is the main lodging facility, connected to the Farmhouse by a short wooded trail. The lodge includes large and small rooms featuring dormitory-style bunks and beds (twin & queen size) and is included in the base event cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, event offerings, and food during the jam.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to the event including food.
Commuter Health Care: 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 participants.
Refund available up to 14 days (October 13th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 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. However, ALL registrants are required to take an antigen test on the day of before arriving on Friday, October 27th at Earthdance. If you need a test, Earthdance will have them available to purchase for $10 each.
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 participants.
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!
Dancer and Teacher of Contact Improvisation. Dedicated to the transmission of the C.I since 2013. I have learned from different somatic approaches such as: B.M.C, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique and Topf Technique. Craniosacral Therapist and teacher. Practitioner of Butoh and Kinomichi (Japanese martial art), languages that are part of his experience and that also cross the way of teaching and sharing the practice.
I was 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). Matriz: International Contact Improvisation Festival, Chile between 2014-2017. Cuerpo inteligencia: Dance Training Program (year 2016-2019 Chile). Movere: International Dance Festival (year 2020-2022 Mexico). Mazunte Contact festival: International Contact Improvisation Festival to be held in February 2022, México. Immersion: International Contact Improvisation Festival to be held in January 2023, México.
I shared my work in festivals, universities and independent spaces in the following countries: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Mexico, Colombia and the United States.
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.
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.
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.
In this workshop, led by Frieda Kipar Bay and Dana Iova-Koga, we immerse ourselves deeply into the inquiry of how to relate to the ecologies on either side of the skin. Drawing from the practices of contact improvisation, qigong, body weather*, wild tending, and deep observation (including tracking, plant ID, and internal states), we will delve into the question of how to dance – and be danced by- a landscape. In stretching the definition of CI fundamentals (such as ‘sharing weight’ and ‘entering a dance’) to include our environment, we open up new possibilities of how to be human here.
Our days will be spent in deep observation of the landscape, including wild tending and native plant walks and in the studio practicing deep observation of ourselves through qigong, CI, and bodyweather practices.
As part of this workshop, we will participate in land-stewardship activities that will support the forested watershed surrounding Earthdance. This work will also serve to ground our explorations in a practical application of what it means to have an embodied dialogue with place.
“Body Weather is a Butoh practice stemming from Min Tanaka (whom Dana studied/lived with for 5 years.)
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for participants on Thursday, November 2nd from 4:00pm-7:00pm. Dinner is at 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Friday, November 3rd at 10am.
Friday, November 3rd and Saturday, November 4th Drop-In Days: Arrive at 8am and Departure at 10pm day of.
Weekend Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, November 5th.
COVID Testing: Please make sure that you have tested for COVID on the day of arrival for weekend and drop-in days. If needed, participants may purchase tests from Earthdance for $10 each.
Our Fees Explained
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.
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships this year, we’re excited to offer up to 3 Discounted Tickets to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized groups. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge, and can feel vulnerable.
For those who do not identify as marginalized and are in a represented group, we invite you to stretch in your payment to help support those who cannot stretch and create a more diverse jam experience for all.
Note: While Earthdance is making efforts to better support Equity & Access at all its events, the event offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
Reduced pricing offered to people self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized.
Classes and discussions that aim to bring up the level of awareness and inclusion at the event as a whole.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event offerings, and food during the jam.
The Gratitude Lodge (a.k.a. the Earthdance dorm) is the main lodging facility, connected to the Farmhouse by a short wooded trail. The lodge includes large and small rooms featuring dormitory-style bunks and beds (twin & queen size) and is included in the base event cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, event offerings, and food during the jam.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to the event including food.
Commuter Health Care: 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 participants.
Refund available up to 14 days (October 19th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 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. However, ALL registrants are required to take an antigen test on the day of before arriving on Thursday, November 2nd at Earthdance. If you need a test, Earthdance will have them available to purchase for $10 each.
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 participants.
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!
Frieda Kipar Bay is a weaver of knowledge, overlapping different threads to better understand the whole. Movement is the primary lens that she uses to see into life, and she works in depth with plant medicine to navigate health and disentangle from oppressive overcultures. Some of the threads she currently weaves with: Daoist medicine, qigong, five element theory and diagnostic practices, wild tending and native plant restoration, tracking, writing, performance art experiments, somatic experiencing and trauma resolution, The Work That Reconnects facilitation and grief processing, and equity practice. She finds that beautiful things get made when she weaves with many perspectives. Find out more at www.friedakiparbay.net.
Dana has been a polymorph since an early age. She could never choose between dance, theater, art, photography and writing. Luckily she managed to study them all at the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU. Her formative training in movement was with Japanese dancer Min Tanaka. She lived and worked for several years with him on his farm in the countryside of Japan- dancing, farming and studying nature of all kinds.
Since that time Dana has continued to explore and discover the connections between body and landscape. She has been a member of dance/theater company inkBoat and has been teaching “Dance on Land” with her partner, Shinichi, since 2006. She has been blessed with some of the highest caliber teachers and mentors one could hope for. She had the great fortune of working with dance pioneer Anna Halprin. Dana has studied Chinese Internal Martial Arts for over a decade and is a 17th generation Wudang San Feng Pai lineage holder through her Shifu David Wei of Wudang West. Most recently has been mentored by Jozef Frucek and given the honor of becoming an “Inspired by FM” teacher through Fighting Monkey. She is thrilled to be joining forces with Frieda Kipar Bay as Elemental Vessel. Together they practice researching the elements in the body and the body in the elements.
Dana is forever inspired by the complexity and diversity of life in all its forms, is fascinated by the phenomenon of creativity, and above all enjoys playing in the space occupied by the questions. These days you may find her in the studio, in the garden, on the stage, in the classroom, over the books, with the words, in the water, in the woods, in the kitchen, with her people, among her thoughts, under the sky. www.danaiovakoga.net
When was the last time you underwent a meaningful transformation?
When was the moment you embodied the presence of a powerful Queen, or emerged as a regal King, only to then transform into the playful dance of a Clown?
Transformation is the catalyst for healing, inspiration, and enlightenment, finding its perfect medium in the captivating realm of masks. 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.
Journeying into the realm of archetypes, a profound facet of human consciousness, opens doors to unexplored dimensions, experiences, and wisdom. Whether you’re stepping onto this path for the first time or you’re a seasoned traveler in the realm of archetypes, our workshop promises an immersive experience tailored to your unique quest for knowledge and creative self-discovery.
Prepare to immerse yourself in the intricate tapestry of archetypes using the esteemed Brahe-Davis method of MASK. Embark on a journey that transcends various schools of thought, allowing you to embody these archetypal forces through this medium. As you delve deeper, you’ll unravel the threads that connect these archetypes to the fabric of our culture, media, and collective consciousness.
Disney’s “The Lion King” is intentionally interwoven with archetypal imagery and messages that may miss the eye before it’s pointed out. So- YES We’ll discuss the Lion King as a template for understanding archetypes and how these universal patterns captivate and educate us through various media lenses.
With over 15 years of immersive experience, teaching over 10,000 students, Akil Apollo Davis’ profound expertise will be your guide, offering you a meticulously curated weekend: “Archetypes & the Metamorphosis-Masquerade.” His guidance will lead you to unearth your innate ability to metamorphose through archetypes. His unique Balinese crafted masks will serve as the key to unlocking the archetypal center within you, allowing you to transform from the inside out. Discover the gifts they bestow upon you and witness how a deeper understanding can magnify the richness of your everyday life.
Are you ready to take this enthralling leap? Here’s a glimpse of what awaits you during this weekend:
🌟 Engage in evening embodiment sessions with masks and music, planting the seeds for your archetypal exploration.
🌟 Immerse yourself in micro gestures and compression techniques to enhance your transformation.
🌟 Participate in archetype mask lectures and embodiment exercises to uncover the essence of these powerful archetypes.
🌟 Join the Costume Bazaar to select the attire that will become the vessel of your metamorphosis.
🌟 Experience engaging play, improv, and story time sessions that weave the magic of archetypes into your narrative.
🌟 Culminate your journey with the grandeur of the Metamorphosis-Masquerade, where your transformed self will be celebrated.
Prepare to reflect, integrate, and ready yourself for the journey home on the final day.
***Bring your personal costumes, accessories, and pieces to fully embody your transformation for the night of the Masquerade!
***Bring extra pieces if you want to support the activation and transformation of your fellow participants!
Spaces for this extraordinary experience are limited! Only 22 spots available. Secure your ticket for a weekend that promises to reshape your perception of storytelling, culture, and the art of self-expression.
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for participants on Thursday, November 16th from 4:00pm-7:00pm. Dinner is at 6-7pm.
Weekend Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, November 5th.
COVID Testing: Please make sure that you have tested for COVID on the day of arrival for weekend and drop-in days. If needed, participants may purchase tests from Earthdance for $10 each.
Our Fees Explained
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.
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships this year, we’re excited to offer up to 3 Discounted Tickets to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized groups. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge, and can feel vulnerable.
For those who do not identify as marginalized and are in a represented group, we invite you to stretch in your payment to help support those who cannot stretch and create a more diverse jam experience for all.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, workshops, and food during the event.
The Gratitude Lodge (a.k.a. the Earthdance dorm) is the main lodging facility, connected to the Farmhouse by a short wooded trail. The lodge includes large and small rooms featuring dormitory-style bunks and beds (twin & queen size) and is included in the base event cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, workshops, and food during the event.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to all workshops including food for the event.
Commuter Health Care: 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 participants.
ABOUT THE MASKS
These wooden masks are hand-carved in Bali by a Priest/Brahman, require 40-70 coats of paint and a traditional sacred cleansing ceremony for their completion!
The Masks differ from the traditional Balinese canon. The only similarity is that the Brahe-Davis Masks are made with the same process and carving method of the traditional Balinese Masks, but these are NOT “Balinese Masks”
The Image the Masks are carved from are channeled from Akil or Per Brahe’s (the founder of the work) to intention and imagination. The Masks are then placed on participants and they are allowed to explore transformation.
It is also important to note that these masks differ, in the extreme, from the traditional Commedia dell’arte Masks which dominate Europe and Western/American Culture. While Commedia masks aim to put the body in the position or gesture of the character- frequently using a mirror- The practitioners of the Brahe-Davis Mask technique are generally NOT allowed to SEE or KNOW what Mask they have. These masks don’t work your mind, these masks work your BODY through the power of image and transformation and your body’s natural ability to be sensitive to the image in the mask!
HOW THE MASKS WORK
90% of the time participants aren’t even allowed to see or know what the mask is. This keeps them from Pre-acting in a wrong direction. And even though people don’t see the mask or know what it is- they will still DO what the Mask is. This is the body’s natural sensitivity.
In a nutshell- If you pluck the string on one guitar, the same string on another will vibrate… this is how the masks work with your body.
The image of the mask activates the chosen center in the body and transformation happens.
On the way into transforming, the body clears blocks to the archetype through somatic and emotionally expressive movement. Thus, the masks have a healing effect while getting you into the images in YOU! You can transform into anything.
“Nothing human is foreign to me” -Terentius
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 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. However, ALL registrants are required to take an antigen test on the day of before arriving on Thursday, November 16th at Earthdance. If you need a test, Earthdance will have them available to purchase for $10 each.
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 participants.
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!
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.
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.
Join Loom Ensemble at EarthDance this summer for an immersive experience of collaborative, interdisciplinary dance-theater creation and performance! During this weeklong residency, participants will train daily in dance, theatermaking, and performance techniques in the morning. In the afternoon, Artistic Directors Neva Cockrell and Raphael Sacks will work with participants to devise ensemble dance-theater performances. Participants will then publicly perform these pieces, as a fully-integrated part of Loom’s professional touring show, “Tell Me How You Breathe: Dance-Theater for Collective Liberation” Performances at Earthdance will take place Friday and Saturday nights, August 4th and 5th. The show will then move to Boston for a Sunday evening performance on August 6th, which the Earthdance Ensemble is invited to be a part of!
This is a rare opportunity to train, create new material, rehearse and refine the material, and then perform it… all in one week! Loom has been building the other elements of this show “Tell Me How You Breathe” over the course of the last year, and is now touring with a professional team of 9 artists. This unique model allows us to add in community-based movement ensembles in each location. The show is touring to 10 different cities across VT, MA, and NY. There will be an ensemble in each state… and this is your chance to JOIN THE MASSACHUSETTS MOVEMENT ENSEMBLE!
Who is this for
This residency is open to all levels of movement and performance experience, and all bodies. We will be devising the pieces, so each person will be able to tailor it to their body and ability level. While we may have some moments of scored improvisation, we will mostly be creating and setting material, so it is useful to be able to remember set movement sequences.
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.
About the show “Tell Me How You Breathe”
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.
Testimonials
“Neva and Raffles facilitated a space that felt inclusive, liberating and autonomous. I felt that I belonged and I was able to arrive as myself. Each offering invited freedom of movement, self expression and sharing.” -Erica, Residency Participant, New York
“Powerful and unique… Don’t miss it!” -Gulf News, Performance Review, Dubai UAE
“Such a beautiful performance tonight! Provocative, sensual, heart-wrenching, and dreamlike, but ultimately hopeful, with so many textured layers. I loved the fact that the performance was both rough and graceful.” -Gretchen, Audience Member, Vermont
Sample Schedule July 31 – August 6 (actual schedule TBA)
Monday: Arrivals and Introductions. Dinner at 6-7pm
Tuesday – Wednesday: Dance-Theater Trainings and Rehearsal
Thursday: Dance-Theater Training and Dress/Tech Rehearsal
Friday – Saturday: Rehearsals and Performances
Sunday: Optional Travel to Boston and Performance in Boston
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, workshop offerings, and healthy delicious food.
The Gratitude Lodge (a.k.a. the Earthdance dorm) is the main lodging facility, connected to the Farmhouse by a short wooded trail. The lodge includes large and small rooms featuring dormitory-style bunks and beds (twin & queen size) and is included in the base event cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp in Earthdance’s wooded areas or grass field, workshop offerings, and healthy delicious food.
PRICING
Our Fees Explained
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.
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships this year, we’re excited to offer up to 8 Equity & Access Discounts to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized group and have a relationship with CI, performance or dance. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge, and can feel vulnerable.
For those who do not identify as marginalized and are in a represented group, we invite you to stretch in your payment to help support those who cannot stretch and create a more diverse event experience for all.
Note: While Earthdance is making efforts to better support Equity & Access at all its events, this training offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
Reduced pricing offered to people self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized.
Classes and discussions that aim to bring up the level of awareness and inclusion at the event as a whole.
Affinity spaces (jams, discussions, etc.) for particular groups of people to connect, share space together, and rest from the pressures of being in a minority status at the event.
BIPOC Spots
This is retreat is a body-positive, queer, anti-racist space.
By offering a sliding-scale program fee, work exchange opportunities, “Equity and Access” discounts, and two *FREE* BIPOC spots, we hope to make this retreat accessible to all.
Refund available up to 14 days (July 16th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 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. However, ALL registrants are required to take an antigen test on the day of before arriving on Monday, July 31st at Earthdance. If you need a test, Earthdance will have them available to purchase for $10 each.
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.
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!
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.
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, Eliana 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. And we will have fun doing it.
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for Friday, July 14th from 4:00pm-7:00pm. Dinner is at 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Friday, July 14th at 7:30pm.
Friday Class and Dance Evening ONLY: Arrive at 7:30pm, Departure is at 12am.
Saturday Dance Evening ONLY: Arrive at 7:30pm, Departure is at 12am.
Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, July 16th.
COVID Testing: Please make sure that you have tested for COVID on the day of arrival for both Full and Half Jam. If needed, participants may purchase tests from Earthdance for $10 each.
Bring loose fitting clothes, leather dance shoes or socks to dance in.
***Please do not wear high heels or tight fitting clothes. You will be dancing Contact Improv influenced by Tango, not strictly Tango!
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge for 2 nights, workshop offerings, and healthy delicious food.
The Gratitude Lodge (a.k.a. the Earthdance dorm) is the main lodging facility, connected to the Farmhouse by a short wooded trail. The lodge includes large and small rooms featuring dormitory-style bunks and beds (twin & queen size) and is included in the base event cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp for 2 nights in Earthdance’s wooded areas or grass field, workshop offerings, and healthy delicious 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.
Equity & Access Tickets
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships this year, we’re excited to offer up to 3 Equity & Access Discounts to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized group in CI and have a relationship with CI. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge, and can feel vulnerable.
For those who do not identify as marginalized and are in a represented group of CI, we invite you to stretch in your payment to help support those who cannot stretch and create a more diverse jam experience for all.
Note: While Earthdance is making efforts to better support Equity & Access at all its events, the Summer Jam offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
Reduced pricing offered to people self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized in CI.
Classes and discussions that aim to bring up the level of awareness and inclusion at the jam as a whole
Affinity spaces (jams, discussions, etc.) for particular groups of people to connect, share CI space together, and rest from the pressures of being in a minority status at the jam.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 10 days (July 4th) before the event less a $50 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. However, ALL registrants are required to take an antigen test on the day of before arriving on Friday, July 14th at Earthdance. If you need a test, Earthdance will have them available to purchase for $10 each.
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.
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!
Eliana began her path in movement improvisation at 15 through the Aberastury System. Her training includes contemporary dance, ballet, tango as well as yoga, eutony and somatics theater and clown. She likes to experiment with hybrid/juxtaposed languages on scene, and has choreographed dance-theater pieces, aerial dance, dance for children and also made site specific and street performances.
She fell in love with Contact Improvisation in 1987, at Daniel’s first workshops in Buenos Aires, and began teaching CI four years later. She has been a CI teacher at the School of Artistic Education (ESEA) since 2012. She is a co-creator of Eimcila, Latin America CI Teachers Meeting in 2011, co-organizer of the Buenos Aires CI-50 Celebration, as well as ongoing Jams in her city. Another passion of hers is to work in heated water. She gives Aguahara sessions and facilitates @milon.gota mixing CI and tango in water.
She loves 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.
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 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 travelled 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, helping create the Tango tourism industry in Buenos Aires, and the first Tango store in North America. He is one of the founding cohort of Earthdance, senior faculty at DNE, and a co-owner of CTT.
He resides in Northampton, MA, where he is the owner of a co-living experimental dance house, and Tango Archive.
