Earthdance needs a fresh coat of paint and we need your help! Bring your painting clothes and we will supply all you need to make your home away from home sparkle again!
If gardening is more your vibe, we will have a few projects for you to get your hands dirty with ED’s gardener, Neal.
We will feed you and we will jam in the evening!!!
Schedule:
Community Collaboration: 9am – 1pm
Lunch: 1-2pm
Community Collaboration: 2pm – 6pm
Dinner: 6-7pm
Jam: 7-10pm
Come for one Community Collaboration or join us ALL day into dancing!
STAY OVERNIGHT
If you need a place to stay overnight, our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $30 per night. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $20. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide breakfast the following day.
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this work day, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
In this year’s Queer CoCo Jam, we’ll explore what it’s like to center Queer Joy, liberate ourselves, our bodies, and our relationships from supremacist narratives, and investigate what it means to queer contact improvisation. Let us infuse queer joy into our bodies and our dances as we dismantle the confines of limiting heteronormative conditioning.
Bring your joy, your grief, your pleasure, your play, your curiosities, your quietness, your loudness, your tenderness and your fierceness. All skill levels are welcome!
During this jam, we aim to create a trauma-informed, anti-racist, and liberatory container in which to explore CI, somatics, co-regulation, deep listening, play, prayer, ritual, song, and reciprocity with the land.
What is a CoCo Jam?
Community Collaborative Jams are a new and unfolding program concept at Earthdance which launched in early 2022. This new programming thread was driven by the desire for more opportunities to dance CI and to connect with the community in smaller containers. Similar to Seasonal Jams, the CoCo jam have hosts and some support staff, however the hosts may have less direct influence on the schedules, and they may have varying degrees of leadership or dance experience. Compared to the Seasonal jams, the workshop offerings and schedule will be more influenced by the participants themselves and created on a more adhoc basis.
In preparation for attending a CoCo jam, you may want to ask yourself: What are you currently researching or inspired to offer? Is there something you hope to lab, share, or play with?
Attendance: An average of 15 – 40 people will attend this jam and is open to all movement levels & backgrounds.
Jam Options: Full Jam. And, a Saturday Drop-In (Only if you have been to Earthdance Before).
Newcomers: If you have never been to Earthdance, we ask that you only sign up for the Full Jam. This will allow us to better welcome and orient you to Earthdance.
Be ready to co-create! – We will send out a shared document for folks to fill out who would like to offer something during this co-creation weekend when you register.
COCO JamArrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures.
Arrival/Check-In: Thursday, September 19-22 from 4-7pm front of the Farmhouse. Dinner is 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Friday, September 20 at 10am. We encourage all NEWCOMERS to attend the Opening Circle.
Saturday Drop-In (Only for folks who’ve been to Earthdance before): Arrive/Check-In Saturday, September 21 between 8-10am. Breakfast is 8-9am. Departure at 10pm day of.
Closing Circle: Sunday, September 22 12:30pm-1pm, Lunch 1-2pm.
Final Clean: Sunday, September 22 at 2-3pm.
Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, September 22nd.
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.
Equity & Access Tickets
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships this year, we’re excited to offer up to 3 FULL JAM 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, this 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.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, Jam 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 Jam cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, Jam offerings, and food during the jam.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to the Jam offerings 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 Jam participants.
Refund available up to 14 days (September 5th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After September 5th) from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after the cancellation date.
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. 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!
Olive Frank loves a good contact improv dance. After 9 years of dancing contact improvisation in various countries and communities, she is still researching what makes a good CI dance so satisfying. And, she is eager to research that with you.
Sarah Zucchero
Sarah Zucchero is looking forward to this gathering between witches, wizards, and mages of CI. She herself is a weird CI disciple. Her prayer is this: may we all be amused and fed well by our co-created spell!
This workshop is designed to introduce participants to some of the basics of this captivating movement art-sport that is Contact Improvisation.
In this workshop we will ask the question “what makes a satisfying dance?”
We will research some of the underlying principles which lead dancers to move with more nuance and listening so they can enhance the possibilities within their dance.
Whether you’re an experienced dancer or new to movement practices, “Layers of Presence” welcomes participants of all backgrounds and skill levels. Come and refresh your dancing with clear practice and insight into what makes CI a unique form. See you there!
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.***
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $20 for workshop, $10 for jam processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. 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.
Olive Frank loves a good contact improv dance. After 9 years of dancing contact improvisation in various countries and communities, she is still researching what makes a good CI dance so satisfying. And, she is eager to research that with you.
Tal Shibi
Tal Shibi is a native Jerusalem choreographer, improvisor, performer, and teacher of dance, CI, and somatic awareness. He is continuously curious in exploring collaborations between different art forms, and widening the perceptions of performance and dance. talshibi.com
For those who are longing for a deep and durational dive into CI research, pedagogy, and professional training, you’re invited to gather with us for three weeks from January 6th through 26th, 2025.
Hello to all the seekers, curious minds, artists, dance enthusiasts, actors, performers, public speakers, and those looking for healing, self-discovery, and self-expression!
Akil Apollo Davis once again is bringing this incredibly unique, powerful, and magical form of Mask Work to Earthdance. 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, serving as a tangible bridge between image and our ability to transform.
Whether you’re stepping onto this path for the first time or you’re a seasoned traveler in the realm of masks, this will be a unique and immersive experience on your quest for knowledge, creative self-discovery, and transformation. This is an opportunity for a journey of Self. Open new doors to unexplored dimensions and experiences. Revel and reflect on new inspiration and knowledge.
Join us to unleash your inner shapeshifter and immerse yourself in the power of Mask Work. This is NOT a mask “making” class. In this class YOU will be donning Masks and exploring your ability to transform.
The Artistry Behind the Masks
Originated by Per Brahe, a visionary Theatre Director, and expanded by Akil Apollo Davis, a distinguished Theatre Professor & Performing Artist. This unique method fuses psychology, philosophy, dance, and esoteric practices. The result? A transformative experience that defies convention.
Dive into the enchanting world of masks—each a masterpiece of its own. Over 500 original masks, each drawn during a special meditation by Per or Akil, are intricately hand-carved through the traditional Balinese mask-making process. These masks are more than just appearances—they’re vessels of intention and transformation. The Brahe-Davis Method of Mask is a transformational and explorative journey. Unlike most mask work, which operates from the outside in, these masks engage your BODY.
Unlock your incredible power to transform using music, movement, Mask Work and new gems of knowledge.
HEAL through somatic movement and powerful Healing Masks that will support you in safely releasing blocks.
Gain practical insights into the science of masks.
Engage in hands-on exercises that reveal the power within these masks.
Connect with a community of seekers and practitioners.
For Beginners and Veterans Alike: Whether you’re new to the world of masks or looking to deepen your practice, this event caters to everyone seeking to ignite change and activate their hidden power and capabilities.
Here are some 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 close to the German word for ‘dream’? It’s an image that isn’t present, yet it’s like it’s still happening.” This underlines the power of images. The Mask work helps you excavate negative images and replaces them with positive 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.
Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures
Arrival/Check-In: Saturday, May 25th from 8-10am front of the Farmhouse.
Breakfast: 8-9am
1st Mask Introduction Session: 10am – 1pm
Lunch: 1-2pm
2nd Mask Introduction Session: 2:30pm – 5pm
Departure: All participants will depart after 5pm.
Reserve your spot for this special workshop that will bridge the gap between inspiration, image, and tangible transformation. Tap into your innate power to transform through the art of Mask Work. Unmask your potential and step into a world where images and intentions create profound shifts.
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.
PRICING
SATURDAY WORKSHOP(Includes Breakfast, 1st Session, Lunch and 2nd Session)
$450 – Financially Wealthy
$325 – Financially Abundant
$250 – Financially Stable
$175 – Financially Coping
$125 – Financially Strained
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (May 10th) before the event less a $50 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After May 10th) from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after cancellation dates.
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!
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 reside in a living world shaped by reciprocity. Nature responds to every single thing we do. In this 4-day, immersive workshop, we will center these deep connections between how we move and how we relate to the ecologies we are a part of. We will begin by asking “how do we dance a landscape?”, and “how are we being danced by our landscapes?” Investigations will occur inside the studio and out, in the beautiful weather of late summer, and we will draw from several primary sources as inspiration.
We will practice:
Qigong to attune our listening and understand the fractals at play.
Dynamic and rigorous Body Weather crossings to challenge our memory, proprioception and coordination.
Improvisational movement scores to play with universal movement principles.
Contact Improvisation to deepen our understanding of physical reciprocity.
Tracking and plant ID walks on Earthdance to meet the landscape with deeper understanding.
Garden work in the ED Garden to practice integrating theory into practical application (while participating and contributing to the ED community).
In recent years, much attention has been paid to the practices of Mindfulness and Embodiment and they are widely accepted as being beneficial in our aspirations of being vibrant, compassionate, responsive human beings. But what about the practice of relating to our environments and landscapes with attention and reciprocity? While equally as vital, it has not yet entered the mainstream consciousness to the same degree. We will investigate this relationship with place – emplacefulment; it’s not a word, but it’s what we’ll be practicing anyway.
“We know ourselves by knowing the web – the terrain and the weather that we live inside. Think of the body as a landscape, the landscape as a body, and lean in.” Frieda Kipar Bay
“It is inside a place, and in relation to a place, that we learn to hope.” Anna Badken
Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for participants on Friday, August 30th from 4:00pm-7:00pm. Dinner is at 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Saturday, August 31st at 10am.
Saturday/Sunday Drop-In: Please check-in with an ED Staff person upon arrival between 8-10am. Breakfast is 8-9am.
Full House Clean: Monday, September 2nd at 2-3pm (after Lunch from 1-2pm).
Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Monday, September 2nd.
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 4 FULL JAM 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, this 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.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event offerings, and 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 at Earthdance, event offerings, and food.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to event offerings including food, but no housing accommodations.
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.
Nine Mountain is NOT available
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (August 15th) 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. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after cancellation dates.
Health Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before arriving. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
COMMUTERS:We ask that you please use caution when commuting and limit, if possible, to just commuting to and from your home and Earthdance, staying away from large crowds to maintain the health and well being of the other Summer Jam participants.
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 embodied knowledge, overlapping different threads to better understand the whole. Movement is the primary lens that she uses to experience life and she works in depth with plant medicine to navigate health and disentangle from oppressive overcultures. She has been a professional performer and choregrapher since 2001, working with Sara Shelton Mann, Body Cartography, Melecio Estrella, and Scott Wells, among others. In 2008 she pursued training as a clinical herbalist, botanist, and animal tracker and is a registered clinical herbalist with the AHG. She has studied Daoist Medicine diagnostic practices and qigong, wild tending and native plant restoration, and somatic experiencing and trauma resolution. The interface between reading the body and reading the landscape deeply informs her work as a traditional medicine practitioner, activist, and artist.
Find out more at www.friedakiparbay.net
Dana Iova-Koga
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.
Dance Meets Tantra and the 5Rhythms are coming together for a first-of-its-kind immersive retreat!
HAVE YOU BEEN FEELING THE CALL?
For 5Rhythms to evolve and embrace sensuality and eros?
For tantra to be more playful and embodied?
You intuitively know something incredible is possible when embodied movers come together with full permission to express, connect, and share their magic.
5Rhythms Meets Tantra is the beautiful lovechild of 5Rhythms and Dance Meets Tantra.
We are coming to let go of our masks, build our capacity and explore the vulnerable, messy, sweaty, beauty of our bodies, hearts, & souls. Led by an attentive and experienced facilitation team, we will establish a foundation of consent, attunement, and self-responsibility to allow us to connect and play with our greatest capacity for embodied authenticity, sensuality, and creativity.
This is a space not only to express and connect, but to broaden and deepen your skills and capacity across the map of the 5Rhythms, neo-tantra, sacred sensuality and the movement arts.
Held in a deeply relational, caring, attuned, and trauma-informed space, 5Rhythms Meets Tantra is the potent and permissionful space you’ve been waiting for to truly dance your prayers.
Together we’ll journey through the map of the 5Rhythms – flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness. Each rhythm holds its own wisdom, allowing you to explore the vast landscape of your emotions, express your authentic self, and release any stagnant energy.
During the 4-day immersion, you will be guided through a rich tapestry of experiences. Explore transformational rituals, meditation, breath work, and temple arts, all interwoven with the beautiful wave and map of the 5Rhythms practice.
Our experienced facilitators will create a safe and nurturing container for your journey. They bring together deep experience in both 5Rhythms and guiding transformational group tantra journeys, infusing their guidance with compassion, wisdom, and a deep reverence for the alchemical power of embodied movement and sacred connection.
Join us in this profound exploration of body, heart, and spirit. Awaken your sensual aliveness, ignite your creative fire, and cultivate a deeper sense of self-love and acceptance.
Briana can most often be felt in her ecstatic joy, grinning ear to ear, channeling her maiden that loves to jump in puddles, and her priestess who gathers the energy and sends it whirling to create alchemy in all around. Her happy place is in facilitation, and workshop creation has been a constant for the past 15 years. She is the founder of Sacred Sexuality Rising, an online community of over 9,000 participants, a lead trainer for Intuitive Tantra, speaker and facilitator for The Ohio State University on the topic of sacred sexuality, and Executive Director of the Columbus’s Coalition for Sexuality. She believes that deep and radical love, coupled with ownership and self-responsibility will shift the trajectory of humans on the planet. To work with Briana directly, to book her for teaching or speaking engagements, and for more information, visit www.brianacribeyer.com
Spencer Jacobson
Spencer is a transformational facilitator, DJ, poet and serial entrepreneur with a passion for the art of gathering humans to experience the deepest truths of ourselves individually and collectively. His facilitation style invites self-expression, connection, and creativity while playfully and safely exploring the edges of our comfort zone. He is forever a student of embodiment and healing arts – having studied 5Rhythms dance, tantra, contact improv, ontological coaching, cranialsacral therapy, and yoga. Through his training and deep personal experiences he is committed to creating safer spaces that hold a trauma-informed perspective while simultaneously supporting individual responsibility and empowerment.
He is co-founder of Dance Meets Tantra and Emergence Brotherhood – and previously founded www.guided.co – an organization that has coached thousands of business leaders around the world. “Your heart knows the way, run in that direction” – Rumi
Sunshine Sole (MariaSole Ingravallo) – Certified 5Rhythms Teacher
I wondered from an early age what the meaning of life was and what my true vocation was, all together with a massive dose of shyness, a sense of inadequacy and a great desire to learn to express myself in my authenticity and truth.
This led me to a path of self-discovery through different forms of art and healing practices, starting from painting and sculpture at the School of Art I then attended the Academy of Dramatic Art and the National Academy of Dance in Rome, exploring different forms of dance, meditation and yoga until I came into contact with 5Rhythms dance, of which today I am a certified teacher.
I graduated in Psychology and I dedicated myself to the study of Tantra and to understanding the role of sexual energy in our lives. Today I love to integrate the practice of 5Rhythms with the free expression of the natural flow of life energy (Eros), reminding that this is a sacred tool for the individual to express its deepest and most authentic essence, and to connect more to the qualities of playfulness, pleasure and joie de vivre.
***5Rhythms Meets Tantra is an Independent Event. Earthdance assumes no responsibilities for the activities of the 5Rhythms Meets Tantra as a renter of its facilities.***
Originating in post-WWII Japan, butoh is a potent and revolutionary dance form. Butoh uses the body brazenly as a battleground to attain personal, social, or political transformation. In its early forms, butoh embraced and referenced Western artistic movements: German Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Existentialism, and Fluxus, all of which pervaded the Tokyo underground and the avant-garde art scene at that time.
The co-founders of butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata, and Kazuo Ohno trained in German Modern dance, which was integral to the development of German Expressionism. But, eventually, they took opposite approaches to their dance-making. Hijikata’s work became known as ankoku butoh (dance of utter darkness); he embraced the grotesque and the absurd, exploring themes of sacrifice, struggle, and death. Ohno’s butoh was playful, humorous, and filled with light and life. Today’s butoh is influenced by both Hijikata and Ohno and wrestles to balance those contrary approaches.
Like many other Japanese concepts, butoh is defined by its very evasion of definition. It is both theatre and dance, yet it follows no choreographic conventions. It is a subversive force, through which traditions are overturned. As such, it must exist somewhere on the social periphery. It is a popular spectacle, unlike the classical theatre of Noh with its elaborate gestures. Yet it is esoteric. It is a force of liberation, especially within the conformist Japanese social structure, yet it is born out of extreme discipline. In a culture of exceptional visual harmony, it employs a vocabulary of ugliness.
Workshop Description
During the workshop, participants will investigate the anatomical possibilities of their natural, everyday bodies, including floating, hanging, and various qualities of movement or stillness. Exercises from Noguchi Taiso water body practice and each of the “13 Aspects of Butoh” (see below) will help remove customary societal and cultural behaviors, guiding dancers toward bodily emptiness, a pre-expressive state. Without the constraints of old habits, the unconscious body can freely respond to its sensations, forces, and emotions, to become the fully expressive body. Dancers will be instructed with lessons from all 13 Aspects of Butoh, to expand their range of movements, including the subtle body, the avant-garde body, the fading body, the animal body, and the unleashed body.
“The materials that constitute our body are undoubtedly of this Earth and have participated in and experienced the creation process of the Earth. Therefore our body, living here and now, includes the entire history of the Earth. What is called “live”, “body” and “mind” indicates the phases of change and flow of the Earth. There is no absolute standard for all things. Every standard comes into being within ourselves, freshly, here and now, through relationships. Awareness of these relationships allows you to truly become one with original nature itself. You develop a clearer understanding of how your mind/body operates and a greater appreciation of the involvement of your thought process in all your physical acts.” – Michizo Noguchi, founder of Noguchi Taiso
Noguchi proposes that natural effort-free movement does not fight gravity but embraces it, using its force to assist the movement. A main principle of Noguchi Taiso is movement as a reaction. Instead of moving intentionally, the practitioner creates the conditions for the movement to arise as a natural response. Noguchi Taiso has been adopted by many butoh, dance, and theatre practitioners in Japan, especially for its ability to empty the body of various learned, superficial, and culturally derived behavior patterns, making it more transparent, and aligning it with the universal forces at play.
13 Aspects of Butoh
“13 Aspects of Butoh” is an ongoing research project designed by Julie Becton Gillum in order to discover the essential nature of butoh and how it differs from other dance and theater forms. Gillum has been creating and sharing workshops based on her personal research since 2010. Some of the “Aspects: such as “Space”, “Time” and “Force” are basic to all forms of dance. However some aspects are more specific to butoh and Japanese aesthetics, such as: “Ma,” “Jo-ha-kyu,” “Ghost of Self”, “Dance Like a Child,” “Every Dance is a Prayer,” “Masculine and Feminine.” Many of the “Aspects” began as quotes from my butoh mentors during training sessions. It is these, more obscure body concepts, that we will delve deeply into during our training at Earthdance. Transformation, interior and exterior space, sensation and presence will be at the core of our butoh investigations. I will explain the concepts of “Ma” and “Jo-ha-kyû” to give examples as to how they will be used in the workshop.
Guided explorations of concepts such as “ma” and “Jo-ha-kyû”encourage students to examine Japanese aesthetic principles through experience with movement timing, phrasing and forming.
Dancers, actors, martial artists, yoga practitioners and anyone interested in exploring their own personal capacity for movement expression is welcome to join Butoh and Noguchi Taiso Training. This training is appropriate for all levels.
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 FULL JAM Equity & Access Discounts to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized group. 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, this 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 jam 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 this event.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event offerings, and 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
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, event offerings, and food.
Commuter
You will have access to event offerings including food, but no housing accommodations.
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.
Nine Mountain is NOT available
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (August 29th) 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. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after cancellation dates.
Health Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before arriving. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
COMMUTERS:We ask that you please use caution when commuting and limit, if possible, to just commuting to and from your home and Earthdance, staying away from large crowds to maintain the health and well being of the other Summer Jam participants.
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!
Julie Becton Gillum, artistic director of the 14-year-running Asheville Butoh Festival, has been creating, performing, and teaching dance in the US, Europe, Asia, and Mexico for over 40 years. She has practiced butoh for 27 years. Gillum was awarded the 2008-09 North Carolina Choreography Fellowship and used the funds to travel to Japan to study Butoh.
Since 2019, Gillum has been active in India, Serbia, Georgia, Greece, Mexico, and the USA. Recent performances at the Amsterdam Butoh Festival (October 2023), Seattle Butoh Festival (November 2023), NYU Abu Dhabi Art Museum (February 2024), and UNFIX Festival in NYC (May 2024) were well received.
Julie’s most influential mentors in butoh have been: Anzu Furukawa, Diego Piñon, Yoshito Ohno, Natsu Nakajima, and Seisaku. Noguchi Taiso has become equally important for Gillum whose studies with Mari Osanai and Emre Thormann have refined her practice. She has guided butoh for 25 years and Noguchi Taiso for 10 years.
Open to your Psyche and somatic landscape. Dreamshadow Group offers a weekend workshop of holotropic breathwork, as developed by Stan Grof and Christina Grof. (Breath-assisted inner journeying in 3hr sessions). During this special Earthdance weekend, dance meditation, process philosophy, and a collective sound circle will be included to support your breathwork experience.
Holotropic breathwork is a substance-free, mind-opening (psychedelic) experience. The basic components of this practice are intensified breathing, evocative music, optional focused bodywork, expressive drawing and group process. During holotropic breathwork, one’s awareness can expand and deepen to include a vast scope of feelings and cathartic emotional release, along with experiences that might include biographical events, birth-related (perinatal) sequences, past-life phenomena and other transpersonal encounters. Particular attention is paid to creating a safe and supported space for individual and community healing and evolution.
What happens in a holotropic breathwork session:
Holotropic breathwork is done in a group setting with trained facilitators creating a space for deep work. This workshop will include two breathwork sessions: participants will pair up, and each member of the pair will “breathe” in one session and then “sit” or hold space for their partner in the other session. The breather lies on a comfortable mat with eyes closed to limit distractions and focus attention within. Deep, continuous, rapid breathing and evocative music are used to to amplify and support the inner process.
During the session, breathing may naturally return to a typical pace at times. Breathwork participants often spontaneously respond to or express their inner experience through movement or sound or enter into periods of physical stillness, internal imagery or meditation. It’s all ok, each experience is unique. The music, played at a fairly loud volume, becomes a container for everyone’s expression.
The role of the sitter is to witness and hold space for their partner, the breather. Sitters often report that the experience of witnessing is as deeply moving, in its own way, as the breathwork experience itself. For the breather, the experience of being seen can support their focus and trust in the process.
The group and each individual are supported in moving through their process by the facilitators, who sometimes offer the option of focused bodywork/somatic work. The bodywork is a cooperative effort between the facilitator and the breather. It can help stuck emotional and physical patterns emerge more fully into attention and move them toward a cathartic release. And if strong feelings of absence surface in a session, bodywork can be helpful for addressing a need for connection, through physical contact ranging from handholding to a full body hug, with the breather’s permission. Most of the bodywork is offered near the end of a session, so as not to interrupt or divert a person’s inner experience.
Group process is an important feature of holotropic breathwork. The facilitators pay particular attention to supporting each individual, and helping group members bond and support one another. Within the workshop a conscious community is created through group sharing of individual and collective experience. Emotional and physical safety develops as a collaborative effort between all participants and facilitators. Primarily this involves staying with and honoring each person’s experience, and the relational experiences of the group. Working this way in a group recalls some of the energies of our tribal lineages, rituals and collective spiritual wisdom.
Teresa Smith is a certified facilitator of Dreamshadow® Transpersonal Breathwork, Grof® Breathwork and Sufi Dancemeditation™. Her facilitation of breathwork draws on years of personal experience and healing in this modality, and a background in dance, bodywork and consciousness studies. Teresa is a part of the Dreamshadow senior facilitator team and staff. In other worlds, she has a 37-year connection to and love of Earthdance.
As a dancer/choreographer she continues teaching and practicing authentic movement, contact improvisation and release technique. She also enjoys hiking, parenting, and participating in planetary healing and queer (and allied) community. Teresa directs Earthbody Events; performance, artwork, video and participatory events connected to our interior, relational and ecological nature. She is a graduate of Bennington College (dance/anthropology) and the European Dance Development Center. “I hope to bring to all my endeavors a warm appreciation of each person’s essence and a delight in awakening the creative spirit.” Earthbodyevents.com
Jace Langone, PsyD
Jace Langone, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with over a decade of experience in pastoral counseling, specializing in spiritually-integrated adult psychotherapy. Jace is a certified Dreamshadow® Transpersonal Breathwork facilitator. He serves as the Executive Director of Dreamshadow Group and is coordinator of Dreamshadow’s Supporting Exceptional Experience Network. He is also certified in Grof® Breathwork through Grof Legacy Training. Jace has completed the MDMA Therapy Training Program through the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, several courses through the Spiritual Competency Academy, and a number of Advanced Workshops through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.
He participated as a Discussion Facilitator at the inaugural Philosophy of Psychedelics conference through the University of Exeter (United Kingdom), presented at the 50th Anniversary Association for Transpersonal Psychology International Conference, and served as a respondent at the New England Center for Existential Therapy. Jace holds certification in Process Thought and Practice through the Cobb Institute. He graduated with his doctorate from William James College (formerly, Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology) with a foundation in Humanistic Psychology, and earned an MEd in Special Education from the University of Massachusetts-Boston and a BA in Biology from Brandeis University.
Dreamshadow® Group, Inc., is 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit dedicated to Holotropic Breathwork, Process Philosophy and Community, www.dreamshadow.com. This workshop qualifies for credit toward the Dreamshadow® Transpersonal Breathwork facilitator training program and the Grof GLT-USA Grof® Breathwork Facilitator Program.
***Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork is an Independent Event. Earthdance assumes no responsibilities for the activities of the Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork as a renter of its facilities.***
In this workshop we will explore Being With our bodies through dance. Our movement investigations will bring us through varied terrain of inquiry: bridging instinctive, intuitive, and intellectual ways of being with. How can we orient towards intimacy and interconnectivity for the long-game of our moving lives?
With information from the Axis Syllabus – such as principles of the Tri-Axial body, Spiral and Fractal patterns, and Dynamic Alignment – we’ll call in clear choice-making, physical readiness, and enlivened awareness.
We’ll play and engage through spontaneity, rhythm, sensitivity, heart perception, memory, imagination, mimesis, autonomy, and collective groove as ways to connect with the varied knowledge our bodies hold. There will be motifs and movement sequences, meditative scores, guided improvisations, reflection and journaling, and co-creative mapping. Join us as we delve into ways of calling forth the wisdom of the body through shared dance experiences.
Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures
Arrival/Check-In: Thursday, May 16th from 4-7pm front of the Farmhouse. Dinner is 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Friday, May 17th at 10am. We request that ALL participants attend the Opening Circle.
2 Day Drop-In Arrival/Check-In: Friday, May 17th between 8-10am. Please arrive on time for the Opening Circle.
Closing Circle: Monday, May 20th 12:30pm-1pm, Lunch 1-2pm.
Final Clean: Monday, May 20th at 2-3pm.
Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Monday, May 20th.
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.
Equity & Access Tickets
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships, yet we’re excited to offer up to 3 E&A Discounts for this Workshop to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized groupI. 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, we invite you to stretch in your payment to help support those who cannot stretch and create a more diverse experience for all.
Note: While Earthdance is making efforts to better support Equity & Access at all its events, this workshop 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 workshop as a whole.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, workshop offerings, and 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 at Earthdance, workshop offerings, and food.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to the workshop offerings 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 Jam participants.
Refund available up to 14 days (May 2nd) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After May 2nd) from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after the cancellation date.
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!
Over the past 17 years, Kerwin has facilitated dance experiences in a variety of contexts, where she encourages a main focus of exploring new ways of understanding your body in movement while “being yourself”. Certified to teach the Axis Syllabus, she has been in alliance with this Research Network (ASRM) for 10 years and is inspired by their pedagogical philosophy of learner centered learning. These days, she recently completed a Master’s degree in dance at the Université de Québec à Montréal — a deep investigation of the expression “To Learn by Heart” — looking into possible relationships between the heart and meaningful, embodied learning in a dance class.
Claire Turner Reid
Claire is a movement artist and educator who practices Dance, Qigong, and Internal Martial Arts. She is a Certified and Certifying Teacher of the Axis Syllabus. Claire currently teaches Qigong courses at the Ontario College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Qigong, Taijiquan, and Falling Negotiation programs through the City of Guelph. She has a Diploma of Acupuncture from OCTCM Toronto and a BFA in Acting from the University of Windsor. She is a member of Spiritwind Internal Arts where she is a certified instructor in Qigong, Taijiquan, and Dao In Lung Shen and also practices Baguazhang and Gongfu. She is a Level 2 Certified Radiant Lotus Women’s Qigong instructor.
Claire uses movement and healing practices to deepen awareness, honour the integrity of the body, and enrich inter-relational possibilities. In movement research, she invites open-inquiry and curiosity and values lineage and creativity, rigour and play, somatic sovereignty and collective collaboration. Her teaching encourages exploration of the body in motion for more connected living. She teaches online, internationally, and locally in Guelph and Toronto.
