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.
Form & Imagination: Embodied Research|Composition|CI Training – March 4th – 7th, 2024
Contact Improvisation culture and exploration began as performative research amongst dancers and creative movement artists. 50 years after its inception, CI is used as both social form, CI Jam practice, and dance research. Every practitioner of this art-sport adapts a slightly different approach and style, and yet there are common threads that recur through the form.
This training will give time to create common physical language while also allowing dancers to find personal choice making. This Spring Training and Creation Lab is an invitation for dancers and movers to explore the language and strategies of CI in the context of composition, choreography and performance. We would love for you to bring your varied dance and movement backgrounds into this shared container of making and join us in research. Together, we will train availability to follow unexpected directionality and momentum, study the modulation of weight, and through these practices use shared language to heighten communication, galvanize creativity, and fuel development of personal aesthetics.
Drawing on their distinctive backgrounds and experiences in dance making and CI, Tal and Sarah will lead workshops designed to address the following elements:
Gaining experience with and literacy in CI as a movement language.
Finding and practicing agency + bold choice making within a solo and a CI duet.
Practicing and building strategies for being present and responsive.
Messy experimentation
Developing scores and score-making as vehicles for creative research, dance-making, and collective creativity.
Building intelligence and sensitivity in the use of the hands for connection and articulation of the body as a whole.
Form & Imagination CI Training – Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures
Arrival/Check-In: Monday, March 4th from 4-7pm front of the Farmhouse. Dinner is 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Monday, March 4th at 7:30-9pm. We request that EVERYONE attends the Opening Circle.
Closing Circle: Thursday, March 7th 12:30pm-1pm, Lunch 1-2pm.
Final Clean: Thursday, March 7th at 2-3pm.
Departure: All participants who are not joining the COCO Jam will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Thursday, March 7th.
Research Themes:
Poetic Cadence with Sarah
As bodies in motion, we play with and within gravity, time and space. Through a crafted use of tension, the release of tension, and breath, we can be taken by momentum, accentuate forces already happening moment to moment, and choose to redirect or create resistance. It is through our choice-making that we create poetry, cadence, and music– a playing with time. In this workshop we will practice joining, creating, and steering momentum in our solo bodies and with a partner. Practical physical studies of the weights of the body and sharing structures will be a base to build ease as situations become more complex. We will attune to beginnings, endings, pause, flow, all as options, to cultivate our capacity for decision making, while maintaining responsive communication. With a light and bright attention to the moment-to-moment now—we expand possibilities we are available to in order to both listen deeply to what is happening and take personal agency in ever fleeting moments.
Being Seen with Tal
This session intends to dial up the courage in the practice and pleasure of allowing ourselves to be seen in motion. It will address potential blocks that rob us of our attention, as well as give clear tools to use the practice of performance as a vehicle which enhances choice making and can be utilized as a practice to enhance presence. We will create engaging solos on the spot through uncovering strategies which create transparency and connection with our audience. This practice will enliven us and inform our movement in surprising and immediate ways.
We will use text, elements from contact improvisation, and dive deeper into the practicality of score making to create clear and engaging solo, duet, trio and group dance sketches. Part of the work will entail sharing our dance with a context of friendly audience observation as a mode of learning and sharing.
This training is designed for CI dancers with basic comfort level and experience of CI technique. Some previous experience with giving and receiving of weight is recommended. Feel free to reach out to us with questions. Workshops will be geared to engage each participant’s abilities and growing edges. Tal and Sarah, together, will blend our ability to improvise on our own, in contact, and within a group. By the end of this week, you will all have more humor and confidence in your dance.
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 has one or more hosts that, rather than always being professional artists with strong facilitation skills, can be dedicated Earthdance community members and upcoming dancers building their leadership skills. Support staff is also more limited compared to our seasonal jams and participants are invited into a higher degree of autonomy and self care. Similarly, the workshop offerings and schedule are also more influenced by the community members 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?
***This CoCo Jam will be coming out of a 3-day spring training in compositional research and collective creation. We are excited for community offerings grounded in compositional, movement, and imaginative research. As hosts, Tal and Sarah will organize one evening of performative scores that opens into jamming, and we welcome your other ideas!
This will be a continued study starting with the Form & Imagination Spring Training through the CoCo Jam. The research from the training will inform and inspire the weekend offerings. Those attending the whole week will benefit from the nourishment of a focused container in the first 3 days, followed by a community led container in the CoCo Jam.
Jam Details
An average of 40-60 people will attend this COCO jam and is open to all movement levels & backgrounds.
We have a single day drop-in option on Saturday, March 9th for folks who have been to Earthdance before.
NEWCOMERS: If you have never been to Earthdance, we ask that you only sign up for the Full COCO Jam. This will allow us to better welcome you and orient you to Earthdance.
This will be a very self motivated jam with influences from the CI Training prior, bring your ideas!
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, March 7th from 4-7pm front of the Farmhouse. Dinner is 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Friday, March 8th 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, March 9th between 9-10am. Breakfast is 8-9am. Departure at 10pm day of.
Closing Circle: Sunday, March 10th 12:30pm-1pm, Lunch 1-2pm.
Final Clean: Sunday, March 10th at 2-3pm.
Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, March 10th.
We encourage folks to attend both the CI Training AND the COCO Jam– You will receive a $50 discount!
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 4 E&A Discounts for the Training + COCO Jam, 3 E&A Discounts for the Training Only and 3 E&A Discounts COCO Jam Only 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 (February 19th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After February 19th) 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!
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. He holds an MFA in Dance from Bennington College and certification Zen Shiatsu and Watsu/Waterdance. Most recently he has been sharing his passion for life, creativity, and movement through creating improvisation workshops which emphasize tools for life such as playfulness, meditation, the courage to be seen, body awareness, breath work and more.
Sarah Konner
Sarah Konner is a dance artist, improviser and somatic movement educator researching dance as a process of evolution and collective storytelling. Sarah recently collaborated with Austin Selden, Jeanine Durning, Jenna Reigel, ChavasseDance&Performance, Sara Shelton Mann, Shura Baryshnikov, Megan Kendzior, Alex Springer and Xan Burley, Headlong Dance Theater, and setGo Performance Improvisation Ensemble. She holds an MFA in Dance from Smith College and certification in Body-Mind Centering®. www.SarahandAustinDance.com
A container for those who identify or have identified with womanhood or being female bodied, regardless of gender expression.
In this focused CI container, we will explore how our commonalities connect us and invite us to show up more in-tune. By creating an intentionally fem space we hope to invite regulation, mutual resourcing, and grounding support. This offer is an opportunity to explore the dance without the presence of the male gaze or the dynamics of gender/sex-based inequality. What can we create? What can we express? How can we hold and empower each other?
We hope this to be a nourishing and liberating experience for those who identify or have identified with womanhood or being female bodied . We welcome and encourage non-binary and gender non-conforming people who feel comfortable in spaces centering fem identity to join us.
Affinity Space
This jam is an affinity space for those who experience or have experienced gender or sex based marginalization based on their perceived alignment with womanhood/being fem-bodied. We ask that cis-gendered men refrain from joining this jam.
Please bring a dish to share OR $10 to $15 donation.
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 $15 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. 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.
Originally from Chevy Chase, Maryland, Liana has been growing roots in Western MA since moving here for college in 2022. She is pursuing all things community living: how to tend the earth, receive Her gifts, and create a sustainable life of peace and wellbeing. Through Contact Improvisation she has experienced a beautifully rewarding exploration of her Self. She is work-exchanging this winter at Earthdance to continue this journey and practice creative living.
Liana’s identity as a young woman is present with her in dance spaces, and she is navigating towards increased feelings of safety as well as supporting others to find safety.
She looks forward to dancing with and learning from you!
Aviva Yarrow
Yarrow grew up down the road from Earthdance, in Dalton, MA, and has spent her life in deep relation to Earthen communities of different kinds. Whether building a fire or faerie house, tending to a garden, a young child, or an elder, deep listening and the honoring of animacy in all is at heart of her work.
Yarrow draws inspiration from seeing her body reflected in the hills of western mass, her bones in the trees, her tears in the rivers. She is currently excited about exploring the power of proprioception and skeletal alignment through dance, as well as supporting the interruption of apathy and doom through mutual aid and connection recovery practices.
At Hampshire college, Yarrow studies decolonization and reciprocity, as well as restorative justice, circle keeping, and performance art.
Yarrow has studied CI with Gabi Revlock and Chris Aiken, as well as many other gracious dance partners and teachers in the last year and a half.
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 and violence.
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 to fix it.
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 $15 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. 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 eco-sensensual earth worshipping clown goddess. Chaya maintains a private practice offering Maya Abdominal Massage, Holistic Pelvic Care and Health, Movement and Sexuality coaching for over a decade. Chaya has also facilitated a number of transformational and alchemical rituals related to grief, wombs and eros. She has great passion and skill in supporting people and relationships to have clear conversations about desires and boundaries and to unpack our wounds and traumas gently to find more capacity for love and pleasure. She has a private practice, Your Sacred Pelvis, where she sees clients in person and virtually based in the Northampton, MA area.
Charlotte Malin is a violinist, violist, singer/songwriter, teacher, and healer guiding people into direct, communal, and transformational encounters with music. She is passionate about bringing audiences, clients, and students into aliveness and authenticity through music. Her offerings and projects include holistic classical concerts, sound healing journeys, vocal improvisation workshops & song circles, and compositional sound projects for dance, film, and podcasts. She is currently working on her first full album of original music, titled Welcome Home. Malin currently serves as the Viola Instructor at Amherst College and lives in Northampton, MA.
Stephen Katz
Stephen has performed his compositions at Carnegie (Weill) Recital Hall and toured internationally as a soloist and chamber player. He has been featured on American Public Media national broadcasts of Performance Today and is a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient. He has held residences at Yale, Meadowmount, and UMASS Amherst. A Western Mass resident, Stephen is also an award-winning film composer and an improviser and composer in the dance world.
Heed the call of the winter as it beckons us to gather.
Come rejoice in a delightful evening and be swaddled in song by Faith Rathbun, Mindy Grossbard, and James Bird.
As we journey through this evening we invite you and your be-loving ones to get cosy in an Earthdance studio and be steeped in musical musings. Gentle movement is welcome in the space while attuning to the performers and the container. Listening room vibes, yanno?
A musical debut for two young songstresses and a deepening of relationship with Earthdance for one blessed bard, the intent of this evening is to be with the wolf pack and cultivate warmth and connection while soaking in the stylings of a few humble song carriers who aim to bless.
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $15 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before as we do not offer refunds if you catch COVID. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Faith has lived in rural Massachusetts her whole life, fostering the feral and aiming to humbly be a good vessel for it’s song. For as long as she can remember she has been walking the earth, singing, often under her breath and occasionally, by the grace of the diving her beloved community, in full expression. Her prayer is to call gently upon truth while ebbing in the mystery and returning to love and gratitude for the whole holy thing.
Mindy Grossbard
Mindy is a musician and singer bridging worlds. She sings of the soul spirit. Originally hailing from a traditional Jewish shtetl, she carries ancient chassidic melodies, vocal improvisation, and Yiddish folk sprinkled in the mix. She is a unique voice in contemporary society, transporting listeners and herself to wandering souls of centuries past.
James Bird
James Bird is a facilitator, poet and multi-instrumentalist musician hailing from Shelburne Falls, MA. James aims to invite the magic out of seemingly ordinary moments, using improvisation or one of his many mythic songs, weaving atmospheres that invite us to feel and to remember. Bird is a threshold bard, playing for those journeying through life’s many thresholds, including marriage, birth and death. He also teaches “Bardic Embodiment”, for those wishing to expand their experience as songwriters and song carriers from the vantage point of the old bards.
Argentine Tango and Contact Improv are two emerging dance vocabularies gaining worldwide popularity. They have vastly different roots, yet both are based in improvisation, and have many interesting intersections which offer and provide opportunities for dancers to expand our social consciousness and movement skill sets. Both dances have performing arts and social trajectories, each offering dancers a wide range of explorations which will inform our dances as both art form and social container.
In this class Erica and Daniel will share elements from the language of Tango tailored for expanding the improvisational vocabularies of the dancers, strengthen attunement skills & develop conversational skills to engage with dancers who have a different improvisational vocabulary. The material will explore overlapping commonalities and distinctive differences of the two forms. We hope to encourage dancers to widen their improvisational vocabularies and explore and overcome any confusions about how these two divergent forms of improvisational dances can inform each other.
We invite you to join us, both new and experienced dancers from either form, in a structure that honors all and different abilities. If you are worried about steps – our approach to teaching this material is focused on improvisation. We specialize in dancers with two left feet. We will have fun doing it!
Fusion & Improvisation October Costume Dance Party
We want to dress up and dance and play together! We hope that the themes of listening and tuning into our partners, conversation, and fusion will filter into a dance party, with music, costumes, improvisation, and fun!
Wear fabulous costumes & what you feel comfortable in! Earthdance has some costumes available to borrow for the night!
*** Please ONLY bring leather or rubber soled dedicated dance shoes or socks (no heels or shoes worn outside)
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SCHEDULE
Workshop: 3 – 5pm
Potluck: 5:30 – 6:30pm
Fusion & Improvisation October Costume Dance Party: 7 – 9:30pm
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this special workshop, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $15 processing fee (Workshop+Jam) and $8 processing (Jam).
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after cancellation dates.
Health Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before arriving. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
COMMUTERS:We ask that you please use caution when commuting and limit, if possible, to just commuting to and from your home and Earthdance, staying away from large crowds to maintain the health and well being of the other Summer Jam participants.
Daniel’s first introduction to Improv and Contemporary Dance was with Bill T Jones, at the American Dance Asylum in 1975. He began his own Jazz Improv group in 1978 whilst dancing with Brenda Bufalino, and has been involved with Contact Improv since 1980, first with Steve and Nancy’s cohort on the East Coast, and then with the men of Mangrove on the West Coast.
He traveled widely in the 1980s teaching Contact, BMC, Tap, and Contemporary Dance. His travels led him to Argentina in 1987, where he taught at the State School of Contemporary Dance for the next 7 years, and began his Tango obsession, one which eventually redirected his career.
He has become one of the prime movers in Tango’s modern revival, touring widely in North America, helping create the Tango tourism industry in Buenos Aires, and the first Tango store in the US. He is one of the founding cohort of Earthdance, senior faculty at DNE, and a co-owner of CTT. He taught Tango and Salsa at the Five Colleges for 14 years before the pandemic.
He resides in Florence, MA, where he is the owner of a co-living experimental dance house, and his in residence/ online Tango Archive.
Erica Skye Roper
Erica’s first memory is learning folk dances with their grandparents. Erica began performing folk dances at ten and began learning Argentine Tango at nineteen. Erica played at the edges of Contact improv and tango fusion for more than fifteen years before diving in and studying Contact Improv in 2019.
Erica began teaching dance around 2007 and is available to teach or co-teach Tango Fusion, ConTango Fusion, Salsa Rueda, and Taking-Back-Boundaries workshops. Erica brings a devotion to life long learning through a continuing study of dance and movement as well as the desire to strengthen and build community into the center of all of her teaching.
This is a time of year for giving and receiving treats, for delighting in abundance, for appreciating the warmth of family & community.
Many of you have experienced the nurturance and growth that comes from spending time at Earthdance. This place is a wellspring for meeting some of our deepest human needs. We are so happy to be providing this space of connection, exploration, healing and creativity. And it takes all of us in the Earthdance community to keep the wellspring flowing!
You are invited to join us for a night of swanky celebration, as we gather to honor this beloved community and raise funds for its continual growth.
This benefit event is an opportunity to embody deep support for Earthdance (and to glam ourselves up a bit!). Falling in the midst of the holiday season, let’s end the year by giving this community some love!
Our evening program will connect us deeply to our personal and collective relationships with Earthdance. With a decadent three course meal and an array of facilitated group rituals, the evening promises to leave you with both a deliciously full belly and a brimming full heart.
Shine your shoes and dress to the nines! You don’t want to miss this once a year celebration of community, charm, and loving goodwill.
May we all be healthy and happy this winter season, and bask in the riches of community together!
With this donation you will receive a 3 course meal with a tea room experience and more evening offerings!
Financially Wealthy – $500 Financially Abundant – $325 Financially Stable – $200 Financially Coping – $120 Financially Strained – $80 – Early bird pricing is still available!
There will be an option to donate any amount above $80 that you desire.
STAY OVERNIGHT
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Akil Apollo Davis is a full-time performing artist, Theatre Professor of Mask and Art Aesthetic and owner of over 200 original Masks. He is multi-disciplined: a dancer/choreographer (Hip-Hop, Balinese, Thai Classical, Butoh, African, Modern and more). Akil Rapper and avid impromptu poet- with songs on Bandcamp, co-composing his music and avid impromptu poet), Actor (bachelors from New York University), MC and award-winning Director. Akil has also worked with Monks in Thailand, Brahmins in Bali, Witches in the East Village of New York and a myriad of esoteric philosophies.He is an organizer, mentor to leaders and proud son of Rosie Phillips Davis, the 2019 President of the American Psychological Association. He works to bridge the gaps between esoteric philosophy, classical education and art. Akil believes that his karmic purpose is to increase understanding, empower, catalyze self-healing and spark the illumination of the soul. His personal mantra….“there must be more light” Follow him for more works of art and access to Mask work so unique that only 3 humans on the planet teach it.
OUR CHEF
Faith Rathbun
Faith is the kitchen coordinator at Earthdance and has spent that last few years honing the craft of hearth-rich cooking with a deep love and gentle fire in her heart for the comfort of nourishment. She aims to serve this tether well so we may gather in feasting in a good way and carry the glory of each of our meals into our bodies and homes and out into the world.
Experience the gorgeous resonance of the Umbrella Barn in a profound way with musician and sound healer Charlotte Malin. First, take a luxurious restorative journey to the sounds of singing bowls, violin, viola, etheric vocals, harmonium, drums, tuning forks and more. Lie down, sit, or cuddle with a friend and receive vibrations to restore the heart and spirit. Live sound medicine profoundly assists the practitioner in reaching states of elevated consciousness and emotional release. Additional benefits include regulating the nervous system, creating harmony between body systems, aligning and clearing the energetic field, activating your creative channels, and so much more.
Bring your own blankets/pillows/mats to be as comfy as possible, an eye mask, a water bottle, and your journal.
After this delicious restorative attunement, Charlotte will offer Bach In Your Body, an embodied classical music experience. After a short guided workshop on listening to classical music with the body, Charlotte will perform the music of Bach on violin and viola. During the concert, the space is open for movement, dance, meditation, journaling, and art-making (bring your own materials). Consider wearing comfortable clothes and bringing your own seat cushion and water bottle.
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this special workshop, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $15 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Charlotte Malin is a charismatic and versatile musician with a unique range spanning classical violin and viola, intimate and ethereal songwriting, and improvised live-lopping. Her many creative offerings sit at the intersections of classical music, holistic wellness, creative empowerment, ritual, and community-building. As an artist and facilitator, she hosts “Now/Hear” conscious & connective classical concerts, Sound Baths, multi-disciplinary Salons, workshops, creativity retreats, community open mics, and more. She performs internationally, including in a string quartet with violinist Midori, and has served as Principal Viola of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and a member of the Hartford and Albany Symphony orchestras. She holds degrees in violin and viola from New England Conservatory and Northwestern, where her principal teachers were Kim Kashkashian and Almita Vamos. Malin currently serves as the viola instructor at Amherst College and curates a community hub for embodiment, arts, and spirituality in Florence MA called The Hidden Temple.
You are invited to join in dance, movement, stretching, releasing and recharging ~ be as you are ~ Let’s co-create a safe place to get into our bodies and celebrate the begins of Winter!
A Winter warm up! Lets move our bodies until our bones are all toasty warm in this colder weather. Winter is a beautiful time of year where the extra hours of darkness give us time to explore our inner worlds. Let us enter with health, joy and vibrancy as we allow nurturance, care, and nourishment to flow through our bodies. Get on your magic horse and fly above the clouds. Travel where you will. Gather what you need.
We will begin with an opening circle that melds into a soft ambience of sound. Leading into an upbeat ecstatic blend of live guitar/electronica/R&B and soul/funk fusion/d&b/Hip hop/house/organic bass and a blend of old classics turned new.
Overnight in our Gratitude Lodge: If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight: A dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
CJ is a multi instrumentalist, collaborator and producer with a burning passion for listening, playing and creating music of all forms! Growing up in the greater Boston area, he has worked as an audio engineer and played in multiple rock, funk and ska bands. With a vast understanding of the electronic genre umbrella and involvement in dance and movement events, his understanding of rhythm and flow is felt through his performances. Now living in the hills of Western Mass his music style focuses on harmony with nature and playing with the sounds of the forest. Connected to the moment of improvisation ~ his talents revolve around feeling into an environment and enhancing it with sonic frequencies.
