My heart is so full!
In my morning meditation today, I focused on gratitude for all of the amazing blessings I’m showered with…
And as a member of our Conscious Dancer community, YOU definitely made the list!
For more than a decade, I’ve had the privilege of serving thousands of incredible souls as they step into a fuller, richer, and more joyful experience of their authentic selves.
Join an intimate community circle of 8 people over 2 weekends to discover and listen to the various terrains of the body, enabling us to gain insight, relaxation and ease with our unique wisdom and language of our body. This is an experiential community process that gives you and I an opportunity to deeply listen and remember the wisdom of our body. We are here to learn and share together, each of us bringing our unique wisdom to the group.
In this one-day workshop, we will go deeper into the Waves map of the 5Rhythms to explore our relationships with our physical bodies and to the dancers around us. Moving alone, in pairs and in small groups, we will dance Flowing, grounded in the feet; Staccato, grounded in the hips; Chaos, letting go of the head; Lyrical, where the dance extends out through the hands into the wider space; Stillness, where we don’t stop moving but we’re moved by the breath.
The Embodied Awakening Conference is an opportunity to explore how physical and spiritual aspects of our lives can be integrated by using the body’s own intelligence in the process of personal growth, discovery and evolution.
There is an amazing lineup of visionaries including Peter Russell, Marci Shimoff, Gabriel Cousens, Dr Jacob LIberman, presenting alongside top movement and embodiment teachers Amara Pagano, Viincent Martinez Greico, Ya´Acov Darling Khan, Adam Barley, Amber Ryan, Michael Molin Skelton and Melissa Michaels, Ashanna Solaris and Dana DeLong.
What elevates something to the level of art? Who gets to decide what, in fact, art is? Just how far can the term “art” be stretched?
Art obviously takes many forms. There’s physical forms that you could hang on your wall or put in your garden or set on a shelf or decorate your house with.
There are monumental works that grace public spaces.
Within each of us dwells a beating heart playing out the rhythm of our
lifetime. Traumas and dramas, joys and surprises~all the stories that we
have accumulated
and those yet to be experienced. In setting aside our stories we can
begin to find the medicine that comes with being in the beat of the
present moment.
This week’s Monday Love Spotlight is on The Tamalpa Experience
with Daria Halprin and Tamalpa Core Faculty Dohee Lee & Natan
Daskal
IN-PERSON workshop!
Sunday, June 4 – Thursday, June 8, 2023
Grounded on the Halprin work, the Tamalpa Experience introduces an approach that enlivens dialogue between body and imagination, life experiences and art making, creativity and healing. While on this retreat, you will be introduced to the foundational methods and models of the Tamalpa Life/Art Process.
Through the use of movement, drawing, poetic writing, improvisational performance and ritual, you will tap into art’s symbolic language to encounter and explore current life themes, generating new resources to apply in your personal and professional life.
Thursdays, April 27 – June 8 @10-11:30am PT
Transform blocks into vibrant health, aliveness and freedom, and experience greater self-authority and joy in your own skin through wild, abandoned dancing….thereby contributing to more freedom in our collective. When one person frees themselves from restrictive conditioning, the world becomes freer!
How do you get in gear? Do you have a secret for staying in motion? Why is it so important to maintain momentum?
Name practically anything in your life, and you’ll see that it requires some sustained energy to keep it going. The question is, how do you keep your mojo fired up?
If you’ve ever had to cram for an exam at the last minute, or pull an all-nighter on the eve of a deadline, you know that procrastinating until it’s time to sprint can be a recipe for disaster.
(however, when it comes to creative pursuits, there is something to be said for last-minute pressure. Some folks thrive on it, but personally I wouldn’t recommend.)
With mundane things like showing up for work, maintaining a movement practice, or learning a new skill or language, regular progress and forward motion are your friends.
Here’s one way to look at it. The flipside of momentum is rhythm. The best way to keep that flywheel turning is to give it a regular push. Daily, weekly, or monthly intervals are the most common, but you are free to dance to the beat of your own drummer.
As the days get longer and warmer here, we gather to tell stories around our collective campfire.
What stories in your body are waiting to be told? We explore this in our FREE*, in-person Storytelling Through Movement Series!
We’ll meet for 6 weeks (with a rest week included on 5/27) to explore movement together at the intersection of community, collective roots, sensuality, and passion. And all of this will culminate in an (optional!) communal story-telling demonstration at our next community care clinic on Saturday, June 17th!
A Journey, A Destination, A Refugewith
Dancing Mystery Lodge brings together three innovative movement facilitators cross-pollinating creativity and curiosity with somatic inquiry.
Every session invites freedom of movement, authenticity and energetic fluency through playful inquiry, subtle tuning and dancing into presence.
What do you do to feel grounded? Why is it so important to connect with the earth? And how often do you make an effort to keep that connection alive?
It’s no secret that in today’s world it’s easy to become discombobulated. With all of the high-tech gadgetry and modern communications and our frenzied pace, it’s easy to be spinning like a whirlwind from the neck up.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless if you pay attention to local, regional, or global news. I have a certain level of admiration for people who can tune it all out and stay in whatever creative bubble they may have constructed for themselves.
This workshop is 1.5 Waves days and 1 day Heartbeat for those on the teacher training path. It is open to all
Friday 7 – 9:45 pm – Open Intro evening
WING SPAN
An eruption of soul straight from the heart,
Fuelling the spirit & ripping edges wide
The magic of theatre begins here….
Come spread your wings, free your mind, expand your imagination, magnify your curiosity, and illuminate your breath in the beat.
Awaken and sharpen those places in yourself that need a rewire, recharge, a realigning back to what is most original and true.
When do the cages built around the heart by our wounds open up and become spaces for understanding instead of weapons of defense?
When does vulnerability become a space to meet, an ally of our heart and no longer a part of us to hide?
In this residential retreat, we will explore the possibility of living, existing and loving as we are. We will do it through bodily experiences of 5Rhythms and body therapy.
And we will ask our body to answer these and all those questions that will emerge from the heart when we fall in love with ourselves and with others.
This week’s Monday Love Insight is from Brietta Leader and WildCore!
My story highlights the memories, travels, communities and studies that led me to my path as a healing artist and conscious dance pioneer.
Some of my earliest memories were choreographing dances and bossing all my little cousins around to perform a Thanksgiving show for our family. Followed by being on High School Drill Team, Jazz Dancers L.T.D. in Spokane, WA and an Emphasis in Dance at The University of Idaho. Dance has been that consistent place to funnel emotions, unwanted thoughts and tons of creative energy. As a young girl I sensed the sisterhood, the discovery of my body, the art and intuition that naturally occurs when one dances.
Having Melanoma on my leg at 22, which required a skin graft and 4 weeks of a wheel chair, woke me up and inspired a lifestyle outside the box. Living out of my truck for 4 years as a guide for At Risk Youth I developed a deeper sense of living with the elements and brought witness to the greater range of imbalances that many grow up in.
In my late 20’s, tired of Western thinking & working with at risk youth I set out for a 6 month trip to Thailand and India.
Having never received a massage myself, I arrived in Chaing Mai ready to study Ancient Thai Massage. Basically jumping in with two feet, I was led by strong intuitive energy and a desire for change. These 6 months abroad is a story in itself and proved to be a doorway into my life calling as a Healing Artist. Thailand and India included intense study with 2 different Thai Massage Masters, a 10 day Vippassana, a month within the Maha Kumba Mela spiritual gathering in India, Yoga and countless moments filled with adventure, friendships and inner awakenings.
Upon my return I settled in Sandpoint, living in a cabin with no running water or electricity and birthed my nomadic business Moondance Movement and Massage. Right away I began researching healing movement forms, took the Nia White Belt was introduced to the 5 Rhythms Practice and followed Vinn Arjuna Marti the creator of Soul Motion™ for several years. I began teaching a month after my Nia training, feeling like my dancing soul was finding it’s voice. My offerings were rooted in my love for dance, the framework of Nia provided my inner dancer to shine and Soul Motion offered moments of deep healing and exposure of my truest gifts.
The journey of being a conscious movement pioneer had begun. I met my husband at this time, which took Moondance to Alaska. (Again another story within itself.) My 5 years in Alaska truly ignited my apprenticeship to Mother Nature, I became a Mother, developed my understanding of living in community and I stepped in as a leader for a Candle-dance Troupe, called the Eternal Flames.
Moondance in its nomadic ways was headed back to Lake Pend d’ Oreille and the Mountains of Idaho. We have been back for 15 years and Moondance has a 30 ft. Yurt Sanctuary to call home. This yurt has been the temple of my heart and has held space for countless Dance Rituals, Birthday Celebrations, and Therapeutic Massages. Many doors of healing have opened here in Sandpoint. Some of my highlights have been the countless tools I received within the Medicine Wheel, which is a Peruvian Inca Shamanic Practice that taught me how to tangibly shift energy through breath-work and fire ceremony.
I received my Brown Belt of the Nia Technique, studied Soul Motion™, receiving my Teacher Certification in 2014 and was a mentor for the 2016 and 2017 Teacher Apprentices. I am currently enrolled in a 500 YTT with Shiva Rae and will be offering Prana Flow next winter (2023). My leadership continues to grow as the Founder, Director and Co-Choreographer for Gypsy Diva’s Dance Troupe. We are beginning our 15th year as a revolving troupe, offering performances for local Festivals, Follies Fundraiser, Special Events and our own Collaborative Shows that use the Elements as themes. I have termed these shows ‘A Performance Art’, as they included ages 3- 63, Live Musicians, Acro-Yogis, Silks and other creative beings. Since 2011 I have been an integral part of NW Yoga Feast and have owned and operated Embody Studio for the Healing Arts in Sandpoint for the past three years.
There is an amazing Tribe of dancers here in Sandpoint and continues to build as my offerings broaden. Teaching 2-10 classes a week for the past 21 years, plus workshop offerings, co-creations & performances is a reflection of my dedication, love, passion and understanding of energy and our abilities to self-heal through movement. I want to honor the teachers that inspired my own inner awakenings & influenced my offerings; Vincent Arjuna Marti, Ya’Akov & Susannah Darling Khan, Michael Molin Skelton, Shiva Rea, Debbie Rosas, Ann Christiansen, Berta Kuhnel, Cosetta Romani and Carlos Rosas.
In the Spring of 2016 I retired from 15 years of teaching Nia and directed my energy into my own movement form called WildCore. This form was developed within the walls of my yurt, Moondance Sanctuary. All my years of studying the body, energy and healing through all the movements forms I have mentioned melding with my years as a Massage Therapist, Apprentice to Mother Nature, Energy Enthusiast, Shamanic Student and Yogi blossomed into a new style of class being offered with my own choreography and creative ways to express oneself in a safe container. The Wild within the WildCore represents what Gabrielle Roth termed ‘Wilderness Within’, when you think of the Wilderness there are parts of it we know and understand and other parts that are unknown and all of it holds the edge of mystery. I found over the years of teaching that giving permission to let go a little and open to our innate wildness in the dance may surprise us and shed light on a dormant seed living within. The word Core references the actual physical core of the human body, along with the core of who we each are as light beings, our belief systems, the Chakra system and all that we hold sacred.
Today, I continue to nurture WildCore in the many ways of new music, choreography, curiosity and exposure.
As WildCore grows, I enjoy balancing it with being a mother of an 18 year old son, a wife, friend and community lover. Each year I support the creation of NW Yoga Feast as a Ceremonialist, alter builder, performer and teacher. My dance troupe ‘Gypsy Divas’ is celebrating it’s 15th year as a performing group.
My well-spring of energy and ideas to continue my path as a conscious movement pioneer is full, and I am deeply grateful. As we all learn to love at deeper and deeper levels I sense the gradual shift of the ancient art of dance inspiring self-healing across the globe.
Learn more here!
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How are your powers of observation? Is there truly power in the act of observation?
Paying attention is the cornerstone of our existence, and if we are blessed with the gift of sight, we are peeking, peering, and poring over things all of the time.
But sight hasn’t always been ascendant. Just a few short centuries ago, hearing would’ve been considered the apex of our senses.
Vision has given us straight roads, tall buildings, and a cornucopia of art. We see into the future and the past, our dreams and memories are cinematic.
Sound, however, surrounds us. We are enveloped in a three dimensional realm of sound every moment of our lives. Sound provides the vibrational atmosphere that colors our existence from every angle.
With Covid receding somewhat into the background, and spring time springing across the land, it’s an interesting time to people-watch once again. I have been finding it very interesting to see what peoples faces look like without their masks.
Some of the artists at the school where I teach have only revealed their faces in the past few weeks so it’s like getting to know their true personalities for the first time.
Next time you are gazing at a random person or a group of people, try a little somatic thought experiment. See if you can imagine what the world feels like from inside their skin.
No matter how different their body type may be, regardless of what their lifestyle or cultural choices are, and irrespective of what they eat or how they spend their day, the fact is they are running around with the same set of senses that you have.
It’s actually a remarkable thing to really observe and put your attention on. There’s a deep commonality between all of us human creatures. We all have itches to scratch, spots that tickle, and spines that tingle.
And yet on the surface, we are all so different! It’s an odd thing to ponder when you’re really paying attention. We can be so different on the surface, and yet share a similar set of subjective feelings on the inside.
If nothing else, it will help you give someone the benefit of the doubt. You’re bound to encounter people who are for one reason or another not acting their best or not having their best day. And you know what it’s like to carry a feeling inside that you’re not ready to share with the world.
When that happens, ask yourself what’s going on inside you. You might find the answer surprises you!
Much love till next week 😉
M+
Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine
Sunday, April 30 @10am-12pm PT | 5-7pm UTC
Dance mystical poetry into motion for healing yourself and our collective, for creating an inner and outer revolution. Dance to harmonize with the Earth through a full-bodied, robust dancing that makes you fully ALIVE and activates the sacred in your body and in your relationships in this tremendously challenging and creative time to be alive.
