July 27 - August 17 SEEDS Festival (Somatic Experiments in Earth, Dance + Science).

Click Here for SEEDS Public Events: Performances, Public Discussions, Film Series, Land-Use Projects

July 27 - August 5
The Prayer of the Butterfly with Suprapto Suryodarmo. Usually, we are in the condition that we are alone and we are just seeing nature. Through moving we can bring back parts of our self and be a part of our environment.

July 27 - August 1
Introduction to Permaculture,Biodynamics and Ecological Consciousnes with Andrew Faust. Learn about Permaculture principles that can improve your quality of life. Simplify your needs and increase your sense of enjoyment in being alive.

August 1-3
Big Universe with Karen Nelson and Sue Schell With our moving senses and our imaginations as guide, we will inhabit the changing environments of the "in" and "out" of doors. Any kind of creative process necessarily involves commitment and relationship. Nature has patiently been coaxing us in this direction, extending all the way back and deep into childhood when play often involved physical conversations with nature. This workshop will weave together structures based in the forms of Authentic Movement, Contact Improvisation and Contemplative Dance Practice.

August 1 Performance: Kalaruci. Suprapto Suryodarmo. 8pm, $5

August 2 Performance: Land Mass. Daniel Lepkoff. 8pm, $5

August 3 - Movement Jam with Live Improvised Music. Featured Artist: Charlie Tockarz. 8:00 - 10:00 pm. Musicians are welcome to bring instruments to play after 10:00pm. $7-$10.

August 3 - 7, mornings
Pause with Karen Nelson. Working with "pause" pokes awareness into pleasantly habitual movement. It invites a deep look under the surface of the activity.

August 3 - 7, afternoons
Micro macro with the BodyCartography Project. We will investigate the relationships between body systems and earth system as a way to build empathy and understanding of the planet and to build movement with meaning for ourselves, our communities, and our art making practices.

August 4 – 10 Land Based Project: EARTHDANCE GATEWAY PROJECT Bruce Hooke. We will be building a welcoming gateway on the path to the Earthdance Farmhouse main entrance. One of the major materials used in the gateway will be rammed earth, which is an interesting "green" building material and also a material with interesting aesthetic potential. As much as possible, local materials will be used to build the gateway.

August 5 Panel Discussion: SCI ART. A panel on the nature of artistic and scientific collaborations. 8pm, by donation.

August 6 Film Series: Worldly and Otherworldly, 8pm, $5.

August 6 – 7 Interdisciplinary Project: Dirt and Digging: 2 days towards a 2h Performance
Claudia Wittmann This 2-day long workshop will prepare us for a 2-hour long performance during which we will use our hands to dig into soil. The work will focus on physical and emotional transformation, using butoh principles and some concepts and techniques drawn from the curriculum of Jerzy Grotowski.

August 6 – 7 Interdisciplinary Project: Three Miles an Hour Tamara Ashley. This workshop involves deep immersion in the landscape through walking, moving and perceiving. We will develop sensitive response to processes of bodies and landscapes: change, duration, erosion, deposition and exchange between landscape and performer. What emerges from the sustained investigation of the movement of the mind and body at three miles an hour?

August 7 Panel Discussion: BUILDING A MOVEMENT. 8pm, by donation.

August 7 - 10
The Western Massachusetts Moving Arts Festival. Intersecting with SEEDS, this year's focus is ecology, with intensives by Jennifer Monson, Transitions: From and To ; Arawana Hayashi, The Art of Making a True Move ; and Aaron Jessup; Re-Wilding

August 8 Performance: La Foret des Signes. Olivier Besson and Emanuelle Pepin..

August 9 Faculty Performances , Western Massachusetts Moving Arts Festival.

August 10 - 17
Opening to the Unknown with Chris Aiken and Andrew de L. Harwood. In the 10th anniversary of OTU , we will complete the decade by viewing dance improvisation through the lens of ecology and art.  Awareness, at its core, is rooted in perception of the self and the environment.  In this workshop we are particularly interested in ways in which artfulness is informed and enhanced through the layering of ecological awareness with poetic exploration. 

August 10 – 17 Land Based Project: DWELL: THE REWEAVING Mark Lakeman & Nalawalla DWELL: THE REWEAVING is a reunion of architecture and moving arts through functional, place-based ceremony. Together, over a week's time, we will weave a lasting nest-dwelling on the Earthdance campus from materials we harvest from the forest.

August 10 – 17 Interdisciplinary Project: Through Science to Somatics: Exploring the Physical Components of Thought Melinda Buckwalter, with science and somatic specialists
Single-Day Drop-Ins Welcome! In this week-long laboratory we'll engage in fieldwork with scientists from a variety of disciplines (e.g. botany, entomology, geology) in the woods, streams, and fields around Earthdance in pursuit of examples of physical components of thought which we'll further explore performatively in facilitation with somatics and movement investigators.

August 10 – 17 Interdisciplinary Project: Dancing with Forest: Open Experiments in Living Ecology. Terre Unité Parker and Kate Bailey. In Open Experiments , we blend forms, develop trust, and push the boundaries of performance. Through mind and body perspectives, both artistic and scientific, we move beyond awareness to living ecology. We create performance scores as an invitation for the environment to “speak” through us.

August 11, Panel Discussion: SOMATICS, AESTHETICS, AND ECOLOGY.  8pm, by donation.

August 12 Interdisciplinary Project: "Eco-moves for Kids" Curriculum Development Think-tank. Martha Eddy and Jane Vorburger. "Eco-moves for Kids" Curriculum Development Think-tank will give childhood educators an opportunity to discuss and explore potential lesson plans that would foster students' stewardship of the earth and social development via interdisciplinary coursework that combines creative movement with environmental science classes. This one-day training open to all is the culmination of an intensive three-day research think tank. This is a great opportunity for educators to engage in professional training. After the days work, there will be an evening panel discussion dedicated to education, ecology, and dance.

August 12 Panel Discussion: EDUCATION AND YOUTH: ECOLOGY AND EXPERIENTIAL ARTS. 8pm, by donation.

August 13 Panel Discussion: INSURRECTIONARY ECOLOGICAL PLACE-MAKING  & SYSTEMIC TRANSFORMATION.  1:30pm Lunchtime talk , by donation.

August 13 Film Series:: Moving Bodies, Moving Earth, 8pm, $5.

August 14 Interdisciplinary Project: Eco-systemic Cognition: Relational Presence and Dynamic Embodiment Marlon Barrios Solano. We will explore the many forms of metaphorical trade between dance, science, technology and religion in order to understand a very complex cognitive phenomenon: dance.  This practical workshop will be framed within the influential embodied cognition approach, the history of cybernetics and its "mind/body stories" and its impact in new dance practices.

August 15 Interdisciplinary Project: Soundscaping the Land Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren. Sounding the Landscape will investigate diverse ways of mapping noise in soundscape of the land in order to allow us to hear, to respond to, and move with that which we do not typically hear, and subsequently to re-imagine the moving body and its relation to the land.

August 16 SEEDS COMMUNITY DAY CELEBRATION: The SEEDS Celebration is an all-ages public celebration of our land and our festival's offerings. We will present a host of workshops, offerings, performances, and conversations on arts and ecology. This is a great day to stop by Earthdance see the fruits of the SEEDS we have planted. You are welcome to participate in the daytime workshops and showings, and come to our evening events.

August 16 Performance: Extending Infinitely Into Mystery, Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Stephen Yoshen, and Lani Nahele; Musician Peter Jones. 8pm, $10..

August 17 - Sunday Night Contact Improvisation Jam. Come one, come all to our ongoing third Sunday of the month Contact Jam. It's always fun, it's always different, and you never know who you'll end up dancing with. All levels of experience are welcome. The Jam begins at 7:30pm with a half hour led Warm-Up/Class leading into open dancing, $5-$10 sliding scale.

Sunday, August 17 - Community SING at Earthdance, Plainfield MA.Part songs from some of the world's great singing traditions taught by rote. Join song leader and choral director Penny Schultz for an evening of songs of beauty, humor, sadness and joy. 6:30-8:00 pm, followed by a pot luck supper. All ages and abilities welcome. $5/person (children free).

August 25 - 29 The 2nd Annual Harriet Tubman Healthy Living Conference. The Harriet Tubman Healthy Living Project deepens skills in ecological research, critical thinking, dance-making and physical health, contemplative practices, and intercultural communication.