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From The Loft
 

Summer is in full swing at Earthdance, and the long days bring with them a flourishing of activity and fullness as Life spills itself everywhere. We invite you to check out our upcoming slate of programming below and come join us for one of the wonderful events being offered in the coming months. For this month’s loft, amidst this business and thriving of summer, we also pause to remember one of our smallest community members, as Christos Galanis shares news of our dear cat Izzy:

You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat animals. In the same way, you can tell a lot about a community by the way they care for our non-human kin, and the Earthdance community has shown, once again, that our values of creativity, love, and mutuality are extended to all members of our community, no matter how small or furry. These past few weeks we were aware that our beloved cat Izzy was nearing her end of days, and on-site residents did their best to make her comfortable and ease her into this transition as best they could. There was some debate as to what was best for her - whether to put her down at the vet and spare her suffering, or to let her end her life naturally, as she had lived it, roaming the fields and the farmhouse and surrounded by familiar faces. In the end, it was decided to let her transition take its course at her own pace, and this also gave the community time to fill her up with love and snuggles and to say their goodbyes. For such a small cat to survive in a rural area for eight years, surrounded constantly by woodland predators, you know Izzy was a fierce one, and I trust that her strong spirit would have wanted to go out on her own terms, listening to her own body, improvising when needed, and abiding by the spiraling seasons of Life. I only recently found out that Izzy had lived the first six years of her life on a farm in Iowa which was owned by community member Sean Kearney’s Aunt. Having adopted him there, Sean subsequently brought Izzy to Earthdance with him in 2015, where she adopted all of us, and ended up remaining with us for the rest of her days. 

Considering the turnover of staff at Earthdance, this made Izzy one of the longest ever consistent residents, and for many of us, it’s hard to remember a time when you wouldn’t see her prowling across the apple orchard by day, or meowing softly late at night as you walked back into the farmhouse from the sauna. On July 17th she finally slipped away, and on-site residents gathered for a memorial service where she was laid to rest on the land. A Dogwood tree was planted to mark the site, with everyone taking a turn to lay a stone down. Since then, I’ve collected dozens of photos of her from the community, some of which I’ll share at the end of this email. Blessings on her long and adventure-filled life, and I imagine I speak for the whole community in offering gratitude and praise for her presence in our lives and in our community, and the ways she touched so many of us. Go well, dear Izzy. xox

     - Christos Galanis

(Top Left) Sean bringing Izzy to Earthdance in 2015

(Top Right) Izzy being loved up

(Bottom Left) Izzy adorned and prepared for burial

(Bottom Right) The dogwood tree planted in Izzy's resting place

 
News & Updates
 
Loom Ensemble Performances Aug 4th - 5th

Join us the weekend of Aug 4th - 5th for live performances of Loom Ensemble’s “Tell Me How You Breathe”.

Loom Ensemble is bringing together a racially diverse team of professional dancers, musicians and theatermakers, to invite you into an outdoors experience of Dance Theater for Collective Liberation. Playful humor, live music, and beautiful storytelling help us lean in to meet these pressing issues.

EVENT DETAILS

  • Friday and/or Saturday options include:
  • Performance: 6pm – 7:30pm
  • Dinner: 7:30 – 8:30pm
  • CI Integration Jam: 8:30pm

*** These performances will be outside on the grass in our orchard. We have limited folding chairs. Please bring a blanket or camping chair to sit on and bug spray.

“Powerful and unique… Don’t miss it!” – Gulf News

“Loom Ensemble brings fresh ideas, inspires the local community and helps showcase the community’s talent.” – Art Kentro

More info here

Watch Earthdance’s interview with Loom Ensemble’s Raphael and Neva

 
Upcoming Programming
 
Resonance and Ritual - Single Day Options Available!
August 24-27, 2023

Singing together is a ritual, and song has been part of collective ritual practice across time and place. In Resonance and Ritual, we gather an emergent community to sing together and collaborate on ritual sound experiences co-created by participants and master teachers. Our workshops and shared practices include improvisational singing, folk songs, song circles, invocations, and musical embodiment. 

Weaving their Earthdance roots with a synchronous vision, Marie Ebacher, Emmett DeBeer Charno and Charlotte Malin come together as song leaders and space holders to generate this space. The event will feature local indigenous leader Evan Pritchard and master song leaders Onome and Elana Brody.

Schedule

Thursday: Evening welcoming circle, song share around the fire

Friday: Opening ritual and land acknowledgement; whole group singing experience from a master teacher; lunch; afternoon workshop from a master teacher; free time for community jams, community shares, and personal practice; evening song share around the fire. Single-day option available.

Saturday: Opening ritual and land acknowledgement; whole group singing experience from a master teacher; lunch; afternoon workshop from a master teacher; free time for community jams, community shares, and personal practice. Single-day option available.

Sunday: Group song and closing circle, group clean.

Facebook Event Page

MORE INFO
Nomadic College is returning to Earthdance! Registration Now Open (Limited Spots)
October 1 -14th, 2023

The NC is an itinerant school for the principle study and application of the Axis Syllabus. Rather than a festival, or celebration, The NC is what it’s title suggests, an intensive study context. The study of the AS is meant to empower the individual to defend and promote their own health and the health of those they might be responsible for, in other words to sponsor responsible autonomy.

Check out the Teachers:

Frey Faust / Nuria Bowart / Claire Reid

Check out parts one and two of Earthdance’s interview with Frey Faust

MORE INFO
Third Sunday Of The Month CI Jams at Earthdance
Class at 5, Potluck at 6:30pm, Jam at 7:30pm

The long-time tradition of weekly Sunday CI Jams has returned! Come for a class beforehand, or just for the jam. Stay for the sauna and potluck dinner! Registration not required.

Class: 5:00 – 6:30pm (rotating teachers)

Potluck: 6:30 – 7:30pm

Jam: 7:30 – 10:00pm

MORE INFO
 
Save The Date
 

Be sure to mark these dates in your calendar for our late-year offerings!


Queer Jam at Earthdance!!!

August 31st - September 3rd


Fall Jam at Earthdance!!!

October 19th - 24th, 2023


Mask Workshop: Archetypes and Metamorphosis Masquerade with Akil Apollo Davis

November 9th - 12th, 2023


Gratitude Jam at Earthdance!

November 23rd - 26th, 2023

 
Highlights
 

Summer Jam Kids Programming, by Malaika-Bittar Piekutowski (June 29 - July 5th, 2023)

The kids’ program this year at Earthdance was particularly wonderful, considering we had to adapt swiftly to poor air quality due to forest fires, several days of rain and wasps building nests in the kid’s dome. Everyone on the team demonstrated a great capacity to read the moving situation and skillfully improvise - how fitting for a bunch of contact improv dancers! 

In spite of the unpredictable weather and changing spaces, we offered the kids a wide array of activities: building picnic tables (that they then painted), planting flowers, dance parties, talent show, knifes and hatchets workshops, fairy walks in the woods, ultimate slip n’ slide, epic storytelling, time capsule and s’mores two nights in a row! Thanks to the staff’s fun and authentic presence, the kids and teens stayed engaged throughout the jam, allowing us to get to know them… which is really the best gift we could receive from them. At the end of the week we were already excited for next year’s summer jam. Thank you to all who contributed and supported the kids program. We had a blast.

Some beautiful moments with children at the Summer Jam - photos by Aurore Biry:

 

Photo montage of Izzy by various photographers over the years:

 
 
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252 Prospect St., Plainfield, MA 01070
(413) 634-5678
contact@earthdance.net

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