This a call to radical lovers, magical creatures & imaginative dreamers!
We invite you to join this journey of collectively awakening our sensuous awareness through intimate & emergent discoveries.
For why just make our dreams into a reality when we could make our reality into a dream?
This year we weave our threads of imagination & inspiration together to create the tapestry of our container, shaping the sensual summer camp of our dreams.
Join the Sensual Wizard Camp edition!
An intimate space to Dance & Play for the new and old alike.
This is a gathering about play, vulnerability and building community rich in emotional, sensorial and erotic intelligence.
With a blend of embodiment, playful, sensuality and heartfelt connection, Touch&Play invites individuals to explore their authenticity and relational dynamics in safer and supportive spaces. It acknowledges that embracing life is not just about celebrating strengths and virtues, but also about acknowledging one’s limits, and shadows, fostering a holistic journey of self-discovery and growth.
DANCE & EMBODIMENT
CREATIVITY & EROS
SELF EXPRESSION & KINK
RELATIONSHIPS & COMMUNITY
Join us for EarthSing, a co-creative gathering of song, ritual, and embodiment. Our workshops and shared practices include improvisational singing, somatic practices, folk songs, song circles, invocations, and musical embodiment. Singing together in this way can open the heart, the voice, and get the creative channels flowing!
Singing together is a ritual, and song has been part of collective ritual practice across time and place. In this gathering, we will explore the capacity of the voice to connect us more deeply to ourselves, each other, and the land.
Each morning we will ground into our bodies and the earth through somatic practices and connection to land, followed by a group morning session with a master song leader. Throughout the day there will be workshops and jams from facilitators and community members, with encouraged flexibility for integration, play, and personal practice. The evenings will feature our collaborative rituals and fireside music jams.
Come sing and play together this Summer! Everyone is welcome, from experienced singers to complete beginners.
10% of our profits will go to Ohketeau Cultural Center, a Native founded and run cultural center in Western Mass.
We are looking for one or two master song leaders, as well as single workshop facilitators.
Please check out this form here, to learn more about the roles and apply by May 15th, 2024.
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:
$725 – Financially Wealthy
$600 – Financially Abundant
$500 – Financially Stable
$425 – Financially Coping
$375 – Financially Strained
$700 – Financially Wealthy
$575 – Financially Abundant
$475 – Financially Stable
$400 – Financially Coping
$350 – Financially Strained
$675 – Financially Wealthy
$550 – Financially Abundant
$450 – Financially Stable
$375 – Financially Coping
$325 – Financially Strained
$475 – Financially Wealthy
$350 – Financially Abundant
$250 – Financially Stable
$175 – Financially Coping
$125 – Financially Strained
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships, yet we’re excited to offer up to 3 E&A Discounts to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized. 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.
Apply Here! Application deadline is August 1st.
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 jam offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event offerings, and food during the event.
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.
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, event offerings, and food during the event.
You will have access to the event 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 event participants.
Refund available up to 14 days (August 1st) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After August 1st) 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.
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 participants.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
Emmett Charno is an educator, facilitator, interdisciplinary artist, performer, and producer bringing magic and play to everything they do. They create events and spaces that are committed to radical self expression and inclusion, especially for those often held in the margins. Emmett has been facilitating group vocal improvisation for over ten years, and has trained with master teachers Bobby McFerrin, Meredith Monk, and Rhiannon among others.
They create and collaborate on movement, vocal music, harp, looping, costume, and narrative installation. In the daytime, Emmett is a reading specialist in NYC teaching elementary school age children to read in private practice and in schools. In the nighttime, Emmett performs and produces interdimensional narrative drag and character based improvisational vocal looping. Emmett is passionate about science fiction, sex positivity, social justice, literacy, fairy houses, outsider art, and magic.
IG: @excessmaterials www.charnoeducation.org
Leela/Lu Kelley is a somatic practitioner, astrologer, ritualist, song catcher, and witch clown.
Leela brings a nurturing, creative, embodied, trauma-informed and playful energy to all her offerings, including workshops, rituals, and 1:1 work. She loves the intersection of deeply rooted somatic awareness with expansive states of magic and transformation. She has a background in contact improv, clowning, ritual performance, burlesque, and somatic healing.
Lu loves to sing and make sounds, to catch songs coming from the land as an act of reciprocity with Source. As part of the organizing team for EarthSing, she will be leading somatic/movement practices and facilitating song witchery.
You can learn more about her at leelakelley.net or IG @5th.house.venus
Marie/Murry is a song weaver, dream teacher, death doula, & cosmic clown. They paint space with ruminative, playful and etheric sonic strokes. Both a contact dancer & vocal improvisor, the union of movement and sound is at the core of their practice of somatic instrumentation.
Hailing from the Northeast woodlands of Western MA, Marie/Murry carries the gentle & fierce landscapes of the forest in her voice. Involved with several musical projects, most dear to her heart are Tender Spot, her witchpunk project, and Eerie Muse, her folk project, both streaming on Bandcamp. Marie/Murry’s passions include poetry, forest bathing, singing with the wind, dream interpretation, herbalism, queerness and clowning. Marie/Murry is part of the organizing team for EarthSing.
IG: @eyeblinktherefore
In this year’s Queer 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.
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:
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.
Apply Here! Application Deadline is September 5th.
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:
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.
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, Jam offerings, and food during the jam.
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.
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.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
Hi y’all, my name is Skins. He/him &they/them pronouns. I hold many identities as a shapeshifter. I’m a human multidimensional creature, ritualistic drag&burlesque performer, pleasure activist, massage therapist, dancer of&between worlds, somatic nerd, to name a few. I’m devoted to exploring my own&encouraging others to embrace their embodied intelligence, embodied wholeness, embodied lovability as your unique experience of being you!
We contain multitudes within these bodies. Accessing our wholeness, as a form of play, commitment, and reverence is a core value in my experience of being in my queer heart and body. I delight in witnessing and collaborating with others in their exploration of what enlivens, heals, and integrates their wholeness, pleasure, and embodied knowing.
Exploring the truth of all the wisdom we hold in these bodies is a direct act to abloish oppressive systems that aim to keep us separate from the power of what we hold in these bodies&separate from each other. I believe that being in queer movement spaces where we embody and explore our wholeness together is a form of resistance and empowerment, a form of liberation.
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.
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.
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.
The Brahe-Davis Method of Mask Explained
SHARE OUR FACEBOOK EVENT!
Reserve your spot for this special weekend 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.
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:
$850 – Financially Wealthy
$700 – Financially Abundant
$600 – Financially Stable
$525 – Financially Coping
$475 – Financially Strained
$825 – Financially Wealthy
$675 – Financially Abundant
$575 – Financially Stable
$500 – Financially Coping
$450 – Financially Strained
$800 – Financially Wealthy
$625 – Financially Abundant
$550 – Financially Stable
$475 – Financially Coping
$425 – Financially Strained
$450 – Financially Wealthy
$325 – Financially Abundant
$250 – Financially Stable
$175 – Financially Coping
$125 – Financially Strained
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships, yet we’re excited to offer up to 3 E&A Discounts to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized. 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.
Apply Here! Application deadline is May 10th.
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 jam offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
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.
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, Jam offerings, and food during the jam.
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 (May 10th) before the event less a $75 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.
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.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
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:
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
During this workshop, participants will investigate the possibilities of their bodies in their natural form, including floating, hanging, and various qualities of movement or stillness. As the exercises progress, customary societal and cultural behaviors will be removed, guiding dancers toward a state of bodily emptiness. At this point, without the constraints of old habits, the unconscious body can freely respond to its sensations, forces, and emotions. Dancers will be instructed to expand their range of movements to include the subtle body, the avant-garde body, the fading body, and the unleashed body.
More Information Soon!
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.
The Axis Syllabus© is a collection of information pertinent to the human body in motion. This information can be applied to any context of movement. It is an effort towards empowered self-sovereignty and informed choice-making with our bodies. Begun by Frey Faust, with contributions from members of the Axis Syllabus Research Meshwork, the information is reviewed and updated based on emerging, evolving understanding and research related to the moving body.
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:
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.
Apply Here! Application deadline is May 2nd.
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:
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.
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, workshop offerings, and food.
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.
Financially Wealthy – $875
Financially Abundant – $725
Financially Stable – $625
Financially Coping – $550
Financially Strained – $500
Financially Wealthy – $850
Financially Abundant – $700
Financially Stable – $600
Financially Coping – $525
Financially Strained – $475
Financially Wealthy – $825
Financially Abundant – $675
Financially Stable – $575
Financially Coping – $500
Financially Strained – $450
Financially Wealthy – $625
Financially Abundant – $500
Financially Stable – $400
Financially Coping – $325
Financially Strained – $275
Financially Wealthy – $600
Financially Abundant – $475
Financially Stable – $375
Financially Coping – $300
Financially Strained – $250
Financially Wealthy – $525
Financially Abundant – $450
Financially Stable – $350
Financially Coping – $275
Financially Strained – $225
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.
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.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
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 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.
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:
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.
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.
We guarantee it!
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.
We encourage folks to attend both the CI Training AND the COCO Jam – You will receive a $50 discount!
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:
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:
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.
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, Jam offerings, and food during the jam.
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.
Financially Wealthy – $1000
Financially Abundant – $850
Financially Stable – $700
Financially Coping – $625
Financially Strained – $575
Financially Wealthy – $975
Financially Abundant – $825
Financially Stable – $675
Financially Coping – $600
Financially Strained – $550
Financially Wealthy – $950
Financially Abundant – $800
Financially Stable – $650
Financially Coping – $575
Financially Strained – $525
Financially Wealthy – $700
Financially Abundant – $575
Financially Stable – $475
Financially Coping – $400
Financially Strained – $350
Financially Wealthy – $675
Financially Abundant – $550
Financially Stable – $450
Financially Coping – $375
Financially Strained – $325
Financially Wealthy – $650
Financially Abundant – $525
Financially Stable – $425
Financially Coping – $350
Financially Strained – $300
Financially Wealthy – $625
Financially Abundant – $500
Financially Stable – $400
Financially Coping – $325
Financially Strained – $275
Financially Wealthy – $600
Financially Abundant – $475
Financially Stable – $375
Financially Coping – $300
Financially Strained – $250
Financially Wealthy – $575
Financially Abundant – $450
Financially Stable – $350
Financially Coping – $275
Financially Strained – $225
Financially Wealthy – $450
Financially Abundant – $300
Financially Stable – $200
Financially Coping – $125
Financially Strained – $85
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.
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.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
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 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
