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 8th through 29th, 2026.
Event Categories: Major Event (left column)
Queer COCO Jam! with hosts Hilary Kennedy and Eddy Levin – REGISTER NOW!
Come join us to explore what it’s like to do CI in a community of queers.
We will shape the weekend together. Offerings from Hilary and Eddy can include Contemplative Dance Practice, sensory magic, play with costumes, drag, material for the spine, CI Basics and CI play.
This jam is open to all who self-identify as queer. A queer jam is aspirationally a space for queers to practice in a community in which they feel safe, seen and received by people who, while diverse, share some aligned ways of living and understanding the world. To us, being queer means living outside of the script of heteronormativity as it pertains to our bodies, our relationships, and our ways of navigating our lives. Living as queer people we commit to practices of listening, collective care, and honoring authenticity in our expressions and desires.
What is a CoCo Jam?
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 have hosts and some support staff, however the hosts may have less direct influence on the schedules, and they may have varying degrees of leadership or dance experience. Compared to the Seasonal jams, the workshop offerings and schedule will be more influenced by the participants 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?
Queer COCO Jam Details
- Attendance: An average of 15 – 40 people will attend this jam and is open to all movement levels & backgrounds.
- Jam Options: Full Jam. And, a Saturday Drop-In (Only if you have been to Earthdance Before).
- Newcomers: If you have never been to Earthdance, we ask that you only sign up for the Full Jam. This will allow us to better welcome and orient you to Earthdance.
- 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 Jam Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures.
- Arrival/Check-In: Thursday, September 18th from 4-7pm front of the Farmhouse. Dinner is 6-7pm.
- Opening Circle: Friday, September 19th 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, September 20th between 8-10am. Breakfast is 8-9am. Departure at 10pm day of.
- Closing Circle: Sunday, September 21st 12:30pm-1pm, Lunch 1-2pm.
- Final Clean: Sunday, September 21st at 2-3pm.
- Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, September 21st.
Our Fees Explained
Earthdance is a Public Charity that relies greatly on ticketing income to fulfill its Artistic, Cultural and Educational mission. We want to make our work available to folks with varying economic realities and offer a sliding scale payment for participation in most of our events. Please take a moment to reflect where you best fit on that scale. We ask everyone to stretch where they are able so that those who cannot may still have access to our events.
As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
- Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership(s), past, present and future.
- The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other marginalized intersections 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.
PRICING: Sliding Scale
GRATITUDE LODGE
$300 – Financially Strained to $700 – Financially Abundant
CAMPING
$275 – Financially Strained to $675 – Financially Abundant
COMMUTER
$250 – Financially Strained to $650 – Financially Abundant
SATURDAY DROP-IN
$250 – Financially Strained to $400 – Financially Abundant
Equity & Access Tickets
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.
Application Coming Soon!
Earthdance makes efforts to support Equity & Access at all its events, and we do this through:
- Reduced price Equity & Access tickets for folks who find our normal tickets to be a barrier. Participants self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized in CI are prioritized when allocating these tickets.
- An Accountability, Safety and Care (ASC) team that supports the processing of difficult situations that might come up in relation to consent, identity and other relational issues.
- Support from a BIPOC Team at our seasonal jams that hosts meals and supports offerings and affinity spaces based on BIPOC participants’ desires.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event offerings, sauna & quarry access, 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 cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, event offerings, sauna & quarry access, and food during the event.
Commuter
You will have access to the event offerings, sauna & quarry access, and 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 event participants.
Nine Mountain is NOT available.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (September 4th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (September 4th) 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.
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 participants.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
HOST BIOS
Hilary Kennedy
Hilary Kennedy is a dancer, chef and conceptual artist living on unceded Wabanaki land, in the hilltowns of Western Massachusetts. She has worked within the fields of experimental dance and somatics for over 17 years. Her practice and performance work weave together magic, buddhist meditation, qigong, authentic relating, and prayer. She is grateful to have worked with teachers such as Deborah Hay, Anna Halprin, Lisa Nelson, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Sara Shelton Mann, and more. Her approach to CI includes physical fundamentals such as spirals, fascial connection, and material for the spine, as well using the practice as a place for self-awareness, generosity, and play. She has practiced CI in California, Latin America, NYC, Berlin, British Columbia, and Western Mass. She brings together qualities from all these places into her teaching.
BA in Dance 2010 Colorado College; Tamalpa Life/Art Practitioner 2014; Body Mind Centering Practitioner (in progress)
Eddy Levin
Eddy is a dance and sound artist, facilitator, body worker, farmer and transwitch from Tkaronto/Toronto, living in Greenfield, MA, the land of the Nipmuc, Pocumtuc and Wabanaki Confederacy people. Before recently relocating to Greenfield, Eddy was living in Berlin for 8 years spending their time facilitating d.i.y arts residencies, community spaces and workshops, dancing for vocation and for pleasure, various kinds of care work, drumming as a choreographic and spiritual practice, and thinking / making with an array of artists such as Tone F Pony, Inky Lee, An* Neely, Danielle Magee and Coral Short. They have danced and collaborated with Maria Scaroni, Marga Alfeirão, Sara Shelton Mann, and Pepper Fisher and their dancing has been influenced by teachers Sigal Zouk, Shannon Cooney, Benoît Lachambre, Maya M. Carroll and Peeps.
They love somatic practices that play with and challenge ways of relating and are committed to continuing to learn about and confront how systems of oppression affect each of us differently. They care about how to recover connection and consciousness of interconnectivity and use ritual, improvisation and play as practices of liberation.
Other teachers: the earth and lessons from being a new farmer, being trans and the technologies and medicines that come along with this fabulous reckoning, meditating and Buddhist teachings, human emotions, the body holding a hilarious accumulation of content to digest and express and pass through !
Interdisciplinary Fine Art (BA) Nova Scotia College of Art and Design; Tanzfabrik´s Dance Intensive program (Berlin); Pantarei Somatic Bodywork (Berlin); Emotional CPR Trainer.
Build & Connect: A-Frame Tiny Home Workshop with the Permatours – REGISTER NOW!
Join us in the beautiful Berkshire hills of Western Massachusetts to learn construction skills, build community, and dance!
Over four days here at Earthdance, you’re invited to help construct two simple A-frame structures that will provide housing for workshop instructors, staff, and visitors. This is an opportunity to gain practical experience in tiny home building while forming meaningful connections, sharing nutritious meals, and celebrating with music and movement.
What You’ll Learn
- Construction Basics: Tool safety, site preparation, framing, and roofing.
- Sustainable Building Techniques: Working with rough-sawn lumber, and wood protection without toxic chemicals.
- Tiny Home Design & Construction: Building elevated platforms (yurt-style), running layouts for floor joists and roof rafters, A-frame roof construction, and installing doors & windows.
Schedule
📍 Thursday, July 24 – Arrival & Orientation
- Arrival & Onsite Check-In: 4–7pm (Front of the Farmhouse)
- Dinner: 6–7pm
- Intro Session: 8–10pm
📍 Friday, July 25 – First Full Build Day
- Self-Organized Breakfast with ED Staff: 8–9am
- First Session: 10am–1pm
- Lunch: 1–2pm
- Second Session: 3–6pm
- Dinner: 6–7pm
- Contact Improv Basics Class & Jam (with ED Staff): 8–10pm
📍 Saturday, July 26 – Drop-In Day & Celebration
- Self-Organized Breakfast with ED Staff: 8–9am
- First Session: 10am–1pm
- Lunch: 1–2pm
- Second Session: 3–6pm
- Dinner: 6–7pm
- Ecstatic Dance with DJ TreeJ: 8–10pm
📍 Sunday, July 27 – Final Build & Departure
- Self-Organized Breakfast: 8–9am
- Final Build Session: 10am–1pm
- Lunch: 1–2pm
- All House Clean with ED Staff: 2–3pm
- Departure: After 3pm
Our Fees Explained
Earthdance is a Public Charity that relies greatly on ticketing income to fulfill its Artistic, Cultural and Educational mission. We want to make our work available to folks with varying economic realities and offer a sliding scale payment for participation in most of our events. Please take a moment to reflect where you best fit on that scale. We ask everyone to stretch where they are able so that those who cannot may still have access to our events.
As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
- Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership(s), past, present and future.
- The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other marginalized intersections 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.
PRICING: Sliding Scale
Gratitude Lodge: $151 to $495
Camping: $111 to $444
Commuting: $91 to $421
Saturday Drop-in Day: $61 to $151
***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.***
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event offerings, and food arrangements.
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 on Earthdance land, event offerings, and food arrangements. You will need to bring your own camping gear.
Drop-In Day Tickets
You will have access to the event offerings and food arrangements, no overnight accommodations.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (July 10th) before the event less a $40 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After July 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 the cancellation date.
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.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
PERMATOURS INSTRUCTORS
Brendan McBrier
Brenden McBrier grew up in Denver, Colorado and always dreamed of building his own home and living surrounded by nature. In his younger years, he spent an ample amount of time outdoors having connection with the Earth in his mother’s garden. He started his building career learning about different natural building techniques after high school.
Attending the Earthship Biotecture Academy in Uruguay, South America was a catalyst towards that dream. Permaculture became his main focus years later as a lifestyle and career choice: uplifting and putting energy toward a life of growing food in symbiosis with the surrounding ecosystem. Combining the two passions with building livable greenhouses brought Regenerative Retrofits LLC to life in 2020. Now based in South Burlington, the green dream continues forward for him, sharing innovative ways and building with nature. (Yestermorrow, Regenerative Retrofits, & Permatours)
Scott Guzman
Scotty is a natural builder, compost educator, inventor, and farmer with a degree in chemical engineering from W.P.I. and 10 years of experience in the world of cooperative business. He is the founder of Diggers Cooperative, a local Maine compost and permaculture design business, and a co-founder of Permatours, a permaculture education non-profit organization.
Through collaboration with Permatours and several other highly skilled educators, Scotty is helping build an online education platform to share educational content on various topics such as building science 101 and Hempcrete. With a current focus on yurt construction professionally, Scotty is bringing his yurt energy to this A-frame design/build workshop by being a voice for simplicity, strength and function.
PERMATOURS EVENT AGREEMENTS
We value active participation in all facets of Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share.
We treat the land and all beings with love and respect.
We do not tolerate hate language, discrimination, or violence of any kind.
We support an accessible and equitable environment for all beings.
Equality is not an assumption, and we strive to promote equitable access.
Consent is required for all: commitments (including time/energy expectations),
verbal interactions, physical contact, emotional support, desire for intimacy, etc.
We encourage curiosity to be a leader against assumptions.
We support the use of the acronym FRIES to share concisely that consent is:
F – freely given
R – reversible
I – informed
E – enthusiastic
S – specific
Permatours is dedicated to holding containers (intentional spaces) that remain free of alcohol, powders, pills, and gasses. Your presence, in times of joy and difficulty, is welcome here!
We support a space of interdependence, and mutual aid. We trust that when we arrive and are able to do for ourselves what we can, with the interstanding we may not be able to do everything, we are better aligned to receive the aid we truly need, and aid others in areas of their needs. Building mutually beneficial relationships and working together in symbiosis are key aspects of being able to thrive physically, emotionally, and spiritually, as a community.
We support a space of radical self-reliance, encouraging everyone to show up able to meet most, if not all, of their own needs. The community is here to support them when/if needed.
We observe the 4 Agreements, with the inclusion of the 5th agreement, by Don Miguel Ruiz.
1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don’t take anything personally.
3. Don’t make any assumptions.
4. Always do your best.
5. Be skeptical, but learn to listen.
Radical Resonance: A Workshop in Butoh Dance with Julie Becton Gillum – Register Now!
A Workshop in Butoh
During this workshop, participants will investigate movement and stillness by exploring the body’s natural anatomical potential, including floating, hanging, and strings. Exercises from Noguchi Taiso water body practice and aspects of butoh will help remove customary societal and cultural behaviors, guiding dancers toward bodily emptiness. Without the constraints of old habits, the unconscious body can freely respond to sensations, forces, and states of emotions to become a fully expressive body.
Dancers will be instructed with lessons to expand their range of movements, including subtle, unrestrained, fading, animal, and revolutionary.
Description of the Indescribable Butoh
Originating in post-WWII Japan, butoh is a potent and revolutionary dance form. Butoh uses the body brazenly as a battleground to attain personal, social, or political transformation. In its early forms, butoh embraced and referenced Western artistic movements: German Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Existentialism, and Fluxus, all of which pervaded the Tokyo underground and the avant-garde art scene at that time.
The co-founders of butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata, and Kazuo Ohno trained in German Modern dance, which was integral to the development of German Expressionism. But, eventually, they took opposite approaches to their dance-making. Hijikata’s work became known as ankoku butoh (dance of utter darkness); he embraced the grotesque and the absurd, exploring themes of sacrifice, struggle, and death. Ohno’s butoh was playful, humorous, and filled with light and life. Today’s butoh is influenced by both Hijikata and Ohno and wrestles to balance those contrary approaches.
Like many other Japanese concepts, butoh is defined by its very evasion of definition. It is both theatre and dance, yet it follows no choreographic conventions. It is a subversive force, through which traditions are overturned. As such, it must exist somewhere on the social periphery. It is a popular spectacle, unlike the classical theatre of Noh with its elaborate gestures. Yet it is esoteric. It is a force of liberation, especially within the conformist Japanese social structure, yet it is born out of extreme discipline. In a culture of exceptional visual harmony, it employs a vocabulary of ugliness.
SHARE OUR FACEBOOK INVITE!
Arrival Check-In, Opening Circle and Departure
- Arrival/Onsite Check-In: Participants will check-in at the front of the Farmhouse from 4-7pm on Thursday, September 4th. Dinner from 6-7pm.
- Opening Circle: Friday, September 5th at 10 am. All participants are asked to attend.
- Closing Circle: Sunday, September 7th at 12:30pm. Lunch 1-2pm.
- Final Group Clean: Sunday, September 7th from 2-3pm
- Departure: Sunday, September 7th by 3pm.
Our Fees Explained
Earthdance is a Public Charity that relies greatly on ticketing income to fulfill its Artistic, Cultural and Educational mission. We want to make our work available to folks with varying economic realities and offer a sliding scale payment for participation in most of our events. Please take a moment to reflect where you best fit on that scale. We ask everyone to stretch where they are able so that those who cannot may still have access to our events.
As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
- Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership(s), past, present and future.
- The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other marginalized intersections 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.
PRICING: Sliding Scale
GRATITUDE LODGE
$400 – Financially Strained to $800 – Financially Abundant
CAMPING
$375 – Financially Strained to $775 – Financially Abundant
COMMUTER
$350 – Financially Strained to $750 – Financially Abundant
Equity & Access Tickets
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.
Earthdance makes efforts to support Equity & Access at all its events, and we do this through:
- Reduced price Equity & Access tickets for folks who find our normal tickets to be a barrier. Participants self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized in CI are prioritized when allocating these tickets.
- An Accountability, Safety and Care (ASC) team that supports the processing of difficult situations that might come up in relation to consent, identity and other relational issues.
- Support from a BIPOC Team at our seasonal jams that hosts meals and supports offerings and affinity spaces based on BIPOC participants’ desires.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event offerings, sauna & quarry access, 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 cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, event offerings, sauna & quarry access, and food during the event.
Commuter
You will have access to the event offerings, sauna & quarry access, and 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 event participants.
Nine Mountain is NOT available.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (August 21st) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (August 21st) 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.
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 participants.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
HOST BIO
Julie Becton Gillum, artistic director of the 14-year-running Asheville Butoh Festival, has been creating, performing, and teaching dance in the US, Europe, Asia, and Mexico for over 40 years. She has practiced butoh for 27 years. Gillum was awarded the 2008-09 North Carolina Choreography Fellowship and used the funds to travel to Japan to study Butoh.
Julie is currently training and performing in Japan with Saga Kobayashi, Moe Yamamoto, Mari Osanai, Seisaku, and Yuri Nagaoka. On February 18, she performed with Katsura Kan at a festival in Kyoto at the URBANGUILD.
Since 2019, Gillum has been active in India, Serbia, Georgia, Greece, Mexico, and the USA. Recent performances at the Amsterdam Butoh Festival (October 2023), Seattle Butoh Festival (November 2023), NYU Abu Dhabi Art Museum (February 2024), UNFIX Festival in NYC (May 2024) were well received.
Julie’s most influential mentors in butoh have been: Anzu Furukawa, Diego Piñon, Yoshito Ohno, Natsu Nakajima, and Seisaku. Noguchi Taiso has become equally important for Gillum whose studies with Mari Osanai and Emre Thormann have refined her practice. She has guided butoh for 25 years and Noguchi Taiso for 10 years.
Femina Kinetica with Valerie Sabbah – Registration Coming Soon!
This container offers an immersive time and space to engage with contact-improvisation as a powerful gateway for getting closely acquainted with your personal physiology and kinetics. Carefully curated sessions will blend theoretical knowledge of female biomechanics with the playful study of weight, gravity, momentum and connecting with moving bodies, notorious to contact-improvisation.
Your body, in this context, becomes the landscape and architecture for a deliberate and precise self-study, a deepening of your contact-improvisation practice and a greater understanding of your female body.
Although assembled as a deep solo study, the female-body group container of femina.kinetica.ci will naturally give rise to essential collective insights. This support will lead your solo towards the pathways of optimizing a heightened and autonomous lucidity of expressiveness, efficiency and creativity within your contact-improvisation dance.
femina.kinetica.ci leverages the benefits of a female-body container to deepen the study of the female body in motion. It is specifically designed for those with anatomical female bodies, creating a nurturing and empowering environment that highlights the diversity, strength, and fluidity inherent in the female body form. The shared experience of like-bodied participants enriches the learning process, enabling a deeper, collective exploration of movement that is tailored specifically to female biomechanics.We hope this to be a nourishing and liberating experience for those who hold a female-anatomy-body. With the femina.kinetica.ci container offering an exclusive focus on the female anatomy in contact-improvisation, cis-men, are asked to not attend this event.
What to Expect
Welcome to Femina Kinetica—a four-day deep dive into the female body in motion. This workshop invites participants into an intimate and expansive practice space where we’ll explore Contact Improvisation through the lens of female anatomy, lived experience, and somatic intelligence.
- Embodied study and discussions on feminine biomechanics.
- Daily somatic movement classes rooted in Material for the Spine, Tuning Scores, and embodied female anatomy.
- Contact Improvisation practices that honor weight, momentum, and deep listening.
- Guided partnering, solo research, and group constellations.
- Improvisational scores, evening jams, and spontaneous composition.
- Early morning silent forest walks exploring foot-to-floor responsiveness, followed by sauna and quarry plunges.
- A like-bodied container for anatomical female bodies, held with care, creativity, and mutual respect.
- A balance of rigorous physicality, emotional spaciousness, quietude, and collective insight.
Arrival Check-In, Opening Circle and Departure
- Arrival/Onsite Check-In: Participants will check-in at the front of the Farmhouse from 4-7pm on Thursday, September 11th. Dinner from 6-7pm.
- Opening Circle: Friday, September 12th at 10 am. All participants are asked to attend.
- Closing Circle: Sunday, September 14th at 12:30pm. Lunch 1-2pm.
- Final Group Clean: Sunday, September 14th from 2-3pm
- Departure: Sunday, September 7th by 3pm.
Our Fees Explained
Earthdance is a Public Charity that relies greatly on ticketing income to fulfill its Artistic, Cultural and Educational mission. We want to make our work available to folks with varying economic realities and offer a sliding scale payment for participation in most of our events. Please take a moment to reflect where you best fit on that scale. We ask everyone to stretch where they are able so that those who cannot may still have access to our events.
As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
- Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership(s), past, present and future.
- The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other marginalized intersections 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.
PRICING: Sliding Scale
GRATITUDE LODGE
$400 – Financially Strained to $800 – Financially Abundant
CAMPING
$375 – Financially Strained to $775 – Financially Abundant
COMMUTER
$350 – Financially Strained to $750 – Financially Abundant
Equity & Access Tickets
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! Applications Due September 4th
Earthdance makes efforts to support Equity & Access at all its events, and we do this through:
- Reduced price Equity & Access tickets for folks who find our normal tickets to be a barrier. Participants self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized in CI are prioritized when allocating these tickets.
- An Accountability, Safety and Care (ASC) team that supports the processing of difficult situations that might come up in relation to consent, identity and other relational issues.
- Support from a BIPOC Team at our seasonal jams that hosts meals and supports offerings and affinity spaces based on BIPOC participants’ desires.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event offerings, sauna & quarry access, 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 cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, event offerings, sauna & quarry access, and food during the event.
Commuter
You will have access to the event offerings, sauna & quarry access, and 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 event participants.
Nine Mountain is NOT available.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (August 28th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (August 28th) 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.
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 participants.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
HOST BIO
Valerie Sabah
Valerie Sabbah is a Montreal-based choreographer, teacher, and psychosomatic dance therapist. Her 18-year Contact-Improvisation practice and research draws specifically from FIGURE SPACE, a 4 year-training with Steve Paxton (Material for the Spine) and Lisa Nelson (The Tuning Score). This profound training has reshaped her approach to viewing the body in motion, embracing a 360-degree and spherical perspective that captivates her curiosity about the body’s natural reflexes and how the body will or will not respond in states of perceived urgency.
At the heart of Montreal’s Contact-Improvisation scene, she curates dynamic C.I. programming. Her offerings include varied-level weekly classes, engaging jams, and master class intensives featuring celebrated guest teachers like Mark Young, Kristen Lewis, and Stu Philipps.
Attuned to guiding women toward grounding back into their bodies and developing personal strength, as a somatic psychotherapist, Valerie’s sessions weave together Contact-Improvisation, BMC, Cranio-Sacral Therapy, and Art-Therapy. With as her focus, her movement therapy work encourages women to anchor themselves in their physicality and cultivate resilience and autonomy. She guides women to ground themselves in their bodies, develop resilience, and anchor their personal strength.
Intrigued by the essence of spontaneous composition, Valerie explores how performance environments can deepen the practice of Tuning, promoting an intense, embodied experience that enhances creativity through the body’s innate survival instincts. She instinctively creates fertile playgrounds for artists to meet, gather, create, collaborate, and showcase their work. Her curatorial approach proposes a highly visual and surrealistic universe, centered on the expression of the female body: stereotypes, clichés, oppression, the feminine, the wild, and the infinitely complex and multifaceted forms it can take.
Currently, Valerie’s research in Contact Improvisation focuses on how intimate familiarity with one’s biomechanics and unique structural nuances can transform the Contact-Improvisation dance into playful, rigorous, and expansively responsive state. She is captivated by how understanding your own body’s interactions with gravity, space, and other moving bodies can revolutionize personal expression within the art form.
Her workshops and classes are designed to be immersive experiences, where participants are encouraged to explore their boundaries and develop a nuanced appreciation of their own bodies in motion.
Deeply dedicated to psychosomatic wellness, her teaching approach resonates with profound societal themes. She advocates for healing through movement and self-expression, inviting individuals to delve into her world of motion, emotion, and transformation, whether through teaching, therapeutic sessions, or artistic projects.
Nomadic College 2025 – Registration Now Open!
NOMADIC COLLEGE @ EARTHDANCE
Nomadic College is returning to Earthdance again this year! The opportunity to intensely study the Axis Syllabus for one to two weeks is a wonderful chance to dive deep into all that the Axis Syllabus has to offer. With teachers from both Europe and North America, this is the only Nomadic College taking place in the Western Hemisphere for this calendar year.
About The Nomadic College:
The Nomadic College is an itinerant school for the principle study and application of The Axis Syllabus. Rather than a festival, or celebration, the Nomadic College is what its title suggests; an intensive study context.
Our Philosophy is: Conscientiousness towards commitments, self organization and voluntary participation. As below, so above.
As organizers, we seek to adapt and integrate the Nomadic College into the local conditions we find at the venue. The living and working conditions we search for are as low cost as possible, to permit as many people as possible to participate for as long as possible. These options usually entail communal living, which offers an opportunity to practice practical coordination & collaboration, mutual respect, and the mature maintenance of hygiene. Participants arrive with the awareness that they are expected to take initiative to alter their circumstances if unsatisfactory, to conserve their health and strength for the intensive demands of the study of The Axis Syllabus, and adapt to the challenges inherent in sharing spaces and resources. If people have the means, they are always welcome to organize living spaces for themselves.
At the Nomadic College, we organize a few pre-scheduled extra curricular events. Our idea is to leave time open for spontaneous initiatives. Alternative meetings, conferences, jams, or performances can be organized on a consent basis with/among the participants during the Nomadic College.
SCHEDULE: WEEK ONE – SOUL FUSION
September 27th to October 2nd
WEEKLY SCHEDULE:
Breakfast: 7:00 to 8:30
Session 1: 9:00 – 11:00
Session 2: 11:15 – 1:15
Open mentoring space 9:00 – 1:15
Lunch 1:30 to 2:30
Session 3: 3:15 – 5:15
Session 4: 5:30 – 7:30
Dinner 7:30 – 8:30
Class Descriptions:
Week One:
You Got This
teacher: Frey Faust
Yes, you do! 70,000 or more muscle fibres, bedded in a web of tensile connection and endless nervous sensors, capable of re-bundling and responding intelligently to any context, even to the unforeseen. 206 bones offering 900 synovial joint surfaces that in collaboration with the fascial meshwork, can reorganise and channel enormous forces in, through and onwards, transforming the potential danger of a fall into joyous, million-year old celebration of gravity. In preparation for two weeks of intense dancing, this class offers an in depth review of the body’s common heritage in all it’s endless variation, as drawn from the latest and 6th edition of The Axis Syllabus©, Volume One.
Circular Pathways
teacher: Claire Turner Reid
Explore sequential movement as it relates to clear circulation through our structure. Map and sense major thoroughfares that provide tunnels and highways for our precious fluids to circulate through. How might sequential spirals invite enlivening blood paths for easy flow and invigorated tissues? As we play with communication between our masses and articulating surfaces, we will bring our movement choices into relationship with our blood. Connect to the pathways of our pulses for soft circular sequencing, collaboratively working with the patterned miracle of our design.
Creation Now!: Tracing Gesture – Choreographing Meaning
teacher: Karola Luttrinhaus
This two day workshop focuses on the personal and inter-relational aspects of embodied creativity. Through moving intuitively and verbalising our experiences, we find belonging in spontaneity. Working with the idea of tracing our gestures, we will explore solo and duet formats that invite us to wildly distill meaning from our movement, and movement from our meanings. We tap into the membrane between the conscious and the subconscious to invite movement, poems, and conversational texts to emerge that bear witness to the beautiful and powerful interconnectedness of moving and thinking.
A Tapestry of Relational Circuits of Interdependence
Complex Movement Puzzles
teacher: Kerwin Barrington
Let’s explore some Axis Syllabus principles by relating them to the living organisation that is a movement phrase. Through a series of Fractals (self-similar movement patterns on a smaller/different scale), we will take time to move with and find new variants of these principles as we integrate/embody them. By way of this process, we will learn about the whole phrase through it’s very own parts, then eventually take these parts back to the whole. Like tapestry, we will weave together a multiplicity of variations of the original pattern, and in doing so, make it our own.
Reaching towards the Earth and Sky: the Logic of Support
teacher: Nuria Bowart
We all need support as we go through life. In this class we will practice dancing from the ground up, keying into the many systems that are already designed to support us as we move, and checking to insure the synergetic behaviour of our body’s masses.
- Hands and Feet
- Spine
- Tensegrity expressed the Fascial network
- Physical principles as they suggest vectors to harnessing the energy of our falls
SCHEDULE: WEEK TWO – KINETIC KINSHIP
October 4th to 9th
WEEKLY SCHEDULE:
Breakfast: 7:00 to 8:30
Session 1: 9:00 – 11:00
Session 2: 11:15 – 1:15
Open mentoring space 9:00 – 1:15
Lunch 1:30 to 2:30
Session 3: 3:15 – 5:15
Session 4: 5:30 – 7:30
Dinner 7:30 – 8:30
Class Descriptions:
WEEK TWO:
Playful Discoveries: A Study in Collective Intelligence
teacher: Nuria Bowart
“We are multiple and singular intelligences. Which one you are is determined by how you move your attention.” Nita Little 2025
Through the use of various games and scores, this class will involve some serious play! Together we will practice collective strategies for “success” and “failure”. Through movement play together, we will work to identify and expand our zone of adaptability while look for ways to find “success” in every moment. We will be working in duos, trios and larger groups.
This class aims to:
- Expand proprioception
- Tune intero/exteroception
- Practice moving between being one and many
Up and Falling UP!
teacher: Frey Faust
Here we will check runway options, landing gear integrity and propulsion system power output efficiency and energy conservation. Roll-through, vault, slingshot, catapult, and micro compensation motion for macro rebound! Flight ready?
Made of the Same Stuff
teacher: Dan Bear Davis
This workshop moves in the studio and out into the moving landscapes of the breathing, pulsing earth around us. We explore the human body in context of the winding contours and branching intelligences that we evolved with. We are made of the same stuff. Engaging nature as collaborator and teacher invites an intimacy with our own possibilities. This workshop will span from the contemplative to the dynamic. We will explore counterbalance, hanging support, three-dimensional architectures, spinal wrapping and contouring, and so much more.
Dialectical Cycles
teacher: Claire Turner Reid
We will test the proposal that by fully committing ourselves to the opposite of our aim, we might accomplish greater success. Go back in order to go forward. We will play with laws of physics, principles from Taijiquan and Taoist philosophy to inform this dance. We will apply ourselves to the progressive process of movement. Enjoy a refinement of nuance and subtlety in order to invite virtuosity. While attempting to hold the frame of locomotion as a great cyclical wave, we will stretch our minds’ and bodies’ ability to orient towards complexity – not through pushing, but through understanding. Parsing out phases of movement in opposition and in relation to a whole cycle, we will hone our agility within processes of landing and launching, reception and propulsion, lead and lag, undulations and oscillation. Can we allow ourselves to enter the dialectic with such awareness that we feel we might slow down time and escape earth’s gravity?
NOTE!!!! OPEN MENTORING SPACE
The open mentoring space will be available to all NC participants without further charge. Facilitators will be on hand to answer questions, give counsel or feedback
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Axis Syllabus Lab Classes
Tuesday 30th September 3:15 to 5:15
Wednesday 1st October 3:15 to 5:15
Sharing: informal performance opportunity for NC participants
Wednesday October 8th 9:00 to 10:00pm
After-Dinner Closing Celebration!
Thursday October 9th
If you have any questions about Nomadic College classes or registration please contact Kerwin at nomadiccollege.americas@gmail.com
If you have any questions about Earthdance accomodations, food, or work-exchange opportunities please contact Olive at site@earthdance.net
Being With: The Axis Syllabus with Claire Turner Reid and Kerwin Barrington – REGISTER NOW!
In this workshop we will explore Being With our bodies through dance.
Being as living, bringing forth, and causing to grow.
And With-ness as a multiplicity of potential in relating – that being in relationship can include to oppose, vary, or unify.
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 rhythm, collective groove, unison, spontaneity, variation, and heart perception 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 collective mapping. Join us as we delve into ways of calling forth the wisdom of the body through shared dance experiences.
What is The Axis Syllabus©?
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.
Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures.
- Arrival/Check-In: Thursday, May 15th from 4-7pm front of the Farmhouse. Dinner is at 6-7pm.
- Opening Circle: Thursday, May 15th after dinner at 7:30pm.
- Closing Circle: Sunday, May 18th in the evening after the last session.
- Breakfast/Final Clean: Breakfast on Monday, May 19th at 8-9am, Final Clean 9-10am.
- Departure: Monday, May 19th by 11am.
Our Fees Explained
Earthdance is a Public Charity that relies greatly on ticketing income to fulfill its Artistic, Cultural and Educational mission. We want to make our work available to folks with varying economic realities and offer a sliding scale payment for participation in most of our events. Please take a moment to reflect where you best fit on that scale. We ask everyone to stretch where they are able so that those who cannot may still have access to our events.
As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
- Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership(s), past, present and future.
- The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other marginalized intersections 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.
PRICING: Sliding Scale
GRATITUDE LODGE
Financially Strained $500.00 to Financially Abundant $975.00
CAMPING
Financially Strained $475.00 to Financially Abundant $950.00
COMMUTER
Financially Strained $450 to Financially Abundant $925.00
INTERNATIONAL DISCOUNT
Earthdance is happy to announce a 20% discount for international travelers wanting to attend an Earthdance run event. We hope this gesture helps to keep our events accessible for those from different cultures that are traveling from afar. We also realize that given the current political situation coming to the US might be more expensive or challenging and hope this discount is a way of keeping Earthdance in your hearts.
Equity & Access Tickets
We are excited to offer up to 3 FULL Equity & Access Discounts to individuals who have a financial need. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge and prioritize such individuals when granting these discounted tickets.
Apply Here! Deadline is May 8th, 2025
Earthdance makes efforts to support Equity & Access at all its events, this event offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
- Reduced pricing offered to people with a financial need and self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized.
- Classes and discussions that aim to presence awareness and inclusion at the event as a whole.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event 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, event offerings, and food.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to the event offerings and 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 event participants.
Nine Mountain
Nine Mountain is not available.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (May 1st) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After May 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 the cancellation date.
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 jam participants.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
HOST BIOS
Kerwin Barrington
Over the past 17 years, I have facilitated dance experiences in a variety of contexts, where I encourage a main focus of exploring new ways of understanding the body in movement through the knowledge that it already holds. Certified to teach the Axis Syllabus, I have been in alliance with its Research Network (ASRM) for over 10 years and am inspired by the pedagogical philosophy of learner centered learning which is inherent to its community. I hold a Master’s degree in dance from 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. These days, I am driven by the curiosity of how tradition, ancestry, territory and music live inside my dance and the dance I share with others.
Claire Turner Reid
Claire is a movement artist and educator in 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.
Grieving Ourselves Whole: Exploration of Grief Through Embodiment, Song, and Ritual with Chaya Leia Aronson and Kaitlyn Cronin
We invite you to join us for three days and nights of tending the sacred waters of our e-motions, through ritual, movement, and song. We gather at Earthdance, a beloved place to many and has become home to a lineage of ever-evolving grief work.
Coming together to move, sing, and feel has great power to connect us more deeply to our wholeness and purpose, opening the door to the unique and necessary ways our Soul can contribute to healing on this planet.
If we think of grief as an expression of our love, we remember that grief is one powerful facet of the human experience, inextricably woven with growth, play, pleasure and joy. Rage might arise too. If grief is an expression of love, then rage is an expressed need for a boundary. So let us come together and stoke the sacred fire of our longing, belonging, grief, rage, repressed resentment, hope, fear, and so much more.
Dancing the Landscape with Frieda Kipar Bay and Dana Iova-Koga – New Dates – May 26th – 29th! REGISTER NOW!
To be alive is to be in constant, reciprocal relationship with our environment. We shape and are shaped; we move and are moved by our landscapes.
In this immersive workshop we ask the question- what happens when we consider this relationship as a dance? How do we dance a landscape? How are we danced by a landscape? How do we practice moving with and through the world with elements we might search for in any partner dance- listening, sensing, responding, give and take, composing, witnessing and being witnessed? And most importantly, what arises from that kind of attention?
In the flush of early summer we will work indoors and out, drawing from our primary movement sources of Qigong and Butoh dance, Body Weather, Fighting Monkey, and Contact Improvisation. We will also become intimate with some of the plants, geology, and animals of the Earthdance landscape through animal track and sign, plant identification, and land stewardship tasks. We will expand upon the many definitions of “landscape” (physical, internal, psychosocial, geological, political); we will explore the role of time, rhythm and cadence within our dance, and we will traverse the spectrum of practical to poetic implications of what it means to dance and be danced by our landscapes.
All of this juicy depth will be integrated with amazing meals, sauna and quarry plunges, and sleeping with the bountiful stars of Western Mass.
“Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost”. -Pina Bausch
Dance is a universal common language that belongs to us all, regardless of age, ability or experience level. All bodies are welcome, no prior ‘dance’ experience required.
Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures.
- Arrival/Check-In: Monday, May 26th at 4-7pm in front of the Farmhouse. Dinner is at 6-7pm
- Opening Circle: Tuesday, May 27th at 10am
- Final Clean: Thursday, May 29th at 2-3pm. Lunch 1-2pm
- Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Thursday, May 29th
Our Fees Explained
Earthdance is a Public Charity that relies greatly on ticketing income to fulfill its Artistic, Cultural and Educational mission. We want to make our work available to folks with varying economic realities and offer a sliding scale payment for participation in most of our events. Please take a moment to reflect where you best fit on that scale. We ask everyone to stretch where they are able so that those who cannot may still have access to our events.
As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
- Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership(s), past, present and future.
- The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other marginalized intersections 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.
PRICING: Sliding Scale
May 26th – 29th, 2025
- Gratitude Lodge: $390.00 to $890.00
- Camping: $365.00 to $865.00
- Commuter: $340.00 to $840.00
INTERNATIONAL DISCOUNT
Earthdance is happy to announce a 20% discount for international travelers wanting to attend an Earthdance run event. We hope this gesture helps to keep our events accessible for those from different cultures that are traveling from afar. We also realize that given the current political situation coming to the US might be more expensive or challenging and hope this discount is a way of keeping Earthdance in your hearts.
Equity & Access Tickets
We are excited to offer up to 3 Equity & Access Discounts for the weeklong workshop and 3 Equity & Access Discounts for the half weeklong workshops to individuals who have a financial need. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge and prioritize such individuals when granting these discounted tickets.
Apply Here! Deadline is May 16th, 2025
Earthdance makes efforts to support Equity & Access at all its events, this event offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
- Reduced pricing offered to people with a financial need and self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized.
- Classes and discussions that aim to presence awareness and inclusion at the event as a whole.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event 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, event offerings, and food.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to the event offerings and 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 event participants.
Nine Mountain
Nine Mountain is not available.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (May 9th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After May 9th) 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.
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 jam participants.
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!
Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.
HOST BIO
Frieda Kipar Bay
Frieda Kipar Bay is a weaver of plants, movement, parenting, and the written word. She has found many of the deepest wells of this body of knowledge through non-linear, non-academic pathways, including performing as a dance artist for 8 years professionally, mentoring with Daoist medicine pulse diagnostic master William Morris and herbalist Matthew Wood, unschooling two incredible kids, and reading Ursula K. LeGuin at a ripe young age alongside a high alpine lake, 10 miles in. Find her full bio at www.friedakiparbay.net., but essentially, she’s simply learning to live like a landscape.
Dana Iova-Koga
Dana Iova-Koga began dancing at the age of 4, and her first role was a cloud. Over 40 years later, her research in being cloud continues.
She is a multi-disciplinarian creature practicing performance, writing, teaching, gardening, creative midwifery, and listening.
She studied Experimental Theater at NYU, danced and farmed with Min Tanaka in Japan for many years, had the deep privilege of working with dance legend Anna Halprin, and has been a member of dance/theater company inkBoat since 2005. She is 17th generation Wudang San Feng Pai lineage holder through her Shifu David Wei of Wudang West, is certified in Holden Qigong and Mov Nat, and is an “Inspired by FM” teacher in the Fighting Monkey Practice. She currently teaches with Frieda Kipar Bay under the name “Elemental Vessel” and works one on one with folks in her choose-your-own-adventure style program called “Unfolding.”
SAVE THE DATE: New Year’s Jam!
