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.
