Grieving Ourselves Home: A Grief Retreat with Chaya Leia Aronson, Kaitlyn Cronin, & Mirna McWilliams


In these heartbreaking times, grieving together is essential. The individualism and isolation our of culture creates numbness, apathy, and overwhelm. When we come together to grieve, we clarify our vision and purpose in this time of great change. We remember how to come home to self and the lost notion of community. 

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. 

ATTENDANCE OPTIONS:

There is an option to attend for the entire weekend, and an option to come for a single day on Saturday, which will be a full day long grief ritual. Kaitlyn Cronin and Mirna McWilliams will co-facilitate this full weekend with Chaya, and Charlotte Althaea Collins and James Bird will support the music and song aspect of the full day ritual on Saturday.


HOST BIOS

Chaya Leia Aronson

Chaya Leia Aronson, RN BSN has been apprenticing with the womb for nearly 20 years, and has great passion for supporting women / womb bearers to connect to health, pleasure and vitality and can be found mothering, communing with flowers and dancing in her free time. Working with wombs and mothering have been some of her greatest teachers about grief.

She has also been blessed to learn from incredible teachers in her life, including Rosita Arvigo, Tami Kent, ALisa Starkweather, Sheri Winston and Zahava Griss. In grief work, she is influenced by the Dagara teachings of Sobunfu Some.

yoursacredpelvis.com


Kaitlyn Cronin

Kaitlyn Cronin’s work lives in the intersection of mycology, creativity, spirituality and the reintegration of ritual to sanctify potent life transitions. She is a certified death doula and feels pulled to thresholds, transitions and the in-between spaces.

With the mycelial web as her greatest teacher and creation as her devotional practice, Kaitlyn weaves stories through visual art and immersive experience; embedding us into our ecosystems and sparking a remembrance of our interstitial and unique place in the expansive web of life.

kaitlyncronin.com


Mirna McWilliams

Mirna McWilliams is a ritualist, musician, and facilitator. She supports individuals and groups in tending grief, soul, and the sacred through song, ceremony, and shared presence. Her work is rooted in relationship—to land, to lineage, and to mystery. Guided by a deep love of beauty, she carries songs and practices that invite remembrance, reverence, and repair.

Devoted to the long work of reweaving village, she offers her life in service to the restoration of belonging—among people, and between people and the living world. She is blessed to live in community in the ancient Appalachian mountains near Asheville, NC where her days are filled by the love of tobacco, corn, the flowers, and the luscious waters.

Dancing the Self: Bridging Movement and Life

Rick Chapman

Experience the legacy of the Halprin work through an immersion in movement, dance, drawing, and poetry.

How does your art reflect your life?

How can the real stuff of life be the foundation for our dances? What can the power of artmaking offer us for healing, growth, and transformation? How can the body and artmaking bring us into closer connection with our deepest stories, knowing, and longings? 

Through movement, dance, voice, creative writing, drawing, ritual and performance, we will explore, express, and discover deeper aspects of who we are. This workshop follows the Life/Art Process, developed by Anna and Daria Halprin, to bridge our moving, sensing, expressive bodies with our lived experiences, emotions, and stories. 

Anna Halprin, Daria Halprin, and The Tamalpa Institute have been pioneering and innovative forces in the fields of expressive arts, dance, somatics, education, and therapy. Based in California, their work has been a fertile laboratory of cross disciplinary creative exploration that brought dance off of the stage and into the streets and nature; brought healing out of the therapy office and into art, performance, and ritual; brought a pedestrian aesthetic of functional movement into performance that reflects the art of the every day. 

Taught by Natan Daskal, on core faculty at the Tamalpa Institute, and one of Anna Halprin’s last mentees, this will be a special opportunity to experience the legacy of the Halprin work in person on the East Coast.

Learn more about the Tamalpa Institute here.

Natan Daskal is on core faculty at the Tamalpa Institute, guiding training groups in embodied healing and transformation. He has a private practice in integrative somatic therapies, blending body-based expressive arts, biodynamic craniosacral therapy, somatic movement therapy, and Hakomi (mindfulness-based somatic psychotherapy).


***Dancing the Self is an Independent Event from Earthdance Programming. Earthdance is not responsible for any of the activities during the Dancing the Self event.***


Angela Niederer

Divine Rebellion: A Mini Tantra Festival


Step into Divine Rebellion

A festival where joy, connection, and radical inclusivity become powerful acts of resistance. Rooted in the rebellious spirit of ancient Tantra, we gather to replenish, celebrate diversity, and build authentic community. Our offerings are the antidote to these times, inviting you to restore yourself, so you can return home inspired to spark real, lasting change.

Divine Rebellion Manifesto

We gather at Divine Rebellion to create more than a festival–we are weaving a living, breathing tapestry of community, courage, and joy. We believe that authentic connection, radical inclusion, and collective accountability are powerful forms of resistance in a world that often asks us to shrink or divide.

We honor diversity in all its forms, welcoming every story, background, and expression. Here, we celebrate pleasure and play as sacred acts, knowing that joy is not a luxury, but a necessity for transformation and resiliance.

We remember the roots of Tantra as a movement of rebellion–born to challenge the confines of tradition and reclaim the fullness of embodied experience. In this spirit, we dare to meet one another with openness, honesty, and reverence.

We are committed to building spaces where healing, repair, and growth are possible. We recognize that mistakes are inevitable, and we meet them with humility, accountability, and a willingness to learn.

We show up–wholeheartedly, courageously, and with deep gratitude for everyone who says “yes” to this journey. We trust in the magic that is created when we come together with intention, creativity, and love.

We are Divine Rebellion. We are the antidote. We are the spark for lasting change.


***Divine Rebellion is an Independent Event from Earthdance Programming. Earthdance is not responsible for any of the activities during the Divine Rebellion event.***

Dancing with the Trees: Ecstatic Dance with TreeJ

Dancing with the trees: A nature-inspired Ecstatic Dance journey by TreeJ!


This dance will be held in the forest behind Earthdance. We will meet at the Earthdance farmhouse, then group hike about 10 minutes through the forest to an all natural dance floor.

Once we arrive, we’ll begin with a grounding meditation to attune ourselves to the rhythms of nature and the mycelial web beneath us. From there, we’ll flow into a music journey with the forest. We’ll dance around the grand oak tree, surrounded by hemlock, birch, and pine.

This is a rain or shine event ~ come prepared to dance with the elements!

~ A message from the Oaks~
Oak brings wisdom of strength, endurance, stability, ancient knowledge and longevity. Reminding us of our divine and enduring connection to nature.

“I am the steady, faithful Oak. Seek me and sit with me. I am old and strong and grounded. I will take your troubles and let them flow into Mother Earth for their transmutation. She knows what to do with the energy. I am the promise of spring. You can see my energy in the budding flowers. I am the daffodils and the tulips come to life. I am all of the little wild animal creatures in nature, they all come together under my sacred space. Come and sit in my grove, which is the most ancient of temples. Nature is your home; you are safe here and nurtured. Breathe me in and breathe me out. I will help you remember your true nature. You are loved and you are beautiful. You are perfect already. You have everything you need to manifest your dreams and desires. It is time to begin. This beginning is like the acorn that is a mighty symbol of growth and regeneration. What you begin has the potential to grow into a great oak tree of your own manifestation.”

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SCHEDULE

3:00 – Arrival at Farmhouse

3:30 – Nature walk to fire circle

4:00 – Nature Grounding/tuning into nature

4:30 – TreeJ set

7:00 – Closing and walk back to Earthdance


DONATION BASED

Please consider donating between $10 and $40.


HOST BIO

TreeJ is a muscian, DJ, producer and tree whisperer ~ blending electronica, organic soundscapes and live instrumentation. Find their music on Soundcloud

Touch&Play: Essence and Edge


TOUCH&PLAY MASSACHUSETTS

Essence & Edge

8-13 July 2025

We return to our essence—the spark that ignites this journey, the playfulness, the deep relational explorations, the dance, the commitment to presence and community.

And we greet the edge—leaning into the unknown, expanding into new possibilities, growing where it feels uncomfortable, and daring to keep evolving.

Touch&Play embodies an international movement – a sexy, embodied and deeply heart-centered family – rooted in various local communities across the globe.



***Touch&Play: Essence and Edge is an Independent Event. Earthdance assumes no responsibilities for the activities of the organization of Touch&Play as a renter of Earthdance facilities.***

5Rhythms Meets Tantra 2025


5Rhythms Meets Tantra is returning to Earthdance in Western Mass after a wildly beautiful, potent, and sold-out inaugural 5Rhythms edition of Dance Meets Tantra in 2024. We cannot wait to see who will join us in 2025 at this majestic venue and time of year.

You are invited to join us for 5Rhythms Meets Tantra, an immersive 4-day retreat exploring the intersection of 5Rhythms, tantra, shadow-work, and breathwork. Set in gorgeous nature at the idyllic venue Earthdance in Western Massachusetts, this will truly be a transformational journey committed to creating safer spaces for individuals to embrace their own wholeness (the dark and the light) while creating a collective group field that is far greater than the sum of its parts.

HAVE YOU BEEN FEELING THE CALL?

  • For 5Rhythms to evolve and embrace sensuality and eros?
  • For tantra to be more playful and embodied?
  • You intuitively know something incredible is possible when embodied movers come together with full permission to express, connect, and share their magic.

We are coming to let go of our masks, build our capacity and explore the vulnerable, messy, sweaty, beauty of our bodies, hearts, & souls. Led by an attentive and experienced facilitation team, we will establish a foundation of consent, attunement, and self-responsibility to allow us to connect and play with our greatest capacity for embodied authenticity, sensuality, and creativity.

Held in a deeply relational, caring, attuned, and trauma-informed space, This is an opportunity not only to express and connect, but to broaden and deepen your skills and capacity across the map of the 5Rhythms, neo-tantra, sacred sensuality and the movement arts.

Together we’ll journey through the map of the 5Rhythms – flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness. Each rhythm holds its own wisdom, allowing you to explore the vast landscape of your emotions, express your authentic self, and release any stagnant energy.

During the 4-day immersion, you will be guided through a rich tapestry of experiences. Explore transformational rituals, meditation, breath work, and temple arts, all interwoven with the beautiful wave and map of the 5Rhythms practice.

Our experienced facilitators will create a safe and nurturing container for your journey. They bring together deep experience in both 5Rhythms and guiding transformational group tantra journeys, infusing their guidance with compassion, wisdom, and a deep reverence for the alchemical power of embodied movement and sacred connection.

Join us in this profound exploration of body, heart, and spirit. Awaken your sensual aliveness, ignite your creative fire, and cultivate a deeper sense of self-love and acceptance.

5Rhythms Meets Tantra is a creation by Dance Meets Tantra, an emerging body of work created in 2021 in Boulder, CO and being shared around the world. You can check out our website here: www.dancemeetstantra.com

Note: for us – tantra is the practice and art of being fully alive. Our intention with 5Rhythms Meets Tantra is to support people in coming into greater love, respect and relationship with themselves, each other, and the earth. We believe that dance, eros and tantra are fundamental aspects of being alive, empowered, and creative – so we invite various explorations in support of liberating our creativity and life force.

***5Rhythms Meets Tantra is an Independent Event. Earthdance assumes no responsibilities for the activities of the 5Rhythms Meets Tantra as a renter of its facilities.***

IGNITE! Mind/Body Detox™ with Sohini Live Well


WHAT IS IGNITE?

IGNITE! Mind/Body Detox™ transformative process that allows the Total Being to shine through. It encourages one to re-awaken their inner Spirit by active and passive meditation techniques that tap into the inner fire and encourage self-awareness.. This experience helps break down habitual patterns, release emotional and physical blocks and bring back the essence of letting go into a space of celebration. The goal is re-connecting to what matters the most – the heart and drive of the Soul in the presence of others. This workshop is for adults that are ready to delve into self-exploration and out of comfort zones. Participants are able to strip away the layers of ego, limitation and find the space for their Total and Authentic Self.

Drum & Cacao Ceremony Initiation

We begin with Ceremonial Grade Cacao and the sound of the Drum which have a powerful affinity with the heart – awakening our energy to feel open, soft, expressive, creative and inter-connected to our true nature and others.

This is an experience to be had to fully understand and feel its powerful impact on the Soul.

*This event is a rental at Earthdance and is not affiliated with Sohini Live Well or the Ignite! Mind/Body Detox™ event.

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. 

SHARE OUR FACEBOOK INVITE



ContaKids: Teacher Training

ContaKids Teacher Training – Coming to the USA for the First Time!


After over a decade of successful work in Europe, with more than 400 trained teachers from 35 countries, we are thrilled to bring ContaKids Teacher Training to Earthdance! 

ContaKids is a unique method that enhances parent-child connection through playful movement and contact improvisation. This training offers you the opportunity to start working immediately with families and join our growing American teacher community. Don’t miss out!

If you have any questions regarding this offering, please email contakids.worldwide@gmail.com or click the link below for more information.

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Touch&Play: Lucidity

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!