This workshop is designed to introduce participants to some of the basics of this captivating movement art-sport that is Contact Improvisation.
In this workshop we will ask the question “what makes a satisfying dance?”
We will research some of the underlying principles which lead dancers to move with more nuance and listening so they can enhance the possibilities within their dance.
Whether you’re an experienced dancer or new to movement practices, “Layers of Presence” welcomes participants of all backgrounds and skill levels. Come and refresh your dancing with clear practice and insight into what makes CI a unique form. See you there!
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
***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.***
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $20 for workshop, $10 for jam processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days 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.
COVID 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. 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.
Olive Frank loves a good contact improv dance. After 9 years of dancing contact improvisation in various countries and communities, she is still researching what makes a good CI dance so satisfying. And, she is eager to research that with you.
Tal Shibi
Tal Shibi is a native Jerusalem choreographer, improvisor, performer, and teacher of dance, CI, and somatic awareness. He is continuously curious in exploring collaborations between different art forms, and widening the perceptions of performance and dance. talshibi.com
For those who are longing for a deep and durational dive into CI research, pedagogy, and professional training, you’re invited to gather with us for three weeks from January 6th through 26th, 2025.
Hello to all the seekers, curious minds, artists, dance enthusiasts, actors, performers, public speakers, and those looking for healing, self-discovery, and self-expression!
Akil Apollo Davis once again is bringing this incredibly unique, powerful, and magical form of Mask Work to Earthdance. He’s one of only three Master teachers of The Brahe-Davis Method of Mask in the world. Masks have always held an intricate connection to the depths of the human psyche, serving as a tangible bridge between image and our ability to transform.
Whether you’re stepping onto this path for the first time or you’re a seasoned traveler in the realm of masks, this will be a unique and immersive experience on your quest for knowledge, creative self-discovery, and transformation. This is an opportunity for a journey of Self. Open new doors to unexplored dimensions and experiences. Revel and reflect on new inspiration and knowledge.
Join us to unleash your inner shapeshifter and immerse yourself in the power of Mask Work. This is NOT a mask “making” class. In this class YOU will be donning Masks and exploring your ability to transform.
The Artistry Behind the Masks
Originated by Per Brahe, a visionary Theatre Director, and expanded by Akil Apollo Davis, a distinguished Theatre Professor & Performing Artist. This unique method fuses psychology, philosophy, dance, and esoteric practices. The result? A transformative experience that defies convention.
Dive into the enchanting world of masks—each a masterpiece of its own. Over 500 original masks, each drawn during a special meditation by Per or Akil, are intricately hand-carved through the traditional Balinese mask-making process. These masks are more than just appearances—they’re vessels of intention and transformation. The Brahe-Davis Method of Mask is a transformational and explorative journey. Unlike most mask work, which operates from the outside in, these masks engage your BODY.
Unlock your incredible power to transform using music, movement, Mask Work and new gems of knowledge.
HEAL through somatic movement and powerful Healing Masks that will support you in safely releasing blocks.
Gain practical insights into the science of masks.
Engage in hands-on exercises that reveal the power within these masks.
Connect with a community of seekers and practitioners.
For Beginners and Veterans Alike: Whether you’re new to the world of masks or looking to deepen your practice, this event caters to everyone seeking to ignite change and activate their hidden power and capabilities.
Here are some benefits you can expect:
Seekers and the curious: Dive deep into your SELF, exploring images, thought patterns, and cultural influences that both hinder and empower you. This is about unlocking your transformational potential.
Actors and Performers: Experience astonishing expansion in physicality and find new dimensions of inspiration.
Movers & Dancers: Enhance and enrich your expression, adding a unique “transformation” to your dance journey.
Healing: Akil reveals a fascinating insight – “Did you know that trauma is close to the German word for ‘dream’? It’s an image that isn’t present, yet it’s like it’s still happening.” This underlines the power of images. The Mask work helps you excavate negative images and replaces them with positive images, facilitating profound change from within.
Play and Exploration: The Masks liberate! Akil’s workshops create a space for intentional exploration. It’s a space for unleashing your inner child, creativity, and self-expression. It’s invigorating, joyful, and enlightening.
Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures
Arrival/Check-In: Saturday, May 25th from 8-10am front of the Farmhouse.
Breakfast: 8-9am
1st Mask Introduction Session: 10am – 1pm
Lunch: 1-2pm
2nd Mask Introduction Session: 2:30pm – 5pm
Departure: All participants will depart after 5pm.
Reserve your spot for this special workshop that will bridge the gap between inspiration, image, and tangible transformation. Tap into your innate power to transform through the art of Mask Work. Unmask your potential and step into a world where images and intentions create profound shifts.
Our Fees Explained
Earthdance offers a sliding scale payment for participation in this event, please take a moment to reflect as you decide on where you best fit.
Your level of contribution is self selected and does not need to be advocated for. However, we invite you to remember this contribution is currency and we ask that you stretch where you are able so that those who cannot stretch as far of a financial distance may also have potential access to community events. As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership, both currently and anticipated in the future.
The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other intersection marginalizations 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.
Earthdance is a community and rental funded organization which recently, historically and uniquely through the Covid-19 pandemic has struggled to have viable income.
PRICING
SATURDAY WORKSHOP(Includes Breakfast, 1st Session, Lunch and 2nd Session)
$450 – Financially Wealthy
$325 – Financially Abundant
$250 – Financially Stable
$175 – Financially Coping
$125 – Financially Strained
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (May 10th) before the event less a $50 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After May 10th) from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after cancellation dates.
COVID 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. 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!
Akil Apollo Davis is a full time Performing Artist and Theatre Professor. Akil grew up with Hip-Hop dance in the everyday culture of Memphis TN (watch “House Party” the movie) and began theatre at 12 years old, and got his Bachelors in Theatre from the prestigious NYU TISCH School of the Arts. During that time his dance, music, and performance training and practices intensified dramatically.
He is the teacher of an extremely rare form of Mask work: only 3 human beings teach it. The Masks are designed by Akil and/or his mentor, Per Brahe. After being hand carved from wood and painted by a Balinese Mask-Making Brahman (Priest), they are taken through a cleansing ceremony in a special temple. In this work, the Masks use the power of image to aid in transformation.
Akil is an avid and professional dancer. He has received extensive training in 4 forms of Balinese dance, 3 forms of Thai Classical dance, Modern, Butoh, African, Ballet, Jazz, Butoh, multiple styles of Fan dancing, contact improv and Acro yoga.
He is a an award-winning playwright and director (NYC Fringe Festival “SUMMER BLUE”: Winner: most innovative production) an MC, poet, and educator.
Akil is also a lyricist, freestyle rapper (improvisational verse) poet and composer. He has collaborated with many musicians to create music and video content for himself and his alter-ego “Diamond Adronica De La Funk”.
Akil has taught Theatre and Dance all over America, in over 12 countries, and is now a Professor of Mask and Art Aesthetic at William Esper Studio (previously NYU and SUNY Purchase).
He has trained with Brahmans, Witches in the East Village and Monks in Thailand and works to bridge the gaps between classical knowledge and esoteric education. This has led to inspiring collaborations and panel discussions with psychologists at Pace University, University of Memphis, and NYU on emotional development, Suicide prevention and awareness, and the power of image.
We reside in a living world shaped by reciprocity. Nature responds to every single thing we do. In this 4-day, immersive workshop, we will center these deep connections between how we move and how we relate to the ecologies we are a part of. We will begin by asking “how do we dance a landscape?”, and “how are we being danced by our landscapes?” Investigations will occur inside the studio and out, in the beautiful weather of late summer, and we will draw from several primary sources as inspiration.
We will practice:
Qigong to attune our listening and understand the fractals at play.
Dynamic and rigorous Body Weather crossings to challenge our memory, proprioception and coordination.
Improvisational movement scores to play with universal movement principles.
Contact Improvisation to deepen our understanding of physical reciprocity.
Tracking and plant ID walks on Earthdance to meet the landscape with deeper understanding.
Garden work in the ED Garden to practice integrating theory into practical application (while participating and contributing to the ED community).
In recent years, much attention has been paid to the practices of Mindfulness and Embodiment and they are widely accepted as being beneficial in our aspirations of being vibrant, compassionate, responsive human beings. But what about the practice of relating to our environments and landscapes with attention and reciprocity? While equally as vital, it has not yet entered the mainstream consciousness to the same degree. We will investigate this relationship with place – emplacefulment; it’s not a word, but it’s what we’ll be practicing anyway.
“We know ourselves by knowing the web – the terrain and the weather that we live inside. Think of the body as a landscape, the landscape as a body, and lean in.” Frieda Kipar Bay
“It is inside a place, and in relation to a place, that we learn to hope.” Anna Badken
Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for participants on Friday, August 30th from 4:00pm-7:00pm. Dinner is at 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Saturday, August 31st at 10am.
Saturday/Sunday Drop-In: Please check-in with an ED Staff person upon arrival between 8-10am. Breakfast is 8-9am.
Full House Clean: Monday, September 2nd at 2-3pm (after Lunch from 1-2pm).
Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Monday, September 2nd.
Our Fees Explained
Earthdance offers a sliding scale payment for participation in this event, please take a moment to reflect as you decide on where you best fit.
Your level of contribution is self selected and does not need to be advocated for. However, we invite you to remember this contribution is currency and we ask that you stretch where you are able so that those who cannot stretch as far of a financial distance may also have potential access to community events. As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership, both currently and anticipated in the future.
The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other intersection marginalizations 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.
Earthdance is a community and rental funded organization which recently, historically and uniquely through the Covid-19 pandemic has struggled to have viable income.
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships this year, we’re excited to offer up to 4 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.
For those who do not identify as marginalized and are in a represented group of CI, we invite you to stretch in your payment to help support those who cannot stretch and create a more diverse jam experience for all.
Note: While Earthdance is making efforts to better support Equity & Access at all its events, this jam offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
Reduced pricing offered to people self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized in CI.
Classes and discussions that aim to bring up the level of awareness and inclusion at the jam as a whole
Affinity spaces (jams, discussions, etc.) for particular groups of people to connect, share CI space together, and rest from the pressures of being in a minority status at the jam.
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 event offerings including food, but no housing accommodations.
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 participants.
Nine Mountain is NOT available
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (August 15th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after cancellation dates.
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 Summer 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!
Frieda Kipar Bay is a weaver of embodied knowledge, overlapping different threads to better understand the whole. Movement is the primary lens that she uses to experience life and she works in depth with plant medicine to navigate health and disentangle from oppressive overcultures. She has been a professional performer and choregrapher since 2001, working with Sara Shelton Mann, Body Cartography, Melecio Estrella, and Scott Wells, among others. In 2008 she pursued training as a clinical herbalist, botanist, and animal tracker and is a registered clinical herbalist with the AHG. She has studied Daoist Medicine diagnostic practices and qigong, wild tending and native plant restoration, and somatic experiencing and trauma resolution. The interface between reading the body and reading the landscape deeply informs her work as a traditional medicine practitioner, activist, and artist.
Find out more at www.friedakiparbay.net
Dana Iova-Koga
Dana has been a polymorph since an early age. She could never choose between dance, theater, art, photography and writing. Luckily she managed to study them all at the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU. Her formative training in movement was with Japanese dancer Min Tanaka. She lived and worked for several years with him on his farm in the countryside of Japan- dancing, farming and studying nature of all kinds.
Since that time Dana has continued to explore and discover the connections between body and landscape. She has been a member of dance/theater company inkBoat and has been teaching “Dance on Land” with her partner, Shinichi, since 2006. She has been blessed with some of the highest caliber teachers and mentors one could hope for. She had the great fortune of working with dance pioneer Anna Halprin. Dana has studied Chinese Internal Martial Arts for over a decade and is a 17th generation Wudang San Feng Pai lineage holder through her Shifu David Wei of Wudang West. Most recently has been mentored by Jozef Frucek and given the honor of becoming an “Inspired by FM” teacher through Fighting Monkey. She is thrilled to be joining forces with Frieda Kipar Bay as Elemental Vessel. Together they practice researching the elements in the body and the body in the elements.
Dana is forever inspired by the complexity and diversity of life in all its forms, is fascinated by the phenomenon of creativity, and above all enjoys playing in the space occupied by the questions. These days you may find her in the studio, in the garden, on the stage, in the classroom, over the books, with the words, in the water, in the woods, in the kitchen, with her people, among her thoughts, under the sky.
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.
Workshop Description
During the workshop, participants will investigate the anatomical possibilities of their natural, everyday bodies, including floating, hanging, and various qualities of movement or stillness. Exercises from Noguchi Taiso water body practice and each of the “13 Aspects of Butoh” (see below) will help remove customary societal and cultural behaviors, guiding dancers toward bodily emptiness, a pre-expressive state. Without the constraints of old habits, the unconscious body can freely respond to its sensations, forces, and emotions, to become the fully expressive body. Dancers will be instructed with lessons from all 13 Aspects of Butoh, to expand their range of movements, including the subtle body, the avant-garde body, the fading body, the animal body, and the unleashed body.
“The materials that constitute our body are undoubtedly of this Earth and have participated in and experienced the creation process of the Earth. Therefore our body, living here and now, includes the entire history of the Earth. What is called “live”, “body” and “mind” indicates the phases of change and flow of the Earth. There is no absolute standard for all things. Every standard comes into being within ourselves, freshly, here and now, through relationships. Awareness of these relationships allows you to truly become one with original nature itself. You develop a clearer understanding of how your mind/body operates and a greater appreciation of the involvement of your thought process in all your physical acts.” – Michizo Noguchi, founder of Noguchi Taiso
Noguchi proposes that natural effort-free movement does not fight gravity but embraces it, using its force to assist the movement. A main principle of Noguchi Taiso is movement as a reaction. Instead of moving intentionally, the practitioner creates the conditions for the movement to arise as a natural response. Noguchi Taiso has been adopted by many butoh, dance, and theatre practitioners in Japan, especially for its ability to empty the body of various learned, superficial, and culturally derived behavior patterns, making it more transparent, and aligning it with the universal forces at play.
13 Aspects of Butoh
“13 Aspects of Butoh” is an ongoing research project designed by Julie Becton Gillum in order to discover the essential nature of butoh and how it differs from other dance and theater forms. Gillum has been creating and sharing workshops based on her personal research since 2010. Some of the “Aspects: such as “Space”, “Time” and “Force” are basic to all forms of dance. However some aspects are more specific to butoh and Japanese aesthetics, such as: “Ma,” “Jo-ha-kyu,” “Ghost of Self”, “Dance Like a Child,” “Every Dance is a Prayer,” “Masculine and Feminine.” Many of the “Aspects” began as quotes from my butoh mentors during training sessions. It is these, more obscure body concepts, that we will delve deeply into during our training at Earthdance. Transformation, interior and exterior space, sensation and presence will be at the core of our butoh investigations. I will explain the concepts of “Ma” and “Jo-ha-kyû” to give examples as to how they will be used in the workshop.
Guided explorations of concepts such as “ma” and “Jo-ha-kyû”encourage students to examine Japanese aesthetic principles through experience with movement timing, phrasing and forming.
Dancers, actors, martial artists, yoga practitioners and anyone interested in exploring their own personal capacity for movement expression is welcome to join Butoh and Noguchi Taiso Training. This training is appropriate for all levels.
Earthdance offers a sliding scale payment for participation in this event, please take a moment to reflect as you decide on where you best fit.
Your level of contribution is self selected and does not need to be advocated for. However, we invite you to remember this contribution is currency and we ask that you stretch where you are able so that those who cannot stretch as far of a financial distance may also have potential access to community events. As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership, both currently and anticipated in the future.
The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other intersection marginalizations 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.
Earthdance is a community and rental funded organization which recently, historically and uniquely through the Covid-19 pandemic has struggled to have viable income.
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. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge, and can feel vulnerable.
For those who do not identify as marginalized and are in a represented group, we invite you to stretch in your payment to help support those who cannot stretch and create a more diverse jam experience for all.
Note: While Earthdance is making efforts to better support Equity & Access at all its events, this event offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
Reduced pricing offered to people self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized.
Classes and discussions that aim to bring up the level of awareness and inclusion at the jam as a whole.
Affinity spaces (jams, discussions, etc.) for particular groups of people to connect, share space together, and rest from the pressures of being in a minority status at this event.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge
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
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, event offerings, and food.
Commuter
You will have access to event offerings including food, but no housing accommodations.
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 participants.
Nine Mountain is NOT available
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days (August 29th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after cancellation dates.
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 Summer 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!
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.
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), and 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.
In this workshop we will explore Being With our bodies through dance. Our movement investigations will bring us through varied terrain of inquiry: bridging instinctive, intuitive, and intellectual ways of being with. How can we orient towards intimacy and interconnectivity for the long-game of our moving lives?
With information from the Axis Syllabus – such as principles of the Tri-Axial body, Spiral and Fractal patterns, and Dynamic Alignment – we’ll call in clear choice-making, physical readiness, and enlivened awareness.
We’ll play and engage through spontaneity, rhythm, sensitivity, heart perception, memory, imagination, mimesis, autonomy, and collective groove as ways to connect with the varied knowledge our bodies hold. There will be motifs and movement sequences, meditative scores, guided improvisations, reflection and journaling, and co-creative mapping. Join us as we delve into ways of calling forth the wisdom of the body through shared dance experiences.
Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures
Arrival/Check-In: Thursday, May 16th from 4-7pm front of the Farmhouse. Dinner is 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Friday, May 17th at 10am. We request that ALL participants attend the Opening Circle.
2 Day Drop-In Arrival/Check-In: Friday, May 17th between 8-10am. Please arrive on time for the Opening Circle.
Closing Circle: Monday, May 20th 12:30pm-1pm, Lunch 1-2pm.
Final Clean: Monday, May 20th at 2-3pm.
Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Monday, May 20th.
Our Fees Explained
Earthdance offers a sliding scale payment for participation in this event, please take a moment to reflect as you decide on where you best fit.
Your level of contribution is self selected and does not need to be advocated for. However, we invite you to remember this contribution is currency and we ask that you stretch where you are able so that those who cannot stretch as far of a financial distance may also have potential access to community events. As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership, both currently and anticipated in the future.
The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other intersection marginalizations 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.
Earthdance is a community and rental funded organization which recently, historically and uniquely through the Covid-19 pandemic has struggled to have viable income.
Equity & Access Tickets
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships, yet we’re excited to offer up to 3 E&A Discounts for this Workshop to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized groupI. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge, and can feel vulnerable.
For those who do not identify as marginalized, we invite you to stretch in your payment to help support those who cannot stretch and create a more diverse experience for all.
Note: While Earthdance is making efforts to better support Equity & Access at all its events, this workshop offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
Reduced pricing offered to people self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized.
Classes and discussions that aim to bring up the level of awareness and inclusion at the workshop as a whole.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, workshop offerings, and food.
The Gratitude Lodge (a.k.a. the Earthdance dorm) is the main lodging facility, connected to the Farmhouse by a short wooded trail. The lodge includes large and small rooms featuring dormitory-style bunks and beds (twin & queen size) and is included in the base event cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, workshop offerings, and food.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to the workshop offerings including food.
Commuter Health Care: We ask that you please use caution when commuting and limit, if possible, to just commuting to and from your home and Earthdance, staying away from large crowds to maintain the health and well being of the other Jam participants.
Refund available up to 14 days (May 2nd) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After May 2nd) from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after the cancellation date.
COVID 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. 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!
Over the past 17 years, Kerwin has facilitated dance experiences in a variety of contexts, where she encourages a main focus of exploring new ways of understanding your body in movement while “being yourself”. Certified to teach the Axis Syllabus, she has been in alliance with this Research Network (ASRM) for 10 years and is inspired by their pedagogical philosophy of learner centered learning. These days, she recently completed a Master’s degree in dance at the Université de Québec à Montréal — a deep investigation of the expression “To Learn by Heart” — looking into possible relationships between the heart and meaningful, embodied learning in a dance class.
Claire Turner Reid
Claire is a movement artist and educator who practices Dance, Qigong, and Internal Martial Arts. She is a Certified and Certifying Teacher of the Axis Syllabus. Claire currently teaches Qigong courses at the Ontario College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Qigong, Taijiquan, and Falling Negotiation programs through the City of Guelph. She has a Diploma of Acupuncture from OCTCM Toronto and a BFA in Acting from the University of Windsor. She is a member of Spiritwind Internal Arts where she is a certified instructor in Qigong, Taijiquan, and Dao In Lung Shen and also practices Baguazhang and Gongfu. She is a Level 2 Certified Radiant Lotus Women’s Qigong instructor.
Claire uses movement and healing practices to deepen awareness, honour the integrity of the body, and enrich inter-relational possibilities. In movement research, she invites open-inquiry and curiosity and values lineage and creativity, rigour and play, somatic sovereignty and collective collaboration. Her teaching encourages exploration of the body in motion for more connected living. She teaches online, internationally, and locally in Guelph and Toronto.
Form & Imagination: Embodied Research|Composition|CI Training – March 4th – 7th, 2024
Contact Improvisation culture and exploration began as performative research amongst dancers and creative movement artists. 50 years after its inception, CI is used as both social form, CI Jam practice, and dance research. Every practitioner of this art-sport adapts a slightly different approach and style, and yet there are common threads that recur through the form.
This training will give time to create common physical language while also allowing dancers to find personal choice making. This Spring Training and Creation Lab is an invitation for dancers and movers to explore the language and strategies of CI in the context of composition, choreography and performance. We would love for you to bring your varied dance and movement backgrounds into this shared container of making and join us in research. Together, we will train availability to follow unexpected directionality and momentum, study the modulation of weight, and through these practices use shared language to heighten communication, galvanize creativity, and fuel development of personal aesthetics.
Drawing on their distinctive backgrounds and experiences in dance making and CI, Tal and Sarah will lead workshops designed to address the following elements:
Gaining experience with and literacy in CI as a movement language.
Finding and practicing agency + bold choice making within a solo and a CI duet.
Practicing and building strategies for being present and responsive.
Messy experimentation
Developing scores and score-making as vehicles for creative research, dance-making, and collective creativity.
Building intelligence and sensitivity in the use of the hands for connection and articulation of the body as a whole.
Form & Imagination CI Training – Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures
Arrival/Check-In: Monday, March 4th from 4-7pm front of the Farmhouse. Dinner is 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Monday, March 4th at 7:30-9pm. We request that EVERYONE attends the Opening Circle.
Closing Circle: Thursday, March 7th 12:30pm-1pm, Lunch 1-2pm.
Final Clean: Thursday, March 7th at 2-3pm.
Departure: All participants who are not joining the COCO Jam will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Thursday, March 7th.
Research Themes:
Poetic Cadence with Sarah
As bodies in motion, we play with and within gravity, time and space. Through a crafted use of tension, the release of tension, and breath, we can be taken by momentum, accentuate forces already happening moment to moment, and choose to redirect or create resistance. It is through our choice-making that we create poetry, cadence, and music– a playing with time. In this workshop we will practice joining, creating, and steering momentum in our solo bodies and with a partner. Practical physical studies of the weights of the body and sharing structures will be a base to build ease as situations become more complex. We will attune to beginnings, endings, pause, flow, all as options, to cultivate our capacity for decision making, while maintaining responsive communication. With a light and bright attention to the moment-to-moment now—we expand possibilities we are available to in order to both listen deeply to what is happening and take personal agency in ever fleeting moments.
Being Seen with Tal
This session intends to dial up the courage in the practice and pleasure of allowing ourselves to be seen in motion. It will address potential blocks that rob us of our attention, as well as give clear tools to use the practice of performance as a vehicle which enhances choice making and can be utilized as a practice to enhance presence. We will create engaging solos on the spot through uncovering strategies which create transparency and connection with our audience. This practice will enliven us and inform our movement in surprising and immediate ways.
We will use text, elements from contact improvisation, and dive deeper into the practicality of score making to create clear and engaging solo, duet, trio and group dance sketches. Part of the work will entail sharing our dance with a context of friendly audience observation as a mode of learning and sharing.
This training is designed for CI dancers with basic comfort level and experience of CI technique. Some previous experience with giving and receiving of weight is recommended. Feel free to reach out to us with questions. Workshops will be geared to engage each participant’s abilities and growing edges. Tal and Sarah, together, will blend our ability to improvise on our own, in contact, and within a group. By the end of this week, you will all have more humor and confidence in your dance.
Community Collaborative Jams are a new and unfolding program concept at Earthdance which launched in early 2022. This new programming thread was driven by the desire for more opportunities to dance CI and to connect with the community in smaller containers. Similar to Seasonal Jams, the CoCo jam has one or more hosts that, rather than always being professional artists with strong facilitation skills, can be dedicated Earthdance community members and upcoming dancers building their leadership skills. Support staff is also more limited compared to our seasonal jams and participants are invited into a higher degree of autonomy and self care. Similarly, the workshop offerings and schedule are also more influenced by the community members themselves and created on a more adhoc basis.
In preparation for attending a CoCo jam, you may want to ask yourself: What are you currently researching or inspired to offer? Is there something you hope to lab, share, or play with?
***This CoCo Jam will be coming out of a 3-day spring training in compositional research and collective creation. We are excited for community offerings grounded in compositional, movement, and imaginative research. As hosts, Tal and Sarah will organize one evening of performative scores that opens into jamming, and we welcome your other ideas!
This will be a continued study starting with the Form & Imagination Spring Training through the CoCo Jam. The research from the training will inform and inspire the weekend offerings. Those attending the whole week will benefit from the nourishment of a focused container in the first 3 days, followed by a community led container in the CoCo Jam.
Jam Details
An average of 40-60 people will attend this COCO jam and is open to all movement levels & backgrounds.
We have a single day drop-in option on Saturday, March 9th for folks who have been to Earthdance before.
NEWCOMERS: If you have never been to Earthdance, we ask that you only sign up for the Full COCO Jam. This will allow us to better welcome you and orient you to Earthdance.
This will be a very self motivated jam with influences from the CI Training prior, bring your ideas!
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 JamArrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures.
Arrival/Check-In: Thursday, March 7th from 4-7pm front of the Farmhouse. Dinner is 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Friday, March 8th 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, March 9th between 9-10am. Breakfast is 8-9am. Departure at 10pm day of.
Closing Circle: Sunday, March 10th 12:30pm-1pm, Lunch 1-2pm.
Final Clean: Sunday, March 10th at 2-3pm.
Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, March 10th.
We encourage folks to attend both the CI Training AND the COCO Jam– You will receive a $50 discount!
Our Fees Explained
Earthdance offers a sliding scale payment for participation in this event, please take a moment to reflect as you decide on where you best fit.
Your level of contribution is self selected and does not need to be advocated for. However, we invite you to remember this contribution is currency and we ask that you stretch where you are able so that those who cannot stretch as far of a financial distance may also have potential access to community events. As you choose your rate please consider the following factors:
Your access to income and wealth, as connected to family and partnership, both currently and anticipated in the future.
The historical, systemic impacts of wealth accrual based on culture, race and other intersection marginalizations 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.
Earthdance is a community and rental funded organization which recently, historically and uniquely through the Covid-19 pandemic has struggled to have viable income.
Equity & Access Tickets
Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships, yet we’re excited to offer up to 4 E&A Discounts for the Training + COCO Jam, 3 E&A Discounts for the Training Only and 3 E&A Discounts COCO Jam Only to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized group in CI and have a relationship with CI. We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge, and can feel vulnerable.
For those who do not identify as marginalized and are in a represented group of CI, we invite you to stretch in your payment to help support those who cannot stretch and create a more diverse jam experience for all.
Note: While Earthdance is making efforts to better support Equity & Access at all its events, this jam offers particularly strong support for diversity, equity, and inclusion through:
Reduced pricing offered to people self-identifying as being underrepresented and/or marginalized in CI.
Classes and discussions that aim to bring up the level of awareness and inclusion at the jam as a whole.
Affinity spaces (jams, discussions, etc.) for particular groups of people to connect, share CI space together, and rest from the pressures of being in a minority status at the jam.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, Jam offerings, and food during the jam.
The Gratitude Lodge (a.k.a. the Earthdance dorm) is the main lodging facility, connected to the Farmhouse by a short wooded trail. The lodge includes large and small rooms featuring dormitory-style bunks and beds (twin & queen size) and is included in the base Jam cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, Jam offerings, and food during the jam.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to the Jam offerings including food for the event.
Commuter Health Care: We ask that you please use caution when commuting and limit, if possible, to just commuting to and from your home and Earthdance, staying away from large crowds to maintain the health and well being of the other Jam participants.
Refund available up to 14 days (February 19th) before the event less a $75 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After February 19th) from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after cancellation dates.
COVID 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. 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!
Tal Shibi is a native Jerusalem choreographer, improvisor, performer, and teacher of dance, CI, and somatic awareness. He is continuously curious in exploring collaborations between different art forms, and widening the perceptions of performance and dance. He holds an MFA in Dance from Bennington College and certification Zen Shiatsu and Watsu/Waterdance. Most recently he has been sharing his passion for life, creativity, and movement through creating improvisation workshops which emphasize tools for life such as playfulness, meditation, the courage to be seen, body awareness, breath work and more.
Sarah Konner
Sarah Konner is a dance artist, improviser and somatic movement educator researching dance as a process of evolution and collective storytelling. Sarah recently collaborated with Austin Selden, Jeanine Durning, Jenna Reigel, ChavasseDance&Performance, Sara Shelton Mann, Shura Baryshnikov, Megan Kendzior, Alex Springer and Xan Burley, Headlong Dance Theater, and setGo Performance Improvisation Ensemble. She holds an MFA in Dance from Smith College and certification in Body-Mind Centering®. www.SarahandAustinDance.com
Argentine Tango and Contact Improv are two emerging dance vocabularies gaining worldwide popularity. They have vastly different roots, yet both are based in improvisation, and have many interesting intersections which offer and provide opportunities for dancers to expand our social consciousness and movement skill sets. Both dances have performing arts and social trajectories, each offering dancers a wide range of explorations which will inform our dances as both art form and social container.
In this class Erica and Daniel will share elements from the language of Tango tailored for expanding the improvisational vocabularies of the dancers, strengthen attunement skills & develop conversational skills to engage with dancers who have a different improvisational vocabulary. The material will explore overlapping commonalities and distinctive differences of the two forms. We hope to encourage dancers to widen their improvisational vocabularies and explore and overcome any confusions about how these two divergent forms of improvisational dances can inform each other.
We invite you to join us, both new and experienced dancers from either form, in a structure that honors all and different abilities. If you are worried about steps – our approach to teaching this material is focused on improvisation. We specialize in dancers with two left feet. We will have fun doing it!
Fusion & Improvisation October Costume Dance Party
We want to dress up and dance and play together! We hope that the themes of listening and tuning into our partners, conversation, and fusion will filter into a dance party, with music, costumes, improvisation, and fun!
Wear fabulous costumes & what you feel comfortable in! Earthdance has some costumes available to borrow for the night!
*** Please ONLY bring leather or rubber soled dedicated dance shoes or socks (no heels or shoes worn outside)
SHARE OUR FACEBOOK EVENT!
SCHEDULE
Workshop: 3 – 5pm
Potluck: 5:30 – 6:30pm
Fusion & Improvisation October Costume Dance Party: 7 – 9:30pm
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
***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.***
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $15 processing fee (Workshop+Jam) and $8 processing (Jam).
No refunds available less than 10 days from the start of the event.
Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors. We do not offer refunds if you catch a cold, the flu or COVID after cancellation dates.
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 Summer Jam participants.
Daniel’s first introduction to Improv and Contemporary Dance was with Bill T Jones, at the American Dance Asylum in 1975. He began his own Jazz Improv group in 1978 whilst dancing with Brenda Bufalino, and has been involved with Contact Improv since 1980, first with Steve and Nancy’s cohort on the East Coast, and then with the men of Mangrove on the West Coast.
He traveled widely in the 1980s teaching Contact, BMC, Tap, and Contemporary Dance. His travels led him to Argentina in 1987, where he taught at the State School of Contemporary Dance for the next 7 years, and began his Tango obsession, one which eventually redirected his career.
He has become one of the prime movers in Tango’s modern revival, touring widely in North America, helping create the Tango tourism industry in Buenos Aires, and the first Tango store in the US. He is one of the founding cohort of Earthdance, senior faculty at DNE, and a co-owner of CTT. He taught Tango and Salsa at the Five Colleges for 14 years before the pandemic.
He resides in Florence, MA, where he is the owner of a co-living experimental dance house, and his in residence/ online Tango Archive.
Erica Skye Roper
Erica’s first memory is learning folk dances with their grandparents. Erica began performing folk dances at ten and began learning Argentine Tango at nineteen. Erica played at the edges of Contact improv and tango fusion for more than fifteen years before diving in and studying Contact Improv in 2019.
Erica began teaching dance around 2007 and is available to teach or co-teach Tango Fusion, ConTango Fusion, Salsa Rueda, and Taking-Back-Boundaries workshops. Erica brings a devotion to life long learning through a continuing study of dance and movement as well as the desire to strengthen and build community into the center of all of her teaching.
This beginner/intermediate Contact Improvisation workshop will explore spirals, falls, basing, and flight, while attuning to tone and states of awareness. Moving through different levels, we will start with rolling on the floor and work up to flying. We’ll leave newcomers with enough movement patterns to thrive in Contact Improv jams, and everyone with some more skills and avenues of exploration.
Liana and Jason have been dancing together at jams for about 20 years. We invite you to come play and explore with us for the day at Earthdance. We encourage bringing a beginner’s mind and an openness to the delight of newness and the present moment.
WORKSHOP with Lunch ONLY – Does not include Dinner or Jam
Financially Wealthy – $400
Financially Abundant – $270
Financially Stable – $170
Financially Coping – $100
Financially Strained – $50
JAM ONLY
Financially Wealthy – $240
Financially Abundant – $120
Financially Stable – $60
Financially Coping – $30
Financially Strained – $15
SAUNA
$10 with towel rental
STAY OVERNIGHT
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in our Gratitude Lodge dorm bed is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) Or, camping which is $30. * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
***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.***
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $20 processing fee.
No refunds available less than 10 days 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.
COVID 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. 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.
Liana Foxvog finds joy and presence in dance, and has studied and practiced Contact Improvisation for more than 20 years. She originally trained in gymnastics and later explored various other movement forms before finding a home in CI. Liana brings curiosity and playful exploration to the dance, whether experimenting with lifts or investigating the edge of balance. She especially appreciates tuning into and cultivating mindfulness through CI. Liana has co-facilitated multi-day jams at Earthdance and participates in a regular Underscore practice. Additionally, through her work as a global justice organizer and advocate, Liana has extensive experience as a facilitator and trainer.
Jason Woofenden
Jason Woofenden has always enjoyed agility and physical play. Throughout his childhood, that was climbing trees, sledding, soccer, exploring streams, etc. In his early twenties, he discovered a passion for dance; first, at a freestyle dance, where the wide variety of dance styles helped him be comfortable exploring his own movement inclinations. Through that community, he discovered Contact Improv, which fills him in so many ways. He’s been dancing, exploring, and growing through this form for 20 years, and teaching it on and off for the last 6 years.
As we transition from 2024 to 2025 we offer the theme of Resistance and Support. These complementary qualities underscore the tension between individual perspectives and collaborative action. Through classes, jams, and conversation, we will engage with the evolving form of Contact Improvisation, and celebrate how it informs and strengthens our ability to push back, pull with, lean it, turn away, resist, and support. We also pay tribute to the recently published book by the same name: Resistance and Support: Contact Improvisation @ 50, edited by Ann Cooper Albright, which contains 20 articles by our peers and mentors that challenge, evolve, and honor this dynamic dance form.
What do you resist or can’t resist? What do you support or need support for?
How does what we practice on the dance floor prime us to resist and support as we move into 2025?
Come to rest, play, and connect. Come to party in the kitchen, gather around the bonfire, sweat it out in the sauna, and to lift and be lifted in the umbrella studio.
Winter Jam Details
The Winter Jam is one of the four main Earthdance seasonal jams. It often has around 100-140 participants, is open to all movement levels and backgrounds.
Ticket Options: We offer full jam, commuter, camping and 2 drop-in day options.
Drop-In Days: We are offering 2 drop-in days (no overnight) on Monday, December 30th and Tuesday, December 31st Drop-Ins (15 ticket limit per day). This option is only available for folks who have been to Earthdance before. We ask that you check-in with ED staff during lunch between 1-2pm.
Nine Mountain retreat center is just across the field and is available once you purchase a Commuter Ticket with Earthdance. You will need to contact robyn@ninemountain.com to reserve a bed at an additional cost per night.***ALL participants staying at Nine Mountain MUST check-in at the Earthdance Farmhouse during registration times BEFORE settling into Nine Mountain. Thank you for understanding.***
Children: We are encouraging children to stay home for this jam. We are not providing child care, children’s programming, or kids pricing. Join us for the Summer Jam, which offers many children focused offerings!
Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for Full Jam participants on Friday, December 27th from 4:00pm-7:00pm. Dinner is at 6-7pm. If you arrive late, please find Olive to pick a chore.
Opening Circle: Saturday, December 28th at 10am. We ask that ALL Newcomers to attend this.
Mid-Jam Tidy Up Clean: Monday, December 30th from 9-10am. All Participants join in on the a Tidy Up Clean.
Drop-In Days: Arrive to check-in at the front of the farmhouse Monday, December 30th and Tuesday, December 31st at lunch between 1-2pm. Only availablefor folks who have been to Earthdance before.
Closing Circle and Final Clean: Closing Circle is at 12:30pm on Wednesday, January 1st. Lunch from 1-2pm and Final clean from 2-3 pm. All participants will depart after the final group clean at 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.
Equity & Access Tickets
We are excited to offer up to 10 FULL JAM 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.
Application Deadline is over.
Earthdance makes efforts to support Equity & Access at all its events, this jam 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 in CI.
Classes and discussions that aim to presence awareness and inclusion at the jam as a whole.
Affinity spaces (jams, discussions, etc.) for particular groups of people to connect, share CI space together, and rest from the pressures of being in a minority status at the jam.
Opening Circle: Saturday, December 28th at 10am. We ask that ALL participants attend this.
Housing Options
SOLD OUT – Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, jam offerings, and food during the jam.
The Gratitude Lodge (a.k.a. the Earthdance dorm) is the main lodging facility, connected to the Farmhouse by a short wooded trail. The lodge includes large and small rooms featuring dormitory-style bunks and beds (twin & queen size) and is included in the base jam cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, jam offerings, and food during the jam.
Commuter & Nine Mountain Tickets
You will have access to the jam offerings including food for the event.
Commuter Health Care: We ask that you please use caution when commuting and limit, if possible, to just commuting to and from your home and Earthdance, staying away from large crowds to maintain the health and well being of the other jam participants.
SOLD OUT – Nine Mountain (Across the orchard from Earthdance)
Nine Mountain has beds available in their spacious dorms for the Winter Jam.
The additional rate is $70 per night per person, which includes use of the hot tub, access to the kitchen for personal cooking, and we provide all bedding and towels. There are a few private rooms available.
You will need to contact Robyn at robyn@ninemountain.com to reserve a bed AFTER you’ve registered for a Commuter Ticket with Earthdance.
***ALL participants staying at Nine Mountain MUST check-in at the Earthdance Farmhouse during registration times BEFORE settling into Nine Mountain.
Refund available up to 14 days (December 13th) before the event less a $75 (full jam) & $35 (drop-in) processing fee.
No refunds available less than 14 days (After December 13th) 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!
Dey Summer first went to Earthdance in 2000, and it has for many years been her home away from home.
She’s a body worker in Arlington, MA and recently renovated her home in Florence, MA with a crew of dancing builders that also built Earthdance!
Her current interests center around open scores, sincerity and letting go.
Gabrielle Revlock
Gabrielle Revlock, MFA, is an internationally touring postmodern dancer/choreographer and the creator of Restorative Contact, a mindful touch-based movement practice. She developed the form by synthesizing key elements of various somatic techniques including Contact Improvisation, Restorative Yoga, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Tai Chi, Klein Technique, Yin Yoga, Authentic Movement, and Deep Listening over her 20+ years as a professional dancer, choreographer, certified yoga teacher, and movement educator. As a choreographer, Revlock is the recipient of a New York City Bessie Award and numerous grants including an Independence Foundation Fellowship and project grant from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Her choreography depicts complicated but relatable interpersonal relationships, developed through meticulous character study and improvisational structures. Presenters include The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, New York Live Arts, JACK, The Flea, Joyce Soho, Gibney, Philadelphia Dance Projects, Center for Performance Research, ODC, FringeArts, Velocity Dance Center, Provincetown Dance Festival, The School for Contemporary Dance & Thought, Chop Shop and American Dance Festival. Internationally she has toured to Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Hungary, Russia and India. Her research on the therapeutic applications of touch is compiled into an essay, co-authored with Aaron Brandes, and published in the book, Resistance and Support: Contact Improvisation @ 50, edited by Ann Cooper Albright. Revlock has been an invited speaker at CI@50 at Oberlin College, the Embodiment Conference, the Dance & Somatics Conference and the Future of CI Conference at Earthdance. Previously offered on Airbnb Online Experiences (2020-2024), Restorative Contact was one of the highest rated experiences in the category of wellness and is now an on-demand offering on Happily, a site dedicated to relationship-building. Revlock has been a practitioner of Contact Improvisation since 2003 and has taught the form through Movement Research, the School for Contemporary Dance & Though, Philadelphia Dance Projects, DNE Dance Camp, Soho Contact Improv Collective, Montreal Annual Jam pre-festival, Smith College, Hampshire College, and Salt Spring Island Contact Improvisation Festival. She will be teaching CI at Amherst College in Spring 2025. Revlock holds a BA in Art History from Vassar College and MFA in Dance from Smith College. More at GabrielleRevlock.com
