ALL of us, no matter what kind of lives that we have lived, have tales to tell that are compelling to others. Sometimes these are stories of our peak highs and other times, our heartbreaks. They may be stories of the mundane, a funny anecdote or a frustrating family gathering. No matter what the topic, when we share our stories with each other, we find a sense of shared humanity that is deeply satisfying.
In this embodied approach to personal storytelling, we use movement as the ground and inspiration for our stories. We slow down and connect to our bodies which lands us in the present moment where the magic happens. We move and speak, speak and move, not knowing what we are going to say; the words are waiting just beneath the surface. While it may seem like walking and chewing gum, it quickly becomes quite natural.
Using improv games, we get comfortable speaking small vignettes of our life and have fun exploring together. Then we share longer stories with each other. We do this in a supportive container, witnessing each other from a place of care, encouragement and non-judgement. This is about authentic human expression. No performance experience or skill is needed.
Come experience the richness of this work! I hope you will join me for this nourishing soul play.
Potluck Dinner: Please bring your favorite dish or donation of $10-15
Sauna and towel rental: $10
***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.***
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight: A dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $15 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.
Mandy Snyder is a Somatic Healer and group facilitator who is passionate about creating spaces for embodied self-discovery. With warmth and welcoming, she guides others to make contact with self-compassion, a balm that makes everything just a little easier. Her individual sessions, groups and workshops draw from her training in Somatic Experiencing, study in Internal Family Systems and 25 + years as in movement studies, including Authentic Movement, Body Tales and Contact Improvisation. A lover of nature and laughter, Mandy has spent many years in Vermont and California, and now makes Western Massachusetts her home.
In this workshop, led by Frieda Kipar Bay and Dana Iova-Koga, we immerse ourselves deeply into the inquiry of how to relate to the ecologies on either side of the skin. Drawing from the practices of contact improvisation, qigong, body weather*, wild tending, and deep observation (including tracking, plant ID, and internal states), we will delve into the question of how to dance – and be danced by- a landscape. In stretching the definition of CI fundamentals (such as ‘sharing weight’ and ‘entering a dance’) to include our environment, we open up new possibilities of how to be human here.
Our days will be spent in deep observation of the landscape, including wild tending and native plant walks and in the studio practicing deep observation of ourselves through qigong, CI, and bodyweather practices.
As part of this workshop, we will participate in land-stewardship activities that will support the forested watershed surrounding Earthdance. This work will also serve to ground our explorations in a practical application of what it means to have an embodied dialogue with place.
“Body Weather is a Butoh practice stemming from Min Tanaka (whom Dana studied/lived with for 5 years.)
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for participants on Thursday, November 2nd from 4:00pm-7:00pm. Dinner is at 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Friday, November 3rd at 10am.
Friday, November 3rd and Saturday, November 4th Drop-In Days: Arrive at 8am and Departure at 10pm day of.
Weekend Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, November 5th.
COVID Testing: Please make sure that you have tested for COVID on the day of arrival for weekend and drop-in days. If needed, participants may purchase tests from Earthdance for $10 each.
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 3 Discounted Tickets to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized groups. 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, the 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 event as a whole.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, event 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 event cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, event offerings, and food during the jam.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to the event 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 participants.
Refund available up to 14 days (October 19th) 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.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. However, ALL registrants are required to take an antigen test on the day of before arriving on Thursday, November 2nd at Earthdance. If you need a test, Earthdance will have them available to purchase for $10 each.
Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before arriving. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
COMMUTERS:We ask that you please use caution when commuting and limit, if possible, to just commuting to and from your home and Earthdance, staying away from large crowds to maintain the health and well being of the other participants.
Participant Community Support
Earthdance runs as a community, thus part of the participation is that all individuals contribute to 1-2 work shifts (typically meal cleans) throughout the event and participate in a final house clean on the last day of the event. These are great ways to connect more with your fellow participants and Earthdance staff, and to feel more at home in the Earthdance buildings & grounds. Your contributions to this collective caring of this space are invaluable!
Frieda Kipar Bay is a weaver of knowledge, overlapping different threads to better understand the whole. Movement is the primary lens that she uses to see into life, and she works in depth with plant medicine to navigate health and disentangle from oppressive overcultures. Some of the threads she currently weaves with: Daoist medicine, qigong, five element theory and diagnostic practices, wild tending and native plant restoration, tracking, writing, performance art experiments, somatic experiencing and trauma resolution, The Work That Reconnects facilitation and grief processing, and equity practice. She finds that beautiful things get made when she weaves with many perspectives. Find out more at www.friedakiparbay.net.
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. www.danaiovakoga.net
When was the last time you underwent a meaningful transformation?
When was the moment you embodied the presence of a powerful Queen, or emerged as a regal King, only to then transform into the playful dance of a Clown?
Transformation is the catalyst for healing, inspiration, and enlightenment, finding its perfect medium in the captivating realm of masks. Masks have always held an intricate connection to the depths of the human psyche, a tangible bridge to archetypal images and centers that are within us all.
Journeying into the realm of archetypes, a profound facet of human consciousness, opens doors to unexplored dimensions, experiences, and wisdom. Whether you’re stepping onto this path for the first time or you’re a seasoned traveler in the realm of archetypes, our workshop promises an immersive experience tailored to your unique quest for knowledge and creative self-discovery.
Prepare to immerse yourself in the intricate tapestry of archetypes using the esteemed Brahe-Davis method of MASK. Embark on a journey that transcends various schools of thought, allowing you to embody these archetypal forces through this medium. As you delve deeper, you’ll unravel the threads that connect these archetypes to the fabric of our culture, media, and collective consciousness.
Disney’s “The Lion King” is intentionally interwoven with archetypal imagery and messages that may miss the eye before it’s pointed out. So- YES We’ll discuss the Lion King as a template for understanding archetypes and how these universal patterns captivate and educate us through various media lenses.
With over 15 years of immersive experience, teaching over 10,000 students, Akil Apollo Davis’ profound expertise will be your guide, offering you a meticulously curated weekend: “Archetypes & the Metamorphosis-Masquerade.” His guidance will lead you to unearth your innate ability to metamorphose through archetypes. His unique Balinese crafted masks will serve as the key to unlocking the archetypal center within you, allowing you to transform from the inside out. Discover the gifts they bestow upon you and witness how a deeper understanding can magnify the richness of your everyday life.
Are you ready to take this enthralling leap? Here’s a glimpse of what awaits you during this weekend:
🌟 Engage in evening embodiment sessions with masks and music, planting the seeds for your archetypal exploration.
🌟 Immerse yourself in micro gestures and compression techniques to enhance your transformation.
🌟 Participate in archetype mask lectures and embodiment exercises to uncover the essence of these powerful archetypes.
🌟 Join the Costume Bazaar to select the attire that will become the vessel of your metamorphosis.
🌟 Experience engaging play, improv, and story time sessions that weave the magic of archetypes into your narrative.
🌟 Culminate your journey with the grandeur of the Metamorphosis-Masquerade, where your transformed self will be celebrated.
Prepare to reflect, integrate, and ready yourself for the journey home on the final day.
***Bring your personal costumes, accessories, and pieces to fully embody your transformation for the night of the Masquerade!
***Bring extra pieces if you want to support the activation and transformation of your fellow participants!
Spaces for this extraordinary experience are limited! Only 22 spots available. Secure your ticket for a weekend that promises to reshape your perception of storytelling, culture, and the art of self-expression.
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for participants on Thursday, November 16th from 4:00pm-7:00pm. Dinner is at 6-7pm.
Weekend Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, November 5th.
COVID Testing: Please make sure that you have tested for COVID on the day of arrival for weekend and drop-in days. If needed, participants may purchase tests from Earthdance for $10 each.
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 3 Discounted Tickets to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized groups. 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.
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge at Earthdance Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, workshops, and food during the event.
The Gratitude Lodge (a.k.a. the Earthdance dorm) is the main lodging facility, connected to the Farmhouse by a short wooded trail. The lodge includes large and small rooms featuring dormitory-style bunks and beds (twin & queen size) and is included in the base event cost. Beds are available on a first come basis.
Camping Tickets
Includes a spot to camp at Earthdance, workshops, and food during the event.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to all workshops 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 participants.
ABOUT THE MASKS
These wooden masks are hand-carved in Bali by a Priest/Brahman, require 40-70 coats of paint and a traditional sacred cleansing ceremony for their completion!
The Masks differ from the traditional Balinese canon. The only similarity is that the Brahe-Davis Masks are made with the same process and carving method of the traditional Balinese Masks, but these are NOT “Balinese Masks”
The Image the Masks are carved from are channeled from Akil or Per Brahe’s (the founder of the work) to intention and imagination. The Masks are then placed on participants and they are allowed to explore transformation.
It is also important to note that these masks differ, in the extreme, from the traditional Commedia dell’arte Masks which dominate Europe and Western/American Culture. While Commedia masks aim to put the body in the position or gesture of the character- frequently using a mirror- The practitioners of the Brahe-Davis Mask technique are generally NOT allowed to SEE or KNOW what Mask they have. These masks don’t work your mind, these masks work your BODY through the power of image and transformation and your body’s natural ability to be sensitive to the image in the mask!
HOW THE MASKS WORK
90% of the time participants aren’t even allowed to see or know what the mask is. This keeps them from Pre-acting in a wrong direction. And even though people don’t see the mask or know what it is- they will still DO what the Mask is. This is the body’s natural sensitivity.
In a nutshell- If you pluck the string on one guitar, the same string on another will vibrate… this is how the masks work with your body.
The image of the mask activates the chosen center in the body and transformation happens.
On the way into transforming, the body clears blocks to the archetype through somatic and emotionally expressive movement. Thus, the masks have a healing effect while getting you into the images in YOU! You can transform into anything.
“Nothing human is foreign to me” -Terentius
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 14 days 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.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. However, ALL registrants are required to take an antigen test on the day of before arriving on Thursday, November 16th at Earthdance. If you need a test, Earthdance will have them available to purchase for $10 each.
Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before arriving. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
COMMUTERS:We ask that you please use caution when commuting and limit, if possible, to just commuting to and from your home and Earthdance, staying away from large crowds to maintain the health and well being of the other participants.
Participant Community Support
Earthdance runs as a community, thus part of the participation is that all individuals contribute to 1-2 work shifts (typically meal cleans) throughout the event and participate in a final house clean on the last day of the event. These are great ways to connect more with your fellow participants and Earthdance staff, and to feel more at home in the Earthdance buildings & grounds. Your contributions to this collective caring of this space are invaluable!
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.
This summer, Loom Ensemble is bringing together a racially diverse team of professional dancers, musicians and theatermakers, to invite you into an outdoors experience of Dance Theater for Collective Liberation. Loom’s newest piece “Tell Me How You Breathe,” brings us to a world where climate crisis has progressed slightly more than our present day, to play out the interrelationship of institutional power structures and ancestral healing practices. Playful humor, live music, and beautiful storytelling help us lean in to meet these pressing issues.
The story centers on the lungs, as the site of interconnectedness and the organ of grief. “Who gets to breathe freely, fully, with ease,” is a necessary question for our time, right at the intersection of eco-activism, social justice, and public health. With the nourishment of participatory ceremony and song, Loom grounds this political conversation in the physical body, to incite the radical act of collectively imagining a more just and beautiful world.
This is a body positive, queer, anti-racist space. The work is explicitly political, leaning into raw conversations, but centering wellbeing and respect for the artist throughout.
“Loom Ensemble can do it all–act, sing and above all dance!” –Khaleej Times
“Loom Ensemble brings fresh ideas, inspires the local community and helps showcase the community’s talent.” –Art Kentro
EVENT DETAILS
Friday and/or Saturday options include:
Performance: 6pm – 7:30pm
Dinner: 7:30 – 8: 30pm
CI Integration Jam: 8:30pm
*** These performances will be outside on the grass in our orchard. We have limited folding chairs. Please bring a blanket or camping chair to sit on and bug spray.
*** RAIN or SHINE the show will go on! We will move the show indoors to accommodate the weather.
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.
Performance Offerings
Friday August 4th and/or Saturday August 5th
Event Package includes – Performance, Dinner and CI Integration Jam: $50 – $150
Performance Only: $20 – $80
Dinner: $15
CI Integration Jam: $20 – $80
Sauna $10 (includes 2 towels rental)
BIPOC spots and children under 12: Pay what you can! Please reach out to programming@earthdance.net if you would like to register before the event. Otherwise, you can pay onsite.
***If you find that you are struggling financially or there are other circumstances that are making it difficult to join this special event, please email programming@earthdance.net with your situation so that we can create a way to have you join us.***
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight in a dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge for $40 or camp on our land for $35. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
Refund available up to 10 days (July 21st) before the event less a $25 processing fee for the full package, $10 for individual.
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.
Participant Community Support
Earthdance runs as a community, thus part of the participation is that all individuals contribute to cleaning up after meals throughout the event. This is a great way 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!
Loom has been devising interdisciplinary theater for culture shift for 13 years from NYC blackboxes to stone monasteries in Italy, repurposed industrial warehouses in Dubai and to the fields and forests of Vermont.We use our performances to open difficult conversations, and then facilitate community discussion to unpack the emotional vulnerability and cultural taboos of each show. In that shared space, the social value of art made from a place of deep integrity becomes clear: our actions matter, new ways of living are possible, together we can build a more loving world.
As a direct response to broken patriarchy, lonely individualism, and shame-inducing capitalism, our performances call audiences home to themselves and their communities. Our work is to reconnect with the earth, with emotional integrity, and with each other.
Loom Ensemble devises “dance-theater” in the most literal sense, using character, story, and dialogue to ground abstract dance in emotional specificity; and using full-bodied contemporary choreography to deepen the resonance of our narrative storytelling. Mix in group songs to connect the body of the performer with the hearts of the audience, and you’ve got Loom Ensemble’s interdisciplinary approach to live theater.
Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.
Join Loom Ensemble at EarthDance this summer for an immersive experience of collaborative, interdisciplinary dance-theater creation and performance! During this weeklong residency, participants will train daily in dance, theatermaking, and performance techniques in the morning. In the afternoon, Artistic Directors Neva Cockrell and Raphael Sacks will work with participants to devise ensemble dance-theater performances. Participants will then publicly perform these pieces, as a fully-integrated part of Loom’s professional touring show, “Tell Me How You Breathe: Dance-Theater for Collective Liberation” Performances at Earthdance will take place Friday and Saturday nights, August 4th and 5th. The show will then move to Boston for a Sunday evening performance on August 6th, which the Earthdance Ensemble is invited to be a part of!
This is a rare opportunity to train, create new material, rehearse and refine the material, and then perform it… all in one week! Loom has been building the other elements of this show “Tell Me How You Breathe” over the course of the last year, and is now touring with a professional team of 9 artists. This unique model allows us to add in community-based movement ensembles in each location. The show is touring to 10 different cities across VT, MA, and NY. There will be an ensemble in each state… and this is your chance to JOIN THE MASSACHUSETTS MOVEMENT ENSEMBLE!
Who is this for
This residency is open to all levels of movement and performance experience, and all bodies. We will be devising the pieces, so each person will be able to tailor it to their body and ability level. While we may have some moments of scored improvisation, we will mostly be creating and setting material, so it is useful to be able to remember set movement sequences.
This is a body positive, queer, anti-racist space. The work is explicitly political, leaning into raw conversations, but centering wellbeing and respect for the artist throughout.
About the show “Tell Me How You Breathe”
This summer, Loom Ensemble is bringing together a racially diverse team of professional dancers, musicians and theatermakers, to invite you into an outdoors experience of Dance Theater for Collective Liberation. Loom’s newest piece “Tell Me How You Breathe,” brings us to a world where climate crisis has progressed slightly more than our present day, to play out the interrelationship of institutional power structures and ancestral healing practices. Playful humor, live music, and beautiful storytelling help us lean in to meet these pressing issues.
The story centers on the lungs, as the site of interconnectedness and the organ of grief. “Who gets to breathe freely, fully, with ease,” is a necessary question for our time, right at the intersection of eco-activism, social justice, and public health. With the nourishment of participatory ceremony and song, Loom grounds this political conversation in the physical body, to incite the radical act of collectively imagining a more just and beautiful world.
Testimonials
“Neva and Raffles facilitated a space that felt inclusive, liberating and autonomous. I felt that I belonged and I was able to arrive as myself. Each offering invited freedom of movement, self expression and sharing.” -Erica, Residency Participant, New York
“Powerful and unique… Don’t miss it!” -Gulf News, Performance Review, Dubai UAE
“Such a beautiful performance tonight! Provocative, sensual, heart-wrenching, and dreamlike, but ultimately hopeful, with so many textured layers. I loved the fact that the performance was both rough and graceful.” -Gretchen, Audience Member, Vermont
Sample Schedule July 31 – August 6 (actual schedule TBA)
Monday: Arrivals and Introductions. Dinner at 6-7pm
Tuesday – Wednesday: Dance-Theater Trainings and Rehearsal
Thursday: Dance-Theater Training and Dress/Tech Rehearsal
Friday – Saturday: Rehearsals and Performances
Sunday: Optional Travel to Boston and Performance in Boston
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge, workshop offerings, and healthy delicious 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 in Earthdance’s wooded areas or grass field, workshop offerings, and healthy delicious food.
PRICING
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 8 Equity & Access Discounts to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized group and have a relationship with CI, performance or dance. 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 event experience for all.
Note: While Earthdance is making efforts to better support Equity & Access at all its events, this training 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 event 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 the event.
BIPOC Spots
This is retreat is a body-positive, queer, anti-racist space.
By offering a sliding-scale program fee, work exchange opportunities, “Equity and Access” discounts, and two *FREE* BIPOC spots, we hope to make this retreat accessible to all.
Refund available up to 14 days (July 16th) 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.
COVID Precautions
No specific requirements on vaccination status are needed to attend this event. However, ALL registrants are required to take an antigen test on the day of before arriving on Monday, July 31st at Earthdance. If you need a test, Earthdance will have them available to purchase for $10 each.
Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before arriving. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Participant Community Support
Earthdance runs as a community, thus part of the participation is that all individuals contribute to 1-2 work shifts (typically meal cleans) throughout the event and participate in a final house clean on the last day of the event. These are great ways to connect more with your fellow participants and Earthdance staff, and to feel more at home in the Earthdance buildings & grounds. Your contributions to this collective caring of this space are invaluable!
Loom has been devising interdisciplinary theater for culture shift for 13 years from NYC blackboxes to stone monasteries in Italy, repurposed industrial warehouses in Dubai and to the fields and forests of Vermont.We use our performances to open difficult conversations, and then facilitate community discussion to unpack the emotional vulnerability and cultural taboos of each show. In that shared space, the social value of art made from a place of deep integrity becomes clear: our actions matter, new ways of living are possible, together we can build a more loving world.
As a direct response to broken patriarchy, lonely individualism, and shame-inducing capitalism, our performances call audiences home to themselves and their communities. Our work is to reconnect with the earth, with emotional integrity, and with each other.
Loom Ensemble devises “dance-theater” in the most literal sense, using character, story, and dialogue to ground abstract dance in emotional specificity; and using full-bodied contemporary choreography to deepen the resonance of our narrative storytelling. Mix in group songs to connect the body of the performer with the hearts of the audience, and you’ve got Loom Ensemble’s interdisciplinary approach to live theater.
Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.
Contact Improvisation and the Argentine Tango are two improvisational forms and emerging dance vocabularies gaining worldwide popularity. They have vastly different roots, and yet have many interesting intersections which offer opportunities for dancers of each form to expand their social consciousness and movement skill sets. They are both forms which have performing arts and social trajectories, offering their dancers a wide range of explorations in which to build dance as both an art form and a social container.
In this Workshop, Eliana and Daniel will explore some of the overlapping commonalities and distinctive differences of the two forms. They hope to encourage dancers to widen their improvisational vocabularies and overcome any confusions about how these two divergent forms of improvisational dance can inform each other. And we will have fun doing it.
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for Friday, July 14th from 4:00pm-7:00pm. Dinner is at 6-7pm.
Opening Circle: Friday, July 14th at 7:30pm.
Friday Class and Dance Evening ONLY: Arrive at 7:30pm, Departure is at 12am.
Saturday Dance Evening ONLY: Arrive at 7:30pm, Departure is at 12am.
Departure: All participants will depart after the final group clean at 3pm on Sunday, July 16th.
COVID Testing: Please make sure that you have tested for COVID on the day of arrival for both Full and Half Jam. If needed, participants may purchase tests from Earthdance for $10 each.
Bring loose fitting clothes, leather dance shoes or socks to dance in.
***Please do not wear high heels or tight fitting clothes. You will be dancing Contact Improv influenced by Tango, not strictly Tango!
Housing Options
Gratitude Lodge Tickets
Includes a bed in the Gratitude Lodge for 2 nights, workshop offerings, and healthy delicious 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 for 2 nights in Earthdance’s wooded areas or grass field, workshop offerings, and healthy delicious food.
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 this year, we’re excited to offer up to 3 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, the Summer 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.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 10 days (July 4th) before the event less a $50 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. However, ALL registrants are required to take an antigen test on the day of before arriving on Friday, July 14th at Earthdance. If you need a test, Earthdance will have them available to purchase for $10 each.
Please take adequate measures to limit your exposure in the days before arriving. If you are feeling sick, or have a known close exposure to someone with COVID in the past 5 days, please sit this one out to keep the community well.
Participant Community Support
Earthdance runs as a community, thus part of the participation is that all individuals contribute to 1-2 work shifts (typically meal cleans) throughout the event and participate in a final house clean on the last day of the event. These are great ways to connect more with your fellow participants and Earthdance staff, and to feel more at home in the Earthdance buildings & grounds. Your contributions to this collective caring of this space are invaluable!
Eliana began her path in movement improvisation at 15 through the Aberastury System. Her training includes contemporary dance, ballet, tango as well as yoga, eutony and somatics theater and clown. She likes to experiment with hybrid/juxtaposed languages on scene, and has choreographed dance-theater pieces, aerial dance, dance for children and also made site specific and street performances.
She fell in love with Contact Improvisation in 1987, at Daniel’s first workshops in Buenos Aires, and began teaching CI four years later. She has been a CI teacher at the School of Artistic Education (ESEA) since 2012. She is a co-creator of Eimcila, Latin America CI Teachers Meeting in 2011, co-organizer of the Buenos Aires CI-50 Celebration, as well as ongoing Jams in her city. Another passion of hers is to work in heated water. She gives Aguahara sessions and facilitates @milon.gota mixing CI and tango in water.
She loves simple things, like practicing yoga at the seaside, cooking or collecting grapefruit in my neighborhood, and sharing time with my beloved 20 year old son.
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 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 travelled 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, helping create the Tango tourism industry in Buenos Aires, and the first Tango store in North America. He is one of the founding cohort of Earthdance, senior faculty at DNE, and a co-owner of CTT.
He resides in Northampton, MA, where he is the owner of a co-living experimental dance house, and Tango Archive.
Eliana Bonard is joining us all the way from Argentina!
Following *Fedora Aberastury’s fundamental principles and Contact Improvisation, we awake our “energy centers” in order to make energy flow freely. In so doing, subtle and authentic movement happens. Expanding the volume of our body, by opening joints, by moving our spine and by letting go unnecessary tensions, we generate a true presence. Then we get to Contact with the earth and the others, deepening our senses and hearing , unfolding communication. We will practice specific contact improvisation exercises in order to develop skills, and we will explore ways in our language of improvisation for solo, duo, and larger groups.
Fedora’s System is based on conscious thought. The word resonates and gives power to action, to movement. Movement is life, Fedora used to say. By awakening the energy centers from conscious thought, we allow their free flow that produces movement, a genuine movement born from within, without any pretension, giving space to our own dance. The spinal cord energetically connected to the tongue can move like a snake. Rivers that flow “undoing the muscular armor little by little”… as Wilhem Reich said.
Bringing to our dances a bit of the quality of water, which makes up more than 70% of our body. The planet is also a body, a large body with continents – islands floating in oceans, land floating on water. Wet earth, plants and animals, sap and blood flowing, watery plasma in each of its cells.
With this quality, we will approach contact improvisation by spreading our weight on the floor, practicing shapes and technical details. We will build solid but fluid structures to offer support. We’ll explore in detail how to share weight on rolls in order to be light. We will try slides, falls, effortless flights and dynamic weight transitions. We will include the relationship between eyes and movement in improvisation.
All levels of experience in CI and movement in general are welcome!
Share our Facebook Event!
Event Details
Workshop: 10am – 1pm
Lunch: 1 – 2pm (lunch will be provided)
Workshop: 2pm-4pm
PRICING
$400 – Financially Wealthy
$260 – Financially Abundant
$160 – Financially Stable
$100 – Financially Coping
$80 – Financially Strained
Sauna and 2 towels: $10
***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.***
A dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge: If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight it is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
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.
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 10 days before the event less a $30 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.
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!
Since I was a child, dance has always meant pleasure, health and freedom. At age fifteen I began my path in movement improvisation through the Aberastury System. My training includes contemporary dance, ballet, tango as well as yoga, eutony and somatics, I also nourished my practice with theater and clown.
I like to experiment with hybrid/juxtaposed languages on scene. I have choreographed dance-theater pieces, aerial dance, dance for children and also made site specific and street performances.
I fell in love with Contact Improvisation in 1987 and I began teaching CI four years later. I have been a CI teacher at the School of Artistic Education (ESEA) since 2012. I was co-creator of Eimcila, Latin America CI Teachers Meeting in 2011, co-organizer of the Buenos Aires CI50 Celebration, as well as ongoing Jams in my city. Another passion of mine is to work in heated water and I give Aguahara sessions and facilitate @milon.gota mixing CI and tango in water.
I love simple things, like practicing yoga at the seaside, cooking or collecting grapefruit in my neighborhood and sharing time with my beloved 20 year old son.
Eliana Bonard – Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Desde pequeña concebí la danza como placer, salud y libertad. Comencé a los 15 años mi camino en la improvisación de movimiento a través del Sistema Aberastury. Me formé en danza contemporánea y ballet como en yoga, tango, eutonía y somáticas. Nutrí mi práctica con actuación y clown.
Me interesa la experimentación escénica en el cruce de lenguajes. Realicé varias obras coreográficas de danza teatro, danza aérea, danza para niños y performances en espacios no convencionales.
Me enamoré del CI en 1987 y lo comencé a enseñar cuatro años más tarde. Dí clases en varias ciudades y festivales internacionales en América y Europa. Soy profesora de CI en ESEA, profesorados oficiales de danza desde 2012. Soy co-creadora de Eimcila, Encuentro internacional de maestros de CI en Latinoamérica en 2011, co-organizadora de Celebración 50 CI Bs As, y actualmente coordino Jams en mi ciudad. Otra de mis pasiones es trabajar en agua climatizada dando sesiones de Aguahara y facilitar la @milon.gota, lab en el agua cruzando CI y tango.
Amo las cosas simples como hacer yoga en la playa, cocinar, cosechar pomelos y paltas en mi barrio y compartir tiempo con mi amado hijo de 20.
Eliana’s Historical review with The Fedora Aberastury Conscious System:
I began to investigate movement evoking water more than 10 years ago.
The Fedora Aberastury Conscious System revealed several axes on which to experiment. The tongue, a powerful energetic center, is perhaps Fedora’s most important discovery. The tongue that expands like a sponge and connects with the the marrow and spine, invites the nervous system to relax, and the entire volume of our body to expand. Top of the head, center of thought, tongue, cardiac plexus, solar plexus, lower center or aura, energy centers coinciding with the chakras evoked from thought, and the centers at the tips of our ten fingers and toes, where energy can flow and connect us with the source of the bio electro magnetic field.
I was lucky to meet my teacher Ana Labat when I was fifteen. She taught the principles of Fedora’s System to me for seven years. Fedora’s System matured in Buenos Aires from the 60’s, without school, without diplomas, founded on a conception of human being and a rigorous practice. I was also lucky to meet Fedora. She would come to see us practice. We were the youngest, the ones that would succeed her.
It is a System that is transmitted, like martial arts, from master to disciple. I used to attend Ana’s classes every day. Her studio was open to me and she welcomed me with joy. When I was eighteen one day she spoked to me very seriously and told me that I was ready, that I had to start transmitting it. And I did it. In my own bedroom I would raised the mattress and received a group of friends and relatives for classes every week.
A year later, I met CI through Daniel Trenner, who taught his first CI intensive in Buenos Aires. It was a quantum leap. Since then I knew that this dance would stay with me forever with its infinite possibilities. We organized the first jam in my city in 1988. Alma Falkenberg, who was one of the first CI transmitters in Argentina, was my teacher at the dance school training I was attending. Foreign teachers visited Buenos Aires every year and I didn’t miss any of them. Dany Trenner, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson, Danny Lepkoff, Alito Alessi, Karen Nelson, Luc Petton, Sue Lauther, Martin Keogh, Camillo Vacalebre, and more. I started teaching CI in 1991. Eight years later I traveled to deepen my practice (San Francisco, CA) with Martin and Ray Chung, and then I organized Ray Chung ́s visit Buenos Aires. I went to Europe to deepen the Underscore with Nancy (Arlequi, Spain). I was invited to teach at international festivals in Argentina, in Brazil (Sao Paulo, Florianópolis, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro), and Freiburg Contact Festival in Germany…
In 2007 in Buenos Aires with my colleague Paula Baratta I began to investigate the connections between Fedora Aberastury System and CI. Several years ago they invited me to my first jam in heated water. In 2019 I began my Aguahara Training. Currently I offer Aguahara sessions. Last year, I co-created @milon.gota, mixing contact and tango in water.
*Fedora Aberastury was born in Chile and moved to Argentina at a young age where she began her musical training. She moved with her husband to Washington for a while and studied in NY with whom she considers her masters Claudio Arrau and Rafael da Silva. It was the sound she was looking for with the neccesary emotional charge. Back in Buenos Aires, she developed her System, researching for decades with countless students and various disciples. The System’s protagonists are the tongue and the hands , a legacy of her training as a pianist. She passed away in 1985. “I’ll be, no matter when. Life is inside me”
Singing together is a ritual, and song has been part of collective ritual practice across time and place. In Resonance and Ritual, we gather an emergent community to sing together and collaborate on ritual sound experiences co-created by participants and master teachers. We combine various vocalization practices and ground them with nightly rituals rooted deeply in music. Our workshops and shared practices include improvisational singing, folk songs, song circles, invocations, and musical embodiment. The ritual practice is tied closely to land-based reverence at the beautiful location of Earthdance on Nipmuc and Abenaki land.
Weaving their Earthdance roots with a synchronous vision, Marie Ebacher, Emmett DeBeer Charno and Charlotte Malin come together as song leaders and space holders to generate this space. The event will feature local indigenous leader Evan Pritchard and master song leader Onome.
Our days begin with an opening ritual and land acknowledgement, followed by a morning practice from one of the master teachers. Throughout the day there will be workshops and jams from teachers and community members, with encouraged flexibility for integration, play, and personal practice. The evenings will feature our collaborative rituals and fireside music jams.
Schedule
Friday: Dinner, evening welcoming circle, and song share around the fire.
Saturday: Opening ritual and land acknowledgement; whole group singing experience from a master teacher; lunch; afternoon workshop from a master teacher; free time for community jams, community shares, and personal practice. Day Drop-In Options Available.
Sunday: Group song and closing circle, group clean and departure.
Arrival and Onsite Check-In: The welcoming will commence for participants on Friday, August 25th from 4:00pm-7:00pm.
Dinner: Friday, August 25th at 6-7pm
Opening Circle: Friday, August 25th at 8pm
Saturday Drop-In Arrival and Departure: 8am – 11pm
Closing Circle: Sunday, August 27th at 12pm and final group clean at 2pm
Departure: Sunday, August 27th at 3pm
COVID Testing: Please make sure that you have tested for COVID on the day of arrival for the event. If needed, participants may purchase tests from Earthdance for $10 each.
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 Equity & Access Discounts to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized group and have a relationship with this work. 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 this event as a whole.
Affinity spaces (events, discussions, etc.) for particular groups of people to connect, share movement 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 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 on Earthdance, event offerings, and food during the jam.
Commuter Tickets
You will have access to the event offerings including food for the event.
Commuter Health Care: We ask that you please use caution when commuting and limit, if possible, to just commuting to and from your home and Earthdance, staying away from large crowds and wear a mask in public spaces to maintain the health and well being of the other participants.
***Nine Mountain is not available for this event.***
Cancellation Policy
Refund available up to 10 days (August 14th) before the event less a $75 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. However, ALL registrants are required to take an antigen test on the day of, before arriving on Thursday, August 24th at Earthdance. If you need a test, Earthdance will have them available to purchase for $10 each.
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 COMMITMENT: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 and wear a mask in public spaces to maintain the health and well being of the other participants.
Participant Community Support
Earthdance runs as a community, thus part of the participation is that all individuals contribute to 1-2 work shifts (typically meal cleans) throughout the event and participate in a final house clean on the last day of the event. These are great ways to connect more with your fellow participants and Earthdance staff, and to feel more at home in the Earthdance buildings & grounds. Your contributions to this collective caring of this space are invaluable!
Charlotte Malin is a performer, teacher, and healer guiding people into direct, communal, and transformational encounters with music. My artistic identities include classical violinist & violist, free improviser, songwriter, song leader, group facilitator, dancer, priestess, and healer. I’m passionate about bringing audiences, clients, and students into aliveness, authenticity, and attunement through music and awareness practices.
Charlotte has collaborated closely with luminaries of the classical world including Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Kim Kashkashian, and has performed extensively throughout the US, Europe, Asia, and South America. She makes her home in Western MA and is devoted to building a rooted community that embraces new culture and sustainability. She co-curates a community hub for embodiment, arts, and spirituality in Florence MA called The Hidden Temple, and teaches viola at Amherst College.
Marie/Murry is a song weaver, dream teacher, death doula, & cosmic clown. They paint space with ruminative, playful and etheric sonic strokes. Both a contact dancer & vocal improvisor, the union of movement and sound is at the core of their practice of somatic instrumentation.
Hailing from the Northeast woodlands of Western MA, Marie/Murry carries the gentle & fierce landscapes of the forest in her voice. Involved with several musical projects, most dear to her heart are Tender Spot, her witchpunk project, and Eerie Muse, her folk project, both streaming on Bandcamp. Marie/Murry’s passions include poetry, forest bathing, singing with the wind, dream interpretation, herbalism, queerness and clowning. Marie/Murry is part of the organizing team for Resonance and Ritual.
IG: @eyeblinktherefore
Emmett Charno
Emmett Charno is an educator, facilitator, interdisciplinary artist, performer, and producer bringing magic and play to everything they do. They create events and spaces that are committed to radical self expression and inclusion, especially for those often held in the margins. Emmett has been facilitating group vocal improvisation for over ten years, and has trained with master teachers Bobby McFerrin, Meredith Monk, and Rhiannon among others. They create and collaborate on movement, vocal music, harp, looping, costume, and narrative installation.
In the daytime, Emmett is a reading specialist in NYC teaching elementary school age children to read in private practice and in schools. In the nighttime, Emmett performs and produces as their alter ego Excess Materials in their interdimensional narrative drag shows Portals and other drag performance. Emmett is passionate about science fiction, sex positivity, social justice, literacy, fairy houses, outsider art, and magic.
www.charnoeducation.org
Onome
Onome (pronounced Awe nuh MAY) leads experiences at the intersection of voice, creativity, and mindfulness.
Through structured group improvisation and vocal embodiment practices, Onome designs and leads events for a wide variety of audiences internationally at colleges, corporations, cultural centers, and retreats that “a-ha!” people to new levels of self-discovery, emotional freedom, joy, and creative flow.
Onome grew up with her ear in multiple worlds, starting with the Nigerian lilt of her immigrant parents, and the African-American vernacular of her classmates. She got her start as a choir geek and embraced the eclecticism of folk, soul, spirituals, European classical chorale, rock, and hip-hop music that she grew up with in Chicago.
She is a partner artist at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, where she contributes her performances and trainings across their vast educational programming spectrum.
Onome’s work serves holistic-oriented individuals committed to moving beyond fear and emotional stuckness to voice their truth, expressive arts enthusiasts whose souls are deeply nourished by community vocal rituals, and organizations committed to building thriving cultures of connection through experiential learning in the workplace.
Evan Pritchard, a descendant of the Micmac people (part of the Algonquin nations) is the founder of Center for Algonquin Culture, and is a former Professor of Native American history at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He is also the author of the widely praised No Word For Time, the Way of the Algonquin People, and many other books, including an Algonkian language series.
Come join others on a path of self-discovery for a fruitful dive into your inner world. Drawing from IFS (Internal Family Systems), also called Parts Work, we will root into our centered self, that inner witness, and attend to the parts of us that hold challenging emotions or thought patterns, such as depression, anxiety, judgment, and jealousy, from a place of curiosity.
As we do this, we learn that all parts of us are simply trying their best to help us. One role they play is trying to shield us from pain, harm, discomfort or overwhelm. These are called our “protectors”. Often their strategies aren’t so great: They may distract us, lead us toward addictive behaviors, ignite anger or cause endless mental loops. Pushing these protectors away or ignoring, often makes things worse. Here, we learn to partner with them and support them. We get more familiar with their strategies and discover their deepest needs: to feel more safe and connected. We also take time to meet these needs, as best we can.
The practices we engage with are somatic skills, such as breath, sensing and movement, as well as writing, drawing, sharing and creativity. Some practices are done alone, others in small groups or the whole group.
It’s important to know this work may unearth feelings or sensations that can feel uncomfortable. While I will be offering strategies for working with these feelings, please come with a tool or two for getting back to center if you feel triggered or overwhelmed, for example, taking deep breaths, grounding practices or taking breaks. I will encourage self-care and give opportunities for co-regulation. You may want to schedule a little time after the workshop or the next day for rest and self-reflection. Reach out if you have any questions about this workshop. I hope you will join me for this rich opportunity to receive personal insights, to grow in self-acceptance and to experience the joys of learning together.
Potluck Dinner: Please bring your favorite dish or donation of $10-15
Sauna and 2 towels: $10
***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.***
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight: A dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge is $40. (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) * Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
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.
Mandy Snyder is a Somatic Healer and group facilitator who is passionate about creating spaces for embodied self-discovery. With warmth and welcoming, she guides others to make contact with self-compassion, a balm that makes everything just a little easier. Her individual sessions, groups and workshops draw from her training in Somatic Experiencing, study in Internal Family Systems and 25 + years as in movement studies, including Authentic Movement, Body Tales and Contact Improvisation. A lover of nature and laughter, Mandy has spent many years in Vermont and California, and now makes Western Massachusetts her home.
Bring attention to sensations, starting this “micro” journey inwards – a journey that connects us to what’s small and concrete, that enables us to perceive physicality from a contemplative state.
It could be the first impulse towards embodying movement, towards awakening instinctive-intuitive memories of what it means to move, explore space, explore the relationship with the floor and the interaction with others, giving rise to the state of presence that curiosity offers us.During the workshop we will explore through different somatic approaches (Body-mind-centering, Feldenkrais and Dinamic Anatomy), inviting attention to become body and presence, testing how to distribute weight, and how force travels through bodies in different directions. Ideas of weight, counterweight, falls, lifts, dynamic architectures and adaptations to a mutable form will be present.
Potluck Dinner: Please bring your favorite dish or donation of $10-15
Sauna and 2 towels: $10
***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.***
If you wish to extend your visit and stay overnight: A dorm bed in our Gratitude Lodge is $40 (Rental of sheets and towel is $15) or $30 to camp* Includes access to the sauna and kitchen use but does not provide food.
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.
Dancer and practitioner of Contact Improvisation. Dedicated to the transmission of the C.I since 2013. With learning in different somatic approaches such as: B.M.C, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique and Topf Technique. Craniosacral Therapist ( Upledger Institute and Biodinamic aproach) with diplomas in Osteopathy and Somatic education.
Teachers who have inspired his training: Marin Keogh, Karen Nelson, Kirstie Simnson, Cristina Turdo, Autarco Arfini, K.J Holms, Alessandro Rivellino, Ricardo Neves, Javiera Sanhueza, Marcela Ortiz de Zarate, Barbara Mahler and Gustavo Lecce.
He was a manager and co-creator of various projects and festivals in relation to Contact improvisation and somatic disciplines, to name a few: Mueves: platform for the production of festivals and workshops in relation to the practice of C.I. (Year 2013-2018 Chile) Cuerpo inteligencia : Dance Training Program (year 2016-2019 Chile) Movere: International Dance Festival (year 2020-2022 Mexico) Immersion: International Contact Improvisation Festival, January 2023.
Sharing his work and research about Contact Improvisation, somatic practices and Craniosacral therapy in universities and independent spaces in the following countries: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Mexico and the United States.
