Archives: Events

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.

More information

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.

The Brahe-Davis Method of Mask Explained

The Practical Side of Transformation 

During this workshop you’ll:

• 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.

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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!

Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.

Earthdance’s Nudity Policy

HOST BIO

Akil Apollo Davis

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

SHARE OUR FACEBOOK INVITE!

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.

PRICING

GRATITUDE LODGE

$700 – Financially Wealthy

$575 – Financially Abundant

$475 – Financially Stable

$400 – Financially Coping

$350 – Financially Strained

CAMPING

$675 – Financially Wealthy

$550 – Financially Abundant

$450 – Financially Stable

$375 – Financially Coping

$325 – Financially Strained

COMMUTER

$650 – Financially Wealthy

$525 – Financially Abundant

$425 – Financially Stable

$350 – Financially Coping

$300 – Financially Strained

Drop-In Day Options:

Saturday, August 31st

$450 – Financially Wealthy

$325 – Financially Abundant

$225 – Financially Stable

$150 – Financially Coping

$100 – Financially Strained

Equity & Access Tickets 

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.

APPLY HERE! Application deadline is August 15th.

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!

Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.

Earthdance’s Nudity Policy

HOST BIO

Frieda Kipar Bay

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.

www.danaiovakoga.net

Description of the Indescribable Butoh

Originating in post-WWII Japan, butoh is a potent and revolutionary dance form. Butoh uses the body brazenly as a battleground to attain personal, social, or political transformation. In its early forms, butoh embraced and referenced Western artistic movements: German Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Existentialism, and Fluxus, all of which pervaded the Tokyo underground and the avant-garde art scene at that time. 

The co-founders of butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata, and Kazuo Ohno trained in German Modern dance, which was integral to the development of German Expressionism. But, eventually, they took opposite approaches to their dance-making. Hijikata’s work became known as ankoku butoh (dance of utter darkness); he embraced the grotesque and the absurd, exploring themes of sacrifice, struggle, and death. Ohno’s butoh was playful, humorous, and filled with light and life. Today’s butoh is influenced by both Hijikata and Ohno and wrestles to balance those contrary approaches. 

Like many other Japanese concepts, butoh is defined by its very evasion of definition. It is both theatre and dance, yet it follows no choreographic conventions. It is a subversive force, through which traditions are overturned. As such, it must exist somewhere on the social periphery. It is a popular spectacle, unlike the classical theatre of Noh with its elaborate gestures. Yet it is esoteric. It is a force of liberation, especially within the conformist Japanese social structure, yet it is born out of extreme discipline. In a culture of exceptional visual harmony, it employs a vocabulary of ugliness. 

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. 

SHARE OUR FACEBOOK EVENT!

Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle and COVID testing

• Arrival/Onsite Check-In: Participants will from 4:00pm-7:00pm on Thursday, September 12th, 2024. Dinner from 6-7pm.
• Opening Circle: Friday, September 13th at 10 am. All participants are asked to attend.
• Closing Circle: Sunday, September 15th at 12:30pm. Lunch 1-2pm.
• Final Group Clean: Sunday, September 15th from 2-3pm
• Departure: Sunday, September 15th by 3pm.

Noguchi Taiso

“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.

Learn about the 13 Aspects of Butoh here.

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

GRATITUDE LODGE

$700 – Financially Wealthy

$575 – Financially Abundant

$475 – Financially Stable 

$400 – Financially Coping

$350 – Financially Strained

CAMPING

$675 – Financially Wealthy

$550 – Financially Abundant

$450 – Financially Stable 

$375 – Financially Coping

$325 – Financially Strained

COMMUTER

$650 – Financially Wealthy

$525 – Financially Abundant

$425 – Financially Stable 

$350 – Financially Coping

$300 – Financially Strained

Equity & Access Tickets 

Although we’re not able to offer any full scholarships this year, we’re excited to offer up to 3 FULL JAM Equity & Access Discounts to individuals who feel part of an underrepresented and/or marginalized group.  We know that for those who come from marginalized populations showing up to spaces filled with primarily privileged groups can be a challenge, and can feel vulnerable.

APPLY HERE! Application deadline is August 29th.

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!

Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.

Earthdance’s Nudity Policy

HOST BIO

Julie Becton Gillium

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.

What is Axis Syllabus?

The Axis Syllabus© is a collection of information pertinent to the human body in motion. This information can be applied to any context of movement. It is an effort towards empowered self-sovereignty and informed choice-making with our bodies. Begun by Frey Faust, with contributions from members of the Axis Syllabus Research Meshwork, the information is reviewed and updated based on emerging, evolving understanding and research related to the moving body.

Arrival, Onsite Check-In, Opening Circle, and Departures

• Arrival/Check-In: Thursday, May 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.

Apply Here! Application deadline has extended to May 10th!

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.

Nine Mountain is NOT available.

PRICING

GRATITUDE LODGE

Financially Wealthy – $875

Financially Abundant – $725

Financially Stable – $625

Financially Coping – $550

Financially Strained – $500

CAMPING

Financially Wealthy – $850

Financially Abundant – $700

Financially Stable – $600

Financially Coping – $525

Financially Strained – $475

COMMUTER

Financially Wealthy – $825

Financially Abundant – $675

Financially Stable – $575

Financially Coping – $500

Financially Strained – $450

2 Day Drop-In – Friday, May 17th + Saturday, May 18th – Only for folks who have Axis Syllabus experience –

GRATITUDE LODGE

Financially Wealthy – $625

Financially Abundant – $500

Financially Stable – $400

Financially Coping – $325

Financially Strained – $275

CAMPING

Financially Wealthy – $600

Financially Abundant – $475

Financially Stable – $375

Financially Coping – $300

Financially Strained – $250

COMMUTER

Financially Wealthy – $525

Financially Abundant – $450

Financially Stable – $350

Financially Coping – $275

Financially Strained – $225

Cancellation Policy

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!

Earthdance’s buildings are ADA accessible. More info here.

Earthdance’s Nudity Policy

HOST BIOS

Kerwin Barrington

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.