For
non-dancers and dancers alike, this is not what you
think of dance class! My students have ranged in age
from 11 to 83, have been all shapes and sizes, have
danced before, or only in their living rooms, or not
at all, and they keep coming back! This is for every
BODY! No experience is needed, nor is an ability to follow
someone else's steps or to know your right from your
left.
Discover the joys of moving the body, even if you never
thought of yourself as a "dancer," you truly
are! A movement experience like no other, this is one
of those great rivers that leads us back into our bodies
and rejuvenates us with the vital energy of life, rooted while soaring. For
some it's therapeutic and healing, for others it's a
spiritual practice, or it's just a great workout, or
cathartic and transformative, or a source
to creativity.
Whatever it is for you, it's designed to move your body
and stir your soul. And when the soul, heart, and body
meet, you find that naturally the chatter of the mind quiets, the chaos of the world falls away, moods
shift, the breath deepens, stress dissolves, and we experience
release, balance, clarity, and oneness.
Safe and softly lit space, conscious
facilitation by your instructor, and up to 15 diverse pieces of great music,
are the midwives to assist the birth of your inner dance. There you'll find your inhibition and self-consciousness
replaced by self-expression.
Classes open with a sacred circle. Then the moving meditation practice begins. Like trackers, we explore the map of the body, awakening each body part and its inner story. Through focusing attention and opening awareness, you listen and respond, discovering how your authentic dance unfolds in the movement of the moment.
Then we dive into the Rhythm Wave -- flow, staccato, chaos, lyrical,
stillness -- and the nuances in between, the rhythms inside the rhythms. There you learn how your breath inspires and supports the dance that you are, and how to express and move your energy, free yourself from ordinary patterning, and unleash your heart's passion. Always we dance in partnership -- with yourself,
with one other, or as a tribe.
Each session closes in circle with reflection, and optional art journaling and sacred sharing.
I invite you to journey across your common threshold to meet your primordial self. Dance on the edge, move and be moved. Catch the ecstatic rhythm wave and ride it on in, to your heart. Join the tribe and sweat your prayers!
Can be offered as a
2 to 3 hour workshop; or a weekly series of
one-and-a-half or 2-hour classes. Welcome all adults only; teens with permission. Wear comfortable
clothes, dress in layers (for changing temperatures
like from sitting still or moving lots), bring a water
bottle, indoor-only dance shoes or slippers if you can't
dance barefoot, and a blanket or towel or yoga mat to
make the floor more comfortable if a stretch component is being offered.
Barbara is a lifelong dance explorer. In 1991 her dancer's path brought her to Gabrielle Roth, author of Maps to Ecstasy: Teachings of an Urban Shaman, and Sweat Your Prayers: Movement as Spiritual Practice. Since then she has been trained directly by Gabrielle, in California and New York, and many of her certified teachers. Barbara has been leading Ecstatic Dance sessions since 1995, and brings to her teaching a wealth of experiences from a full range of dance, movement, rhythm, and BodyMind studies.
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