This is an exciting workshop for a bunch of reasons, but to start, our music will be created LIVE and in large part, spontaneously. Music and movement will listen and dialogue back and forth just as much as we ourselves will listen to and dialogue with mind, heart, body, and breath.
As we are experimenting with movement and sound, we will also be (un)intentionally creating a collective piece of art (while we are surrounded by the visual art of the gallery in which we will move!). This collective piece actively demonstrates basic underlying concepts of buddhism, including interconnectedness and impermanence and the beauty of both.
You will learn how to listen to your body on a whole new level -- understanding its intuition, emotion, and feeling languages better than ever before -- but you will also learn how to listen to and participate in a communal body conversation.
This is not ecstatic dance. We are not seeking to lose ourselves or transcend anything.
We are experimenting with becoming more alive as we sink into what is referred to as the "mud body" of Japanese Butoh.
In seeking deeper aliveness, we are ready to take full responsibility for our own lives and the life of our community in new and more compassionate ways.
Movement art and music are two of the most basic and earliest ways humans interacted with one another in sacred ritual. Our movement art and music naturally ritualizes our experience of being one among many and what our default identity is in that context and whether or not it's an identity that is functional. In this work, we can observe our habits and patterns while at the same time experimenting with new ways of being, all in a safe and nurturing space.
Jeremy Yama is a multidisciplinary visual and sound creator whose projects and interests encompass both compositional and improvisational music and textural sound in it's raw form. He has most recently been involved in the improvisational sound duo ZONK as well as being a contributing member to Pittsburgh's experimental sound collective Hunted Creatures. https://huntedcreatures.bandcamp.com/ . For this workshop, Jeremy is particularly interested in the intersectional and transactional potential of sound and movement in a guided therapeutic setting.
Christine Serfozo is a trauma-sensitive movement artist with a comprehensive knowledge of somatic psychology. She's studied many forms of dance, with a special focus on Butoh and Modern which, in conjunction with biomechanics, breath techniques, and body inclusion, are the foundation for her work. She's interested in developing choreographic processes that create cathartic release and emotional growth, as opposed to typical choreographed 'productions.' She develops her processes through experimentation with a communal group of movement artists, and they are accessible to any level of movement experience. Most recently, she developed a process that expresses, integrates, and transforms the human experience of grief. She's currently creating sequences that will foster the expression of sacred sensuality outside of an objectifying gaze. Her ultimate goal is to inspire deep body listening leading to the fundamental freedom that can only be found in the essential creativity of our very cells. More: christineserfozo.com
Functional Animal Movement to Enhance Your Yoga, Movement Practices, & LIFE
$30 (limited space)
CLICK HERE to register
Open to ALL BODIES, ALL LEVELS, ALL GENDERS.
Whether you're just starting to explore movement modalities or consider yourself a seasoned yogi or a veteran athlete, this stuff will challenge you to move outside the box and into a better understanding of your body and its true abilities.
Come and surprise yourself!
We'll cover the following and then some:
Better breathing for all types of movement -- and even just for living.
Moving on and through different planes.
Transitioning more smoothly in your movements whether that be yoga, dance, walking, or lifting weights.
The biomechanics of better movement, including moving in awkward and misaligned ways ON PURPOSE.
Aging gracefully by not committing so many common user errors with your beautiful body.
Aging powerfully by learning basic, fundamental movement that will protect you from much of what we consider the "negatives of aging."
Sacred Feminine Happy Hour Study Circle, 2nd Friday, Starting in October: When God was a Woman
STARTING OCTOBER 11th!
You know how it is with our yoga classes — there’s usually some ((cough)) talking at the beginning. And there have been days when it felt like the world was collapsing in on itself and was I ever grateful for the women in community with me who showed up for class and understood that sometimes our deepest “yoga” is talking, yelling, crying, and just being together in shelter.
There were a couple of those times when it became really clear to me that there are so many of us who need some time dedicated to deep study, thought, and sharing, so here we go: SATSANG — a spiritual study circle.
(There will be beverages but you can bring your own, and remember, we share space with a PIZZA SHOP!)
We’ll be focusing on the sacred feminine in general, but for months at a time we’ll be focused on certain texts.
For our first few months, we’ll be looking at When God was a Woman by Merlin Stone. (That’s a link to the book on Amazon, but I encourage you to order a copy through an independent bookseller, like Pressed here in Erie.)
Even if you’ve read this, you’ve probably not read it in community.
The point is to work through this stuff in a way that it settles into our bodies. By that I mean, we’ll work in a way that is meant to lead to an eventual understanding of the material that affects our daily lives and spiritual practices.
We’ll start with the abstract, otherwise, and work toward the concrete and the material.
Here’s a loose idea of the calendar for this particular book — the dates are the dates but who knows if we’ll stick to this for the pages. It might take longer.
October 11th: Introduction through chapter 2
November 8th: chapter 3 through 5
December 13th: chapter 6 through 8
January 10th: chapter 9 through 11
Fall Equinox Moon Yoga with Live Sound Healing
I don't know if it's because I am a Scorpio, Autumn-born baby, but this time of year gets me feeling all witchy/earth goddess/howling-at-the-moon. The day light changes; the color of the sky and lake gets more intense; and suddenly, I am paying even more attention than usual (which is a lot) to the moon and stars and what the birds and bees are up to.
Fall equinox is a favorite time for me, and if that's true for you, I invite you to our celebration of it with yoga, community movement, breath, intention setting, and sound healing with singing bowl magicks.
NOTE: We are a week early with our celebration because of some scheduling issues BUT that only means a WEEK EXTRA of celebration as far as I'm concerned.
What to bring: we have mats but bring your own if you like. Also bring a notebook and pen if that's your sort of thing, any crystals, talisman items that would add to your practice.
WHERE: Pranayoga -- a little breathing room with a BLUE DOOR (1001 West 6th)
WHEN: Tuesday, September 17th from 5:30 to 7 PM
COST: $30 (You MUST pre-register HERE)
Local, Open Grief and Trauma Support Group
I’ll be guiding this group weekly on a drop in basis ($20 or donation; cash) weekly at ABC’s of Building Better Lives Therapy, located at 4320 Dexter Avenue, right off of Pine slightly north of Grandview (by the Dairy Queen).
Grief is not just about losing someone to death, of course, and this group is open to anyone challenged by any sort of grief or trauma.
Ganesha Chaturthi: Rituals for these 10 Days
September 2nd through September 12th is a ten day celebration of the “birthday” of the Hindu God, Ganesha, the elephant headed God who removes obstacles.
First thing I did was go and get a new Ganesha statue (after having gotten rid of all my statuary when we moved to Vermont 3 years ago today, not realizing a) we’d move home again and b) I’d really want those darn statues!). I then took him to the lake’s edge and performed some simple ablutions. I also picked up a rock for my altar.
This year, I set up a really simple altar on a table in the main flow of our house so it’s always in a sight line and so I’m constantly thinking about my intentions around this time.
My altar includes: my new Ganesha statue, an incense burner, three candles, some favorite stones that are targeted toward my intention, the rock from the ablutions at the lake, and my mala that was handmade for me for my wedding.
My intention this year is about emotional obstacles — mainly whatever it is that is blocking me from really claiming my happy life. I don’t need to articulate it any more clearly than that. We don’t always need a million words of explanation for our feelings. They just are and eventually then can just change.
Each day, besides my focus on my intention, I’m spending time chanting to Ganesha, and I’m doing that by simply following along with this chant to him by Deva Premal.
My point is that none of this needs to be complicated. Do what feels right and good and have some consistency so you can naturally grow your devotion muscles.
First Fall Session in Erie at Pranayoga!
This is just a reminder that the fall session is UP and you can STILL REGISTER OR you can DROP IN!
YEP! You can DROP IN!
I haven’t had the space to allow for that in the recent past but now we do! YAY!
Go here for all the details.
Taking Care of My Pain Body
For a lot of reasons, over the past few months, I've been in more body pain than I have been since I started dancing again 11 years ago. 15 years ago, I was in so much pain that I thought I needed a cane (and I still need to write more about that…).
Dance took all the pain away. But over time and with a ton of daily work and deep devotion and awareness.
Now a lot of that pain is back... sigh...
But luckily I realized that I'm not doing some of the basics that I used to be very passionate about...including simply doing slow, circular, flowing movement earlier in the day to awaken everything.
I'm super stiff in the morning so this isn't about dancing but about getting things going.
It's about deep body listening.
And here you get to see me just PLOP against the wall at one point...because this is the work of it and sometimes we do things that aren't very graceful.