Meaghan Williams
United States
5Rhythms Teacher since 0
Tribe Member since 2002
I'm a Lyrical baby, I'm at home in the air. In my homeland, my native mode of transportation is transformation through Art. In my shadow the default mode is to drift off center. The great gift of the 5Rhythms in my life has been the discipline for grounding my Lyrical circuitry in the body, while offering a vocabulary of freedom for my soul to soar on its own wings.
I found my way to the 5Rhythms in NYC around '02 when my self-identity in spoken word poetry ran into a concrete wall and broke. The pen and page and mic and brain proved inadequate tools for authentic self-expression at that point. There was nowhere to go but into my whole body. I was invited to the wild tribal throw-down which was Jonathan's class at Children's Aid Society, and I discovered that -aha!- I was a dancer, able to express all this mad poetry wordlessly, soulfully, by simply availing my body to the practice. I auditioned to be part of Gabrielle's dance troupe and began working with the Raven-ous creatrix herself, a relationship of almost 10 years which has fueled in me a lifetime of poetry still waiting to be danced.
After many years of seducing my edge on the city ledge, I leapt, landed, and followed my feet down and way out to the actual-star-studded critter-crawling Earth, where I've found an essential touchstone of my movement practice in nature. For me it's profoundly healing and humbling to dance consciously in and with the natural environment.
All our fabulous human and creative capabilities are not separate from nature. Our bodies are of the Earth. To engage with the Earth, to feel the subtle movement of soil and root underfoot, to observe rock and rolling hill, we might more organically access the Flow of our own human landscape.
Gabrielle offered to our practice the cypher of this correspondence of the Elements to the Rhythms, and urged us to investigate. The 5Rhythms are, essentially, a way in to understanding our own Elemental nature. Our Earth, our Fire, our Water, our Air, our Etheric mysterious soulful selves.
There are infinite astounding environments to immerse ourselves in, to simplify our practice, to partner with the naturally occurring Elements around us as our teachers, complemented by sessions of music and guided exploration. I couldn't be more thrilled to bring this Elemental investigation to the jungles of Costa Rica and the supportive, soulful community of PachaMama.
The Elemental Wave
with Meaghan Williams
19 January 2014 - 24 January 2014
PachaMama,
REGISTER HERE!
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Silvija Tomcik
Croatia
5Rhythms Teacher since 2001
Tribe Member since 0
My home rhythm is Staccato in a serious flirtation with Chaos, that finds its roots in Flowing. You can see, it is not a pure Staccato. I love going into a messy pile of papers on my office table and sorting them out, by alphabet, by date, by theme. I love making different kind of lists, and I love ticking the things off of those lists. For me work is fun. Money is energy. Communication is the key. I love breaking things down to be able to pass them on. I am a “beat slut”, loving the way the beat holds me steady. I love to make things happen and bring people together, doing my “match making”. I follow my passions in my life, to hell and to heaven. I am comforted with the simplicity of Staccato. I love the dynamic of question and response. I love bringing together two sides to meet, roots and wings, movement and rest, feminine and masculine, light and shadow.
The first time I heard about 5Rhythms and Gabrielle Roth was from her “Maps to Ecstasy” book that became my sacred book. Reading it was like finally finding a friend who understood me and spoke my language. One year later, working on the Anti-War Campaign Croatia I was blessed to meet the peace activist Sophie Reynolds, who one day said “oh I feel like dancing today” and took out of her bag one of Gabrielle’s tapes. She brought me in touch with my first 5R teacher, Dilys Morgan Scott, for whom I organized my first 5R workshop in Zagreb. Since then, the doors kept opening and I was ready for the journey, supported by many. Thanks to amazing 5Rhythms teachers along my way, I became a 5R teacher as well. It was destiny, and the rest is history.
As soon as we become aware of and in touch with our bodies, we are making contact with ourselves. For me movement in this way is like a “thermometer” for my state of being. For me, 5Rhythms practice shows me a way to really meet myself, in both a safe and challenging way. There was that feeling where I was longing for contact and I was dreading it. I was meeting myself this way, over and over again on the dance floor, I started building this steady, long-lasting, never-ending relationship to myself in the midst of all the changes of life. I got a lot of energy back into myself, that I had been spending on running away from myself and bumping into other people. Dancing for me was always a way to avoid contact with other people, I could just disappear into my own dance and feel whole there. But actually through 5Rhythms practice and its approach to partnering, I started enjoying meeting others in the dance. I loved that non-verbal communication, where things were clear and in the beat, came first. And later, through Mirrors workshops, I started learning the verbal part of communication as well, dipping into my intuition and awakening my senses.
CONTACT
with Silvija Tomcik
31 January 2014 - 02 February 2014
to be announced, Antwerp
REGISTER HERE!
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