Bella Dreizler
United States
5Rhythms Teacher since 2008
Tribe Member since 2001
I was born right in to the rhythm of Staccato and when I fell in to this practice, finding out this energy had a name and a place in the natural cycle was very liberating. For a long time I felt kind of stigmatized by this identification. My evil twin shadows---rigidity and tension---I know oh-so-well and who wants them? As if the shadows of any of the rhythms are easy companions on this journey. But in the last few years, these twin sisters have danced their way mostly into the back seat and I have ever deepening appreciation for my courageous and compassionate clarity. Sometimes my linear energizer bunny organizational skill gets the best of me AND I have done so much good in the world over 64 years…it is my Staccato gift. I have been very at home in my body since I danced out of the womb and my mind functions so well I could easily take up permanent residence there. My home rhythm keeps my arrow pointed in the direction of my final frontier. Continuing to uncover, unravel, undress this raw and vulnerable heart is the life saving reason I keep on dancing.
I danced Gabrielle’s videotape series in my living room all of 2001. In 2002 I randomly dropped into Esalen, a 24 hour first time unplanned visit. In the morning, I danced in hallowed Huxley and felt like I had fallen off some kind of life cliff. When I found out it was 5Rhythms, I returned home and gratefully found a local teacher. I began to live for Tuesday night. Life never was the same after that.
Human beings are programmed from conception to hold on. Picture that tight little fisted fetus, curled up on itself. Nurtured at the breast, holding on to mother, clinging to our blankets. We are experts at holding on from the get go. And we start practicing the let go right after that. In increasingly sophisticated ways, we test our training wheels, push the envelope, let our own freak flags fly. When we’re healthy, when we’re witness to our own shenanigans, life is a constant play between holding on and letting go. Some of us get stuck at either end of this tricky continuum. Sometimes a gentle holding on is called for. Unable to commit, unwilling to patiently wait things out, always moving on to the next and best thing---this is letting go gone wild, taken to an extreme. And then there is the other end: staying too long, clutching at straws, holding back, holding off, holding down, holding out…an endless list of the particular ways we can take holding on to the max. 5Rhythms practice paves the way for fluidity in dancing this continuum. Letting go is the natural outcome that flows from the grounded devotion of truly letting it all the way in, followed by the alive, pulsing and courageous expression of letting it out.
This is our 5th year landing at Harbin Hot Springs for the workshop Letting Go: 5Rhythms, physical release with rollers and balls, yin yoga, hot water soaks, incredible community. Here, held in mother nature’s lap, we have time to flesh out exactly what we are holding on to, how we can create a field to dissolve and empty, how we might shape shift into something yet to be discovered, something brand spanking new.
Letting Go
with Bella Dreizler
13 June 2014 - 15 June 2014
Harbin Hot Springs Middleton, Sacramento
REGISTER HERE!
|
|
|
Alex Mackay
United Kingdom
5Rhythms Teacher since 1997
Tribe Member since 1991
My home rhythm is Flowing Lyrical – a sky girl finding her ground. Living in the birdsong and the dappled light of the woods in West Wales affirms my wildness and connection to the everchanging cycles of nature – I love to bring that with me onto the dancefloors of cities from Manchester and Liverpool to Rome and Reykjavik. Dancing brings mystery and imagination into form and connects deep dreaming with flesh and bone.
I certainly have a lot to be grateful for – living a life built from music, beauty, love and friendship, a warm fireside to return to, my rock’n’roll son and feisty pixie daughter. I find the most inspiring and surprising music at home too – lost and remembered ancient tunes given new life by my partner Joseph Caswell – live music is such a vibrant, subtle and roof-raising energy for 5Rhythms events too. I’m forever grateful to my Raven Sister Gabrielle, who taught me about spirit embodied, generosity and that there is no limit to love.
The transformations in the Heartbeat maps open out from the personal to the collective – so from the palette of joy: gratitude and generosity awaken and roll out into our days, our families and the little choices that make all the difference to the minutes of our life and the world we inhabit.
Calling the qualities of gratitude and generosity, welcoming and embodying the palette of joy – allowing all the feelings to come and go as we celebrate the heights of summer and expand our heart’s capacity for joy.
We will dance in a beautiful round space, surrounded by trees – camping is available and we can enjoy sitting by the fire after we dance on the Friday.
Joy, Gratitude and Generosity
with Alex Mackay
20 June 2014 - 21 June 2014
Felinganol, Cardigan, West Wales, Cardigan
REGISTER HERE!
|
|
|
