| Dear dancing feet around the globe, Each rhythm builds on the other so that we can’t “get” stillness until we’ve actually experienced lyrical;and we can’t “get” lyrical until we’ve found the structure that holds us and the freedom of the edges from which we leap into the unknown in chaos;and we can’t find the structures that define our edge in staccato until we have a sense of our own flow, of our feet on this earth.Each rhythm has its particular teachings, and the end result is to have a self, to reach that place in lyrical where we become the most magical, intuitive, instinctive, original wave of self, and that is the only thing worthy of offering to the great emptiness and the great stillness so we give up the self and just be, in the energy of the spirit and the breath.But we cannot do that until we have really touched upon that self that is a worthy offering to the vast nothingness that holds and creates everything.
We can’t let go of a self we’ve never been.
The next 3 months are filled with my favorite workshops on the dancing path, taking us through different explorations of our self.
God Sexy & the Body – Westerbeke Ranch, California
Last Call!God, Sex, & the BodyWesterbeke Ranch CaliforniaAugust 1 – 4God, Sex and the Body is an initiation into being an embodied soul. It is a deeply personal journey, a celebration like no other, a ritual for the hot and holy you. This journey is a call to stretch our imaginations with a long forgotten innocence and move through a spectrum of feminine and masculine archetypes, to dress up these characters in ritual theater, get inside them and give them expression. No one else can be a man or woman exactly like you. No one else can embody your soul, or project your magic or have your specific curiosity. Part lover, part artist, part god, we were born to rock the world and feel our way into each others hearts.
In a permissive,dynamic environment, we practice being a shape-shifter detached from any sense of fixed self –and make it our mission to emerge not only liberated, but a bit more fascinated by each other and the mystery of it all. How do we find a center point in a world in constant motion? How do we dance on our edge? How do we let go of who we think we are to be? We practice. We take risks. We root for each other.
“God Sex and the Body moves us beyond the grasp of our egos into the embrace of the hot, holy, healthy being we yearn to be. This workshop is and always will be a profound and integral part of the 5Rhythms curriculum. It has personally informed my way of being, my teaching style, and, most deeply, my acceptance of who I am and who I am not.” — Gabrielle Roth
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Mirrors – Kientl, Switzerland
 MirrorsKientl, SwitzerlandSeptember 29 – October 4 Mirrors is an initiation into the world beyond self-importance — into the art of seeing. To enter the world of Mirrors is to take off our blinders and begin to see through the delusions and difficulties that trap us in unhappiness and destructiveness. We start to step back and get some insight into the predictable patterns that sabotage the grace and dignity of our truest and most soulful self.In the 5Rhythms practice, we are constantly moving into the most spontaneous, energetic, expansive qualities of our being. In Mirrors, we are given the tools to identify the relentless loop of our own favorite head-trips and the inevitable situations they create. We tear off masks, sheds skins, reinventing ourselves effortlessly, learning to witness our own drama, its roots and rituals. We enter the crowd of characters that dominate our stage whether servant or star, doormat or dreamer, realist or rebel, mystic or manipulator—all divas, and begin to watch them sabotage our funky, fiery, free-spirit. Sometimes we have to stop the world and wonder: which part of me is using my hands, my feet, my eyes, my ears, and most importantly my mouth today?
We all know what it feels like to get stuck, to lose our groove, to get trapped in our heads and cut off from our hearts. Seeking the answer within awakens the witness and learning to witness our own melodrama is our saving grace.
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Medicine Dance – Montreal, Canada
Medicine DanceMontreal Canada
October 11 – 14
It is always our intention to bring awareness to who it is that we are and to create a path to who it is that we are becoming.
Medicine Dance is designed to tap us into the most elemental, powerful part of us and move us beyond steps into the very spirit of the dance. From here, we can view ourselves in the bigger picture and transform personal wounds into tribal offerings. Dancing for oneself, for each other, for our families, and our communities is powerful medicine, and it is a way to create a loving ripple effect in this world. This will be our intention.
Again and again in life, in the midst of our daily dramas, we need tools to fall back on to help us remember that we are not alone and that we can align with a higher power, a divine intelligence to guide our every move. The 5Rhythms is such a practice, a medicine bag of tools offering us a web of intelligence that we can weave into a personal cloak of wisdom. Each of us has a unique offering to the greater community, but we often forget how much others receive from the insight that is born of a life experience that is ours alone.
We invite you to join us in devotion to the Warrior Healer within you.
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NYC – I’m coming home!!!
The beginning of our next 5Rhythms Teacher Training will bring me back to my community in NYC for a few weeks at the end of August and September which means I’ll be back in the saddle at High Vibration Waves Tuesday nights at the Joffrey. See you soon NYC gladiators!
Love,
Jonathan
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