Anna Swisher
Active Hope Community Resilience Program
9-month program to support local action, collaboration, and community building, based in Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects + dance & movement.
Dance & the Work That Reconnects:
Building Resilience in Times of Crisis
Saturday, Feb 5, 2022
1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Gort, Co Galway, Ireland
yogamoves studio
This workshop aims to acknowledge that we are in a time of massive and complex global crises; and that this affects each of us, whether we admit it to ourselves or not. We aim to offer resources and practices to help us live well, contribute meaningfully, and even thrive, in such a world. In this workshop we cultivate something called 'Active Hope.' Active hope is a verb, not a noun. It's something we DO. We don't just hold on to some blind faith that everything will turn out alright. Instead, we cultivate Active Hope with THREE STEPS: 1) Acknowledge the truth of where we are, 2) Identify a hoped-for future, and 3) Take active steps in that direction. All the elements of this workshop will provide opportunities to cultivate Active Hope, through mind, body, and community connection. Absolutely no dance experience needed!
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Please visit the event page here for info and registration.
Dancing for Change:
Transformation through Movement
Sunday, Nov 3, 2019
11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Gort, Co Galway, Ireland
yogamoves studio
This workshop will use movement as a vehicle for exploring the ways we want to be in the world. Through guided practices and exercises, we will identify familiar patterns, explore potential ways of moving, identify core desires and fears/blocks, and cultivate tools to stay connected to the body and bring this awareness into your daily life.
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Please visit the event page here for info and registration. Registration closes Oct 29!
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Transforming Through Movement:
Learning to Listen to the Body
We live our entire lives in our bodies. Every experience we go through is stored in our cellular memory, in our muscular and skeletal structures, and in our conditioned movements. Our bodies also hold generations of information stored in our DNA. And yet, we rarely ask our bodies for guidance. Our culture teaches us how to make sense of things with our mind, not our bodies. But this is only part of the story. There is endless wisdom and guidance available to us in our bodies, if only we can learn how to listen, and respond.
Saturday, Sept 7, 2019
12 - 4 p.m.
Gort, Co Galway, Ireland
yogamoves studio
At the end of the day, the way we move in our bodies is the way we move through the world, the way we live out our lives. If we can bring awareness and curiosity to our body, we can learn things about our lives; we can even begin to shift patterns, and develop new ways of moving and living. But we must start by learning to let our minds ride in the passenger seat for a while, and let our bodies show us the way.
In this workshop we will learn, practice, and play with techniques for learning to listen to the body, letting our body guide us to deeper and more fulfilling ways of moving in the world. Putting these things into practice, we will take a guided musical dance journey through the landscape of our bodies. Several things are accomplished:
-We deepen and transform our relationship to our body: We build respect, admiration, curiosity, and reverence for the body, as we learn to understand the wisdom it carries. We often experience more joy and freedom in our bodies as we release conditioned ideas and movements. Strength and self-confidence naturally follow.
-We discover profound, creative, and practical solutions for challenges we face in our lives.
-We bring more presence to our daily lives, and the ways we move through the world -- We actually experience our lives more fully!
-We become less afraid of “negative” emotions such as fear, rage, or jealousy, as we find ways of being with and moving through them.
-We learn about ways that certain experiences have impacted us, and how we have carried that in our bodies, sometimes for a very long time. We start to see our patterns in a new light, often with more understanding and compassion, and possibly new perspectives on change.
-We find a new resource, that is always available to us: The Body! We now carry at least some basic tools and practices which enable us to turn to our body for guidance at any point in our lives.
-We build a new kind of community: One that has respect for each other’s bodies, allows freedom of movement, and develops authentic relationships through embodied experience. There’s no pressure to be anything other than exactly who you are, exactly where you are.
-We get to dance our asses off. There’s nothing as healing as some good old fashioned fun!
Bring your questions, bring your joys, bring your sorrows and challenges; bring whatever is "up" in your life right now, if you'd like to explore it. Or, just bring yourself, and a willingness to move! Leave with a deeper connection to self, as well as a powerful playlist to put on at home to help you remember.
Space is limited to 12 participants. Please email Anna to register.
SLIDING SCALE TUITION: €40-65; Please pay what you are financially able.
€20 deposit required to reserve your spot. (non-refundable)
**BRING-A-FRIEND SPECIAL: Register with a friend for a discount - €70 for both (€35each)
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((OTHER UPCOMING WORKSHOPS))
DANCING FOR CHANGE - Shifting patterns in our life through conscious movement
DANCE & AUTHENTIC ACTIVISM (*Dancing for Change*) - A blend of conscious dance and Work That Reconnects, designed to connect us to a deep sense of care for the world and empower/inspire us to take action in our communities
DANCING WITH ADDICTION - Examining habitual patterns, coping mechanisms, self-sabotage, and addictive and escapist tendencies through a trauma-informed exploration of movement and the body