Body Songs, Soul Motion is Exhilarating, Joyous, Tender, & Expansive Play
Wednesdays through April, May, June
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Wednesdays through April, May, June 〰️
Soul Motion at the White Eagle Hall, in James Bay
community, playfulness, & depth…
6:45-8:45pm
Wednesday Nights: April, May, & June
Details
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You may pay by class or by 4 class bundle
Pre-register for one class: $23
Drop-in at the door: $25
Pre-Register for a 4 class pass: $80
Scholarship: dancers under 30 years old, students, and folks on low income, bring a friend for free: 2 for $25
sliding scale welcome also
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Dress in layers, so that as your body temperature changes you can be comfortable; bring water, a snack if you like.
Many people dance barefoot in this class, and you are also welcome to wear inside shoes for support or comfort - dance shoes with suede soles are an option that supports turning without injuring knees.
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This class is a place of biodioversity. In our community there are folks caring for injuries, folks with differing abilities and disabilities, folks with vulnerable immune systems, folks with sensitivities around scent and sound, as well as people who prefer to dance in solitude and those who love to dance with others.
Here are some loving collaborative care requests:
Please come to the class without strong chemical scent (like perfumes). This makes greater ease for all.
Please recognize that some folks do not like to be touched by others, or to have people dance close to them. In our class we practice offering personal space to one another, and practice simple consent inquiries in our shared dances. Everyone has different needs about intimacy, so we practice curiosity, go slow when coming closer to each other, and listen and watch for indicators of No and Yes.
Our values are that Everyone has a right to dance without intimidation, bullying, being grabbed, or harrassed. Such behavior is not tolerated at this class; if someone treats you this way at the class, and the facilitator does not track it please let the facilitator know: your physical and psychological sense of safety matters to us.
If you are ill, such as experiencing cold- or flu-like symptoms please do not attend class.A full refund or credit will be given if you have registered but need to miss class due to illness - please let us know in advance of the class.
For folks who are more comfortable coming into shared space with a mask, you are very welcome to wear one.
Accessibility: the hall has one flight of stairs with a handrail. The hall has an elevator. Please contact the facilitator at least 24 hours before the class to arrange use of the lift.
The hall has a gender-neutral one-stall washroom and male and female multi-stall washrooms.
This is a Queer/Trans friendly and affirming space, a neurodivergent affirming space, an Indigenous affirming space, a Black and POC affirming space.
Our biodiversity is a strength and a beauty magic!
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The dance hall has a wood floor on a wood frame (no concrete, so softer on the body), it is a large rectangular space with windows along the sides that are above head height.
We open the windows and two doors to bring lovely fresh air into the room, or use the heating system when warmth is needed. We light the space with soft lighting.
Body Songs, Soul Motion: Weekly classes in Victoria, BC
You and I. All of us. Together. Earth and Sky.
We’ll begin with a warm up: time to arrive, land, transition, and wake the body. We’ll spend some time in a generative somatic/movement exploration, to expand movement possibilities together. Then, we’ll enjoy a luscious passage of music, sounds, and silence currents, to move with, through, and around.
Opening and closing circles bookend the ritual of movement practice for enlivening and voyaging.
Call and response. Ebb and flow. Stillness and movement. Listening and expressing, offering movement gestures and phrases. Breath, bones, muscles, fascia, heart, soul, spirit - ripples of movement bubbling from the creative wellspring.
Do dress in layers, and bring water in a closed container and a snack if you’d like. Some folks also enjoy bringing a journal or simple (dry) art supplies, though this is not necessary.
Folks will be well supported to explore their own instinctive ripples of movement and play, their own creative voice, within spacious time and a kind, welcoming atmosphere of relational ecology.
"Katrina is an exceptionally gifted leader, therapist and dancer. Working with Katrina I appreciate her profound professional background, as well as the passion and humor that becomes clearly visible in her teaching.”
— Edgar Spieker, Soul Motion Teacher, Faculty in the Soul Motion School, Germany
“Katrina is a great instructor who shares possibilities for movement body, ways to use space, and connect to others. Her positive energy is contagious and brings joy and brightness to her class. I highly recommend that you try her classes. Her classes have encouraged me to express my soul through body movement, explore creativity, freedom, and connecting with others”
-Rieko, Professional Dancer and participant in Soul Motion, Body Songs, in Sacramento, CA
an origin story:
The White Eagle Hall, in James Bay, was the first conscious dance floor I ever landed on in the autumn of 2005 - 20ish years ago - in a 5 Rhythms Heart Beat workshop with Kathy Altman. Through that creative doorway I found Soul Motion…
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Soul Motion was created by Vincent Martinez Grieco, a creative from the Bronx who became interested in dance as a healing art for his own experience of trauma. Soul Motion is a lineage that grew from his inquiry into movement, somatics, and dance artistry in community.
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Soul Motion plays with Echo Inspiration, Orbit Orientation, and Pause Presence, three platforms for exploring dance artistry and creative improvisational presence. Soul Motion is mystical, curious about the mystery, interested in the unknown and the unfolding of magic in a group gathered together to listen to the I/Thou.
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Soul Motion is a relational practice: we travel through landscapes of dance intimate (the solo practice), dance communion (inquires in two together), dance community (all of us as currents rippling thorugh the room), and dance infinite and the everyday (us with the mystery and the mundane). Soul Motion intentionally helps us explore our relations with one another and all of life - how do we move in these nestled ecosystems of relationship? How do we take this curious practice off the dance floor and into our lives….
the relief of exhaling through simple body movements
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the visceral sense of freedom emerges through releasing body tension through play in dance
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the relief of exhaling through simple body movements 〰️ the visceral sense of freedom emerges through releasing body tension through play in dance 〰️
In that Heart Beat workshop I met my beloved; and, through that meeting, I moved to Northern California where I met and fell in love with Soul Motion and became a Soul Motion Teacher - participating in the very first Soul Motion Teacher Training cohort, 2007-2009, with Vincent Martinez Grieco and Zuza Engler.
After the teacher training program, I apprenticed with Vincent and Zuza for many years, assisting them at workshops at Esalen Institute, Kripalu Institute, and Madrona Mind Body Institute and regularly holding community classes at these Institutes during our programs. I was delighted to be invited to cocreate the Soul Motion Embodied Leadership Training Program with my colleague Aletia Anna Alvarez, for the Soul Motion School, 2014 - 2016, a program of somatic leadership inquiry which is still taught in all Soul Motion teacher trainings.
Moving home to Victoria, with my beloved and our children, has been a deep delight. James is also a Soul Motion teacher, and we’re so happy to be putting down roots in the community where we met and to be developing a playful and kind Soul Motion Community together in Victoria.
Body Songs Soul Motion is wild nourishment for the times we are living through.
Through this Contemplative Improvisational Dance lineage I am sharing about an emergent body of work - Relational Ecology - creative practices and maps for playing together, improvising together, the creative nourishment of releasing tension, uncrumpling, developing ease together, playing with the inherent movement artistry that lives within life that flows through each of us!