Light Up The Night - A 5Rhythms® Benefit Dance
with Elisa Hollenberg, Layah Jane, & Rhondda Snary
Sat Dec 21, 2024, 7-9:30pm
Neighbourhood Unitarian Universalist Congregation
310 Danforth Avenue, Toronto, ON
$20 - $35+
Come dive into your own deep dance with a circle of other dancing seekers of the sacred.
Come reSource, come release, come light up the night!
Join us to raise funds for Clean Shelter (humanitarian aid for Gaza), Unicef, & The Downie & Wenjack Fund
All are welcome here: all bodies, races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, abilities & disabilities, and movement experience. NUUC is a wheelchair accessible venue.
Your kind donation is appreciated even if you are unable to attend on the night-of.
Important Ticket & Registration Info
Tiered pricing is available so that participants can choose their fundraiser donation amount according to what they can afford to contribute.
$35+ Generosity | $30 Supporting | $25 Sustainability | $20 Supported | $12 Access
Drop-in: Pre-registration is not required. Drop-in dancers are welcome to pay cash at the door, provided we have not yet reached capacity. Please bring exact change. Drop-in tickets are $25-$35 +HST at the door. There will not be Access or Supported tier tickets available at the door.
Sales Tax & Service Fees
All ticket purchases are subject to 13% HST.
Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity.
(If you would prefer to pay by etransfer and save the booking fees, please see instructions below.)
Credit Card: To pay by credit card please register on Humanitix.
Etransfer: You are welcome to pay via Etransfer. Please register on Humanitix and use the promocode: etransfer. This will give you 100% discount at checkout. To complete your registration, send an etransfer in the amount of the tuition tier you selected plus 13% HST, to layahjane@hotmail.com. Your registration will be complete upon receipt of your etransfer. No payment reminder emails will be sent, and your ticket will be voided if we haven't received your etransfer within 24 hrs of your booking.
Reparations Scholarships: A 50% scholarship (at the Sustainability or Supporting rates) is available to anyone who identifies as a person of colour. Please use promo code: reparations on Humanitix to receive this Reparations Scholarship.
Promo code process: Enter your promo code at the top of the page, then click the "Apply" button. This will apply your discount to the tickets you add to your cart.
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Health & Wellness Agreements
We expect any dancers experiencing cold/flu symptoms to stay home to care for themselves, and the rest of the group.
Capacity limits (registration capped at 70 dancers)
Masks welcome (but not mandatory)
Contact tracing (name and phone number of every participant)
If you choose to attend this indoor class, you acknowledge that though we are taking precautions, there is still a risk of contracting an illness as a result of attending, and you are assuming full responsibility for your choice to attend, and any illnesses or injuries that may result.
about the facilitators
ELISA catalyzes spaces that allow authenticity, self-expression and connection using the 5Rhythms practice as a map. Dance is her current creative outlet, which she loves to share with others. She works full-time as a mental health research coordinator and is a certified 5Rhythms teacher accredited with the 5Rhythms Teachers Association.Association. https://www.5rhythms.com/teachers/Elisa+Hollenberg
LAYAH is a healing artist - a teacher, dancer, and musician. Passionate about offering people sacred space to experience motion as medicine, Layah has facilitated movement since 2003, and has taught 5Rhythms since 2014. Layah's work is infused with expressive enthusiasm, a fascination with the weave of ritual and improvisational art, and a reverent love of creative practice as a transformational and political act. Layah is a member of the International Conscious Movement Teachers Association, and a certified 5Rhythms teacher accredited with the 5Rhythms Teachers Association. www.layahjane.com
RHONDDA - Life moves. In all that Rhondda holds and believes, this is the essence. Dancing with all of life’s offerings; the joys, the hardships, the sorrows and the triumphs, the physical abilities and the different abilities, we dance with what is. As a Certified and Accredited 5Rhythms® Teacher, as well as being Certified in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy, her trauma-informed somatic embodiment focuses on listening ‘in’ to the body and gently, kindly, learning to trust its wisdom to be able to respond to what we hear. Rhondda has been moving with her own major health and loss crises in recent years, which have taken her away from teaching, and organizing classes and workshops … a deep letting go and grieving process. But her heart, body, spirit, mind and soul have never been away from the practice, and her experiences have been invaluable teachers.
Dedicated to supporting those in need, her work has included 5Rhythms® Reach Out (not-for-profit). She initiated our Light Up the Night Benefit Dance in 2015 to bring community together to collectively support others, and gratefully bows to all the Conscious Dance teachers and dancers who have been essential to creating Light each year.
A note from the hosts about the beneficiaries:
Light Up the Night 2024 offers Humanitarian Support –
At Home and in the Middle East
The world is crying right now … in so many places, in so many ways.
When we (Elisa, Rhondda, and Layah) came together to talk about this year’s Light Up the Night beneficiaries, there were so many possibilities, so many in need. Our hearts ached for all and we were strongly called to support the people who are suffering in the Middle East conflict.
We have 5Rhythms® colleagues living there, deeply affected by that war, so we reached out to them, an Israeli and a Palestinian. They are soul friends, allies and critical supports for each other. There is no line in the sand between them personally; there are no “sides”. There are only Human Beings, suffering.
That is who we also see, from our safe Canadian vantage point, and who we “side” with … human beings who are suffering, human beings who need help.
So, it is based on the suggestions of our dear friends and colleagues in the Middle East, based on their knowing, first-hand, the suffering of this conflict, that we have agreed on two humanitarian organizations for Light Up the Night 2024, one small and one large, and both caring for and supporting families and children in need.
They are:
Clean Shelter – which provides essential sanitary facilities and shelter for displaced communities. (It is run by two women, an Israeli and a Palestinian, each now living safely in Europe); and,
UNICEF’s Children’s fund
Giving at Home
Because each year we are also called to support Indigenous organizations, this year we have chosen the Downie & Wenjak Fund. It is Indigenous-led and inspired by the heartbreaking and tragic death in 1966 of 12-year-old residential school child Chanie Wenjack, as he tried to walk the 600 km back to his home. His story touched The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie and led to his legacy desire to “build a better Canada.” The goal of the Downie & Wenjack Fund is to “improve the lives of Indigenous people by building awareness, education, and connection between all peoples in Canada.” Coming together in community and connection to help others is key to our Light Up the Night.
And, once again this year, we will have our Baskets of Warmth available to receive donations of new or lightly-used, clean hats, scarves, mittens, socks, jackets, or anything you have that could help a person in need in Toronto stay warm and safe this winter.
We thank you for your generosity, compassion, care and love, and, always, for your unique, heartfelt dance.
Rhondda Snary, Elisa Hollenberg and Layah Jane
“You have to dance through the dark in order to see the light.” Gabrielle Roth
In the years since we began this annual Benefit Dance we have raised thousands of dollars to support various causes that touch our hearts, including the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), through the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Syrian Refugee families arriving in Canada, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Raven Trust indigenous justice organization, as well as our own Toronto Moving Meditation Workshop Scholarship Fund.