Let's move with the deepening darkness.
Let's listen for the body, breath, earth song that sings wisdom through winter dreams.
Let's call for the sun's return, to warm bones, spark hope, and illuminate our dancing prayers.
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
Many of us are living with a sense of anxiety, overwhelm, and despair around the climate crisis. How do we process what we are living and keep stepping into our place in the ecology of change?
Save the date!
In these times of disconnect and division, there is a yearning to come together--
To meet the living mystery of our own unfolding,
And to move in the poetry of our belonging…
Beneath the bustle of busy lives, there is a yearning to slow down and resource. To turn towards ourselves and our relationship with nature, co-creating sacred space for embodied prayer.
In August we will gather by The Black River in Madoc, ON for a midsummer movement sojourn, held in the temple of Forest, Sky, Rock, and River. Supported by 5Rhythms and Continuum practice, we will attune to the primordial rhythms that come from within and journey together into deeper communion with the wilderness within us and around us.
Dancing the 5Rhythms can be fun, meditative, transformative, and healing. We have the opportunity to step into a sandbox where we can play with different embodiment tools that support us to express a wider spectrum of our aliveness.
In this workshop we will explore the 5Rhythms through the metaphors, magic, and essential qualities of each of the elements. We will find Earth through Flowing, ignite Staccato through Fire, dive into Water’s Chaos, lighten up Lyrical through Air, and enter the spaciousness of Stillness through Ether.
Each of the 5Rhythms is a quality of energy that lives within us. Exploring the 5Rhythms through the lens of how they are at home in us, can offer us insight into our true natures, and give us tools to move through the places where we disconnect or get stuck. As we dance Wave after Wave of the 5Rhythms, we can re-connect to the spectrum of aliveness that is available to us. The dance delivers us to our most spontaneous, surrendered selves. It reminds us, returns us, and renews us. The body leads the way. The body lead us home.
This October we will gather at Camp Kawartha, where over 186 acres of trails, forests and wetlands will be our sanctuary. We will dance on the shores of Clear Lake, receiving the teachings of Autumn forest, Sky, and Water. Held by the sacred beauty of our surroundings, we will come together to listen to the wild wisdom of our bodies, and the moving mystery of the wilderness around us.
Amidst our culture of high speed “doing”, 5Rhythms movement meditation offers us space to let ourselves “be”. Time to touch in on what’s below the surface. To dowse for wellsprings of wonder. A place for a community of practice to emerge, with room for each of us to arrive as we are. A space to nourish, replenish, and ReSource.
Come, let’s gather by the waters of our shared love of movement. Let’s make space to honour the ebb and flow of griefs and joys that dance through us. Let’s rest into the pleasures of good grooves, and the good company of other dancing seekers of the sacred. Let’s empty out, and let’s fill ourselves back up, with some long deep drinks from the Well.
Beneath the bustle of busy lives, there is a yearning to slow down and resource. To turn towards ourselves and our relationship with nature, co-creating sacred space for embodied prayer.
This August we will gather by The Black River in Madoc, ON for a midsummer movement sojourn, held in the temple of Forest, Sky, Rock, and River. Supported by 5Rhythms and Continuum practice, we will attune to the primordial rhythms that come from within and journey together into deeper communion with the wilderness within us and around us.
We welcome you to experience embodying your full creative self in a safe, supportive and playful environment. A wide array of dance, yoga, music, and other healing modalities are shared through playshops and evening events.
Life dances us deep. It’s delicious, devastating, and delightful. There’s so much moving through us and around us, that it can be a challenge to be awake enough in our experiences, to have the agency to choose our response. Sometimes we find ourselves stuck in an old groove, unable to motivate or mobilize. Sometimes we brace ourselves against it– rigid and tight – trying our darndest to control. When a wave of change hits, how do we navigate the chaos and confusion? Do we space out or pretend we are feeling something we actually aren’t? Faced with the possibility of love and of being hurt, how can we soften our walls of self-protection, to feel this precious life moving through?
In these times of disconnect and division, there is a yearning to come together--
To meet the living mystery of our unfolding,
And to move in the poetry of our longing for connection.
What do we welcome and what do we leave out when with an other?
What does relationship call forward in us, whether welcome or not?
How can our movement practice help facilitate more belonging in connection and strengthen the dance of relationality?
Amidst our culture of high speed “doing”, 5Rhythms movement meditation offers us space to let ourselves “be”. Time to touch in on what’s below the surface. To dowse for wellsprings of wonder. A place for a community of practice to emerge, with room for each of us to arrive as we are. A space to nourish, replenish, and ReSource.
Come, let’s gather by the waters of our shared love of movement. Let’s make space to honour the ebb and flow of griefs and joys that dance through us. Let’s rest into the pleasures of good grooves, and the good company of other dancing seekers of the sacred. Let’s empty out, and let’s fill ourselves back up, with some long deep drinks from the Well.
Emerging from a long winter, the first kiss of spring arrives before the crocuses sprout, and the red maple buds appear. The soil must be tended and cared for in order to welcome future growth and abundance. With devotion and discipline, we return to presence, deepening our capacity to listen to our internal wisdom. In our time together we will weave 5Rhythms® with timed writing practice, alternating between the two, seeing how they support and inspire each other, and how the marriage of these practices might reveal what has been germinating through the winter.
Where does the dance begin?
When does it heat our hearts, and command our commitment?
When does it pull us into the peak of our own spontaneous aliveness,
and when does it release us, lighter, lifted, new,
exquisitely attuned to what is both ending, and beginning, again?
In these times of disconnect and division, there is a yearning to come together--
To meet the living mystery of our own unfolding,
And to move in the poetry of our longing.
What do we welcome and what do we leave out?
What parts of ourselves are permissible; which are not?
How can our movement practice help facilitate more belonging to ourselves, and strengthen our dance with deep time?
Dancing the 5Rhythms, we have the opportunity to witness ourselves in relationship. We can practice being with ourselves and each other, in all our fumbling, and fabulousness. What are the ways that we abandon ourselves, and how do we bring loving care? What is it like to reach out to each other, while still being connected to our authenticity? Are we able to share our selves in community - offering our unique gifts to the greater good?
Each of the 5Rhythms is a quality of energy that lives within us. Exploring the 5Rhythms through the lens of how they are at home in us, can offer us insight into our true natures, and give us tools to move through the places where we disconnect or get stuck. As we dance Wave after Wave of the 5Rhythms, we can re-connect to the spectrum of aliveness that is available to us. The dance delivers us to our most spontaneous, surrendered selves. It reminds us, returns us, and renews us. The body leads the way. The body lead us home.
How do we connect to the tap root of our creativity? How do we draw on the strength and supports around us to nourish ourselves? In this workshop we will explore our relationship with Earth, and how we can ground ourselves in movement practice, even when we feel disconnected.
When we are rooted in the Here and Now, and centred in our selves, more freedom of expression is possible. How do we allow our unique spirits to come through on the dance floor and in daily life? In the second part of our time together, we will explore expansion and contraction, effort and effortlessness, and play with opening our wings to the creative winds that blow our way.
Outdoor 5Rhythms workshop in Hastings County, Ontario!
Beneath the bustle of busy lives, there is a yearning to slow down and resource. To turn towards ourselves and our relationship with nature, co-creating sacred space for embodied prayer.
This August we will gather by The Black River in Madoc, ON for a midsummer movement sojourn, held in the temple of Forest, Sky, Rock, and River. Supported by 5Rhythms and Continuum practice, we will attune to the primordial rhythms that come from within and journey together into deeper communion with the wilderness within us and around us.
We welcome you to experience embodying your full creative self in a safe, supportive and playful environment. A wide array of dance, yoga, music, and other healing modalities are shared through playshops and evening events. A 5Rhythms workshop with Layah will take place Sat morning, followed by a DJ’d Sweat Your Prayers 5Rhythms dance on Sat night.
The body is an encyclopedia of our lived experience. Our cells hold all of our suffering and celebration. Our bones and muscles move in ways that speak the truth, even when we’re not conscious of it yet.
Each of the 5Rhythms is a quality of energy that is within us. Many of us have a dominant Rhythm or two that permeate our movements on the dance floor and through our lives. Exploring the 5Rhythms through the lens of how they are at home in us, can offer us insight into our true natures, and give us tools to move through the places where we disconnect or get stuck…
“The body says what words cannot.” ~ Martha Graham
What if our bodies could talk? What if we listened?
What embodied wisdom is waiting to be awakened?
5Rhythms® is a dynamic movement meditation practice - a map to reconnect with an innate spectrum of body expression. There are no steps to follow in this improvisational movement methodology. Instead, we show up, tune in and move what is alive in us. This dance is the dance of remembering. Of returning. Of allowing something deeper to move us...
Life takes us on a winding path.
From stuck-in-the-mud ditches of don’t-know-how-I-got-here, to celebratory strides across long aimed for finish lines, a sense of being lost and found and lost and found again, seems par for this wild course.
How do we find our way in times of trouble and in seasons of ease?
We are gifted with bodies full of instinct and intuition. We are the owners of magnificent navigational systems of signals and symptoms. Can we feel them? Do we follow their guidance?
In this workshop we will practice the art of being fully alive in the present moment, to all that moves through us, awakening and expressing the full spectrum of our creative, vibrant, unique selves…
Outdoor 5Rhythms workshop in Hastings County, Ontario!
Outdoor workshop for a private group. Please feel free to contact Layah about facilitating an event for your group!
5Rhythms with Layah @ Big Heart Dance Camp 2018!
Schedule details TBA
The body is an encyclopedia of our lived experience. Our cells hold all of our suffering and celebration. Our bones and muscles move in ways that speak the truth, even when we’re not conscious of it yet…
In this workshop we will practice the art of being fully alive in the present moment, to all that moves through us, awakening and expressing the full spectrum of our creative, vibrant, unique selves. Together we will explore the foundations of 5Rhythms, and dive deep into our own dance, supported by diverse musical maps of funky grooves, soulful melodies, big thumping tribal beats, and meditative soundscapes…
Life takes us on a winding path.
From stuck-in-the-mud ditches of don’t-know-how-I-got-here, to celebratory strides across long aimed for finish lines, a sense of being lost and found and lost and found again, seems par for this wild course.
How do we find our way in times of trouble and in seasons of ease?
We are gifted with bodies full of instinct and intuition. We are the owners of magnificent navigational systems of signals and symptoms. Can we feel them? Do we follow their guidance?…
We live in a world that values "doing" over states of being. In the speedy race to get our lives done, we sometimes forget to ask ourselves, "What am I working towards? Am I living in alignment with my deepest callings and core values?"…
"Do you have the discipline to be a free spirit?"~ Gabrielle Roth
5Rhythms® is a dynamic movement meditation practice - a workout for body, heart and soul. How can we free ourselves from the patterns that paralyze, the stories that keep us small, and the doubts that disrupt embodied joy? In this workshop we will let the medicine of the 5Rhythms guide us to a deeper experience of our own dancing freedom…
