by Janet Eigner

The last time modern dance soloist Julie Brette Adams collaborated with a dance mentor, dancer and choreographer Charlene Tarver, she created a fascinating and powerful dance, “Knowing,” premiered in 2000, a work in the dramatic tradition of Martha Graham’s early work.

After Tarver’s death, Adams began a collaboration with dancer Kate Eberle, in 2004, when they co-founded Two Women Dancing. Their work stretched Adam’s movement vocabulary to include more martial arts-like and aerobic-like work.

When Adams described her solo plans, and a new mentorship with Lindsay Mayo, she stirred curiosity over her new work. Mayo has been a dancer, teacher, choreographer and producer of dance on feature film and opera.

Very good news: this recent solo performance has had a long gestation, and has brought forth a lovely creation. The concert was filled with novel premieres, entirely skillful works that engaged, sparkled and showcased how Adams has continued to grow as a dancer and artist.

I wasn’t able to attend the performance, but watched both the dress rehearsal and the DVD of the first and second concerts, July 10 and 11^th.

The innovation that enriched “Knowing,” the nine-year-old Adams-Tarver work, was Adams’s monologue, recorded and a pleasure to hear in the clarity of its sound. The first half of the concert cleverly used the dancer’s voice, woven in between three other works, to tell the story of her creative process with Charlene about the reason for her movement in this work. The brief, taped segments of the monologue also allowed Adams to disappear and change costumes between these dances (“Heart Dancing Open,” a premier, “Freudian Slip,” a delightful and surprising demonstration in movement and costuming of the unconscious view of woman as the delicate flower and the devourer, and another premiere, “Opus for Socks,” a Chaplinesque poignancy to below-the-belt moves, her upper body in black shift and shadow the entire time. )

Adams related that, for a long time, she was unclear where her “Knowing” movement originated. She knew that she must sit naked in a chair, her back facing the audience, using only her upper body and its expressive muscles, to tell the story..”but what is the story about,” Tarver had questioned repeatedly.

After many months of questioning by Tarver, Adams said that she finally understood that the inspiration had come from her relationship to a wheel-chair-confined friend she visited regularly in his nursing home, as he slowly declined from Multiple Sclerosis. Though Adams didn’t say that the dance movements showed tragedy, decline, and horror at the slow death, her nuanced arm, head and back undulations, shiverings and muscle isolations revealed these feelings, all performed sitting, with no leg involvement. The dance, seen at least four times by this reviewer, took on new layers of meaning after the monologue.

Nevertheless, the concert began with a mood of whimsy that wove through all of the work, another stretch past Adams’s comedic, Lucille Ball-like sense of humor in past years (and seen in this concert in “Freudian Slip,” another collaboration with Tarver, from 2002.) Even before the first work, we saw the curtain risen to knee-level and the dancer bare footed, jumping behind the curtain.

“Heart Dancing Open” a premiere, began to the music of The Beatles (“Because”) and of Ana Lains, forming a novel variety of open-shaped movements that announced the kind of emotional tone the concert would reveal.

The second half of the concert hadn’t the pauses allowed by Adams’s monologue, so that each dance showed the artist’s skill at changing layers of costume while performing.

Another premiere, “Blues for Mary,” to the twangy, whispery, gritty folk music voice of Mary Gauthier, Adams showed her tough-girl-don’t-mess-with-my-blues-persona, using slashing, staccato, slinky, frantic, and rag-doll moves, a semi-abstract relation to the lyrics.

Another premiere, “Running Heart,” with music by Eyvind Kang, had Adams running a circle around the stage, over and over, finally panting, but continuing to run, then slipping offstage briefly, changing costumes half offstage, half on, continuing to run (don’t remember the number of costume changes) showing a lithe athleticism, variety, fitness and a rubbery persistence by the conclusion.

In “Skyframe,” the fifth premiere, Adams navigated a three dimensional rectangle of metal in graceful, meditative, varied moves to music by Harold Budd and Brian Eno.

In “Curves on a Point,” her sixth premiere, with choreography by Kate Eberle, and percussive, metallic music by Khaki Kang, Adams moved swiftly and elasticly, using jazz and modern moves with quick stops and long stretches.

The last premier, “Note to Self,” with music by drummer by Mickey Hart, was memorable for its smart, clean movement, its surprise and freshness. Adams, clad in a one piece body suit of oyster gray, stood with arms slithering close to her body in a slippery asymmetry of limbs, and only after a few minutes of her crawling, pressing moves did it become clear that she was decorating herself with liquid tempera, in white, burgundy and black, bold swaths that dripped onto her neck and leotard, as she continued to move in ways both dancerly and delicious.

The concerts were sold out, I’m told, and I could see and hear on Craig Hansen’s clear DVD the audience standing in its ovations.

Brava, Brava!

by Janet Eigner

Artistic Director/Choreographer/Dancer: Juan Sidi // Guest Dancer, Carola Zertuche //

Company Dancers: Kerensa DeMars, Stephanie Narvaez, Keyana DeAguero, Cynthia Sanchez, Katherine Taylor // Musical Director and Guitarist: Chuscales // Composer, Vocals and Percussionist: Yiyi // Guitarist, Ricardo Anglada // Vocals: Vicente Griego //

Skip the firecrackers this year…pale substitutes for Juan Siddi’s celebration– bold and explosive flamenco footwork, clacking castanets, flying foot-long fringe, each dance flaming up to its clear beginning and brought-up sudden, to its quick, high-arm-slashing conclusion.

The cast of seven dancers bend and rock their spines and limbs, flick up the long shawl fringes, deliver syncopated rhythms, simultaneous diagonal moves in “Angel de la Guarda.” Surprising synchrony: Zertuche pulls her ruffled train back just the moment Siddi toes her hem, a sly plan to look as though he had kicked the flounce away.

Just fitting on the small cabaret stage, the five woman “Pasion Flamenco” ensemble rock their sleek-side-bending bodies, clad in shazam! print dresses that frame their well-matched forms, their slim, youthful, forceful and sinuous skill. They conjure a sky-full of eyeball-popping, vibrating planets.

The musicians begin their steady, slow beat with a call: Yiyi’s husky voice, his cajon, rain chimes and conga drum, cantaor Griego’s deep, loud wails, the soulful strumming guitaristas and later, Chuscales’ solo, sketching graceful, interior and Andalucian.

In the night-sky-dark lighting, faces and shapes slip in, shaded blue or gold, just enough to see, as though lit by campfire.  The duet, “Encuentro,”slows and builds to simmering passion between Zertuche and Siddi whose subtle moves update the dance form– more intimate gestures–his large hand on her shoulder, their bodies spooned: he unwraps the shawl from around her waist, she flicks it like a lariat to rope a stallion.

After all the approach and retreat, the writhing hands, the climactic, drumming feet, a quiet meeting: they grasp the silk that collapses like a limp umbrella, release it in a heap, exit to separate sides for a swift, crushing retreat. Zertuche, after Chuscales mellow solo, delivers her own fireworks with her frock’s descending ruffles flowing to an extra long train, the “bata ‘d cola,” keeps her head lowered and leans sharply back, angles into her smokey mood.

Flamenco’s roots in East India and Siddi’s Katak training blend in “Nataraj,” a slow, sensual wave of arms unfolding, with the Siddi as Siva, Lord of the Dance at the head of the ensemble’s line, initiating creation as indeed Siddi does.  Siddi’s erect, noble posture and foot power launch him like a Vespa, setting up a vibration with his heels that looks like levitation across the floor.

His final triple turns launch a spotlit spray, his corona of sweat. He’s a human sparkler.

by Janet Eigner

In years of watching flamenco, this reviewer hasn’t come upon any company doing the ferociously brilliant group choreography created by Yjastros’s Artistic Director, Joaquin Encinias. To a sold-out audience at the National Hispanic Cultural Center’s Disney Journal Auditorium, blood boiled from start to finish.

Each of its eight years Yjastros has performed, out of its base at the National Institute of Flamenco Conservatory in Albuquerque, its pace gets faster as its company consolidates its skills. Yastros consists of 15 dancers, six apprentices and, under the direction of internationally acclaimed guitarist, Chuscales, five musicians. The technical crew, not credited, created skillful and varied lighting. The crisp boldness of the women’s costumes enriched the performance as well.

Percussionist, Hector Aguilar showed skill and deft, unique sounds and rhythms on his cajon and congas and cymbal. When he wasn’t dancing, Encinias played cajon as well. Chuscales’s lyrical, introspective gypsy-classical guitar solos both soothed the soul and made it weep.

The duet of Eva Encinias Sandoval, mother of Joaquin and Marisol, with cantaor Vicente Griego brought chills, realizing that three Encinias generations performed in this concert. Joaquin’s son, Nevarez, along with two other young men, Carlos Menchaca and Carlos Montufar, were given hot, rushing moves and accomplished fine trio work throughout the company choreography.

The fierce unison of the ensemble choreography inhabited every inch of the Cultural Center’s stage. Chest and thigh slapping, foot stomping, Yjastros, like a locomotive, built steam with its verve and zest, taking the audience along on its track of disciplined straight lines, diagonals and curves.

The unlined faces of the two youngest men made up in earnest energy what they lacked in mature looks to partner the twenty-and-thirty-something women dancers. The male dancing will be unbeatable when the dynamic duo acquires the credible duende that comes of living at least a few more years.

Also unique to this concert was the inclusion the Jaleo de Jerez, an 18^th and 19^th century Spanish dance and its fluid patterns, influenced by the grace and patterns of Italian ballet. Accompanied by two guitarists, a mandolin and cello, six women flowed in satin folk-design dresses, shoed with ballet flats wound round their ankles with ribbon. The dancers followed a fluid, quiet waltz rhythm, with balletic arms and simultaneous swirls, their castanets a chattering accompaniment. They kicked their legs in a loose, knee-bent movement.

In Gretchen Williams’s powerful solo, “Alegrias,” her utter involvement showed in the upward flinging of her arms and the authority of her fluttery flung fingers, moving so fast, they were hardly seeable and extended to her clicking jaws and teeth. The audience responded with shouting, urging, along with the women seated stage-back who clapped and praised. William’s syncopated footwork (tacons) and torso twirls ended with an in-place pirouette, more open and relaxed than the similar balletic movement.

The “Zapateado” involved four women wearing tight black slacks and bolero tops, stomping their long poles, at first a bit rough and out of unison but soon, worked into a powerful group rhythm which changed as it unfolded.

Joaquin’s style–intense and sequential movement explosions followed by striding to a new stage position, catching his breath, and working up to the next hair-flying-thrusting and whirling of limbs, gesticulating with his fists, arms and jaws–somewhat resembles the performance style one of the venerable older artists who performed June of 2008 at the Flamenco Festival Internacional. Joaquin simmers in place like a violent cloudburst, then leans far backwards as he strikes his soles forward. The violent, vibrating toe and heel tacons sound like a vat of deep frying sopapias. You can’t help but feel this artist’s duende.

Marisol’s “Alegrias” with its bata d’cola contained flirty hip action. Four from the company sat with the musicians clapping (palmas) while Vicente Griego sang a lyrical song. The soloist had some trouble managing her train a few times, but recouped her skill, hopping on one foot, the other leg raised at a level that carried the train like a huge flower bouquet. Once Marisol revved her foot strikes to a rapid pace, she carried the audience with her as she playfully wiggled her hips, swirled and kicked her train and pulled it up into the crook of her arm, using it like a rudder as she continued acapella tacons.

Marisol’s feathery finger movements, fast and matching her swirling ruffles, became lyrical to end the work.

Using cane-back wicker chairs, four couples danced a swift, passionate “Paseo a Dos por Cuatro” that involved in-place leaps, squats, sliding onto knees, slow rotations and circles with fingers clicking…an exciting and cleverly choreographed work, featuring simultaneous brief but tremendous foot smacks. Chairs were lifted and pounded to express passion. The women’s quartet performed beautiful turns, foot slaps and quarter turns with thigh slaps. The men followed with similarly handsome movements and a round of boot slapping. The women’s fluid arm thrusts up, with their palms flat to a ferocious rhythm, ended with each couple holding one chair leg and thrusting the chair up while rushing to form a huddle. Wow!

On a bittersweet note, Eva Encinias Sandoval announced that Albuquerque’s Festival Flamenco Internacional’s, now two decades old, is canceled for one year, due to the world economic downturn and the increased difficulty assuring that artists from outside the USA will be allowed travel visas into our country to perform.

Given Yjastros’s skill, consistency and unique large-company choreography, that is it’s American-style contribution which it integrates into traditional flamenco movement–Yjastros deserves to be considered for the post of National Hispanic Cultural Center’s resident flamenco company.

by Janet Eigner

It was All-Bobby-Bopping-and-Scatting-All-the-Time with young Santa Fe artists. McFerrin did the major lifting for two joy-filled concerts, March 14 and 15. Elaine Hausman, past Executive Director of Moving People Dance Santa Fe (MPD), now Finance director, spearheaded inviting McFerrin back for a second dynamic fund raiser. The first, in 2003, set the model for the present concert, involving his rehearsing and performing with local, vocal and orchestral students, as well as the MPD students and staff.

This whimsical fund raiser for music and dance education lifted spirits in the Lensic audience, since the singer-conductor involved the sold-out audience as well as the young jazz and classical musicians, choirs, dancers and professional dancers. MPD Board of Directors member, Larry Goldstone, gave a heartfelt justification for supporting music and dance, and mentioned that MPD would soon be moving to a new and larger dance studio to continue the school’s growth.

The coordination required a well-organized program, to keep track of the disparate groups– the concert was more a ride on an unpaved road than a silky smooth interstate, but McFerrin interacted as the charismatic and whimsical umbrella that sheltered and electrified three groups: musicians, chorale and dancers, the Moving People professional dancers, and with Moving People Too!, MPDSF’s youth company.

McFerrin scatted and bopped from his quiet, resonant baritone to his gentle falsetto, to his his one-man, syncopated “Voicestra” that leaps from low to high and back like a solo ping pong game. Then, there were the chest beating echoes and the South African clicks that accompanied his vocables, the calls and responses, and the occasionally discernable word songs made popular by him.

He brought interactive smiles to the faces of the Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association’s excellent Miles Davis Jazz Ensemble conducted by David Parlato, then with the Santa Fe Youth Choir, who sang what stood out as the mantra of this entire concert, “How Can I Keep from Singing.” Cora Harms Choir Director with Santa Fe Public Schools, conducted.

McFerrin performed solo three times through the concert. His most dancerly and wildly creative work divided and taught the audience its vocal parts. Then he used his own body, taking small jumps on stage, right, left and center, to signal which vocal segment needed to chime in. It worked as well as the earlier concert segments where he’d gestured with one finger.

McFerrin added dimension to the two Moving People dance segments, the professional company, with choreography by Curtis Uhlemann, and the youth company, all four levels of it, choreographed by Echo Gustafson.

For the company dancers, (Kate Eberle, Erica Gionfriddo, Echo Gustafson, Ariel Johnson, Genoveva Sistos, and Curtis Uhlemann), McFerrin sat in a formal chair, center stage, as each small group or individual performed a movement: stepping, running, joining hands. Eberle and Gustafson’s lovely syncopated movements together stood out; as well as Gustafson and Uhlemann’s nymph-like whirling, while McFerrin continued his delicate and rhythmic Voicestra.

For Moving People Too!, McFerrin scatted in the background as one boy and many girls simultaneously rolled, executed splits, cartwheels, ran and kicked. He varied the kind of music he generated, from jazz to blues to classical, as he hummed Bach. He played statue with the younger children, as they moved in jazzy positions, froze, then moved again. He got them to loosen their limbs and do undulations before they ran offstage.

The older girls used more diagonals, arms swaying, arabesques. One girl whipped her arm, then sank like a melting ice flow. Twelve young women on stage began a meditative conclusion, as McFerrin added a riff of quiet, percolating sounds, the dancers ending with a simultaneous and lovely grapevine that sank slowly as light dimmed.

Interacting again with McFerrin was the Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association’s Con Vivo!, conducted by Benjamin Klemme, performing a Scandinavian light classical work, then a folk tune and a fiddle dance.

Commissioned for this concert’s finale, a poignant and delicate work, “Variations on a Northern New Mexico Dance Tune (Tecolote)”, was introduced by conductor James Hausman, a friend of McFerrin and son of Elaine Hausman, and sung by the Youth Choir. (Only Ellie, Elaine’s daughter and former dancer with MPD, now away studying dance at the University of Arizona, was missing from that family’s participation in the concert.) The dancers returned to circle the singers and musicians as “Tecolote” concluded.

McFerrin is an especially good match for the newly-constituted MPDSF. Without the explosive and charismatic energy of Ronn Stewart, on sabbatical for the year until May 2009, though back to help the company rehearse, the company and its students needed to see a model of a more quietly charismatic performer, though McFerrin is of course not a dancer and not consistently involved with the company.

Maybe it was without Stewart’s polish and organization that the children’s dance performances lacked a certain confidence, skill and coherence, or maybe with the reorganization and immanent move, time wasn’t available for enough rehearsal, or maybe sharing the evening with so many groups, there wasn’t enough time to rehearse with McFerrin, but the concert’s Main Man, McFerrin, who carried the evening and satisfied the audience, provided a hypnotic and expansive energy that could instruct and suit MPD just fine as they grow into the future.

The translation, transcribed from Cleofes Ortiz recordings, included in the program from New Mexican Spanish for the dance song, “Tecolote” could inspire MPD as it moves into its new phase: every company needs all the extra magic and imagination it can generate as it moves into its second decade:

The owl (el tecolote) can’t dance because he has no shoes (zapatos), pants (calzones), or hat (sombrero.) So in the morning he will make these items from cats, mice, calves.

The song rhymes in Espanol:

Ya el tecolote no baille (2x)

Porque no tienes zapatos (2x)

Por la manana le haremos (2x)

Del cuerito de los gatos (2x)

Ya el tecolote no baille (2x)

Porque no tienes calzones (2x)

Por la manana le haremos (2x)

Del cuerito de los ratones (2x)

Ya el tecolote no baille (2x)

Porque no tienes sombrero (2x)

Por la manana le haremos (2x)

Del cuerito de los becerros (2x)

by Janet Eigner

Carlos Carbonell was born in Cádiz Spain in 1979 into a family of artists.  At an early age he took to dance with great interest leading him to the dedicated study of Spanish Dance and Flamenco with great artists such as Israel Galván, Alejandro Grandos, Mario Maya, Antonio Canales, Eva La Yerbabuena, Antonio y Manuel Reyes, and Fernando Romero.  Additionally he has also studied singing, modern dance and acting.  He began his professional career with Charo Cruz.  He has performed in many of Spains most important festival such as El Grec (Barcelona), Festival de Jerez, and Festival de Granada.  And in many of Spain most important tablaos including El Lagal en Jerez, Los Gallos, El Arenal and la Sala Casa Carmen in Sevilla, Las Carboneras, El Corral and El Café de Chinitas in Madrid and El Cordobés in Barcelona.  Since a young age he has performed in the productions presented by Spain’s most celebrated artists such as Manuela Carrasco’s Adonai, Sara Baras’ Juana La Loca and Rafael Amargo’s Amargo, Poeta en Nueva York, Amor Brujo y Enramblao and Eva La Yerbabuena 5 mujeres 5. He has also danced as an invited artist with Joaquín Grilo, Carmela Greco and Rafael Amargo in the production of Los Tarantos which toured Japan.  He has performed in the United States as part of Carlota Santana’s production of Bailaor. Carlos performed along with Merecedes Ruiz and Andrés Peña in the 1st edition of Japan’s Bienal.   In 2006 he also performed in the first bienal of flamenco in Switzerland.   In 2004 Carlos presented his first production, “Tríos” in collaboration with Olga Pericet and Marco Flores.  In 2005 he again toured Japan with David Lago performing along with Masami Okada in Amor Brujo. In 2006 Carlos was invited to perform in Jueves Flamencos in Cadiz and 2008 was invited to Viernes Flamencos in Jerez.  He has also performed in the Festival Torre Guzmán, Festival La Palma de Plata and Festival La Liviana.  In 2008 he choreographed and performed the lead male role in Carmen for the Ballet Flamenco de Jerez de la Frontera which toured Italy for two months.   In March 2009 he will presenting his current show Acompasa2 at the Festival de Jerez.

by Janet Eigner

A sweet, brief and surprising folkloric concert opened the evening: youngsters enrolled in Aspen Santa Fe’s youth program performed the dances that preserve their cultures, both Latino and Native American. Danced with dignity and skill, the Pueblo children’s turtle and deer dances began as delighted audience members filtered into the Lensic. The folkloric swirls of girls ruffled skirts and the stomp of the boy’s boots followed the native dances. All of the costumes were almost as lovely as the glowing faces of the vibrant students. The cities of Aspen and Santa Fe, along with their School of Aspen Santa Fe ballet classes, include Mexican folkloric arts in their outreach programs in Aspen public schools and free after-school classes (K-12) in both cities, and directed by Francisco Nevarez..

The strong and well-balanced company of ten ASFB artists make art of the given choreography in consistently dynamic performances that leave the audience breathless. Each dancer invests an intensity that can only come after accomplishing the highest level of skill and mastery. Movers and shakers in the dance world have long since taken notice: the company has appeared three times at Jacob’s Pillow, made its debut in 2008 at the Kennedy Center in the nation’s capital, and at the prestigious New York City Fall Dance Festival.

This concert began with Twyla Tharp’s “Sweet Fields,” (1996), a celebration of the Shaker spiritual tradition. The full company danced delicate, sprightly and soulful moods as though on air, following hymns from William Billings’ work, “The Shaker Tradition” and “THE SACRED HARP.”

The women’s flowing white chiffon coats over clean white singlets and shorts, the men’s bare chests under sheer, open white shirts and white slacks added to the mood of focused otherworldliness. All the dancers wore soft, flesh-colored ballet sandals or danced barefooted.

In one remarkable sequence, men lifted, carried, rolled and lowered one stiff fellow soul, then re-lifted and supported him again, all accomplished with an elastic, supple strength. Other sequences underscored a sublime happiness described with light and rapid skipping, scooping arm gestures, and pivots. They used the clean, classic Martha Graham figure eight, done with leg and arm, propelled from the hip, during a shape note vocable sequence. Toward the work’s conclusion, they spun with arms at shoulder level, bent up at the elbow, to the sung phrase, “adorned with shining grace” words that also described the company’s transcendent spirit conveyed through Tharp’s inspired choreography.

“Wolfgang ,” (2005) a David Parson’s work commissioned for ASFB, to a Mozart piano concerto, was danced by three couples dressed in casual 21^st century street clothing (Lauren Alzamora, Nolan DeMarco McGahan, Seth Del Grasso, Emily Proctor, Samantha Klanac and Stephen Straub.) The dancers looked delighted as they leapt and spun, whipping forward and backward, filling the dance with intense, happy drama, streaking across the stage with elbows-bent and back-leg-bent-up leaps.

The next, slower-paced section, danced to the popularly termed “Theme from Elvira Madigan,” had the men holding their partners up, while their women simultaneously and gently peddled their feet through the air, arms tender around their man’s neck. The work looked both active and romantic, DelGrasso’s duet with his partner, swift and joyous, particularly ravishing.

“Petal,” the final work, by Helen Pickett, premiered in Santa Fe on February 1, 2008 was also commissioned by ASFB, with music by Philip Glass from “Les Enfants Terribles” and Thomas Montgomery Newman’s “Little Children.”

The music began with intense, smashing, crashing sound featuring swift, balletic encounters among four couples (Lauren Alzamora, Eric Chase, Katie Dehler, Seth DelGrasso, Samantha Klanac, Nolan DeMarco McGahan, Emily Proctor and Stephen Straub.)

The choreographer, Pickett, likes to signal moves: sometimes the head rotates, initiating a duet,

for instance; or, an ensemble prepared for its next movement with an undulating, elongated torso, and continued the work with outstretched arms and legs and soft torso moves throughout. The dancers’ were both undulant and urgent to the piano score.

“Petal,” along wi th the other two works on the program, became quickly hypnotic and potent under the influence of these superb artists. The ASFB’s miracle is that without the exaggerated drama of 19^th century, classical ballet, and without the intense facial and body expression of modern dance of the early and mid-20th century, these artists of contemporary, abstract ballet have found a way to channel their passionate engagement with the choreography purely through their bodies. In spades. Bravo to the cast, and to Executive Director, Jean-Phillipe Malaty, and Artistic Director, Tom Mossbrucker, for bringing these artists so far in little more than a decade.

Saturday, March 7, 2:00 – 6:00 pm
5Rhythms™ Mini-Intensive Series
with Visudha de los Santos – certified 5Rhythms teacher
Cost: $60.00 each mini-intensive, or $275.00 for the 5-part series

Visudha will lead an in-depth investigation of each of the rhythms of Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms™ movement practice.  Drawing upon shamanic and Sufi sacred traditions, the rhythms are a powerful and deceptively simple way to transform ourselves into the fullest embodiment and manifestation of our essential selves. We do this through the practice of cultivating greater awareness by listening to, and moving our bodies, ultimately accessing the infinite source of wisdom within. In each of the five sessions, we will deepen our practice by exploring the ‘Wave’ — in which our journey will traverse through the rhythms of flow, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness– while focusing intentionally on one rhythm. Each rhythm has the possibility of catalyzing specific states of being.
Being based in the infinite wisdom of our bodies, there are no steps to learn. We remember our natural rhythms through the practice of inviting movement into our physical bodies again and again.

Visudha lives in Taos, New Mexico and teaches around the United States.  She is the creator of the blog Move and Be Moved, an international community conversation about movement meditation and spiritual practice.
Wear layered clothing that will allow you to move and stretch comfortably. Bring: Journal, Water Bottle