offerings
2024 events
begin again
september 13-15, 2024 halifax, canada an in-person workshop with michael
consider this: there is within each moment the opportunity for you and i to make a choice, which alters the landscape that frames our lives. this moment, the crossroads of our past and our possibilities, is ripe with the potent promise of change and the invitation to risk. are you willing? in this soul motion workshop we will practice living the dance that begins right now, with this first breath, with this first step. let’s you and i allow this first step to take us more fully into our lives. Through movement and pause, silence and sound, witnessing and being seen, ritual and prayer, we will dance with what is currently moving within us and rest in the arms of the mystery. the journey has begun and it is never too late to BEGIN AGAIN.
seeds of ordinary beauty
september 20-22, 2024 toronto, canada an in-person workshop with michael
Living in a time of staggering crisis—personal, relational, social, environmental—we are often left vacant and numbed or overwhelmed and consumed by what’s wrong, ugly, distasteful, out of sync. despair seems to be the currency of our global pandemic, with a stranglehold on our hopes and dreams. What if our willingness to source and celebrate beauty makes more beauty possible. What if any act of kindness, kissing a child’s scraped knee, smiling at a stranger, drinking in the scent of a flower, plants the seeds for more beauty and love to bloom in the world. Let’s attend to the soil of our lives, inner and outer, to accumulate and cultivate the seeds of simple beauty. Through the lens of curiosity, wonder and awe, we will use movement, poetry, art, witnessing and ritual to hone our hearts and sing to our souls, the potent and powerful healing and unifying qualities of diverse and unique beauty.
expanding our hearts
october 11-13, 2024 rome, italy an in-person workshop with michael
If our bodies are the vessels we use to move through the currents of our lives, then the heart is the rudder, our moral compass, for navigating the cruelties and the crises in the world with compassion and grace. Like the sun, the heart gives its greatest light and warmth when it burns through the clouds of dread and despair to radiate its rays of hope and encouragement. To reveal rather than conceal our hearts is to risk our vulnerability and invites a flowering of the human condition. In this retreat you are being called to crack the chrysalis in the center of your chest and cradle the critic that cripples your creativity. Let’s create a sanctuary where your longings and desires may root, roam, reach, and rise. Using the lens of curiosity, wonder and awe, we surrender ourselves through movement, poetry, art, witnessing and ritual to dare our dreams and sing our souls. If you feel pulled, please join our circle to be held in this sacred gathering of the potent exposing and expanding of our hearts.
breathing room
october 18-20, 2024 munich germany an in-person workshop with michael
to cultivate our capacity to receive and release, to offer and allow, to care for self and to share yourself….a breathing room. the art of breathing, to draw in a conscious breath and let the hands soften, fingers loosening their firm grasp on things outside of my control. the art of breathing, to draw in a conscious breath and let the feet relax. soles widening their stance, accepting that there is always a place for you called here. the art of breathing, to draw in a conscious breath and let the heart unwind, the emotional hope chest quieting, dancing with the creative tensions of tenderness and tenacity, grief and exultation. our ongoing prayer is this; may this next breath bring you not one step closer to death, but rather more fully into your life. that you live out loud, practice aliveness in each moment and sing into the silence which is always opening for you…..BREATHING ROOM
grow
november 15-17, 2024 Burlington Vermont an in-person workshop in michael
in life we are faced with many obstacles and opportunities that can be catalysts on this heart-breaking and heart-opening path of being human; beauty and terror, grief and grace, hope and despair, belonging and banishment. can each of these circumstances be compost for the fuel that enables our growth? do you and i have a choice in how we meet each moment, receiving and releasing the wonders and wounds of our dancing journey? using the practice of soul motion as our ground, let’s repair our roots through the rituals of movement and pause, extend our reach through witnessing and being seen, rest in repose through sound and silence, including the excluded parts of ourselves and this community that comes together to GROW.