Workshops

 

Workshops in the pathways of Music, Movement, Voice and Seva will be posted as they are confirmed.  

 

Vox Populi: Air, Speech, Song, Story, Communication:

Voice.  How do we speak or sing the awareness of our connection to the divine in the fire circle? How do we express the inexpressible?  How do we tell stories to our community without interrupting their dance time or their trance time? How do we make our words an act of service and not an act of showmanship? How do we sing together?  How do we make myths out of walking and talking?  Most of all, how do we come prepared to use our voices, without breaking the circle’s spontaneity?  In this workshop, we offer four tools for the singer and speaker to connect with the Path of Voice: learning to warm up one’s Voice before singing, and to cool it down afterward; to move with the Music and to add gesture to the song so that it can flow easily into Movement; and a repertoire of small acts of Service that help ensure that Voice sings in tune with the Mysteries.  (Steve Trombulak and Andrew Watt)

 

Instant Composition:

Dancers, singers, musicians: What is the difference between improvisation and instant composition? In this class we will explore the theme of improvisation with intention, within a framework of deeper listening and connection. Dancers, singers and musicians are invited to co-create an exploratory circle where pairs, trios, or quartets create small, intimate mini-compositions while the others witness. Jason will teach the process and guide the scores as they evolve. All skill levels welcome! (Jason Traweek)

 

 

Music on the Edge:

The pathway of music doesn’t start and stop on the benches and in the gratitude zone. It winds its way through the air all around the circle and brings awareness of the container and and intention of the moment. In this workshop we will explore how some of some of the smaller more mobile tools of the pathway can add to fire. Using primarily bells and shakers, we’ll work on sustained and collaborative playing spread throughout different places within the circle to help create a sonic container. (Donovan Arthen)

 

 

Crafting Your Life:

We are always in the process of creating our lives, whether we do it intentionally or not. In this workshop we’ll take time for reflection so that we are able to intentionally choose what we’re creating. With gentleness and care, we’ll take stock of where we’ve been and where we are now. Then, together, we’ll stoke the dreaming fire and connect to our heart visions and longings. From there we’ll translate dreaming and inspiration into action so that you leave with a plan to craft a life in line with your heart.  (Rachel Fields)

 

 

Dance as Unity:

At the SpiritFire ritual circle, we come together with many different experiences and modes of expression.  Through music, chant, and motion, we offer up a bit of who we are as a way to viscerally engage with a deeper part of ourselves, but also with each other.   In our strongly individualistic society, many of us were not raised with a sense of confidence in expressing our own unique selves through movement.  At clubs and other kinds of dance events, we see many who feel comfortable moving, and maybe some who feel out of place and unsure of how to step in to the vulnerability of being “in body” with music, and with others.  This workshop will teach community (unified movement) dances from Ghana and Haiti, breaking down the elements of how community movement differs from individual motion and how it can enhance a sense of ritual communitas.  The 2nd half of the workshop will invite us to create our own movements that invite the group to join in and express together in a similar fashion, and give tools to take this awareness of moving “With” each other to the circle.   (Josselyne Price)