Workshops
SpiritFire offers many avenues to deepen your skills in the pathways of Music, Motion, Voice, and the Mysteries.
Workshop presentation proposals are no longer being accepted; thank you for the wonderful ideas and offerings!
In addition to the workshops below, you are invited to take/offer a community workshop on Saturday between 12 noon and 5pm. You can read more about those on the Opportunities page.
Below is the general structural layout of the current gathering workshops. The offerings may be shifted into different time slots as we get nearer to the gathering, so keep checking back. A finalized schedule will be in your program once you are on site.
WEDNESDAY:
9:30 pm: Pathway Workshops: These sessions are focused time for the community to engage in building a strong sense of intention and solid ways of interacting with each other as drummers, dancers, chanters, and via offering service. There are four workshops to choose from: Music, Motion, Voice, and Seva. These are the founding ideas of SpiritFire, the pathways of the SpiritFire circle, and each one forms the basis of discussion and exploration of that modality.
Each exploration is guided by groups of experienced SFF personalities, including SFF staff and long-time practitioners of the form. We ask all participants of the gathering to attend, especially one that relates to the pathway you engage in the most when at a fire.
This year, the workshops will be quite different! Wednesday the four pathway groups will meet and explore the particulars of SFF's style of fire circle; together, the group will be helping to create the opening interactive ceremonial dialogue of our traditional Pathways fire lighting ritual. At the end of the session each group will process together to the fire circle and begin the first of the sacred all-night fires.
THURSDAY:
Session I
The Sacred Rhythms of the Fluid Body Part I – Michael Dunning
What are the rhythms at the heart of the creation of a human being? How can we embody these rhythmic and fluid forces in our health and healing as adults? Michael will offer techniques drawn from his work as both shaman and biodynamic craniosacral therapist that will help you experience the embryonic and dynamic movements in your blood, heart and organ systems as the expression of unconditional Health and as a path to clarity and deeper awareness.
Hand Drum Technique - Donovan Arthen
Donovan returns this year to help hand drummers deepen their skills and technique, including the tones, rhythms, and aesthetics that are part of the SpiritFire circle. This workshop is open to all levels and is offered to help create a cohesive and confident drumming experience for everyone!
YOGA with Alisa: Grounding, Balancing & Integration - Alisa Wright Tanny
Alisa will offer a daily yoga class accessible for all levels of movement experience. We will use our breath and bodies to ground down into the earth (spine, pelvis & feet), balance our energetic body between earth and sky (spine/glands/chakras), and provide a safe, unconditional loving and accepting space for emotional, physical and spiritual integration. We will join together each day in honor of supporting our daily health and wellbeing so to create our optimal experience of SpiritFire 2010.
Session II
Afro-Haitian Movement - Johnny Scovel
Back by popular request, dancers of all levels, ability, and experiences are invited to come together to experience the movements of Haitian Vodou and other traditional forms. The class will use Haitian community dance forms to guide us toward a deeper connection between dancer and drummer, and explore the potential of unified movement in the circle, a powerful form of relationship in the path of dance.
Shekere! - Su Walenta
Su will demonstrate and teach the art of the deep bass and high rattle that emanate from the African Shekere (pronounced SHAY-ker-ray --- also spelled Chekere). Su invites you to explore this amazingly versatile instrument in her own unrestrained and enthusiastic way. Discover how to coax both subtle and exuberant sound; encourage dynamic physical movement in rhythm; expand sonic layers, and how to incorporate this delightful instrument into a drum circle, or any other musical environment. Come share in the poetry and mystic personality of this ancient instrument as we learn to weave, focus, and balance the threads of any musical ensemble through its unmistakable voice. Su will have some shekeres available for use during class. If you have a shekere, please bring it with you.
ZoneChant - Julie Woods
Join Julie Woods on an adventure of vocal and body percussion for the fire circle.... Description coming soon!
FRIDAY:
Session I
The Fire Circle Ensemble: Layers, Polyrhythmic Groove, and Motives for Ecstatic Trance at the Fire - Josselyne Price
At the fire, those of us who participate as music-makers can find many different ways to play and engage. While we each bring individual levels of experience, skill, and background to the benches, the circle asks us to come together as an ensemble - dropping the "I" in favor of the "we" as ritual support for the dancers, chanters, and trancers. This workshop focuses on how we can take the many different instruments, playing levels, and styles at the circle and create a cohesive sound that will send the circle straight into ecstatic delight. Bring whatever it is you usually like to play at the circle, PLUS one small percussive instrument such as bell, shaker, rattle, or the like. We'll talk about developing polyrhythms, motives and grooves, how to sense what is needed and supportive in a percussive ensemble, supporting diverse sounds and chants, sacred sounds, and staying in tune with one another on an energetic level. You'll learn some Ghanaian grooves to underscore the ideas that hopefully can find their way back to the circle, and encourage you to develop your own, too!
The Sacred Rhythms of the Fluid Body Part II – Michael Dunning
Michael Dunning continues the workshop begun on Thursday - see above description.
Sinuous and Serpentine - Sarah Wood
This workshop will introduce basic/intermediate technique and drills on how to create all those fabulously curvy serpentine moves often used by bellydancers through meditative follow-along movement, balance techniques, correct posture and muscular explanation and development. We will cover snake arms, sidewinders, exterior and interior hip circles and all your variations of figure 8’s plus more. The class is designed to be accessible for dancers at different levels, and to both men and women. I will offer a range of possibilities on drills. We will explore how these movements can be added to your improvised free-form dance to help inspire you at the fire. You should wear comfortable clothing you don’t mind sweating in; bring plenty of water and a yoga mat. Our warm up consists of Yoga and Pilates to strengthen your core while getting the much needed stretching in order to prepare for this endeavor.
Session II
Haitian Drumming - Johnny Scovel
Bring your bells, rattles, drums and sense of delight with you to learn some polyrhythmic ensemble music based on Haitian Vodou traditions. Back by request after a break, this workshop gives both experienced and new percussionists a chance to learn new grooves for both hand and stick drums, explore the idea of following timelines (bell patterns) and enhancing the dance experience at the circle with tight and intense rhythmic expression. Open to all levels of experience.
Voices of Spirit, Songs of the Soul - Abigail Spinner McBride
If you can speak, you can sing. Forget what you may have been told about "not good enough," or "just pretend to sing...." Here is an opening door, an opportunity to take a creative risk, and perhaps heal an old wound. Join us and find how to open the way for breath, sound, melody and harmony to weave into a tapestry of real magick. Since before the time of recorded history, even before the birth of spoken language, humans have been singing. Our time together will be a journey of exploration, blending elements of breath, sound and vocal techniques to create a sacred circle of ecstatic song. You will learn the secrets of starting a chant at the Fire, the mysteries of harmony, and the keys to successful song-catching. Bring a small rattle if you'd like to. Please come ready to open your mind, open your voice, and open your heart. No singing experience is necessary, all are welcome!
SATURDAY:
We will be holding space today for a variety of community events and rituals, both planned and spontaneous. Events include councils, community workshops (opportunity between 12 noon - 5pm for any member of the community to share their skills and passions), a Village Meet (where you can share your ideas, concerns, questions, and inspirations about this and the next gathering) and more. Or, you can decide to rest your body with Yoga, hang out in the vending area and learn to spin, drink coffee with friends in the dining hall - it's a day of flow.