Using movement, writing, and animal tracking, we’ll approach our creativity as our immunity, our navigational tool, and our deepest resource.

February 2-4, 2024
Held at the beautiful Field Center, Vermont

with Dana Iova-Koga

When we enter the landscape with the intention of tracking wildlife, our way of seeing shifts. We search for signs that reveal the stories of other beings. We naturally change our habitual way of moving and positioning ourselves in order to perceive these previously hidden elements of our surroundings. When we amplify this spacial and physical re-positioning to see another story, we fortify our interconnectedness - our interlacement with life.

In this workshop, we will dive into this ethos of tracking and investigate how it relates to embodiment practices and developing the resource of our creativity. Our movement sources will include Qigong, shaking, and animal gait forms. We will spend some time outdoors learning foundational tracking principles, and incorporate writing exercises as our connective thread.

This Elemental Vessel workshop takes place at the mid-point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, when across traditions the hearth is revered and fire receives our deepest bow. Although early Feb. is the heart of winter weather in Vermont, the energetics of the environment will be rising toward the emergence of spring, and we will be tuning our activities to harmonize with this particular moment on the wheel of time. We will kindle our own internal fire, see how the animals are tending theirs, and use fire as a cozy, nourishing muse throughout the weekend. A well tended fire is a harmonious one.

All bodies are welcome, no prior experience in any of our areas of research is required. The only requisite is a willingness to bundle up and go outside.

Sliding scale price tiers with one work-trade and one scholarship position available.
All meals included. Overnight stay at the center is optional.
Arrival on Friday, Feb 2nd for dinner at 5:30pm (optional) and opening session 7-8:30pm.
The workshop will conclude at/by 4pm on Sunday, Feb 4th.

This series is part of Elemental Vessel, a research and practice project created by Dana Iova-Koga and myself. It is a weaving of our complementary and mutually supported threads of expertise into an ecology of investigations. In this dynamic territory we explore the elements in the body and the body in the elements. Dana is a performer, teacher, mentor, shape shifter. More about Dana here.