An 8 week, multi-teacher online course exploring the intersection of somatic healing and sacred activism.
Join Off The Dance Floor for our inaugural online course “Moving Towards Liberation”.
Through collective ritual, education and embodied practice & in collaboration with Palestinian, Jewish, Black and Indigenous somatic teachers and activists, together we hope to inspire & expand our notions of what transformation and freedom are beyond the limits of the individual to the greater power of the collective.
Course Information
During this time of global unrest, many of us within healing & dance communities have been feeling frozen and disconnected. Though we are deeply resourced in being able to access the “love & light”, our spaces have fallen short in being able to collectively process grief and face our individual + collective shadow. There has also been an inability for us to talk about, let alone take collective action in support of liberation movements both locally & globally.
This has revealed a need for us to have spaces where we can safely unpack the current catastrophe happening in Gaza, learn about the interconnectivity of its root causes, and somatically activate our bodies in service of a more just and free world for all bodies. In response to this growing need, Off The Dance Floor is launching its inaugural online course: Moving Towards Liberation
Through ritual, education and embodied practice & in collaboration with Palestinian, Jewish, Black and Indigenous somatic teachers and activists, we will expand our notions of what transformation and freedom are beyond the limits of the individual and into the greater power of the collective.We will learn:
How to navigate conflict and grief as a community
How systems of oppression (such as white supremacy, colonialism, corporate greed) create these conflicts
How to recognize where these oppressive systems live within our own bodies & how we perpetuate them
What somatic tools can support us in alchemizing them in order to be embodied stewards of peace & freedom in the world
Each session will have an opening grounding meditation, elements of theory and didactic learning, embodied practice, collective ritual and time for processing and heart-sharing.
We will have affinity breakout groups that will allow for each participant to be in a smaller, more intimate container with people that have closely relatable lived experiences.
By doing this work together, we believe our communities could become more robust & united in an increasingly divisive world. Our healing & dance spaces would become safer and welcoming for all bodies. Our self-care would expand into collective-care. Our culture of wellbeing can become more rooted in the interdependence of our shared humanity.This course is meant for anybody who practices conscious dance or any type of healing modality within community and wants to go on a journey with like-minded people who want extend this healing beyond themselves & in service to the the collective.Facilitators & Teachers
-
Saed Mansour
-
Valerie Chafograck
-
Dominique Cowling
-
Melina Laboucan-Massimo
-
Ashira Prem Rachana
-
Wendy Elisheva Somerson
-
Omar Aena
Topics Explored & Learning Outcomes
TBD ~ we will be releasing the final curriculum of the course in the coming weeks.Registration Details
FEBRUARY 4 - MARCH 24th, 2024
Courses will take place every Sunday from 1-4PM EST/10AM-1PM PST on Zoom.
INTAKE FORM
In order to ensure that this course is in alignment for those in attendance, we are requiring each person fill out a brief application/intake form. Somebody from our team will read through your application & will respond shortly with next steps/payment options.
SLIDING SCALE TUITION
Please Note: Our aim is to make this course accessible for anybody who feels called to attend. We also want to build an equitable sliding scale based on each individual’s capacity to pay. The proceeds from this course will support each facilitator & Off The Dance Floor to continue the important work they are doing.
Offer what makes you feel generous, rather than contracted, so as to support those who are experiencing financial hardship, as well as supporting the facilitators and partnering organizations. Thanks to Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams for this economic model.
Tier 1: $295
Tier 2: $495
Tier 3: $745
SCHOLARSHIPS
If you are in need of a partial/full scholarship, please fill out our intake form and mark that you are in need of a scholarship, and someone from our team will get back to you soon to try and accommodate your request.
Facilitator & Teacher Spotlights
Omar Aena
Omar Aena is an Iraqi-American DJ, dancer and community organizer based in NYC. He is the founder of Dance Lab, a Brooklyn-based collective that explores dance as a form of somatic therapy.
He is also the creator of 'LILA' - a series of documentaries, events and group trips around the world exploring the roots of Ecstatic Dance and traditional cultures that integrate music, dance & spirituality. Valerie Chafograck
Valerie Chafograck is a Black/mixed heritage, California-based embodiment and conscious dance facilitator. She has been teaching since 1992 and is the founder of Dance Sanctuary™, a highly attended weekly community dance and healing event in the Bay Area. Blending Soul Motion™ practice, somatic and social justice perspectives, she offers classes and workshops in the USA and abroad to advance personal & collective transformation, healing, and liberation.Dominique Cowling
Dominique (she, her) is a Black Queer femme and Bay Area native dedicated to transforming trauma and violence into opportunities of freedom. For the past decade, she has been honored to learn & share liberatory tools for healing. Her former work as the Healing Justice Program Director at Community United Against Violence supported low income to no income queer and Trans survivors of intimate partner violence, hate violence and police violence through direct service and organizing. At CUAV, she provided peer counseling, seasonal healing programs, mentorship and community trainings.
Her relationship to spirit and the natural world guides her work. She is the founder of Black Seeds Project, where she provides private and group sessions in the outdoors. Through these offerings, she weaves her studies in psychology, ecotherapy, mindfulness and trauma informed yoga to explore deeper intimacy. Each session is tailored to specific needs around emotional and spiritual health. Her heart swells thinking about the courage it takes to accept the invitation of building an authentic relationship with self, community and mama earth.Melina Laboucon-Massimo
Melina Laboucan-Massimo has worked on climate justice, Indigenous sovereignty and women's rights for over 20 years. Melina is Lubicon Cree from Northern Alberta, Canada. She is the Founder of Sacred Earth Solar and co-founder and Senior Director at Indigenous Climate Action. Melina is the inaugural Fellow at the David Suzuki Foundation where her research focused on Climate Change, Indigenous Knowledge and Renewable Energy. She is the Host of a new TV series called Power to the People which profiles renewable energy in Indigenous communities.
Melina holds a Master’s degree in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria with a focus on Renewable Energy. As a part of her master’s thesis Melina implemented a 20.8 kW solar project in her home community of Little Buffalo which powers the health centre in the heart of the tar sands. Melina has studied, campaigned and worked in Brazil, Australia, Mexico, Canada and across Europe focusing on resource extraction, climate change impacts, media literacy and Indigenous rights & responsibilities.”Wendy Elisheva Somerson
"As an activist and organizer, I have been working for the past twenty years to help shift our larger culture by organizing campaigns, workshops, and rituals.
Since 2010, I have been training in trauma theory, bodywork, and somatic healing to help folks transform from the inside out. I work at the intersection of healing and activism because I believe that individual and societal transformation are interdependent. Before training in somatics, I didn’t know how to shift my own behavior to bring it in line with my values. Talk therapy helped me gain insight into my past, but I was unable to think my way into new behavior. Activism gave me a framework for political work, but activist culture often replicated unhealthy dynamics of domination in the larger world.
When I first heard how generative somatics integrates body-based healing, political analysis, and movement work, I immediately knew this was the next step on my path.
Through somatics I was able to align my behavior and my values, and find a model and vision for promoting healing from trauma and oppression, including racism, antisemitism, ableism, and classism within our communities.
I am committed to bringing effective and politically relevant embodied healing of personal and collective trauma to social justice communities."Saed Mansour
"I'm a Palestinian who lives in technically Israel. My body and life are political from birth and not by choice. I was a software engineer until "2020 Covid" and since then I've fully switched to dance, arts, and production. I've danced on the side heavily since 2016 and since I was a kid I connected to dance, but where I come from - art comes second, first comes survival.
In 2020 I created a dance solo called שתיים اثنين that researches the political story in my body through ritual and holding space for myself and the crowd. The movement and the performance are focused on the research of the Duality of identity and duality in conflict in general. This performance toured in Europe and back home and was performed in many venues (Nefgashot 2020, Masaha Opening, Geneva DTP nights June 2022, Midburn 2021, Naot Ma Baad - Jaffa 2023).
I also lead and hold space for projects that deal with emotional processing for Palestinian groups on their own and also groups that combine Israelis (that are strong Palestinian allies) and Palestinians since 2020. I also have a studio that brings both these communities in my Palestinian hometown together (and apart at times).
I call myself more of a space holder than an artist/dancer as that's what I do in several projects - be it workshops, performances, or community meetings."Ashira Prem Rachana
"I started my life working in the field of journalism, human rights, and film production, as tools to voice the suffering I witnessed by living in Palestine. I began an internal journey after an injury in my spinal cord that paralyzed me and pushed me inwards to find healing after doctors told me to surrender to paralysis. I dug into my faith to find peace and healing by using Kundalini energy, meditation, and healing techniques that I was basically searching on youtube to learn since I didn't have access to holistic support.
The journey was enlightening Al Hamdu Lilah I healed physically and began my emotional and energetic healing from years of continuous trauma. Now I am blessed to share this knowledge and share the wisdom from different teachers around the world with children through the project Catharsis Holistic healing.
I also hold training retreats and healing sessions as I sing and create Sufi Soul music for your healing hearts."