The Dance of Being

A Retreat, A Wild Conference, A Lab

Three days of movement classes, workshops, talks, meditation, film screenings & time together

Hosted by Sanctuary on the Fault Line with Bayo Akomolafe, John Stirk, Barbara Kane, Andrew Sanger, Daisy Black & Emma Zangs

Curated by and with contributions from Hayley J S Matthews

Photo by Alistair H M Simmons, copyright 2021

This retreat, wild conference, lab happened

Friday 20th January – Sunday 22nd January 2023, anyone can join the lab in retrospect and

follow it in their own time, through the journey of our recordings, accessed below

ABOUT THE DANCE OF BEING

We are very pleased to share this retreat/movement conference/lab. Come dancers, (post)activists, excavators, artists, meditators, lone wolves, anchorites, weary protestors, those seeking ground, depth and company in troubled times. Our work will be simple, restorative and moving.

Our three days will be a spacious rhythm of movement classes, workshops, talks, meditation, film screenings and being together. Calling on the embodied intelligence of dancing, as a way to meet troubled times. Guided by a beautiful, alchemic team of philosophers, dancers, osteopaths, anthropologists, yogis, Rolfers and writers. To meet us in the space of potentiality between being (presence, attention, connectedness) and action (doing, dynamism, movement). A space to connect with our bodies. And their potential to surrender, adapt, slow down, dance the silence and enter into communities of change through a different door.

This series of labs began in 2021, this is the first open fully to the public. Birthed from a radical, fugitive, earth wide movement of professional women dancers called ‘Sanctuary on the Fault Line’. Conjured to liberate dance as a world changing process, a necessary digester of emotion, helping us to find our way through.

For dancers we hope ‘The Dance of Being’ will re-orient you into the beauty of your worth, strengthen you for your work, from gentleness and expansion. For others we have expanded the simplicity of dancing, so it can reach and nourish you also, and we hope, aid you in your life and your work.

We are excited to welcome as contributors this year, John Stirk, Yoga Teacher and trained Osteopath; Barbara Kane, 4th generation Isadora Duncan Legacy Dancer; Bayo Akomolafe, philosopher, writer, activist, professor of psychology, and executive director of The Emergence Network; Hayley J S Matthews, Dancer, Rolfer, leader of the pack at Sanctuary on the Fault Line and curator of the lab, and Andrew Sanger, Dancer, Choreographer, Teacher and Scholar of Dance and Anthropology.

Together we will meet the potential of slowing down in body and mind; the alternative dance of possession; strangeness, strength, length and lightness; the tremendous force of dynamic movement through the expressive body; liminality, communities of practice and alternative futures and ‘being the dance’.

Below is a full schedule for the days we will spend together. Links to register. Full details on each talk, workshop and class. More on the lab teachers. More about Sanctuary on the Fault Line. Practical info about joining. And terms and conditions of registration.

See you in the dance

SCHEDULE

(This was our live schedule, you can set up your own journey as we did or follow the retreat in your own time)

Times in GMT

9:00: Meditation and Opening lead by Hayley J S Matthews
9:30: Deeper Still - Movement Class with Yoga Teacher and Osteopath John Stirk
10:30: Break
11:00: Strangeness, Length & Lightness - Movement Class with Pro Dancer and Rolfer Hayley J S Matthews
12:00: Break

14:00: Daily Talk (each talk’s details below)
15:30: Break

16:00: Isadora Duncan Repertoire with Duncan legacy dancer Barbara Kane

17:20: Break
17:30: Meditation and Closing

20:00: Film Screenings and Digestion Spaces (wild dance films and sharings made by the professional women dancers of the Sanctuary on the Fault Line movement and break out rooms to cross the divides. Bring tea, wine, cushions. Join from home/your accommodation)

REGISTRATION

Below you can register to receive the journey of The Dance of Being through it’s recordings. It is a little wild as paths go, particularly as Barbara Kane is the freest spirit to catch on camera and because the goddess of the glitch was sometimes with us. But it is rich. We ask for a contribution of £105 for the journey if you’re an individual and £220 if you are requesting the lab for a group. We’ll get a sign that you have requested and we’ll send you the journey and some guidance.

Purchase and request the journey - individual - £105

Purchase and Request the Journey - Group- £220

If you are not able to generate income and would like to contribute a lower amount please write to us here

MOVEMENT CLASSES

Deeper Still - John Stirk - 9:00 - 10:30

Deeper Still will explore the art of moving very little, in an open ended way. Guiding us to receive sensation with a motionless mind. John’s aim is to support participants into less ego-centric ways of being. To guide us into more freedom, by unblocking pathways in and through body and self.

“When we slow down, we discover that emptiness is rich. Could we function from ' no - thing’ in order to return to something else, without conclusion?”

Strangeness, Length and Lightness - Hayley J S Matthews - 11:00 - 12:30

What if our strangeness, our eccentricity and the hard work we move through in our lives and bodies are the ground, the preparation, the flesh, the strength for pushing a sense of lightness, up through us like a toothpaste tube?

Hayley will share what she knows from her Rolfing practice (specialist movement and posture therapy) about supporting growth through a creative relationship with our posture and the magic that comes from a commitment to dancing. Be ready to explore your personal patterns, work hard lightly, and to laugh and loose your balance. Our work will be simple and accessible.

Isadora Duncan Repertoire - Barbara Kane - 16:30 - 18:00

Isadora Duncan (1877 – 1927) first discovered the use of the music of Chopin for her dances whilst in London in 1900. Chopin was referred to as the poet of the keyboard. Isadora Duncan became referred to as the poet of the dance.

In 1921 Isadora Duncan went to the newly formed Soviet Union to establish a free school for the Russian children of the proletariat. While there she finally understood the depth of the music of Scriabin. Scriabin is known as one of Russia’s deepest and most difficult to play composers. Duncan by 1921 relied less on musical structure and more on seeking the tremendous force of dynamic movement through the expressive body.

Barbara Kane will share the first known dance of Isadora Duncan to Chopin’s Prelude op 28 no 7. And the last known dance of Isadora Duncan to Scriabin’s Etude op 42 no 5.
Duncan choreography is simple and profound, yet accessible.

TALKS

Day One 15:00 - 16:00: ‘What if We Welcomed The Dance of Possession?’ Bayo Akomolafe

Bayo will take a post-activist approach, embedded within his experience and vision as a descendant of Yoruba fields, India dwelling, recovering psychotherapist, father, author, self-styled trans-public intellectual, to dive us into a re-imagining of ‘possession’ as a necessary experience. Not least exemplified by ‘dancing’. To conjure a configuration of hope.

Day Two 15:00 - 16:00: ‘Liminality, Communities of Practice, and Alternative Futures’ Andrew Sanger

The COVID-19 moment is one that shattered recognized communities and institutions. Anthropologist Victor Turner suggests that moments of anti-structure are opportunities to find what he calls ‘communitas’. What inchoate potentiality does this difficult period contain and what new futures can we dream up? Andrew will weave us through examples from the dance world including Sanctuary on the Fault Line, The Dancer’s Forest and community as a strategy for building choreography.

Day Three: ‘Being The Dance’ Discussion Between John Stirk, Hayley J S Matthews and Bayo Akomolafe

John, Hayley, Bayo will be in discussion about ‘dancing’ as a foundation of living and a way to fall through to other worlds. And how we can access these layers.

FILM SCREENINGS AND DIGESTION SPACES

Some evenings there will be a dance film screening. These films are created by the professional women dancers of Sanctuary on the Fault Line, an establishing earth-wide fugitive movement. These women are liberating dance and the feminine as powerful forces in the world for change and recovery. They perform for local public in wild areas of cities and towns around the world, in gift economies. You can find them in forests, roof-tops, waste lands and car parks. In these wilds and wastelands they not only dance live for public but also make these dance films, providing you a peek into their wild worlds. And a taste of their particular expression of womanhood and dancership, that is uninhibited. You will glimpse a little of what it is to 're-wild' as dancers and women; to liberate and search for new ground, to speak from here in word and gesture. And hear the messages, rejuvenations and sanctuaries that dance and womanhood can create, if untethered, unowned and unleashed.

Other evenings there will be break rooms to spend time with other participants, digesting our days, drinking wine, tea, sodas.

ABOUT THE DANCE OF BEING CONTRIBUTORS

Hayley J S Matthews

Hayley is a contemporary dancer, Rolfer and leader of the pack at Sanctuary on the Fault Line. In 2020 Hayley was awarded the Thea Barnes Legacy Award for female leadership in dance across the UK and US and in 2021 was nominated for the Women In Dance Leadership Award. Hayley creates and performs solos, ensembles and movements under ENSEMBLE DANS-TANK. She has also danced, choreographed and taught at and for: CoDa Dance, Elizabeth Schwartz Isadora Duncan Repertoire Company (Paris), Cando2 (London), Viviana Durante Company (London), Sadlers Wells (London), East London Dance, Tanzfabrik (Berlin), English National Ballet, Dance Umbrella (London), P.A.L/Stressfree (London/Paris) and Noyam African Dance Institute (Ghana).

Find out more about Hayley Matthews

John Stirk

John Stirk is a yoga teacher and author with a background in Osteopathy. He has ben teaching yoga since 1974. His association with R. D. Laing in the 1970’s and 1980’s and his attraction to the teaching of J. Krishnamurti have inspired his approach to a quality of consciousness realized through hatha yoga practices. His interests lie in the power of group work (online and onsite) and the potential insight and realization that arise spontaneously within the group field. John is the author of several books, notably The Original Body, Primal movement for yoga teachers (Handspring 2015) and the recently published Deeper Still, Authentic embodiment for yoga teachers (Handspring Jan 2021) He runs ongoing ‘What Lies Beneath’ courses for Yoga teachers.

Barbara Kane

Barbara Kane – artistic Director of the Isadora Duncan* Dance Group

Barbara began her Duncan Studies in 1969 with Lillian Rosenberg (pupil and teaching assistant with Irma Duncan*). She then studied and performed with Julia Levien and Hortense Kooluris (pupils of Anna and Irma Duncan) in the Isadora Duncan Centenary Dance Company in New York City.

In 1979 Barbara moved to London and took classes with Lisa Duncan* pupils in Paris and with Isadora and Irma Duncan pupils in Moscow. Researching also the many early forms of Duncan inspired teachings (Natural Movement, Musical Movement of Russia, Alekseeva method, Ruby Ginner method, Margaret Morris method and the developments of Raymond Duncan’s gymnastics further taught by Malkovsky in France). Barbara also studies with pupils of the Elizabeth Duncan* School in Munich, Germany.

Barbara set up her own dance group in 1985. The Group has performed Duncan dances throughout Europe, Russia, Japan and the USA. Duncan dance teaching worldwide with all ages and abilities since 1977, Barbara continues to share Duncan Dance as teacher/ coach/stager/historian/enthusiast.

*Isadora Duncan set up a school of dance with her sister Elizabeth Duncan in 1904 – from this school were six pupils who performed with Isadora, of these six pupils four went on to become teachers – Irma, Anna, Lisa and Maria Theresa.

*Elizabeth Duncan, sister of Isadora Duncan is considered the main pedagogue of the Duncan Dance technique. Her school continues in Munich

Bayo Akomolafe

“Once I lived on the tarred lonely highways of truth. Slugging towards the looming horizons – the promised dwelling places for those who did not waver. The whole world was about being either right or wrong. I was either lost or found. That was many years ago though. Today, when I meet people, I recognize how utterly beyond right and wrong they are – how their lives are symphonies beyond orchestration, how their mistakes and failings are actually cosmic explorations on a scale grander and of a texture softer than our most dedicated rule-books could possibly account for. You see, something happened on my way – and I lost my coordinates, my map, my directives. Now the whole journey is the destination – and each point, each barren point, just as noble as the final dot. Every splotch of ink is become to me a fresco of wisdom, a beehive of honey, a lovely place – and every aching voice a heavenly choir. The world is no longer desolate and empty and exclusive; she is now a wispy spirit, whose fingers flirt through the wind – a million roads where only one once lay. And I need not be certain about the road travelled – since I arrived the self-same moment I set out.

Bayo Akomolafe is the grateful life-partner to ‘EJ’, father to Alethea Aanya and Kyah Jayden Abayomi, son of Olufunmilayo Ibidapo Akomolafe and Ignatius Abayomi Akomolafe, and descendant of Yoruba fields of archetypal becomings and mythopoeic landscapes. He is an author, celebrated speaker, teacher, and self-styled trans-public intellectual (a concept imagined together with and inspired by the shamanic priesthood of the Yoruba healer-trickster)- whose vocation goes beyond justice and speaking truth to power to opening up other spaces of power-with, and queering fond formulations and configurations of hope.

More about Bayo here

Andrew Sanger

Andrew is a dancer, lecturer, researcher and writer. Lecturer in dance at the University of Roehampton, teaching improvisation, composition, technique, and history. Concurrently completing a PhD at University College London in Anthropology studying performance as an environmental practice in the U.K. And works as a freelance artist, performer, writer and educator.