Body Art 2019/2020: Festival and Market Pictures

I get so focused and in the groove, I totally forget about photos!

Here's a few that I did manage to capture.

Enjoy and see you all in the spring and summer!!

AcroYoga - Montreal style!

Kia ora community.
I am buzzing, having just come back from Evolve festival which was so much down-home yummy fun, silk climbing, acroyoga twisting, barefoot stomping, sun lounging, glitter bombs, and even hot showers to boot!  Thank you Evolve!

The best though, for me, was teaching Acroyoga.  Fourteen eager and joyful souls came to play with me.  All different body shapes and abilities.  We played with form and creativity, letting curiosity and joy be our guide.  Two straight hours and even with the music pumping just around the corner and 8 other workshops spaces happening, no one wanted to leave!  I'm so thankful for Acroyoga Montreal for reminding why I love this practice, giving me new tools and techniques to share, and helping reignite my passion around Acroyoga play!!  The best part is, as well, that every body can play.  It's not about doing the fanciest tricks, but about finding how two bodies meet, and what can emerge from that meeting with curiosity, joy, clear communication, trust building, and listening.

I've got another set of Acroyoga workshops coming up in Auckland at the ever amazing Voices of Sacred Earth.  Come join us!  It's an incredibly sweet weekend with lots of gratitude and play, swimming and sweat lodge, boogieing and heart-soul-earth connection practice.

And yet still I want more!! If you'd like to have me come bring Acroyoga to your school, yoga studio, organization, workplace, please be in touch.  I'm happy to work with your budget/needs/desires/populations. Let's see what we can make happen!

Here's a couple of pics but just from the warm ups.  After that we all got caught in the inspiration vortex!!

<3 <3

Festival Season is Upon Us

We are so excited that the sun is back, the days are long, and the rivers are plentiful.

This summer season will find us sharing our skills and passions at festivals all over Aotearoa.

After an incredible month in Montreal diving deep into the pedagogy and practice of AcroYoga with the mesmerizing and awe-inspiring AcroYoga Montreal crew, Jen will be focusing the next few months on sharing her movement inspiration.  

To start things off, over five fabulous days of camping and playtime over New Years 2020, Jen will be teaching workshops at the Mix festival, one for beginners, and one for finding your creative flow.  Come discover new ways to twist and push and balance and play!

More AcroYoga soon after, at Nelson's infamous Evolve festival, January 24th-26th

And then she'll be heading up the north island to one of her favorite community festivals, Voices of Sacred Earth at Kawaipurapura Retreat Center

And to top it all off, Andy will be leading a Contact Improv Workshop: Exploring Place and Inanimate Partnership, at the Conscious Dance Aotearoa gathering, here in Motueka.

So much movement! So much goodness.

See you all there!!

 

Body Art: A whirlwind of Face painting and Henna in Festival Season!

So much goodness coming up!

I'll be facepainting and doing henna at a whole slew of fabulous markets and events this season.  Starting things out at the Ngatimoti festival and the Day of the Dead in Nelson, I'll also be at the Stoke School Market and Truck Show, The Great Christmas Market in Nelson, the Mistletoe Market in Blenheim, Uniquely Nelson, the Sarau Festival, the Lantern Celebration, and even stepping in at the Original Gypsy Fair in Richmond and Greymouth. Whew!

Hope to see you all there!!

AcroYoga Montreal Teacher Training was everything and more

One month, six days a week, 10 hours a day.

Acroyoga, yoga, creative inquiry, trauma, break dancing, the Work that Reconnects, Anatomy, trauma-informed teaching, oppression theory, core blast, and handstand haven.

It was exhausting and fulfilling in every sense of the word.

And I am now a part of an incredible community of Acroyoga Montreal teachers around the world.

Thank you Eugene Poku and Jessie Goldberg for rocking my world and spreading the love.
https://acroyoga.com/

thank you thank you thank you

Story Bridge - "These Stories Are Ours"

They came out singing.

"These stories are not just mine. These stories are ours"

Story Bridge never fails to tug at my heart.
Eight amazing individuals came together to tell stories that changed their life, from leaving a long and love-filled marriage to being flooded out of a home, discovering what true friendship is like, to receiving a phone call that no one ever wants to receive.
They came courageously, they came tenderly, they came playfully, and they brought their stories to life in a way that literally left audience members in tears.

Thank you.

To Creative Communities Tasman for supporting this event.

To the actors, who shared their humanity.

To the audience, without you the stories would just be echoes.

To the people in all of our lives that fill our lives with stories.

Stories remind us what we already know.
That we fall in love with each other through our stories.

Theater of Liberation in Motueka - in Pictures

Such a powerful crew was gathered!  Powerful in how each of you separately, walk in this world and the gifts you carry and share, and powerful in the way we have begun to weave them together.

But how to capture a mood in photos?
I wish the small comments, the insights, the gestures could be met with lighting and photography skills worthy of their import.
In the meantime, I'll snap shots on my camera, just to give you all a glimpse, a reminder, of some of the touching moments we had together.

Thank you for coming together with us.

Enjoy these moments.
Stay in touch.
<3