These series of photos by Carina Adam

DANCE SANCTUARY: Embodied Dance Portals for Inner/Outer transformation

What is longing to express, shift, move and be moved inside of you?

Welcoming your stuckness, your fierceness, your tenderness, your longing, your confusion, your passion, your humanity: to move and be moved.

Welcoming the subtle waves of your emotional body, your chattering monkey mind, the radiance of your inextinguishable soul, and the miraculous vessel of your body that is DESTINED to move and be moved.

Welcoming ALL of these parts (and whatever shades in between) to come to MOVE and be INCLUDED on this dance-floor-of-life: welcome to DANCE SANCTUARY, a bi-monthly embodied-dance portal for inner/outer transformation.

Calling in the Ancient-Modern-Medicines of DANCE, MUSIC, CONSCIOUSNESS & RITUAL-TOGETHERNESS–into the heart of our Berlin urban landscapes—as resourcing tools to MOVE with the complex landscapes of Life & living in these times: re-connecting the disconnected parts, reigniting our humanity, and celebrating our inter-connection to ourselves and to all of LIFE…anchoring in an embodied Holy Shift into our bodies-minds-souls: to be better equipped with dancing with this holy messy dance of LIFE.

These evenings will be guided by the embodied-dance teachings of Open Floor: a resource-based dance-practice that honors the inter-connection between our bodies-minds-emotions & soul, and summons an anchoring of embodied-presence into the body…Open Floor is a profound—yet simple–sensual-embodied-practice for healing and transformation through the powerful grace & healing art that is DANCE.

Dance Sanctuary Flow:

• WELCOME: Doors open at 19.15 and close promptly at 19.45. Please note entry after 19.45 isn’t possible.

• OPENING YOUR ATTENTION: Please enter the dance-space in a non-verbal fashion (leave your words in the changing room), and dive into WARMING UP your body, arriving, sensing what is alive, what are you bringing with you, what is longing to be moved? Give yourself permission and time to drop in.

• ENTERING & EXPLORING:

  After a juicy warm-up, we’ll gather to explore the theme for the evening (based on the Core Movement Resources of Open Floor), move into various embodied-explorations together (solo, in contact, as a group, & with connection to spirit/life-force), as well as having plenty of space to “just dance”…

• the space will be guided verbally with prompts, invitations & inspirations to support a deeper anchoring into the dance. You are invited to FULLY follow the AUTHENTIC wisdom of your dance, your expression: however that looks like…The guidance is intended to aid in MOVING and INCLUDING whatever is present, and bring it into transforming-movement.

Practical Details:

• Doors open at 19:15: Class-Portal is from 19:30-21:30 (doors close at 19:45)

• Center for Dance in der Kulturbrauerei Studio A: Schönhauser Allee 36, Studio A Berlin
  

• 2 Saturdays a night: the other Saturdays are hosted by the amazing 5 Rhythms teacher Samar Linn: https://samarlinn.com/

• Prices:

  • 12,- reduced, 15,- regular, 20,- supportive

  • If money is an issue for you (or if you would like to support the team with the space) please reach out to me: alma@alma-omega.world

What to bring/expect:

• Wear clothes you love to move in, and love to sweat in: there is a shower and a proper changing room at Center for Dance (to freshen yourself for Berghain ;)).

• Bring a water bottle to stay hydrated, maybe a snack for afterwards: try not to eat TOO much before moving, but also don’t come too hungry. Nourish yourself.

• Leave your phones off/in your bag, and please do not interact with them during the dance (No shazamming-talk to me after the class if you like a track!).

• A WHOLE VARIETY of different music styles will be played (on a REALLY NICE sound system by the way): to represent the various colors and textures of life…you are invited to use the music to aid in the mindfulness of your dance: and be authentic with what is moving YOU (not just how the music is moving others)

About

MY PERSONAL BACKGROUND WITH DANCE & Embodiment

• I was (gently and passively aggressively) kicked out of ballet class when I was about 5 years old, due to being a bit too wild and talkative during the class…!
• As a teenager, I used to mosh to grunge/punk & and thrust to 90’s hip-hop & R&B when I wasn’t in attendance at my all-girls Catholic High School (and sometimes IN the halls of school)
  
• In 1997, at the ripe age of 18, I went to my first House Party in Amsterdam, which opened up my body and soul to the trancendance of music, trance, dance & community. I religiously followed this passion back in the East Coast of the USA, where I sought after the underground house movement of Washington DC & NYC’s legendary Body & Soul…this movement & music touched such a deep part of my heart and soul, and continues to to this day.

• In 2013, after the end of a 13 year relationship, Music, Dance and Cacao became the pillars with which I began to rebuild my life and heal my heart: this holy trinity not only saved me from deep despair, but this trinity helped paved a new life for me, that I have been walking step by step every since:
• In 2013 I co-Founded Cacaophany with Ruby May: a ritulastic gathering combining the healing magic of dance, music and Sacred-Raw-Cacao in a ceremonial setting.
• In 2004 I discovered Gabrielle’s Roth’s 5 Rhythms by accident, and became a loyal scholar of her work, allowing her wisdom to saturate my mind-body-soul, and change my life…this is when I started to understand the deeper patterns found within the shamanic wisdom & healing power of dance: and this inherent wisdom & power that is available to all, if willing to open, receive & surrender to it.

• In 2015 I co-founded Lucid: a Ritualistic-community-Party in Berlin that has been responsible for mid-wifing the New Paradigm-Visions into 3D-reality by weaving in Ritual, Dance & Berlin’s finest Underground Music.
• From 2017-2020 I deepened my commitment to healing, dance, movement and soul-embodiment through my teacher’s training with Open Floor International: an embodied-dance-meditation training, using the dance-floor (of life) to awaken, heal and enliven us.
• Since the waves of pandemic-lockdowns, increasing-amounts of time online–not to mention the increasing dimensions of grief for all that is shifting and transforming on the planet–I feel more and more called to weave embodiment deeper into my DJ sets, rituals and space-holding:  I feel more and more called to hold spaces in which we can  remember the frabric of our humanity, our connection to divinity/source, and our intricate inter-connection to all of Life: by not bypassing the heart-aches & heart-quakes of life, but by inviting them to marinate and season our reasons for living.