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*For Upcoming Sessions, please see the new website: http://www.creativemoment.im/dancing/

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Previous sessions (2013)

Indoors

Thursday evening community classes: Various dance improvisation activities focused on: having fun, being curious, and renewing how we want to be with ourselves, each other, and the world. (Here’s a full overview of the classes.) Thursdays 7:30-9pm, starting back again September 5th, at Heart and Hands Health Collective. Recent sessions: January 16th – June 20th, 2013. (Details about the location, how to register & accessibilities.)

Dancing for Fun and Dancing while Sitting for Older Adults: Dancing is excellent for brain health & all-round well-being. Sessions include a variety of creative movement activities, with music from the 1940s-60s and from around the world. Click here for details and options. If your seniors’ residence or activity centre is interested in sessions sometime, please be in touch. If you are interested in a series of daytime seated classes downtown, please be in touch (click here) to be added to the interest list.

Outdoors

Fresh-air Frolic: Dancing games and movement improvisation at neighbourhood parks. (Next sessions: Tues. Aug. 20 & Wed. Aug. 21 at 5pm at ROMP! in Centennial Square – click here for details.)

Dancing acknowledgments: A monthly outdoor session, meeting at the radio tower platform at Summit park in Lekwungen Homelands, providing that the skies are clear enough for watching the moonrise & sunset. Click here for more info (sessions will start again in 2014). By donation to the Lekwungen Community Tool Shed. The poem that spurred this was the first blog post.

 

Recent Themes (2013)

Dance as Self-Care/ Mutual-Care: Various creative movement and dance activities, around grounding, breath, connecting with personal sources of strength, and supporting each other as a group. Click here for full description. (Previous sessions: Thursdays Sept. 5, June 13, May 2, Apr. 11, Feb. 14, and Jan. 24, 2013 at Heart & Hands; Monday November 5, 2012 at Oaklands Community Centre.)

Intro to Creative Dance: This workshop is for people who are new to dance improvisation, who think they “can’t” dance, or who feel ‘awkward’/’rusty’/’shy’ about dancing in front of anyone. The focus is on accepting and celebrating our unique selves and ways of moving. Click here for full description. (Previous sessions: Thursdays Sept. 12, Feb. 28 and Jan. 17, 2013 at Heart & Hands.)

Dance Games Night: A whole bunch of movement games, and we’ll take turns picking the next game. Click here for full description. (Thursdays Sept. 19th, May 30th, April 25th and March 28th, 2013 at Heart & Hands Health Collective; Monday April 8th in the park by Fernwood Community Centre.)

Dancing Outdoors / Hiking & Dancing: Visiting a local place together: a workshop that includes dance-wandering, movement concepts and improvisation activities for interacting with where we find ourselves. In Spring and Summer, usually on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday at around 2pm. Click here for details. If interested, please be in touch to be part of scheduling the next one!

Log-out, Power-off and Dance! We’ll use terms from common technology as spurs for dance improvisation – playing with humour, games, and reflection. Click here for description. (Previous sessions: Thursdays Apr. 18, Mar. 14 and Feb. 7,  2013 Heart and Hands Health Collective.)

Improvising with an uncertain world: Dance improvisation activities about emotional first aid; then playing with creating gestures and movement about the time that we live in (e.g. climate change, societal change). Click here for the full description. (Previous sessions: Thursday May 9th, 7:30-9pm, at Heart and Hands Health Collective; Sunday Feb. 10th, at Dance Victoria during Dance Days.)

Dancing and Learn-in / Dancing ‘Praxis’: Using dance and other creative activities to reflect on lyrics, spoken word and resource materials on a specific topic. A ‘learn-in’ is a teach-in where we all learn from each other. ‘Praxis’ is a fancy word for the applied practice of an area of learning.
Recent themes:
->Equinox, M21 poems, Water (March 21), in recognition of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Spring Equinox, World Poetry Day, and World Water Day
->In solidarity with Indigenous Rights Education Day (February 21)
->Intersecting Movements (March 7), in recognition of International Womyn’s Day

Fresh-air Fernwood Frolic: Family-friendly dance improvisation activities, meeting behind the community centre and going to a different outdoor place around the neighbourhood each week! Themes including an Unbirthday Party; Plants & Dance; and Creating an International Dance Day Flashmob. Click here for each week’s theme and more info. (Previous sessions: Mondays in April, 5:30-6:30pm. Please dress for the weather – yes, we will dance in the rain or find shelter if it’s a big downpour.)

“Awkward”/ “Rusty” Dancers & Friends: The focus of this workshop is on accepting and celebrating our unique selves and ways of moving. Click here for a description.(Previous sessions: Thursdays Jan. 17 and Feb. 28, 7:30-9pm, Heart and Hands Health Collective.)

Moving with more aspects of our lives: There will be a series of dance improvisation activities and games, for having fun while reflecting on how we interact with the world. Click here for full description. (Previous session: Thurs. Jan. 31, 7:30-9pm, Heart and Hands Health Collective.)

Dance Improv Ingredients: An overview of some dance ‘ingredients’ (movement concepts like shape, flow, time, space, consent, locomotion) and a ‘menu’ of games for experimenting with various combinations of ingredients (e.g. Movement Bingo). (Previous sessions: Thursdays June 20 (Summer Ingredients), May 16,  April 4 (Spring Ingredients), 2013, Heart & Hands Health Collective.)

Boardroom Dance Theatre: Playfully engaging with the topics of group dynamics and bureaucracy, through dance improvisation and mime activities. We will experiment with space, characters, gesture, and repetition to create non-verbal caricatures of both power imbalances and more egalitarian interactions. Click here for the description. (Previous session: Thursday May 23rd, 7:30-9pm, at Heart and Hands Health Collective.)

Freeskool workshop: A dancing with integrity workshop that brings together a variety of activities (dance as self-care, movement games, music with rad lyrics, and an improv activity for interacting with common things that come up in community organizing). (Previous session: Friday May 10th, 7pm-9pm, at Heart and Hands Health Collective. More info here.)

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Last year’s sessions (2012)

Click on a workshop title for its description

dancing with integrity: Various dance improvisation activities focused on: having fun, being curious, celebrating each other’s ways of moving, and renewing how we want to be with the world. No prior experience needed! Happened once a month on Mondays 7:30-9:00pm on Sept. 10th, October 1st, and November 5th, at Oaklands Community Centre in Lekwungen Homelands (#1-2827 Belmont Ave. near Hillside Mall, close to bus #4, and nearby are # 8, 22, 27, 28). By donation to rental costs.* Drop-ins welcome / pre-registering is welcome. Click here for workshop description.

dancing thru where the planet+society are at: Dance improvisation activities about emotional first aid, then playing with creating gestures and movement about the time that we live in (e.g. climate change, societal change). No prior experience needed! Happened once a month on Sundays 4:00-6:00pm on Sept. 23, Oct. 14, and Nov. 18, at Oaklands Community Centre in Lekwungen Homelands (#1-2827 Belmont Ave. near Hillside Mall, close to bus #4, and nearby are # 8, 22, 27, 28). By donation to rental costs.* Drop-ins welcome / pre-registering is welcome. Click here for workshop description.

*workshops are free for all Salish, Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka’wakw people in acknowledgment of this island being the unceded territories of many Nations.