Blog > 2011 > December

ZoomDance Winter Session
Thursdays, January 12 – March 1

ZoomDance classes at Studio34 are offered at a sliding scale of $90-$110 for the whole 8 weeks, which also gives you unlimited access to all the ZoomDance classes around the city. Or buy a 5-class card for $70, no expiration. For more information, please visit the ZoomDance website at http://www.zoomdance.com/.

10:30am – 11:15am Thursdays, 1.5-3 years
ZoomDance: This is a high energy class of dance, music, story-telling, imagination and fun! Over the course of the session, children will develop agility, coordination, rhythm, and balance through a dynamic range of actions. There is an emphasis on creativity and building confidence through songs, stories, and performance. Each week we’ll read a new story and then explore the movement and adventures of the characters. Kids have the opportunity to show off their favorite moves, invent characters, and try lots of new movement ideas. Grown-ups are encouraged to participate in this class with their small dancers.

4pm – 4:50pm Thursdays, 3-5 years
Intermediate ZoomDance: This class has the same essence as the younger ZoomDance class, with lots of energy and focus on exploring new ideas. We will start to push the edges of dancing the spectrum from wild abandon to careful details. In addition to learning trickier “moves”, we will start thinking of phrases and dances instead of only individual moves, and students will perform for each other in class. When acting out the story, our teachers will encourage students to offer their own ideas too. Grown-ups drop off their dancers for this one, and are invited in on the last day to see what we’ve been working on.

Reiki for Animals
Wednesday, April 20th
6:00pm-7:30pm
Investment: Sliding scale $10-$20

This workshop is especially designed for Reiki practitioners who are interested in working with animals. This workshop will cover the benefits of Reiki for animals, ethics, animal chakras, and how to work with animals, and will include a live demonstration with the lovely doggie assistant, Hope. We will also talk about Animal Reiki volunteer opportunities in the city and how to start your own volunteer Reiki team for shelters outside the city. For information on the instructor, visit http://www.wolfstarreiki.abmp.com

WORKSHOPS with Ana Forrest
May 20, 21, 22, 2011
There’s still spots available!

The Forrest Yoga Workshops are asana focused practices. Forrest Yoga helps you connect to your core – getting strong and centered. It uses heat, deep breathing and vigorous sequences to sweat out toxins. The long holds in the pose progressions help you flush, oxygenate and rejuvenate every cell. The Forrest Yoga Workshops are offered to practitioners of all levels. As a beginner to Forrest Yoga, you learn to breathe deeply and connect in feeling with your body. As you progress, you get proficient at safely tailoring each pose to work best for you, particularly with physical and emotional injuries. Join Ana Forrest at Studio 34. Sign up today!

CELEBRATE YOUR PRACTICE
Friday, May 20, 6:30 – 9 PM
Saturday May 21, 9 – 11:30 AM, and 2 – 4:30 PM

Rekindle the fires of passion and pleasure with Forrest Yoga. Learn to reconnect to your energy, while you delight in your strength. Bring healing and inspiration into your personal practice. This Forrest Yoga workshop helps you cultivate and embrace a sense of compassion. You also learn to make your practice exhilarating and delicious.

This is a three-part workshop. You are welcome to sign up for any of the sessions, although encouraged to take all three.

EMBODYING SPIRIT
Sunday, May 22, 9 – 11:30 AM

Does your practice brighten or dim your Spirit? Make the choice to brighten up and fascinate in process! Forrest Yoga teaches you to focus your intent on connecting to and Embodying your Spirit. How? By choosing, in the moment, to breathe in a way that brightens you; to do your poses in a way that invites your Spirit to permeate into all of your body.

PRICE – (cash or check only, at the door)
• 1 session, $70 per Workshop
• 3 sessions, $65 per Workshop (you must specify which sessions, during purchase)
• 4 sessions, $60 per Workshop

WHAT TO BRING
• Two mats OR one mat and one blanket or beach towel to roll up
• Strap (at least 8 foot) and block
• Any other props needed to support any injuries or physical concerns.
• Room will be heated to at least 80, so bring lots of water.
• Ana starts the workshops promptly. Please arrive at least 15 min early.

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Exciting News!! Immediately following the 2pm Workshop on May 21 and the 9am Workshop on May 22, Ana will read from her new book, “Fierce Medicine,” and take your questions.

Ana Forrest is an internationally renowned pioneer in yoga and healing. She challenges her students to access their whole being and to use Forrest Yoga as a path to finding and then clearing the emotional and mental blocks that dictate and limit their lives. With Ana’s meticulous guidance, students cultivate an acute awareness of their own practice and life process, creating a unique and powerful opportunity for the student to make practical life decisions based on their own experiences. In “Fierce Medicine,” Ana distills and shares wisdom from her own life experiences, making complex ideas practical and easily applied. From “stalking fear” to “walking free of pain” and learning the art of “truth speaking,” Ana offers simple practices and poses to “bring aliveness to every cell of the body and foster a connection to Spirit.”

Saturday, March 26
8pm
$6 ($5 w/ dancepass)

This StudioSeries, organized by Loren Groenendaal, features work by Melinda Faylor (interdisciplinary theater, New York), Lacy James (dance and music, Philadelphia), Rebecca Patek (dance), Urban Wash Dance Company & Through the Looking Glass (dance & multimedia, New York).

The StudioSeries is a monthly informal series curated by Nicole Bindler (with occasional guest curators), featuring experimental performances in all media by some of Philly’s most exciting artists (with some fabulous out of town guests). The StudioSeries is cozy, informal and fun! Come check out the art while it’s raw and in the works. It’s a rare and thrilling opportunity to get a window into the artist’s creative process. Feel free to hang afterwards, meet the artists and chat with them about their performances.

Wednesday, March 30th
7:00pm – 9:30pm
Suggested Donation: $10

The Patiti Institute & Evolver Philadelphia present:

Knowledge from the Amazon: An Informational Talk

This informational talk, led by Roman Hanis, will be about the origin and the spiritual disciplines associated with the Amazonian and Andean indigenous traditions, as well as their practical benefit for our modern society. We will talk about ancient lineages and the direct transmissions that assist with eliminating obscurations of consciousness, and guide us to the essence of our humanity. The practice of healing diseases through shamanic icaro singing practices (incantation) invokes the healing spirits of medicinal plants, like keys unlocking our inherent potential for healing.

We will discuss different practices involving consciousness cultivation, and how Mother Nature can act as a perfect mirror to our inner true nature. The intercultural bridges we are creating together can help us see and utilize the thousands of years of accumulated wisdom that the ancestors of all of humanity left us. These gifts are more available to us today than in any previous time in history.

Presented by The Paititi Institute & Evolver
www.paititi-institute.org
http://www.evolver.net/group/evolver_philadelphia_0

More info: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=132267990175369

Queer & Trans Yoga with Jacoby Ballard
Wednesday, March 23
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Pay-what-you-can!

Queer and Trans Yoga is a class specifically for the LGBT community that recognizes and adores the many ways of expressing gender and loving others. Jacoby Ballard incorporates partner yoga poses, restorative poses, vinyasa flow, and anything else that you suggest. Whether you’re new to yoga or have years of experience, this class is for you, with you!

ABOUT THE TEACHER: Jacoby Ballard has taught yoga for 10 years with certifications from Kashi Ashram and Kripalu Yoga Center’s Advanced Teacher Training. Jacoby worked in spaces non-traditional to yoga — art studios, conference centers, homeless shelters — until co-founding Third Root, a community health center that specializes in yoga and acupuncture in Brooklyn. Jacoby came out as trans through his own practice of yoga and remains committed to transgender health. He works with dozens of trans and gender non-conforming clients and teaches many workshops on the topic, including three weekly Queer and Trans Yoga classes in New York City. Jacoby’s passion for working with students of all bodies, genders and experiences is combined with precise alignment, adapting yogic scriptures to life in the West, and offering physical challenges that honor where the body is at right now. He is in love with the study and practice of yoga and has helped to create a socially-just minded atmosphere for its study at Third Root.

Reiki Level 1 condensed weekend workshop (Usui Shiki Ryoho) @ Studio 34
April 2nd, 1pm – 4pm, Conference Room
April 3rd, 10am – 2pm, Conference Room
Cost: Sliding scale $225 – $325 (includes manual, training & certificate)

Pre-registration required: $50 non-refundable deposit due at time of enrollment. Balance due April 2nd. Reserve your space now by emailing Melissa at melissa.ameika@gmail.com or via phone 215.906.9441 (paypal invoicing available for your convenience)

When we heal ourselves we heal the world. Learn Reiki, the gentle healing touch from Japan, to help yourself and others! This condensed weekend course is now available to accommodate those who cannot commit to a two or three month class schedule. Students will develop the ability to give Reiki to themselves and others. Curriculum includes all level 1 attunements, history of Reiki and basic understanding of Japanese culture, theories of human energy systems including chakras, Reiki ethics and business.

Reiki Circle @ Studio 34
March 26th, 1pm – 4pm, Conference Room
Cost: Donate what you can to help pay for the space. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Reiki Circle open to practitioners of all levels, styles, and schools. Also open to those curious about energy healing, whether or not they have experience practicing. For three blissful hours we will share this wonderful healing energy. Come share the support, love and get some practice! Circle facilitator: Melissa Ameika, Reiki Master & Teacher. www.wolfstarreiki.abmp.com

The Rainbow of Desire in Performance
Friday March 11th
7:30-9:30 p.m.
FREE • donations accepted

Have you ever been in a relationship where you felt something was wrong yet you weren’t quite sure what it was? Ever found yourself in situations where you knew what you needed to do but stopped yourself from taking action? What about when you experience so many different desires at once that you don’t know how to sort them out? These are the sorts of quandaries we will address in The Rainbow of Desire, a public presentation for using theatre to dismantle internalized oppression.

We begin the evening by hearing stories from the lives of audience members, one of which will be reenacted onstage. We then expose the hidden elements of the story—wayward emotions, complex desires, and cops in our heads that haunt the stage like ghosts from the characters’ minds. These ghosts appear first as human statues before being brought to life to do battle with each other so that we might learn what is useful and what we can do without. From there the original story is reshaped by what was experienced in revealing this hidden information, giving participants some tools to take with them into real-life situations. This is the essence of the Rainbow of Desire: a transformative performance that can be a rehearsal for reality.

In the Rainbow of Desire—as in all branches of Theatre of the Oppressed—everyone is aspect-actor, with the ability to be both in the audience and onstage. Everyone willl have opportunities to share stories, play characters, observe and offer feedback, or to embody the invisible elements of a situation. This event is free and open to the public. No theatre experience is necessary to attend or perform. For more info, call 215-730-0982, or email “tophilly@gmail.com“.

Motion & Heart: 5Rhythms® ‘Heartbeat’ Workshop
Advanced Workshop on the second level of Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms®: the map for freeing the heart.

Saturday April 2nd
1:30pm-7:30pm

The 5Rhythms® practice enlivens us through conscious movement, and we cannot be alive without feeling. Feelings happen, with or without our consent. They are there to empower and serve us. But their power can overwhelm us so we end up stuck with feelings, or clinging to them, or resisting, repressing or denying them. That saps our vitality and limits our freedom and joy. In this workshop we shall explore some of the ways that feelings shape us and some of the ways they move us when we let them. Above all, we shall give them room to breath and move as we dance them through the 5Rhythms.

We will be ground our explorations in the physical practice of the 5Rhythms® ‘Wave’ and you will need experience of moving through the ‘Wave’ to participate (we recommend a minimum of 12 hours). In this short workshop there will be no time to introduce or demonstrate the 5Rhythms®. 5Rhythms® is not therapy. Use whatever therapeutic support best serves you and allow quiet time on the Sunday to absorb and process what your body finds on the dance floor.

Please feel free to ask Richard any questions you may have: 215-983-7036

Cost: $120 ($135 after March 19th)

Checks payable to Richard Jerram, 217 West Queen Lane, Philadelphia PA 19144

You can also book with Paypal via the MeetUp site: http://www.meetup.com/dance-5Rhythms

Finding the Well: Accessing Your Power Through Sound and Movement

Sat. March 19th from 1pm-3pm
$20 for one person
$15 if you pre-register by March 6th or come with a friend
$15 for dancepass holders

Come explore and expand your own personal sense of power through sound and movement.

In this workshop we will use vocalization, guided movement exploration, partnering and witnessing to connect to emotional centers of our bodies, access deep internal sources of strength and vulnerability, and cultivate new powerful ways of moving and being.

This is exciting, challenging and vulnerable work. As a group we will create a supportive and safe space for both individual and group exploration.

All levels of movement experience are welcome. Willingness to experiment with making sound is required.

Please contact Jenny Sawyer for more information at jroesawyer@gmail.com

Bio
Jenny Sawyer has studied dance and improvisational movement for over 20 years. She is a co-founder and current member of the Philly Contact Collective, a performance and contact improvisation collective. She was a founding member of Amnesiac Music and Dance, a touring performance improv company directed by Nicole Bindler. Jenny has studied improv and contact improv from Angie Hauser, Chris Aiken, Nancy Stark Smith, Nicole Bindler, David Brick, KJ Holmes, and Kirstie Simpson, among others. She is currently developing a new solo improvisation and performance practice that inspires the basis of her teaching.

Intermediate Hoop Dancing | 6-Week Class Series with Jen Web
Six sessions, $60 pre-registration ($70 at first class)

Tuesdays 7:30-8:30pm
March 8 – April 12

Take your hooping to the next level! In Jen Web’s Intermediate Hoop Dancing class series you will learn plenty of hot new moves to spice up your routine. Areas of focus include hooping on the vertical plane, off-body moves, step-throughs and jumps. Increased intensity will keep your heart rate up so you shape up and look your best. Each class will start off with a warm up and then transition into a faced paced section of new moves and combinations.

*Recommended prerequisite: Beginning Hoop Dancing 6-week series or 3 months prior hoop dancing experience.

* Hoops provided for class use and for sale on site!
* Bring lots of water!
* Please wear fitted, comfortable clothing and sneakers.

Studio 34 Presents: Sweet Sound of Music
Saturday, March 5
7:30pm
$10 suggested donation – sweet teas and hot cider on us!

Join us for a lovely evening of music showcasing two incredible female singer/songwriters -Philadelphia’s own Suzie Brown (Best of Philly Music 2010) and the lovely Emilia Dahlin, traveling all the way from Portland, Maine.

You can expect nothing less than a sweet cozy vibe and the rich warm songs and sounds. Mark your calendars, this one is not to be missed.

Suzie Brown
Might be a common name, but there’s nothing common about this rising talent. Brown is a practicing cardiologist who gave up a promising research career to pursue music. Having started writing songs just two years ago, she has already taken the circuit in New England by storm, selling out popular area music venues such as Philadelphia’s Tin Angel and Boston’s Club Passim, and opening for the likes of Livingston Taylor and Lyle Lovett. Just recently, she was named Best of Philly for music talent (Philadelphia Magazine, August 2010 edition).

“Bluesy, folky, achy, sweet-voiced Suzie Brown. A practicing cardiologist pursuing a career in singing (her own songs) and playing the guitar, she’s part Emmylou Harris, part Allison Krauss, and totally worth seeing. (Try Tin Angel.) Or even just hearing – her debut album is called ‘Side Streets’.”

While media outlets have seized on her unusual bio, audiences and promoters have focused on Brown’s engaging performances and her intimate songs. The easy familiarity of her melodies harkens back to Carole King’s folk-pop creations, while the yearning sweetness in her voice recalls the down-home intimacy of Patty Griffin.

Brown released her debut record “Side Streets” last fall to a sell-out crowd at Philadelphia’s Tin Angel, and has returned to the studio recently to record her highly-anticipated sophomore album with Barrie Maguire at the producer’s helm (credits include Amos Lee, Rickie Lee Jones, Natalie Merchant).
www.myspace.com/suziebrownsongs

Emilia Dahlin
Born on a small farm south of Boston to a musical instrument collecting father and accordion playing mother, Emilia was destined for a life of music. She started piano, formally, at the age of five and trained classically for the next thirteen years. It was Christmas day, 1996, when Emilia decided she wanted to play the guitar. She went up to the attic, pulled out a warped and worn guitar, that once belonged to her great grandfather, and started to play. She never stopped.

Now, wielding a voice that defies the size of her body and strong storytelling sensibilities, Emilia Dahlin has carved out her name as a unique songstress. She weaves mesmerizing tales (complete with Greek myths, robotic messiahs, epic floods, and tax evaders) with raw, rootsy folk and dynamic jazz vocals. Her well-crafted songs sound as if they’ve been left outside where time and weather have worn cracks for the wind to whip through. Her sky-rocketing energy is delivered with honesty. She’s a “self-made original” and the quintessential indie musician, wearing the hat of artist, manager, booking agent, and publicist at once.

Emilia still resides in Portland, Maine where she was voted “Best Female Vocalist of 2005 through 2007″ and “Best Singer/Songwriter of 2006″.
Her career highlights include;

* Playing over 400 shows nationally
* Winner – Great Waters Songwriting Contest ‘07
* Winner – Great Waters Songwriting Contest ‘07
* Winner – Starbuck’s Music Makers Regional Songwriting Competition ‘07
* Finalist – Mountain Stage Newsong Northeast Songwriting Contest ‘07
* Featured in Downeast Magazine’s “10 Musicians to Watch” ‘07
* Reviewed in Performing Songwriter’s 100th Issue ’07
* Finalist in Telluride Bluegrass Festival’s Troubadour Competition ‘06

http://www.emiliadahlin.com

Our Struggles, Ourselves: Rethinking Healing Work
Friday, March 4
7:30pm – 9:00pm

JOIN US March 4 for a discussion featuring autonomist, feminist, activist, and writer Silvia Federici.

How do healing and self-care interact with movements for social justice? What does care work have to do with capitalism? Federici will tie political questions of the body with healing and care work. For hundreds of years, capitalism has been upheld by “reproductive labor” that is primarily done by women and not compensated with a wage. Federici will challenge us to look at healing from the viewpoint of rethinking the powers of the body, the mind-body split, and undervaluing women’s labor.

Silvia Federici is Emerita Professor in Political Philosophy and International Studies at Hofstra University and a longtime feminist activist and writer. She is the author of many essays on feminist theory, women and globalization, and feminist struggles. Her published work includes Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation; A Thousand Flowers: Social Struggles Against Structural Adjustment in African Universities (co-editor); and Enduring Western Civilization: The Construction of the Concept of the West and its ‘Others’ (editor).

Saturday afternoon BIODANZA-East Coast USA
Expressive Movement Class
Saturday March 26th
2 to 5pm
$30

Biodanza has the power to transform your life and allow you to develop your full potential. It is an extraordinary journey of self exploration and human development that deepens our connection and appreciation of life. Using music and dance in a group setting, Biodanza expands our creativity, vitality and ability to enter into meaningful relationships with those around us. And, itʼs FUN!

Regular Biodanza opens the paths of discovery to…

- Enhancing your sense of joy and passion for life

- Freeing your creativity and vitality

- Increasing your sense of self esteem and confidence

- Developing meaningful relationships

- Opening honest communication

- Integrating mind, body and your unique spirit.

You have nothing to lose and a whole new life to gain as you become unleashed from anything that holds you back from your full potential! Biodanza is supported by cutting edge research in the field of psychology. This expressive dance class is for adults 18 years to 80+. No dance experience is required and no fancy clothes or shoes. There is no choreography involved, so no steps to remember.

By the end of the class, youʼll feel lighter and more free, ready for a nice Saturday evening!

Come give it a whirl!

Note: Please bring a bottle of water and wear comfy clothes and RSVP your interest to biodanzaeastcoast@gmail.com

Michelle Dubreuil Macek has trained with the founder  and creator of Biodanza, Rolando Toro, in Brazil and Milan, as well as many other fabulous Biodanza trainers worldwide. She completed her training in the South African School of Biodanza under Carolina Churba-Doyle before heading out to Zambia where she lived for 4 years and began facilitation of Biodanza with caretakers at a local hospice, at schools and with adults in evening classes. Michelle has completed the extension for Biodanza with Children and currently lives in Maryland where she facilitates in many different locales, as well as New York City where she has weekly classes at Dance Theater Workshop. She brings with her to her classes 14 years African living and a love of earth, fire, air & water! www.biodanza-usa.com or biodanzaeastcoast@gmail.com for more information

“Every human being is miraculous and extraordinary with many possibilities.” – Rolando Toro Araneda, Milan 2009, founder of Biodanza®

Music Together®
Saturdays, January 8-March 5, March 19
8:30am -9:15 am
*make-up class March 26
$198

VISIT OUR FIRST CLASS FREE: Saturday, January 8, 8:30-9:15AM
Registration now open for winter term!
Space is limited – RSVP IS REQUIRED FOR FREE TRIAL CLASSES.

Click here to register online, or reserve your spot by phone: 267-251-0429 or
email: icanplay@philasuzukipiano.com

Music Together® is an internationally recognized early childhood music program for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and the adults who love them. First offered to the public in 1987, it pioneered the concept of a research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music curriculum that strongly emphasizes and facilitates adult involvement.

Music Together classes are based on the recognition that all children are musical. All children can learn to sing in tune, keep a beat, and participate in the music of our culture, provided that their early environment supports such learning.

Music Together classes are offered by The Philadelphia Suzuki Piano Academy. For registration and other information, and to RSVP for free trial classes, please contact icanplay@philasuzukipiano.com or 267.251.0429.

Tuition includes:
• Ten weekly 45-minute classes
• A beautifully illustrated songbook with activity suggestions for parents.
• Two copies of a professionally recorded CD which includes songs, rhythm chants, “play-along” music, and tonal and rhythm patterns — a different song collection for each semester, rotated over three years.
• A Parent Guide DVD for new families called: “Music Together at Home: Helping Your Child Grow Musically.”
• An ongoing parent education program throughout the semester to help parents learn how children develop musically, and how to assess their child’s rhythm and tonal development.

Music Together art & logo design © 1992-2011 Music Together LLC. Music Together is a registered Trademark. The Philadelphia Suzuki Piano Academy, LLC is licensed by Music Together LLC. For more locations: www.musictogether.com, (800)728.2692

8static
2nd Saturdays at Studio34:

November 13
December 11
January 8
March 12
April 9
May 14

7:00pm
$8/$5 with RSVP (on website)

8static is Philly’s only all-ages monthly chip music event. Each lineup features music and video artists from around the world, with pre-show events and workshops, as well as monthly open mic for up and coming musicians! For full lineup info, check out: http://8static.com