QUARTERLY CONVERSATIONS - "Is THIS Sacred Dance?" Panel # 4
Date: April 30, 2022-
Location: On Line - Worldwide - 4:00 PM EDT - DO check Local time!!
As all of us have been exploring and expanding our connections during this personal, collective and worldwide experience we wanted to extend the conversation and reflection on the question “Is THIS Sacred Dance?” as far and wide as possible – both from a physical perspective but also from a philosophical perspective. What does “fit” under this umbrella we call Sacred Dance? We have realized that some people have an understanding when they hear that term it means something specifically “religious”, others think of a particular type of dance such as Sacred Circle Dancing, and everything in between! We decided to throw open our screen doors and invite panelists from a wide range of backgrounds, experience and understandings to have a conversation and invite others to sit around the table with us. To see information and access recordings of the first 3 panels held February 21, 2021, June 19, 2021 and November 20th, 2021 click HERE.
We now continue the journey focusing our lens as we leap into the realm of the sacred/secret and the profound/profane connections! JOIN moderator Hiie Saumaa from her home in Paris, France. with others from both the Sacred Dance Guild and the International Dance Council, along with our FIVE FASCINATING panelists for this 4th session in the year long series of QUARTERLY CONVERSATIONS.
This session is “Live from our Living Rooms” and we invite you to join us around the table as we continue to expand and reflect on the question “Is THIS Sacred Dance?” The session will be recorded and available for access following the panel. This 90 minutes online panel is in collaboration with the International Dance Council (which the SDG is a member of) as part of their Program # 15 Dance and Spirituality (Spirituality – International Dance Council (cid-world.org) AND happens the day after International Dance Day on April 29th – an appropriate time to have our 4th and final panel conversation!
To register send email to pres@sacreddanceguild.org with “Panel Conversation” in the subject line. This session is limited to 100 participants so do register early!
MEET OUR FIVE FASCINATING PANELISTS FOR THE APRIL 30TH SESSION!
Chicava Honeychild is the proprietress of Sacred Chrysalis, the space where Taoist energetic meditations and sacred sexuality meet burlesque, transformational healing and sistering community. She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College, her areas of interest being performance art, women of color in burlesque heritage, and sacred sexuality and spirituality. She has presented work at Yale School of Art, The New Museum, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, and The Kitchen. Chicava is a Universal Healing Tao teacher, writer, burlesque dancer, and creative producer. Being born and raised in Boulder, CO provided fertile ground for her curiosity and passion for world religions, spirituality, metaphysics and all things woo-woo. She has been a member of The Agape International Spiritual community since 2003. As a Movement of Agape dancer, during her time in Los Angeles, she worked under the direction of Rickkie Byars. In her most personal studies she explores the profound intersections between Khemtic (Ancient Egyptian) and Taoist cosmology. For twelve years she served as the Creative Producer of New York City’s Brown Girls Burlesque creating traditional, political and theatrical burlesque from Black women’s perspective. Within BGB she founded The Broad Squad Institute, a burlesque performance workshop for women of color. Her artistic projects include Becoming Bettie Page, which she is developing Dick Zigun, founder of The Mermaid Parade and Coney Island USA, the eponymous musical which tells the story of the iconic pinup performer. Black Bombshells is her documentary on Black women in burlesque heritage. Chicava’s acting credits include work with Spike Lee and Robert Altman. She stars in the indie feature Title VII.
Shahrzad Khorsandi was born and raised in Iran, and has been passionately involved in dance since childhood. She studied Dance and Performance Art at the California Institute of the Arts, and she holds a BA in Dance, and an MA in Creative Arts from San Francisco State University. Drawing upon her intrinsic knowledge of Iranian culture, and her formal dance training, Shahrzad, a pioneer in Iranian dance, has created a formalized dance vocabulary and pedagogy for this dance form, helping in the artistic development and dissemination of an art form that continues to face social and political obstacles. She has documented this format in a book, The Art of Persian Dance, published in February of 2015. Though her specialty is Iranian (Persian) dance, Shahrzad’s dance training includes Modern, Jazz, Ballet, West African, Afro-Haitian, in addition to dabbling in various other world dances. Shahrzad currently works as a dancer, choreographer and teaching artist in the Bay Area. She has been faculty at Solano College, St. Mary’s College, Diablo Valley College and Contra Costa College, and is the founder and artistic director of Shahrzad Dance Academy and Shahrzad Dance Company (SDC). The company performs at a variety of venues including concerts, festivals, and educational lecture-demonstrations at schools and libraries. Shahrzad is a member of an international research team from Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt Germany, studying the effects of dance on the brain, and recently launched an online school, Iranian Dance Academy, where together with a colleague, she trains dancers in this beautiful art form. With conceptual themes and complex movement patterns, Shahrzad captures and combines the unleashed expression of contemporary dance with the refined, poetically potent aesthetics of an ancient culture, creating her own unique style of dance which she identifies as Contemporary Persian Dance.
Website: www.shahrzadance.com.
Odelia Shargian has trained across multiple Somatics platforms including Bartenieff Fundamentals, Laban Movement Analysis, Body-Mind Centering (BMC), Yoga, and more. She has a BA in Psychology from The Open University and was certified as a Doula by DONA (Doulas of North America) in 2003. She subsequently was certified as a Structural Yoga instructor through the Stone Center in 2004. In 2005, Odelia graduated from the Leven Institute with dual certifications in Shake Your Soul and SomaSoul and was certified as a Somatic Movement Therapist through ISMETA. She later became a teach in Re-evaluation Counseling (RC), and has been counseling and teaching co-counseling private and in groups since that time. She started her Somatic and Movement Education Company, Movement Gliss, in 2013, offering classes and workshops, both live and virtual, to hundreds of women. Recently, Odelia embarked on training in Intuitive Eating, and will soon be an IE practitioner. Her work focuses on self-acceptance, inclusion, compassion, and joy, and is HAES-aligned.
Website: https://embodiedacceptance.com/
Faelan Shiva is an internationally known dancer, with specialized focus in American Fusion Belly Dance. Before the pandemic her career was focused on traveling to train, teach and perform. She spent 13 years dedicated to mastery of the art form culminating in developing her own format, which she coined West Coast Fusion Belly Dance. As well as being a solo artist, she directed her own dance company, Satinka Bellydance, was a member of Zoe Jakes’ Coven Dance Company, House of Tarot and performances with Beats Antique and has been a guest performer with Stellamara, Helm, The Silk Road Caravan, and more. Faelan is certified as a practitioner of Rachel Brice’s 8 Elements of Belly Dance and as a Datura Style Instructor, an instructor of Amy Sigil’s Hot Pot ITS, as a Fitour Myofascial Release Instructor, and as a Group Fitness Instructor with the American Council on Exercise. She co-created and was the structural consultant for Zoe Jakes’ DanceCraft program, and received her Yoga and Meditation Instructor credentials while living in a Buddhist Ashram for many years. Like so many of us, the pandemic caused her to reevaluate her vision and she has chosen to focus on her work as an Astrologer, Tarot Reader and Spiritual Counselor. She is a Druid member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and is a certified Evolutionary Astrologer in the Steven Forrest Method. She now chooses to teach small semi-private belly dance classes and is focusing on merging her spiritual calling and dance background into Sacred Dance, a way to fully and artistically embody our divine connection.
Websites: www.TrilliumGrove.org; www.patreon.com/FaelanShiva; www.FaelanShiva.com
Marianne Wobcke is an Indigenous Midwife and Registered Nurse, born on Turrbal land with maternal connections to Girramay mob in North Queensland. Marianne graduated with first Class Honours in 2009 from the Queensland College of Art’s (QCA) where she explored her passion for the healing potentials of art. She was awarded life membership to QCA Golden Key. Marianne created holistic practices called “Perinatal Dreaming” and “Understanding Country”, using art and culture to support ATSI mums and their babies. She worked as part of Australia’s first urban based, Australian Nurse Family Partnership Program – providing an educational and relationship-based program, visiting first time Indigenous mums during pregnancy, through until the child’s 2nd birthday. Her process for working with women, their babies and families uses art as a tool for empowerment and creative expression. With over 40 years of diverse experience, working with birthing and dying clients; Marianne is passionate about inspiring and supporting clients in exploring and expressing their unique creativity. She speaks at national and international conferences and writes about her work in science and industry journals, endorsing the role arts in community plays in holistic wellbeing. As this year’s recipient of the 2021 Australia Council “Ros Bower Award for Community Arts and Cultural Development” for her pioneering work using art to create culturally safe birth practices for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, her inspiration to many has been recognised. Demonstrating her ongoing commitment to her profession, culture and art, Marianne is currently a PhD Candidate at Griffith University, School of Health Science and Social Work and QCA, continuing her research into the connection between art, holistic health and wellbeing.
Website: http://www.perinataldreaming.com.au/