The Sacred Dance Guild is excited to bring you once again our online Festival where we will weave together an experience of connection around the globe! This year we are celebrating the Sacred Dance Guild Professional Facilitators Program!
JOIN US on September 13-14, 2025 for “Weaving the World of Sacred Dance”
Our celebration will take you on a journey of discovery with SIX individuals who are approved SDG Professional Facilitators (Leah Mann, Betsey Beckman, Judith Rose, Melissa Michaels, Celeste Snowber, Sylvia Bryant )! If you haven’t yet experienced these Sacred Dance Guild Treasures, this is a unique opportunity to dance in to what will be an amazing sacred dance buffet!
The “Weaving the World of Sacred Dance Workshop” will be an online workshop through Zoom.
If you cannot attend any or all of the online sessions, all registered participants will receive access to the recordings the day after the event. In addition to the workshops there will be times for Gathering and Sharing with each other at the pre and postworkshop time.
The Sacred Dance Guild Annual General Meeting will take place on Sunday September 14th.
The Sacred Dance Guild is a mission based, non-profit, charitable trust dedicated to celebrating and advocating for dance as an expression of the sacred – in all of the ways it is experienced around the globe!
We invite SDG members to enjoy this weekend for ONLY $67.00 and for those who are not members $97. (If you’re not currently a member but would like to join the village you can do so HERE!.) Also – if finances are a challenge for you at this time on your journey- there may be financial assistance available – contact Betsy ONeill at betsea2000@gmail.com.
CHECK out all of the details and register on our website HERE. (Members should
log in first to receive member rate)
SACRED DANCE GUILD MINI FESTIVAL – 2025! Details Below
Registration will be for ALL sessions and ALL will be open to ALL who register to come and go to any or all sessions as you are able and feel called! This is YOUR Festival Experience. Come to a few sessions, come to all – you decide if and when you open the ZOOM Door! Recordings will be available as soon as possible after each session has concluded and all recordings will be available to all participants following the event.
Event Schedule
Saturday, September 13th
Opening Ceremony: 9:30 – 10 am EDT
10:00 am – Sanctuary: At Home In The Body- Leah Mann
This workshop will explore embodied resiliency and “thriving factors”. It is part of a multi-year multidisciplinary mind, body, spirit, art, science project exploring themes of sanctuary, safe space, belonging, peace, and healthy boundaries in the person, in the home, in the community, in the country, in the environment, and on the planet.
Participants will explore contemplative movement inspired by Kemetic Hieroglyphs; Hindu Mudra and Nyasa; Shinto Peace Rituals, and Christian Psalms. We will bring Okagasamade ( Japanese honoring of the ancestors “I am because of you”) as we explore inner sanctuary practices through time for this very moment.
About the Facilitator: Leah Okamoto Mann (she, they) is a multidisciplinary Asian American artist, educator and activist. Leah is co founder and artistic director emeritus of Moving in the Spirit; founder and former co-director of Lelavision Physical Music; and currently founder and director of Kintsugi Somatic Art which integrates trauma informed embodied practices of movement, music, storytelling, visual art, and improvisational play toward healing through workshops, performances, events, and artful communal experiences
11:30 am – Pilgrimage of Prayer Dances! – Betsey Beckman
For nearly 20 years, I have had the honor of creating beautiful Prayer Dances Videos for Abbey of the Arts, many of them filmed in sacred wilderness outdoors. Each of the dances is created as a “Dance Along” with simple choreography to explore a variety of embodied moods, meditations, mystical encounters, and mysteries. In this mini-workshop, I will choose some of my favorites through the years and share the choreography for us to dance along in the mystery together. Hope you can join us for this dancing pilgrimage! (Please bring a feather to dance with if you are able.)
About the Facilitator: Betsey Beckman, MM is nationally acclaimed as a spirited dancer, storyteller, teacher of SpiritPlay, and dancing Spiritual Director. With her extensive repertory of sacred storydances, she is regularly featured as artist/presenter at national conventions as well as local churches. She earned her Masters in Ministry from Seattle University, her certificate in Movement Therapy from the Institute for Transformational Movement, and is a certified InterPlay leader. As dancer, choreographer, author, mother, wife, teacher, and spiritual director, she is passionate about living life fully and fostering creativity in all those with whom she shares life and ministry. Betsey’s publications include books (she is co-author of Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Expressive Arts to Spiritual Direction) and recordings – including producing the Abbey of the Arts CD collections and six series of DVDs on embodied prayer. Under the umbrella of The Dancing Word, Betsey offers the gift of playful improvisation whenever possible.
2:30 pm – Golden Girls Global – Melissa Michaels
During this session, Melissa will share about Golden Girls Global, an initiative she birthed that brings together girls dancing as they come of age around the world. Melissa will share a short slide presentation about the dance based work she developed, along with giving participants an experiential view into the work. Melissa will close with moving and insights about the work with young people in these times.
About the Facilitator: Melissa Michaels, Ed.D.
Soul midwife, educator, and artist, Melissa is the Founder/Director of Golden Bridge and Golden Girls Global— two not-for-profit initiatives dedicated to improving and empowering the lives of diverse people through body-centered initiatory experiences, mentoring, and community action.
For 38 years, Melissa has been creating movement-based, cross-cultural educational opportunities, liberating the potential that is available during major life transitions. Her work somatically supports people as they navigate through the narrow passageways of these challenging times. This body of work grew from Melissa’s decades of guiding diverse young people from self to soul to service through dance-based rites of passage experiences.
Activists, artists, healers, and educators serving on every continent on the planet, Melissa’s mentees, SomaSource leaders, are creating innovative ways to work within some of the most marginalized communities around the world.
Together, they are devoted to our collective sustainability through the liberation of the creative spirit.
Her body of work includes the book, Youth on Fire: Birthing a Generation of Embodied Global Leaders; online moving journeys, including Thresholds; as well as her video narratives of resilient people and communities mobilizing around the world. Melissa’s award-winning film, Twisted Gift shares her dancing journey through late-stage ovarian cancer into health.
4:00 pm – Creating in Dangerous Times: Dancing and writing from our lived experience – Celeste Snowber
This workshop explores the body as a place of listening and a portal to the inner life. The invitation is to break open what it means to honour the terrain of the body and cultivate creativity from the inside out. The focus will be on embracing the paradox and joy within our bodies. Through dance and improvisation, we will open pathways to your voice and ways to write from the body. I will build prompts for moving and writing from my recent book, Creating in Dangerous Times, which stirs us to reclaim our human birthright of creativity. Let a visceral creativity become a place of healing, courage, vulnerability, and a playful place for alchemy with ourselves and the divine.
About the Facilitator: Celeste Nazeli Snowber, PhD, is a dancer, poet/writer, and award-winning educator who is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University outside Vancouver, Canada. She has written extensively, and her books include Embodied Inquiry: Writing, living, and being through the body, three collections of poetry, and Dance, poetics, and place: Site-specific performance as a portal to knowing. Her most recent book (2025) is Creating in dangerous times. She has performed and spoken internationally at concert venues, galleries, conferences, and in various outdoor spaces, and is a frequent collaborator with other artists. Celeste can be found at www.celestesnowber.com or, more ideally, dancing between land and sea.
Sunday, September 14th
AGM: 12:30-1:30 EDT
All members and nonmembers are invited to come to the Annual General Meeting. Details are here. Here is the agenda for this year’s meeting and the minutes from last year’s Annual Meeting. Zoom link is here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87317823407?pwd=psmIL3F6x2RpAwN6Wx0skWauzZTvbO.1
Meeting ID: 873 1782 3407
Passcode: SDGAGM
2:00 pm – Embodying the Esoteric Archetypes – Judith Rose
The eminent Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung developed the idea of Archetypes as modes of psychic behavior that have always been part of the collective human experience. Shakti peers into the mirror of creation. Krishna lures us with his magic “ute. Shiva launches his lightning bolt into the sky. Vishnu brings us into balance, while Buddha blooms in a state of pure enlightenment. We can become an Avatar, a Sacred Warrior, or a Queen. We can be a Moon in the Night Sky or a Shooting Star above. This unique session will open us to the joy and beauty of embodying these eternal archetypal enactments and uncovering their sacred relevance to the timeless human story, and to the timely story of our own lives. www.judithroseVM.com
About the Facilitator: Judith Rose, founder of Vital Movement™, is an experienced educator, choreographer, poet, and movement artist. She has extensive training in a variety of movement arts and therapeutic modalities from around the globe. Insights drawn from her rich background in Jungian Studies, Literature, and World Mysticism are seamlessly integrated into her offerings. Judith is a certified practitioner of Otiyot Hayyot, a Kabbalistic mindfulness practice developed by Dr. Yehudit Goldfarb. She studied and trained with David Leventhal, the director of the Mark Morris Dance for Parkinson’s Disease program, which has inspired her to create a unique eldercare program. Judith is known for her distinct choreographic vision that is at the heart of her original workshops and movement journeys, which have travelled to studios in many universities, cultural institutions, and dance centers. She often serves as presenter for her beloved Sacred Dance Guild and also collaborates with other artists to create interdisciplinary works of distinction. Judith’s work is a passionate devotion that is deeply grounded in the belief that the arts provide a medium for personal and communal healing, joy, and transformation.
3:30 pm – “Dancing the Spirituals…an Amazing Grace” – Sylvia Bryant
Join us for an immersive workshop that weaves storytelling, spiritual songs, and liturgical dance into a transformative journey from Tuskegee, Alabama, to the Sacred Dance Guild—and out into the world. As a dance community, we will explore how the spirituals remind us of our roots, connect us to one another, and carry us forward with the power of Amazing Grace.
This interactive experience invites you to move, reflect, and embody the living legacy of the soul-stirring spirituals—songs that breathe life, history, healing, and hope. Through sacred dance, we honor the resilience of our ancestors while embracing the grace that sustains us today.
“Dancing the spirituals…can’t be lost. How will I ever know where to go if I don’t know where I’ve been?”
— Rev. Dr. Verolga Nix, Historian and Musician of African American Music
About the Facilitator: Sylvia B. Bryant is an accomplished dancer, teacher, and choreographer specializing in sacred and contemporary dance. A graduate of Tuskegee University and George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, she trained at the American Dance Festival with pioneers such as Martha Graham, José Limón, and Charles Weidman. She studied with the Alvin Ailey American Theater and Margaret Fisk Taylor-Doane, a trailblazer in sacred dance.
For more than five decades, she has been choreographing, teaching, and performing liturgical dance, including over 30 years in churches pastored by her husband, the late Rev. Fletcher Juan Bryant. Sylvia also directed dance programs at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has performed in professional exhibitions in New York, Baltimore, and London, with career highlights including performances at Wesley’s Chapel in London and the Paa ya Paa Arts Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
She is the author of Dancing Through the Christian Calendar and Dancing the Spirituals, works that established her as a preeminent liturgical dance choreographer. Founder and director of the Call to Worship Liturgical Dance Ensemble and a longtime member of the Sacred Dance Guild, Bryant continues to teach, choreograph, and share her passion for dance across the U.S. and internationally.
A retired administrator from the Montclair Public Schools in Montclair, New Jersey, she resides in Bethesda, Maryland, and continues to choreograph, teach, and perform. As the founder and director of the Call to Worship Liturgical Dance Ensemble, Mrs. Bryant travels and performs throughout the world. She is also a member of the Sacred Dance Guild, where she taught as a clinician at their annual festival.
Closing: 4:30 -5:00 pm EDT
Register
Registration Fees
The full package includes all festival online events.
- Full package – SDG Members & Affiliates: $67.00 USD
- Full package – Non-members: $97.00 USD
Scholarships
The Sacred Dance Guild is committed to offering programs and opportunities to all. In these unprecedented times we know many are struggling so we will also be providing a limited number of partial and full scholarships for those who must dance with us but are financially challenged. For information on scholarships contact Betsy at betsea2000@gmail.com
Cancellation Policy
A $20 cancellation fee will be charged for refunds up to September 7th. No refunds after Sep. 7th however you can transfer your registration to someone else by advising the registrar at pres@sacreddanceguild.org
Waiver
A Festival Waiver is included on the Registration Page. Please read the information provided and select your response. This will be considered your electronic signature.
It is important to note that our online process DOES provide participants the option to turn OFF their video and to change the name displayed. All sessions will be recorded for SDG archives, publicity, and promotion.
Sponsors/Donations
Sharing what we have is how we can all dance together in peace and unity around the world. The Sacred Dance Guild is committed to opening our doors to all who want to dance from their sacred hearts! Your gift provides those who would not otherwise be able to join us an opportunity to dance on into the village. Deep bows to you for sharing your gifts.
This option is available on the Registration form. If you are unable to join us at the Festival but wish to be a sponsor – click HERE to make your donation and we’ll do the rest!
Technical Notes- For Online Zoomers!
The 2025 Festival will be using ZOOM as our platform for all classes and activities. Details will be sent to all participants before the Festival!
Participant’s Guide to Improving Your Zoom Experience
Everyone wants a high-quality video and audio connection to the Zoom session where you can see and hear everyone and they can see and hear you. However, we all experience temporary (or ongoing) connection issues or bandwidth problems that can affect our ability to participate in a Zoom event.
Here are some suggestions that can help to provide the best experience!
- Disconnect other devices on your local network that may be using up bandwidth. Even “uploads” can cause “download” problems. In particular, streaming services (like Netflix) or online gaming via platforms like XBox Live can have a dramatic impact on Zoom quality, so if you’re sharing an internet connection with others, maybe ask them to “pause” while you’re participating in your event!
- Use “Speaker View” instead of “Gallery View”. This is a general suggestion as having only one video stream on screen at a time reduces the bandwidth needed. Most of the Festival sessions will use “Spotlight” so the presenter will be in the center of the screen so that will override the view you have selected. In some classes we will want you to use Gallery View so you can see others in the “group”! Don’t worry though – every session will have “tech” people there with you so should be able to provide advice at the moment!
- Turn off your video. Turning off your video during the workshop dips in Internet bandwidth and can help improve your audio. Sometimes; however, the presenter likes to see those in the session so might ask people to turn their videos ON. In sessions with a large number of participants turning the video “off” can improve the sound for everyone!
- Quit other applications on your computer that may be using significant processing power. Having lots of open browser tabs can also cause problems.
- Use a wired connection to your home router if possible. WiFi signal quality can vary inside your house. Don’t worry if you don’t have this option – it’s just a “nice to have” for those who know what this even means!!
- Check your internet speed with speedtest.net. Speeds of 600kbps (0.6mbps) are required for Zoom (both download and upload). Speeds of 1.2mbps are required for high quality video. If your speeds are below these values, consider using a smartphone (#4, above) or, if possible, connect to another network. Your internet provider may have options for increasing your bandwidth as well.
- Use headphones if you have them and are comfortable doing so. Your audio issue may not be related to bandwidth at all. Headphones reduce echo and feedback issues. Those with microphones can reduce background noise.
Contacts
For general inquiries:
1-877-422-8678 (toll-free in North America)
+1-410-647-5002 (outside of North America, answered by Next Wave Group)
Click the names below to email:
Registrar: Deb Donaldson
Scholarship Coordinator: Betsy O’Neill
Program Coordinators Deb Donaldson and Jennifer Payne
Participant Contact Deb Donaldson
Tech Contact: Jessica Abejar