{~ Synergy ~} Ecstatic Dance 2-year Birthday! Class: Embodied Storytelling Thursday, July 11th

After two years of hosting Synergy Ecstatic Dances - "exploring" different venues, days, times, offerings - we now get to celebrate the {vibe} our community has created in our normal time and place - 2nd Thursdays at Soft Medicine. ~Thursday, July 11th~ 6:15pm - Door opens 6:30pm - Class: Embodied Storytelling w/ Asha Kohli ** Arrive before 6:45pm to participate in class ** 7:45pm - Opening with Group Singing - w/ Eric 8pm - Ecstatic Dance Wave - w/ Zaphod ** Arrive before 9pm to participate in dance ** 9:30pm(ish) - Closing Circle with more Group Singing ~ Reciprocity ~ $20-30+, cash or venmo at door Accessibility Discount available for marginalized peoples, such as BIPOC and LGTBQIA+ folx, and those experiencing financial hardship. And, no one turned away for lack of funds. Synergy is now included within the SM Class Pass Membership (no additional charge to attend). We also need people to offer 45 minutes of help (setup, door or cleanup, in trade to attend the event. Sign up here - https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0449A5AF29A2F94-50228459-july ~ Class: Embodied Storytelling ~ Through deep listening practices, freestyle techniques, diasporic music, and creative writing exercises, students will explore how dance can be a cathartic ritual and a vehicle for rewriting new narratives of embodied liberation. In this hourlong session, participants will explore methods of storytelling that go beyond the word, into the embodied — decolonizing our cognitive ways of thinking and expanding into our intuitive ways of knowing. Asha will share unique methods she has received as transmissions from her own Council of Dancestors, plantcestors, and more-than-human guides to share as tools for personal transformation and cultivation to our bodies as a place of sanctuary. This class is a preview into a daylong experience that Asha will be offering on July 13th in Sebastopol. To read more and register, visit here. ~ facilitated by Asha Kohli~ Asha Kohli is the creator of Dancestor Codes, a movement method that utilizes Indigenous spiritual philosophies, plant wisdom, and movement practices that serve as tools for embodied joy and liberation. She is the Founder of Kohlibri Creative - a healing arts platform that weaves artistry with ancient wisdom, to guide others in their journey of self-healing through multidisciplinary artist modalities. Asha's lineages are woven with threads from Colombia's Caribbean coast and Andean mountains, along with the Himalayan region of North India. She is a movement artist, a spacekeeper, a poet, an educator, and a devoted student to many more-than-human teachers. Her movement studies began over 20 years ago, when the dancestors first beckoned her through the lineage of Polynesian Hula dance. She has since learned various street and social dance styles such as freestyle techniques, hip-hop House, Latin House, Baile funk and Salsa from different communities across the United States and Latin America. She is a trained facilitator in Contact Beyond Contact, a movement practice that weaves somatic healing + contact improvisation techniques, through Unity Space Projects. Asha is currently based on Pomo and Miwok territory in Sebastopol, where she serves as the Director of Programs for Plant Spirit Talk, a diverse growing community of plant-loving, life learners, liberation workers, Pachamama worshippers, truth seekers, dedicated healers, therapists, and artists, who practice deep listening and apprenticing with plants and Nature. ~ About the DJ, Zaphod ~ Buckminster finds home in life's soundtrack: what sounds can enhance what's right here, waiting to emerge? From mixed CDs in high school, to radio shows in college, to finding E-dance in Santa Cruz 7 years ago, he delights in diversity and loves to experiment. You've been warned! Together with the dancers, he spontaneously curates an ecstatic wave unique to that moment's dancefloor. The boundaries of genre give way to a multi-faceted soundscape of African and South American rhythm, world electronica, grimy glitchy bass, and heart-ful melodies aplenty! May we allow the music, familiar and fresh, to dissolve the monkey mind and give the body its own voice. ~ Theme: 2nd Birthday Celebration! ~ Let's just celebrate. Ecstatic Dance guidelines: -no conversation on the dance floor (yes everywhere else) -no shoes on the dance floor (yes barefoot and socks) -no photography (yes presence) -no intoxication (yes dance medicine) -yes consent when dancing with others (listen for a "yes", respect a "no") Indoor dancing only. Masks optional.