Wisdom Dances is so much more than a dance class

Wisdom Dances is a contemporary dance-based wisdom school with ancient roots.

With immense gratitude, my approach is based on Laura Shannon‘s original research on the common symbolic language within women’s ritual dances, music, costume/textiles, and myth. She has come to “see these dances as a kind of women’s mystery school,” and “living inheritance of indigenous European wisdom with direct and active roots in early egalitarian matriarchal cultures of Neolithic Europe.”  (See Women’s Ritual Dances and the Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality“ Part One)

I have dedicated over ten years to making accessible the wisdom encoded in women’s ritual dances. Each class becomes a sacred ground for engaging the body, mind and spirit.

Connect With Weekly Class

Make community, joy, and meaning a regular part of your week so you can move through your life with more power and ease. Drop in! No experience necessary.

Next Seasonal Celebration

Often outdoors and featuring live music, seasonal celebrations bring joy and meaning through the continuous cycles of growth, death, and rebirth.

The Foundation of Our Practice

At our core, we practice women’s ritual dances from the Balkans, Greece, and Asia Minor. This ancient dance lineage mixes with our present time and Minnesota context, becoming a contemporary wisdom school. Students learn:

  • The dance steps and dance style. As renowned dance teacher Steve Kotansky once said, “Dances are 10% steps and 90% style.”
  • The geography and political history associated the dances.
  • The meaning of dance songs and introductory singing.
  • How to “read” the costumes and textiles associated in the dances
  • How the symbols connect with myths
  • Traditions for celebrating the turning of the seasons and rites of passage

Seasonal Celebrations

Learning to align ourselves with the rhythm of the seasons helps us move through life’s challenges with greater ease. By connecting with ancestors through the dances we tap into a well of support that can help carry us through life.

Click on each image to learn more about each event. Our annual cycle includes

Mid-January water blessing
Baba Marta Day Celebration at the beginning of March
Spring Equinox Celebration
Earth Day Celebration
Mid-Summer Celebration
All Souls’ Day Celebration of the Dark Mysteries
Winter Rest
Winter Solstice Celebration

A circle of dancers on a winter night dancing with fairy lights on their hats.

Wisdom that Comes from Deep Study of the Dances

  • Come into relationship with their own body, ancestors, future generations, community, the natural world, and the Sacred.
  • Activate, cultivate, and express life energy through the body.
  • Energetically mediate between the physical and spiritual realms through posture, dance, and leadership.
  • Share leadership and power.
  • Align with the rhythm of life, death, and rebirth.
  • Find their place in myths and sacred stories that speak to humanity’s highest purpose.
  • Attune to inner knowing and guidance.
  • Become comfortable with difference and paradox.
  • Awaken non-dual consciousness.
  • Move through loss and change with grace.
  • Live with generosity, mutuality, and hospitality.
  • Powerfully transmit love and care for others and planet.

Wisdom Dances!

Wisdom Dances is a proclamation, “Wisdom dances!” Wisdom emerges through dancing with it. Theologian Nathan Mitchell wrote, “Wisdom is not something haves impart to have-nots. It arises from mutuality, from dialogue and exchange, from listening with the ear of the heart.”

Let your life be a dance with Wisdom. It is a dance of joy, healing, and transformation.

Curious to Learn More?

Free eBook: This Joy Heals

This gorgeous eBook offers you a deeper dive into how women’s ritual dances build resilience, connect us with European indigenous roots, empower us to radiate harmony into the world, and connect us with an ancient Wisdom tradition. Learn more about my guiding teacher and the multidimenional power of dance.

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