SLŌMA
slow
soma
retreat
~•~
SLŌMA retreat at Village Bay on Quadra Island
a time to slow the soma
disconnect • dance • reconnect
to tune the circuitries of our body•minds
no wifi
no cell service
just
forest
lake
studio
sauna
We will be simultaneously exploring Reconnecting with the networks nesting beneath both the forest floor and the surface of our bodies;
mycelial and fascial alike.
We will gather
to Reconnect
to Ourselves
through each Other.
duet partners may include:
moss, mushroom, fern, fir,
gravity, your breath,
the awareness of your attention
~•~
To be wild requires subtlety.
This invitation is to enter a practice of presence through movement, attention, and listening. Presence is not something we can create or force; it precedes any action we might take. What we can do is clear space, cultivate openness, and allow it to manifest.
In this work, the body becomes our entry point. We begin by noticing gravity — how it grounds us, how it moves through us — and by letting sounds and sensations arrive without demand. From here, we turn toward the subtle calls that arise within, the quiet impulses that shape movement before thought.
Rather than holding on to intention or falling into randomness, we invite a middle ground: not controlling, yet not abandoning. In this balance, movement becomes responsive, alive, guided by what is already present.
As the senses open more widely, space itself becomes part of the exploration. We expand awareness around the body, moving with intuition, and discover how attention works like a lens — witnessing, amplifying, and shaping the unfolding of action.
Through this shared practice we explore the body in relation to gravity, the sensorial realm, and the meeting between what could be called the space of a body — from the skin inward — and the body of space — all that surrounds us. In this encounter, improvisation emerges naturally, and time takes on another quality: one that is not measured but lived.
Contact Improvisation provides the ground for this research, offering both clarity and openness. It is a way of entering movement with others in curiosity, trust, and attentiveness.
This is an invitation to share the present moment together — to move, to sense, to allow the subtle wildness of the body to find its place in space, unfolding towards beauty.
More about Alessandro and his teachings
👉🏼
https://www.instagram.com/ale.rivellino?igsh=MzZnOWlwMjZhNWpv
~•~
Last weekend in November
Friday 28 - Sunday 30
The weekend will unfold as follows,
with space for improvisation:
FRIDAY 28th
Midday arriving
Afternoon class
Evening jam
Sauna
SATURDAY 29th
Morning class
Afternoon Forest Score
Evening Jam
Sauna
SUNDAY 30th
Morning class
Farewell Jam
Afternoon departure
~•~
All CI classes taught by Alessandro Rivellino
Bodywork & Authentic Movement woven throughout
Daily forest walks and scores
Sauna in the evenings
~•~
Oats breakfast provided
Bring your own food for lunch / dinners
or ingredients for communal soups
~•~
Lakehouse accommodation provided;
includes single bedroom, full kitchen, bathrooms with showers, and access to sauna and common spaces.
The house with your room is right next to the movement studio, so no need for a car to transition between sleeping, meals, and dancing
For more about the accommodation (sleeping and dancing) see website below:
http://www.villagebaylakehouse.com
precious.
$300 for all classes, accommodation and saunas
🙏🏼
Payment plans available to make these offerings accessible
🪄🤸🏼💫
email Alana Bliss for more info:
YWxhbmFqYWRlYmxpc3MgfCBnbWFpbCAhIGNvbQ==
🫶🏼
Potential ride-shares from
👉🏼Bellingham, Vancouver, Nanaimo, Salt Spring
more about CI teacher of the retreat:
ALESSANDRO RIVELLINO (Brasil)
I have been living dance and contact improvisation in a surrendered way as a dancer for 20 years and as a teacher for 15 and I had the opportunity to travel to at least 30 countries, offering and having classes, intensive courses, workshops, residencies and Jams with different and experienced colleagues, which probably gave me a good “floor” to start with ‘not knowing with certain quality’…
I have studied a little bit of: BMC, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Antigimnastics, Craneosacral Osteopathy, Modern Dance, Contemporary Dance, Anthropologie, Philosophie, Choreography, Performance Studies, Sitespecific, Butoh, Authentic Movement, Zen Buddhism, Ancient Technologies of the Sacred;
and a lot of Contact Improvisation.
I am passioned by the Contact Improvisation practice and I am engaged in organising retreats for it to receive its depth, with different containers, either in silence or within a somatic approach, bodywork research or getting inspiration on nature, the biggest pleasure is to offer space and time to the practice in itself.
I come from different dance schools at the somatic level and movement research, I have the luck of having a masters degree and different awards and nominations as a dancer and choreographer.
Today I see that I have danced and taught for big part of my whole life and yet I feel that I have just started.
In my practice I have been integrating various techniques and bringing the potential of dance to life.
If I ask myself between my name and my body, the second one is the dearest, and if you ask about my deepest interest in dancing and teaching the answer would be around living questions related to dance itself, to the presence and to the Big Mystery.
I hope through this illusion of you and I being separated, we can drop it, and go beyond our hanging names to explore the in-between field of existence to dance and be danced with and through the visible and invisible forces entangled at each single moment and find the way to be at the arch of beauty.
Also check out other Workshops in Heriot Bay, Meetups in Heriot Bay, Dance events in Heriot Bay.
