The classes are an hour and a half of dance, yoga and relaxation. I begin by setting a sacred space for us all to work in. It transforms the room into a physical and energetic place for us to meet with open hearts.
The following is a guide to the class structure, the sessions can be tailored to a particular theme so there is freedom to expand and develop within. Each class will follow different themes as we move through the ever changing weeks of the year. The music we dance to changes with every class, sometimes we take our class slowly, deep diving into soft nourishment and sometimes we embrace our wise and wild woman and move ecstaically to the rythm of her hearts and souls.
Oracle Card Pull - We begin seated in a circle and gather together to share the theme and pull a card. I find this opens up the space for discussion before we begin moving into our dance. It is a wonderful way of connecting a like-,minded community together in sacred space.
Intention setting - we set our intention for the class and what we want to dance for. We use breath work to come into the present moment and connect with our mind, body and spirit. This helps us to deepen the pleasure of the physical activity that has a multitude of physiological, mental and emotional benefits.
Circling -We then relax into our body and gain more fluidity within our movement. We circle each part of our body to music and through the guided cues we gently open ourselves to the practice.
Heart opening - We invite the body to emotionally open up to the music through movement. This part of the class clears stagnant energy by literally dancing to its own beat. We listen to the music through our hearts, see through the eyes of our heart and experience the sensations of the body through the heart.
Hip Opening -When we let our hips lead and work with a series of guided moves our bodies release unwanted tension and help our bodies to flow with ease.
Dancing our Yoga as prayer -Within our practice we use a yoga style sequence to stretch and open up our body even further. We focus on the moves as a feminine manifestation of our higher consciousness. We use the postures of yoga and build them into a fluid movement and dance our meditation and intention.
Shadow Contrast -Our bodies are the home to our soul and shining a light onto our unconscious thought patterns and behaviours, enables us to embrace what is hidden in the darkness. In this part of our practice we honour our hidden feelings and create the space to explore and express these through dance. By taking our interal shadow/darkness as our dance partner we can release repressed emotions through exercise.
Shaking -This part of the lesson enables us to process anything that came through with the shadow dance. We use shaking to release and ground our energy. We shake our entire body, we shake with intention and we shake what no longer serves us with release and grace. Ridding ourselves of unwanted trauma and giving it back to the earth.
Free Dance -The next part of our class is where we get creative with authentic expression. We reclaim our body as home and move in anyway that feels good, we have opened our bodies, they are strong and flexible, we have softened them with circling, sensual movement and shown reverance to our femininty. Now we dance with every atom of our being.
Final Stretching & Meditation - In this part of the class we move into winding our bodies down into a relaxed mode through stretching, strengthening and meditation. We find the 'intelligent edge' in our bodies where we rest in comfort and ease . We do this by melting into a stretch, breathing into it and receiving it rather than forcing or resisting it.
I love to include a Meditation at the end of my classes - We close our classes with a 20 minuite guided meditation set to a sacred soundscape. Each meditation draws upon the ancient techniques Joa has learnt over many years, mixed with mantra and story led visualisations. They all aim to bring the physical body into total relaxation and calm the mind, setting you free to find your true essence.
