Sara K. Schneider will be teaching a weekend workshop,
Rehearsals of
Death,
at the Esalen
Institute,
May 8-10, 2009.
The 2009 catalog will
be up on www.esalen.org
shortly.
In the meantime, please click here for the
official Esalen "Rehearsals of Death" flyer.
Description:
In the West, we are supposed to be saddened by others’ deaths and
unable to contemplate our own at all in advance. However, many
spiritual traditions urge their adherents to “die before dying,” to
mentally “practice” for death as a way of entering more fully into love
and life. Many such spiritual practices have a surprisingly playful or
whimsical quality; others may be sobering in the moment but produce a
sense of release and freedom from fear.
This two-day workshop draws from Buddhist, Christian, and yogic
traditions, among others, in order to help participants experience
alternative tonalities for death and dying as they enter into a direct,
and physical, relationship with their own impermanence. Brief lectures
on historical and spiritual traditions lead into meditations, dances,
dialogues, and postures that re-enact the encounter with death.
Personal journaling and elective sharing within the group support
participants’ deepening insights and recollecting a sense of their
grounded spiritual selves.
Although no previous movement experience is expected, participants will
get to re-create a medieval Dance of Death as well as to improvise
dialogue and write in this workshop. Exercises balance individual,
paired, and small group work, as participants are supported in moving
into their own bodily realities in a gentle, protected, and ultimately
joyous manner. Participants emerge with a deepened compassion for
themselves and for the embodied selves of others.
Please click here for the
flyer for Sara K. Schneider's five-day workshop for Esalen,
"The Song of the Body."
Please contact Sara at
sks@thinkingdr.com for more information
or to schedule workshops at your retreat or conference center.
All
materials © Sara K. Schneider 2008