THE SHAKE WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

What is a Group Shake?

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Our Group Shake is a durational collective somatic event. We shake, to music {most of the time}, together for a duration with the emphasis on shaking and rocking the body in various ways. It can look like dancing but we don't have to be concerned with appearance, skill or rhythm. Group and individual ecstatic and meditative states can be achieved [but may not be]. Shaking is a simple and individual task-based practice without explicit goals but also beneficial for circulation, nervous system and systemic health. Shaking takes many formats in cultures around the globe, across lifeforms, and to the subatomic level. Shaking is one of the body's natural impulses to relieve tension.

 

Our particular lineage: Anya and Rose learned this specific format from Jared, who learned it from Leslie Castellano, who learned it from Tove Sahlin. 

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How did the Shake Workshop come to be?

 

Anya and Jared have been hosting Group Shakes for a few years. Rose got into it and they loved to shake so much that one day Rose said: “Hey! Let’s do this for multiple days in a row!” and we decided, hell ya let’s do it!
So we created this container to explore consistency, duration, big and small cycles.

 

A few questions we have:

 

What happens when we shake just once? What about everyday? Twice a day? With the same group of people? 

How will the group merge-stay individual? 

Will I be tired? Will I be too tired? Will I be so energized? Is this the key to my life? 

Is it endorphins, is it creativity, is it emotion, is it sadness?  What happens when I dance alone after I shake? What if I dance with you and you have also shaken with me? 

What if we lay still for an hour after we shake? 

Will we feel the reverberations the whole time?

Is that how we always feel or are we just now attentive and attuned? Is shaking an act of developing interoceptive awareness and attunement? Why do I feel like I am still shaking when I stop? Am I always shaking? Will I have words to write? Will I want to draw? What is disrupted? Settled?

 

We imagine we’ll all sleep really well.

 

Who is this for?

 

This is for anyone who loves to shake! Or anyone who is curious around how this would feel, what this would disturb and what this would settle. This is for people who want to develop more awareness of their bodies. This is for anyone who has a creative practice and needs disruption, a reallocation of their cells. This is for you! And for us - we really want to do this.

 

How much will we be shaking and what else will we be doing?

 

Each day will be structured around 2 one-hour long shakes, with a final two-hour Big Shake on Sunday. There will be structured time for movement, writing and drawing to process what arises in our bodies and explore impulses. There will be open time for group offerings and individual practices.

 

We will utilize music and sound in the shakes. Lily Gelfand will play live cello. We will sauna. There will be a Contact Improvisation Jam on Saturday. We will eat good food. We will write, we will draw, we will dance, we will roll in the snow. We will walk in the woods.

What will the daily flow look like?