Spring / Summer 2024
In-person classes, day workshops & retreats
During this season we are looking at creative ways to encourage connection within and with each other in an ever changing environment, one that can offer us a sense of community, support and well-being at this time. Our current offerings are;
‘The Living Womb’ - a weekend residential retreat in Wicklow April 26th - 28th
‘Solstice - Shadow and Shine’- day movement retreat - Dublin June 8th
‘Sense & Sensuality’ weekend residential retreat in Wicklow August 16th - 18th
There is another retreat coming up in October 2024 more info below
The Living Womb
A residential retreat weekend
of restoration, rejuvenation and connection to our creative source
Slí na Bandé, Co. Wicklow, Ireland
April 26th - 28th 2024
Friday 6pm to Sunday 2pm
*limited places available
This weekend retreat invites us to gather in circle, to move and to be still, to connect with the womb centre and be resourced by the creative potency and the healing energies it offers. Moving towards the festival of Bealtine (mouth of fire) and celebration of what is coming into bloom in nature, we will listen for what is becoming visible within us and how to support its emergence and blossoming in our lives.
We innately know womb consciousness. All of us enter the world through the gateway of the human body, carried and birthed by the creative intelligence and life giving force of the womb. We have been held and shaped by its generative power as the vessels of our bodies took form and were uniquely coded for the journey of our lifetime.
Drawing upon the resources and anchors of Open Floor movement practice, womb-centric breath work and restorative sessions, we will cultivate attitudes of compassion and curiosity as we journey within and with each other.
Through simple practices that are designed to deepen womb centre presence and strengthen connection to our pelvic root to receive support from the stabilising and grounding force it provides. Through ritual and gentle shamanic movement journeys we will enliven the vital and sexual energy that ignites our passion to create and brings our truth, medicine and gifts into form.
Embodied dance as meditation meets the intelligence of the life force moving through us and offers it into motion; this opens doorways to our essential self and helps us to awaken and align with what matters most to us. With our feet planted in the earth, good capacity for pelvic presence and an aligned mind we can make a choice for wholehearted, embodied living where we can express the full force of our creativity and be here now...in all our beauty.
As numbers for the retreat are limited and they are usually fully booked it is recommended to book your place early.
Price includes accommodation, all meals and optional hot tub/sauna.
€445 / €425 (booked by April 5th)
Bookings can be made through our contact page or by email to info@themovingbody.ie
Due to the rapid escalation in living costs Sli na Bande have had to raise their prices again this year. We have done our utmost to keep all the retreat prices as reasonable as possible. There are single accommodation options available and they are offered on a first come basis with a small supplemental fee.
Solstice - shadow & shine
Saturday 8th June 2024
11am - 5pm
Irishtown Gospel Hall, DUblin 4
On the approach to Summer Solstice, during the days of midsummer when the sun moves towards its highest point in the sky, this day of movement, enquiry and embodied dance is designed to ground, expand and resource us as we travel through the realms of body, heart, mind and spirit.
Our soul encompasses both light and darkness, and when the light of the sun is high and strong at this time of year, our shadows are at their longest. We can see more clearly into our true nature and recognise the places where we are bound. We can shed old ways of behaviour and be supported to radiate and shine our essence into this world.
In the dance we meet the intelligence of the life force moving through us, we practice yielding to what arises and giving it form and expression. This opens doorways to our authentic selves and encourages us to access places we may have yet to own and embody.
Drawing on the resources of Open Floor movement practice and the healing power of dance as meditation, we turn towards our light and our darkness, moving with what is illuminated and with what is emerging, gently integrating what we can with curiosity and compassion.
This day retreat is open to all and no previous experience is required.
€110 / €95 (booked by May 21st)
To register for your place please email to: info@themovingbody.ie or connect through our contact page.
There are two bursary places available, please get in touch to avail of them
Sense & Sensuality
A residential retreat weekend
Slí na Bandé, Co. Wicklow, Ireland
August 16th - 18th 2024
Friday 6pm to Sunday 2pm
A weekend retreat to nourish and rejuvenate the sensual body through moving meditation, dance, rest and stillness in the sanctuary of Slí na Bandé in the Wicklow hills.
It is through our senses that we engage with life. Our ability to sense and feel through the vessel of our human bodies offers us doorways into presence and connection to our environment, not only for physical survival and decision making, but also for the experience of pleasure, delight and joy.
Over the weekend we will move indoors and outdoors in nature exploring our senses and meeting what arises within and around us as we enter into motion. We will invite our movement and enquiry to be tools for discovery and allow the transformative power of dance as meditation to unblock places where we may have become stuck while encouraging free flow of our authentic expression and creative life force.
Supported by the anchors of Open Floor movement practice, somatic explorations, delicious food and time in nature we can enhance our capacity for the goodness and pleasure of life along with our ability to meet the challenges with grounded, sensate awareness and embodied presence.
This retreat is open to all genders and no previous experience is required.
As numbers for the retreat are limited and they are usually fully booked it is recommended to book your place early.
Price includes accommodation, all meals and optional hot tub/sauna.
€445 / €425 (booked by July 22nd 2024)
Bookings can be made through our contact page or by email to info@themovingbody.ie
2024 residential retreat dates
The retreats taking place on the dates below will be held in the beautiful surrounds of Slí na Bandé (way of the Goddess) in Co. Wicklow in Ireland. Our residential retreats tend to be fully booked, so if you are called to any of them please get in touch through our contact page to register interest or make an early booking.
April 26th-28th - The Living Womb
August 16th-18th - Sense & Sensuality
October 25th-27th - In Darkness Dreaming
Past Events in 2024
Seed - online series
Open Floor Movement online series
Thursdays 7pm - 8.15pm
January 11th to February 1st
Beginning in the dark Yin winter season and carrying us through to the first fire light of Imbolc, this series of 4 online classes is open to all.
This time of year is one of dreaming and seeding the next stage of our growth and evolution, both personally and collectively, and we will take the time each week to connect to what is gestating within us. The practices are designed to offer breath, simple movement and resting space to what is preparing to birth through us. This is not the time to have to know exactly what that is, but to simply be and move with what arises in the moment, to encourage fluidity and call the medicine of the dance and our dreaming bodies to resource us.
Supported by the map of Open Floor movement practice and teachings from the chakra system we will take time sense how we are and what we are being invited to offer into the crucible of our breath and movement. During the classes you will be invited to release stress and cultivate fluidity at your own pace through free form movement, breath work and stillness.
Moving solo and within our online community we will explore what is stirring below the surface as 2024 begins and nourish the seeds of our dreaming through the practices.
Booking by email to info@themovingbody.ie or through our contact page
€80
There are two bursary places available for this series, please get in touch if you would like to avail of it.
The Serpent Bridge Series
An Open Floor movement series
* This is an open series, you are welcome to attend one, two or all three of the day retreats, in any order *
**There are limited places available for our final session on March 23rd. Please email through our contact page to book**
Dates:
Saturday November 25th - Samhain - Roots
Saturday January 27th - Imbolc - Heart as centre
Saturday March 23rd - Equinox - Crown
Time:
11am - 5pm
Venue:
Irishtown Gospel Hall & Chapel of Ease
57 Ringsend Road, Dublin 4
Beginning in the darkness of Samhain time and carrying us through to the emerging light of Spring Equinox, this movement series is designed to resource and enliven us on all levels.
During our March day workshop we will be exploring embodiment of Soul and calling on the energies of Spring Equinox to bring balance to the upper energy centres of throat, third eye and crown, which govern the realms of trust, hope and faith.
In many cultures across the planet the serpent is one of the oldest symbols of creation and feminine power. It represents kundalini energy, the primal creative life force that lives and moves through all human beings irrespective of gender.
This serpentine energy flows from the core of our being and its’ movement can liberate us from unhelpful conditioning and limiting patters, while encouraging us to access joy and align with what has truth and meaning for us.
With gentle focus on the spine, chakras and energetic meridians to strengthen and nourish our beings, we will move to awaken and connect with this exciting and restorative energy, offering what arises within us into the container of the dance and calling upon it to encourage the free flow of our natural creative expression.
Supported by movement anchors, the intelligence of the chakra system and our innate capacity for curiosity and connection we will journey from the roots of our humanity to the expanse of our spiritual nature, inviting presence, heart, intelligence and spirit into the moment and including what emerges with as much compassion and attention as possible. The practices encourage us to ask questions, knock on doorways, follow the mystery of our moving bodies and risk breathing deeply to embody our original self and wholehearted expression in this world.
This series is open to all and no previous experience of conscious dance or moving meditation is necessary.
€110 per workshop if taking one of the series
€100 per workshop if taking two of the series
€90 per workshop if taking the entire series
To register for your place please email to: info@themovingbody.ie or connect through our contact page.
There are two bursary places available, please get in touch to avail of them.
These workshops can be taken individually or as a full series, you are welcome to attend one, two or all of them and in any order. While the theme moves through all three of the series, we will be exploring different aspects in alignment with the cycle of the seasons during each workshop.
If you are unable to make the first weekend, it is possible to attend the second and/or third.