The Embodied Artist: Women's Addition (online retreat)
Three-day embodiment and creativity retreat

July 24-26 Women's Edition

Sliding Scale
$75-250
*Pay-what-you-want for BIPOC folks

Join us for this 3-day retreat exploring how we, as women, can cultivate freedom and joy in our bodies, step into our full power, and make art inspired by the wisdom of the feminine.

In patriarchy, our bodies are made hyper visible, objectified, commented on, and mistreated– not only by men, but even by other women. This type of hyper attention on what the body looks like often causes us to dissociate from what it feels like to have a body, what it feels like to enjoy having a body. Women, this embodiment retreat is designed to invite you home to your body, for your own healing, pleasure and empowerment, through movement, singing, and somatic meditation.

Another aspect of the patriarchy is a dismissive attitude toward the wisdom of the feminine. We live in a culture that over-values intellectualism, speed, linear thinking, socialization, and high energy levels. Often, we are taught to deny intuition, cycle-based wisdom, ease, nurturing, and emotions. In this retreat, we will explore what it means to draw on the wisdom of the feminine in our creative process. We believe making art from this place is an essential of helping to shift our culture towards balance.

This retreat is led by three white people. We look forward to partnering with BIPOC leadership for our future programs.

Your retreat will be led by Artmonk Neva Cockrell, Suiko McCall, and Raphael Sacks.

All sessions can be done from your home and will be streamed live on Zoom.

More Information
The freedom and creative potential we wish to bring into the world is to be found within our embodied experience. This retreat offers a container with both guidance and space for you to explore your own path into embodiment and creative practice in this time of cultural change.

This 3-day retreat is a blend of:

Catalyst Training (a 2-hour guided embodiment practice)
Guided somatic and creative exercises to explore our relationship to love and justice
Creative time offline
Artshares with feedback
Meditation
Singing

Each morning starts with Catalyst Training, a dynamic 2-hour embodiment workshop combining free movement, strength training, stretching, and breathwork. Neva, the creator and instructor of Catalyst, personalizes the class to work for each participant (see quotes below), so both beginning movers and professional dancers are most welcome. Returning to meet ourselves in the space of our own bodies is a potent skill for understanding where our biases live, how we are culturally conditioned to think about bodies, and how we can shift our beliefs through embodiment.

Afternoons begin with a guided creative / somatic exploration to explore our relationship to race and how our art can be part of a vision for cultural change. Perhaps especially if you do not consider your artmaking to be political in some way, this may be a juicy moment to explore how your work could relate to culture-shift. From there we will head offline. This is your undistracted time to dive into whatever project you’re working on. After a morning of embodiment practice, we are primed to do this work from our true center.

In the evenings we gather back on Zoom with an opportunity to share any work that you’ve made and receive feedback. We’ll close the day with a meditation and a song session.

We believe the combination of embodiment and artmaking is incredibly potent and necessary in this cultural moment in order to move towards justice.

Schedule
Friday / Saturday

10am-12pm EDT — Catalyst (on Zoom)

12-12:45pm — Check-in (on Zoom)

2:30-3pm — Creative Starter (on Zoom)

3-6pm EDT — Creative Work (OFFLINE)

6:30-8:30pm EDT — Artshare, Meditation & Singing (on Zoom)

Sunday

10am-12pm EDT — Catalyst (on Zoom)

12-12:45pm — Check-in (on Zoom)

2-4:30pm EDT — Creative Work (OFFLINE)

4:30-7pm EDT — Artshare, Closing Ceremony, Meditation & Singing (on Zoom)

Who is this for?
This retreat is designed for artists who are looking for a supportive environment to create, and also want time in the day for meditation and embodiment practice.

Dancers & physical performers will enjoy a full morning of physical training, arriving to the afternoon ready to create.

Artists working in less physical mediums, will arrive to the afternoon relaxed and refreshed in body and mind.

Artistic feedback and contemplative support is available in one-on-one meetings with the Core Team, and from other participants during evening Art Shares.

Testimonials for Catalyst Training
“My experience of Catalyst Training with Neva was a full mind, body, spirit nourishing and full contact experience. Neva’s shared wild vibrant energy is truly contagious.”
—Maria Pilar Pina, Alexandria, Virginia

“I’ve raved about my Catalyst Trainings since I experienced them at Art Monastery. Catalyst Training is like the dream blend, to me, of the best movement forms ever: intuitive dance, strength training patterns, muscle isolation challenges, and yoga. The way Neva creates the flow of movements shows a deep intelligence of the physical and emotional body. I experienced in myself and observed that Catalyst is incredibly accessible for a wide range of abilities and mobilities. All the while shaped by Neva’s substantial understanding of human anatomy and expertise in all these forms; she offered alternatives and adjustments to people throughout the session.”
—Becky Miller , Burlington, Vermont