Julie Martin
The dates and location for 2021 are to be confirmed. Please visit Julie Martin’s聽Brahmani Yoga website for the latest updates and to register your interest.
I have been a passionate practitioner of conscious dance forms (Soul Motion, 5 rhythms, Ecstatic Dance, Movement Medicine) for many years. I have had such deep insights and transformational moments in the expressive and therapeutic forms of dance that I鈥檝e often wondered if this is where the original Tantric Yoga practices began.
So it was a natural process to begin incorporating my interpretation of these forms, Sacred Dance, into yoga teacher trainings, workshops and retreats over the last 10 years. I鈥檝e come to understand the powerful effect of this work on the yoga community as we don鈥檛 really have an expressive outlet in the more traditional practices.
About Sacred Dance
Sacred Dance is about taking movement that one step further into the stories the body holds, often trapped in the silence our words cannot express. It is based in non-verbal communication, dance and movement therapy, movement meditation and has a deeply healing effect on almost all practitioners who experience it.
However, this is a form that you cannot just hand to your yoga, pilates or other movement students and expect them to immediately immerse themselves in participation. This dance needs us to be vulnerable. It can only transform us when we drop our armour, lift the veil of who we think we should be and allow ourselves to be true to our inner most voice.
After many years of being asked I have finally come to terms that this movement therapy form must be shared with many more than I can reach. I have discovered the formulas that work best as an addition to retreats and workshops. A way of introducing and cultivating a deep connection with our yoga students who can be a timid audience. Also with students who really want to drop the fa莽ade but are full of fear or anxiety. I will take you through the process of building trust, with you as the facilitator, creating it in the group and guiding people to trust themselves. We will then explore the many layers of how we hold space and how we guide people in their dance, in their self expression.
What to expect
This is a full 8 day training and in the process of learning this practice you will go on the deepest journey yourself so that you will be open and ready to go out and share this with your students and community.
This training has 60 contact hours
What you will learn
Taking you through the process:
- Establishing Trust – As a teacher, in the group and providing for the individual
- The Conversion – How to take students who are completely new, or unsuspecting and bring them into the process with guidance and clarity. Encouraging students with resistance or who experience anxiety.
- Holding Space – The importance of bearing witness and bringing your energy into the dynamic of the group.
- Movement Motifs and Exercises – To unlock the inner dance we need a tool box that reaches beyond what most minds think of when they consider dance. Get them into their bodies from a different perspective.
- Telling the Stories the Body Holds – The intimate release of letting our stories come to the surface is a powerful therapeutic tool that needs delicate and supportive guidance in a frame work that encourages free expression.
- Creating Embodied Dialogue – Engaging students in the creation of their own movement mantras and linking that to what we are teaching in workshops and trainings.
- Working with Partners and Group Connection – The science behind touch, connection and community in movement and expression.
- Creative Writing – How to bring spontaneous journalling into the process and the effects it has on the sessions.
- Making Playlists – The importance of the music used and how different rhythms and styles of music effect each session.
- Closing Circles and Ceremony – How to lead closing reflection circles and bring ceremony into the process. Guiding a sense of closure to sessions so that students feel re-grounded, safe and stable before they leave.