vivid grove 
Current Offerings:

Tuning Garden and Spring Qigong Online ~ Spring 2023

A Tuning Garden

Saturday, April 22, 10am-1pm ~ East Bay Outdoors
Wednesday, May 10, 5:30-8pm ~ Online (PST)
Sunday, May 14, 2-5pm ~ East Bay Outdoors

$80 for series, register by April 19 / $100 After /
$40 for single classes

"We each have a different tune."  Suprapto Suryodarmo, 2019

In this workshop, we will explore dancing as listening and the multi-sensorial experience that can emerge through attuning to breath, place, one's own story, contours, layers of receptivity, atmosphere, pleasure, the elements, and each other. The workshop will draw from the radical sensory-perceptual compositional practice, “Tuning” scores, initiated by Lisa Nelson and the vast movement cosmology, Amerta Movement, created by Suprapto Suryodarmo (Java, Indonesia). Layers by layers, we will invite communication of our own body-being in context, tuning a culture, together.

The Tuning Garden is a space and place to delve into moving from a garden sense, - together from our own positions, with the environment. It's a place to synthesize tuning as a vibrational tool, a compositional approach, a reciprocal and cultural research, a subtle and sensing movement, and a life art practice.

This group is open to people from all artistic media, all abilities, all walks.  The online session will include small breaks for health and zoom capacity.

On Tuning Scores
Amerta Movement
Tuning Culture

PPPPayment

Payment

Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. Please note which class series when registering, and send me your email. For online payment, please pay any administrative fees.

As ever, Racial Justice Fellowship is available. Contact me if the rates are prohibitive; there are work trade options, and sliding scales for those genuinely in need.

* The class will need a minimum of students to run, so please register minimum three days in advance! *



mara and Bae tuning at Live Oak Park, 2022

Spring Qigong Online ~ Session Two

April 11 - May 16
Tuesday Afternoons, 5-6:15pm PST

$120 for series, register by April 5 / $25 single classes
Zoom with video link for later viewing, shared upon registration

Wild Goose Qigong is a Taoist healing movement arts practice that supports health and energetic flow through the body in relation to our surroundings, the elements, and our life source. Wild Goose is a breathtakingly beautiful set of forms that helps people experience the inheritance of their self-healing through the dynamics of active movement, receptivity, and quiet. This access, — both calming and energizing — takes place through the practice of harmonizing movement, breath, attention.

 In this six-week series, our practice will concentrate on Wild Goose sets, and additionally we will practice foundational qigong movement warm-ups, including healing sounds and meditations. The forms emerged over a thousand years ago, inspired by the movements of geese, and were popularized in China after centuries of hermetic and family lineage through the late qigong brilliant Yang Mei-jun. Our weekly classes will incorporate interests from the group, and sections from the several Wild Goose sets — each one offers different qualities of the movement of our qi.

Movements can be modified for all body types and people, qigong for everyone. Please do let me know if you have any access concerns and we will accommodate as best practice.

Payment

Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. Please pay any administrative fees and note which class series when registering, and send me your email!

*****




Early Spring Season 2023 ~ Qigong

1)

Early Spring Qigong Online ~ Session One
Feb 21 - April 4 (No class March 21
Tuesday Afternoons, 5-6:15pm PST



$108 for series, register by February 17 / $120 After / $25 single classes

Zoom with video link for later viewing, shared upon registration

Wild Goose Qigong is a Taoist healing movement arts practice that supports health and energetic flow through the body in relation to our surroundings, the elements, and our life source. Wild Goose is a breathtakingly beautiful set of forms that helps people experience the inheritance of their self-healing through the dynamics of active movement, receptivity, and quiet. This access, — both calming and energizing — takes place through the practice of harmonizing movement, breath, attention.  In this six-week series, our practice will concentrate on Wild Goose sets, and additionally we will practice foundational qigong movement warm-ups, including healing sounds and meditations. The forms emerged over a thousand years ago, inspired by the movements of geese, and were popularized in China after centuries of hermetic and family lineage through the late qigong brilliant Yang Mei-jun. Our weekly classes will incorporate interests from the group, and sections from the several Wild Goose sets — each one offers different qualities of the movement of our qi.

Movements can be modified for all body types and people, qigong for everyone. Please do let me know if you have any access concerns and we can accommodate.

There will be a second session following, so we can continue throughout the spring, as well as classes outdoors in the East Bay, Ohlone land.

Payment

Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. Please pay any administrative fees and note which class series when registering.

2) LIVE OUTSIDE

Saturday Qigong Workshop Outdoors
February 25, 11am - 1pm
Ohlone Park, Berkeley
$30 / Register by February 22




& 3)

Spring Qigong Series Outdoors
March 23 - April 20 (No class April 6)
Thursday Afternoons, 5-6:15pm, Ohlone Park, Berkeley
$72 for series, register by March 17 / $85 After / $25 single classes

Wild Goose Qigong is a breathtakingly beautiful Taoist alchemical movement practice that harmonizes movement, energetic flow, and helps people experience the inheritance of their self-healing. The forms emerged over a thousand years ago, inspired by the geese. In this weekend workshop and four-week series, we will concentrate on Wild Goose movement sets, qigong movement warm-ups and meditations. Both the Saturday workshop and weekly classes will incorporate inquiries from the group, and various sections from the many Wild Goose sets — each one offers different qualities and principles of the movement of our qi.

We will meet outside, supporting nourishment as well as practice with the elements in the spring. The class will offer simple qigong series that will be repeated, with discussion of how qi moves, — to cultivate qi, and to develop an ongoing practice for those who participate. We will focus on the connectedness of movement, awareness, and breath as it pertains to the Wood Elemental Force, for Spring. Wood: support your capacity to envision and make ideas in your life.

Movements can be modified for all body types and people, qigong for everyone. Please do let me know if you have any access concerns and we can accommodate.

Payment

Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. Please pay any administrative fees and note which class series when registering.

Please contact me if the rates are prohibitive. There are always work trade options, and sliding scales for those genuinely in need.

F

*


Winter Season 2022 ~ Qigong, Embodied Mentorship, & Cave Art/Incubations

DECEMBER:

Cave Art / Incubation Sessions

Saturday Dec 3, 2-5pm, Finnish Hall, Berkeley, $40
Sunday, Dec 4, 1-3 pm, Kokoro Studio, Oakland, only two spots, $40 (Covid health)**

Small groups for health and  s p a c e

This is an opportunity to work in a small group and practice the nourishing experience of Caving and the aesthetic explorations of Cave Forms. Caving / Cave Art is a retreat space to nourish your yin and incubate your desires in preparation for the darkest weeks of the year, through movement, writing, transdisciplinary arts, subtle inquiries, and stillness. We will spend the afternoon in the studio-as-cave, and take time for quiet and exploration under cave-cloth. We will access a creative practice, our cave art, to set in motion our incubations, and to find the seeds for creative ideas to be sewn later, and to let them go. The day will offer a chance for collective support of the elemental force of water, and will make a bridge from the unknown as a rich resource into creative process.

Please let me know if cost is prohibitive or if you would prefer some kind of trade ~ I am very open to this!

More info on Caving
More info on Cave Forms

Registration:
**Please check in with me about Sunday before you register, as there are only two spots available.**

Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks, Zelle, and cash also welcome.  Please account for any extra fees with service.
Please note your purchase through email or within the cash app and remember to send me your email address.

Winter Qigong Afternoon Retreat: Fluid Roots, Instinct, and Deep Nourishment

Winter Qigong Afternoon Retreat: Fluid Roots, Instinct, and Deep Nourishment

Saturday Afternoon, Dec 10, 1 - 4pm
Ellen Webb Studio, Emeryville, $40

Time change ! 1-4pm.

Winter Qigong retreat will provide a space for deep winter nourishment — of the body-being and the mind.  We will practice movement and meditations, and take time to converse and learn about Chinese energetic principles germane for the season, particularly focusing on the elemental force Water, – our inheritance, instinct, and the unknown. In our time together, we will access some basic, potent principles that underlie our cultivation of qi — our vital breath. With special attention to the sets of Bone Marrow Cleansing and Wild Goose Kidney Nourishing Qigong. This will be an opportunity to deepen your qigong practice / praxis in a movement sanctuary as we head into the center of winter.

Registration:
Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks, Zelle, and cash also welcome.  Please account for any extra fees with service.

Please note your purchase through email or within the cash app and remember to send me your email address.

Please let me know if cost is prohibitive or if partial trade would make it more possible.

**PAST OFFERINGS** Fall Newsletter 2022 Fall Qigong Online

Tuesday Afternoons, 5 - 6:15 pm PST
Oct 25 - Dec 13
$100 Register by Oct 20 / $140 After
$25 single classes with video link

Zoom Link shared with registration
Video Available Weekly After Class for your Practice

Wild Goose Qigong is a breathtakingly beautiful Taoist alchemical movement practice that harmonizes movement, energetic flow, and helps people experience the inheritance of their self-healing. The forms emerged over a thousand years ago, inspired by the movements of geese. In this six-week series, we will concentrate on Wild Goose movement sets, qigong movement warm-ups and meditations. Our weekly classes will incorporate inquiries from the group, and various sections from the mosaic of Wild Goose sets — each one offers different qualities and principles of the movement of our qi. Qigong classes are offered as series to promote focused intention and ongoing practice. You are welcome to come to Zoom class live - please do if you are able! —  and if you sign up for the series, you will receive a weekly video link to practice with on your own timing. Individual classes also available. ** As part of your registration, please send me your email address so I can send you the video link ** For Drop-Ins, once you have joined the class for a single drop-in, you are welcome to come other times by sending your weekly payment. Payment Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks, Zelle, and cash also welcome.  Please account for any extra fees with service. Please note your purchase through email or within the cash app and remember to send me your email address.

Outdoor Fall Qigong Workshop

Saturday, November 5, 11- 1pm
Local Berkeley Park, $20 - 25 suggested
Register through payment by Nov 1

This two-hour session will focus on practices to harmonize for the fall, based on Wild Goose Qigong and the Five Dynamics. Deepen your qigong experience through a full practice in the sanctuary of earth and sky. We will practice Wild Goose qigong exercises and sections from sets. The focus of our time together will be to learn some basic and potent principles that underlie the forms and to cultivate qi — our vital breath. Payment Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks, Zelle, and cash also welcome.  Please account for any extra fees with service. Please note your purchase through email or within the cash app and remember to send me your email address.

Embodied Mentorship, Somatic Coaching, and  Creative Life Practice Support ~ Available by Appointment

Tailor-made, private, and small group sessions in embodied mentorships, somatic coaching, the Feldenkrais Method, Qigong, Five Dynamics, and bespoke creative movement and life practice. Offerings are based on the vital need to access our capacities for intimacy with our body-being in place, in this time, for utilizing embodied ecologies, aesthetic research and critical consciousness as a compass for creation and intention. This personal attention can help you access significant changes in your life, help to develop your own foundational practices, provide a facilitated space for you to follow your unique embodied inquiries, and can help you access your creative power, clarity, and grace. We can draw from the whole toolbox, and are guided by your interest and what emerges through our collective development. These sessions are available both online as well as in a small beautiful studio downtown Oakland ~ Covid safe, indeed. More on Movement Sessions

Coming Up: Cave Art / Incubation Sessions

Saturday and Sunday Afternoons, Dec 3 + 4
Finnish Hall, Berkeley, + Kokoro Studio, Oakland

This is an opportunity to work in a small group and practice the nourishing experience of Caving and the aesthetic explorations of Cave Forms. Caving / Cave Art is a retreat space to nourish your yin and incubate your desires in preparation for the darkest weeks of the year, through movement, writing, transdisciplinary arts, subtle inquiries, and stillness. We will spend the afternoon in the studio-as-cave, and take time for quiet and exploration under cave-cloth. We will access a creative practice, our cave art, to set in motion our incubations, and to find the seeds for creative ideas to be sewn later, and to let them go. The day will offer a chance for collective support of the elemental force of water, and will make a bridge from the unknown as a rich resource into creative process.

Coming Up: Winter Qigong Afternoon Retreat: Fluid Roots, Instinct, and Deep Nourishment

Saturday Afternoon, Dec 10, 1 - 4pm
Ellen Webb Studio, Emeryville

Winter Qigong retreat will provide a space for deep winter nourishment — of the body-being and the mind.  We will practice movement and meditations, and take time to converse and learn about Chinese energetic principles germane for the season, particularly focusing on the elemental force Water, – our inheritance, instinct, and the unknown. In our time together, we will access some basic, potent principles that underlie our cultivation of qi — our vital breath. This will be an opportunity to deepen your qigong practice / praxis in a movement sanctuary as we head into the center of winter.

I am so overjoyed to continue at the fantastic Kokoro Clinic and Studio in downtown Oakland (@kokoroclinic). It's a beautiful space for sessions and small classes, with a Covid-safe protocol. There is a mosaic of majority POC practitioners, please check the clinic out! Would you like for me to witness your creative process, support your embodiment, your land ethic, movement practice, intention and action, to support your ideas and visions? Get in touch if you would like to work together. My shingle is up and I am at ur service.

Vivid Grove Racial Justice Fellowship

The vivid grove program offers full-season Racial Justice Fellowships with preferences to QT/BIPOC. Fellowship participants take several workshops throughout the season, are invited to develop a program of participation based on the offerings of over the course of a year, and create an agreement based on their intentions. Fellowships are also available for individual programs and workshops. The Fellowship exists so that the vivid grove can mutually cultivate in equity and consciousness. For deepening in solidarity, to offer teachings to those who might not otherwise have the capacity to attend, and to participate in steps towards collective liberation. What has developed over time through the Fellowship is an ever-evolving community, sharing time and spirited ideas. with loving curiosity More info on the Fellowship

vg Equity, Inclusion and Racial Justice Statement

IMAGES: Vivid Grove Logo by Mara Poliak. Photos: Qigong by asha esco, and workshop with Mollie Moorhead photo by mg; Photo of Batu Brak, Sumatra with mara and Frances,  a youth art group and Alex Gebe, photographer unknown; Cave Art photo by Nikolaos Komodore, Tuning at BAM as part of Relay, curated by David Wilson's bonanza, in collaboration with Asia Wong (2014); Racial Justice Fellowship, photo by Mary Peterson.

Fall Newsletter


*******
PREVIOUS OFFERS



SPRING 2022

Live Qigong Spring Series Outdoors

Wednesday Afternoons
5 - 6:15pm PST - Dover Park, Oakland
Series 1: March 9 - 30 * STARTS SO SOON!
Series 2: April 27 - May 18
$75 each, $145 for both by March 7 // $85 per series after / $25 drop-in

Wild Goose Qigong is a breathtakingly beautiful Taoist alchemical movement practice that harmonizes movement, energetic flow, and helps people experience the inheritance of their self-healing. The forms emerged over a thousand years ago, inspired by the movements of geese. In this two-part (each four-week) series, we will concentrate on Wild Goose movement sets, qigong movement warm-ups and meditations. Our weekly classes will incorporate inquiries from the group, and various sections from the mosaic of Wild Goose sets — each one offers different qualities and principles of the movement of our qi. We will meet outside, supporting nourishment as well as practice with the elements in the spring. The class will offer simple qigong movements that will be repeated, with discussion of how qi moves, — to cultivate qi, and to develop an ongoing practice for those who participate. We will focus on the connectedness of movement, awareness, and breath as it pertains to the Wood Elemental Force, for Spring. Wood: support your capacity to envision and make ideas in your life. Movements can be modified for all body types and people, qigong for everyone. Please do let me know if you have any access concerns and we can accommodate.

Payment

Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. Please the class series in the note when registering, and make sure I have your email! Online Qigong Spring Series Outdoors Tuesdays 5 - 6:15pm PST…. Starts up again April 20 through May ! Info dropping Soon…...  PST…. Starts up again April 20 through May ! Info dropping Soon…...

*

TUNING COLLECTIVE
Composition, Communication, Context

A Tuning Workshop and Mentorship Group
6 Sessions This Spring, Outdoors East Bay, 2-5pm
Saturdays: March 19, 26, April 16, 30, May 14, 21
$125 for the series / $40 each / Register by March 16
(full series highly encouraged, even if you miss a few!)

This movement series outdoors east bay is an opportunity to develop a tuning scores practice together over a period of months. It’s a series to dive deeply into the scores, if you have spent time with them loads or are newly curious, to get intimate with their underlying operations and ways of working. The focus will be on the various “c’s” stated: conversation in a dance with composition, communication in context, as concept, and collective choreographic constructions. As a group, we will develop an evolving language based on the scores’ practices, calls, and somatic actions, commensurate with the conditions of the moment. I am interested in us utilizing tuning as a set of practices that support collective and respective inquiries, as a way to develop one’s creational desires, as drawn from the subtle and sensing experience. Tuning will be used as a forum for rigorous, kaleidoscopic, and attuned aesthetic collective action and play, in conversation with nature~culture. Tuning Scores are a unique way to investigate movement, composition, human behavior, and communication altogether. Tuning Scores are a sensory perceptual dance composition practice that illuminate the basic elements of how one can make live art. The scores are wildly fun and applicable in many contexts, showing how what one sees is inextricably linked to how one sees.By tuning into our creative habits, our physical inclinations, and the space itself, we develop our image-making as an extension of our own perceptions. We communicate our desires, our imagination, and our memory, in shared image space. And with this material we compose live art together. Over the past several years, along with teaching Tuning workshops around the US and internationally over decades, Margit has been developing a context in the Bay Area for the practice of Tuning. In 2018, Lisa Nelson and Margit launched a Tuning Culture Project, organized with Emelia Martinez Brumbaugh (aka Jubilee July), to highlight the ways that Tuning can offer creative understandings and support how culture is made - through artistic practice, and through applying tuning in various cultural contexts. This series is one facet of this project, and also includes the developments of Tuning4Armageddon, a radical tuning project in conversation with QTBiPOC artists in the Bay Area, led by James Amutabi Haines, Margit, Jubilee, and Zoe Huey. This group is open to people from all artistic media, all abilities, all walks. As ever, Racial Justice Fellowship is available. My intention is to continue as participants would like to delve further. On Tuning Scores Tuning Culture We will be physically distanced, please come wearing a mask. Payment Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. Please make a note what payment is for!

Embodied Mentorship, Somatic Coaching, and  Creative Life Practice Support ~ Available by Appointment

Tailor-made, private, and small group sessions in embodied mentorships, somatic coaching, the Feldenkrais Method, Qigong, and bespoke creative movement and life practice. Offerings are based on the vital need to access our capacities for intimacy with our body-being in place, in this time, for utilizing embodied ecologies, aesthetic research and critical consciousness as a compass for creation and intention. This personal attention can help you access significant changes in your life, help to develop your own foundational practices, provide a facilitated space for you to follow your unique embodied inquiries, and can help you access your creative power, clarity, and grace. We can draw from the whole toolbox, and are guided by your interest and what emerges through our collective development.

These sessions are available both online as well as in a small beautiful studio downtown Oakland ~ Covid safe, indeed.

More on Movement Sessions





I I am so overjoyed to be joining the fantastic Kokoro Clinic and Studio in downtown Oakland, where I have started to be in residence (@kokoroclinic). It's a beautiful space for sessions and small classes, with a Covid-safe protocol. As I have begun my time there, it has invigorated me to make offerings and to re-evaluate what is possible for collectivity and commune now. Through the intensities and devastations of pandemics, shelter-in-place, and the revelations of racial upheavals, after a first year of hermetic zoom-academic and deep focus in Practice-as-Research at UC Davis, after an uprising of consciousness about indigenous lifeways, and #landback, after Radius at Counterpulse last weekend, after the power of tuning4armageddon, after returning to being with students and clients Live, I am so grateful for the power of community and to remember the potency of dancing, attuning, touch, and movement life to precipitate transformation and right relation.

Would you like for me to witness your creative process, support your embodiment, your land ethic, movement practice, intention and action, to support your ideas and visions? Get in touch if you would like to work together. My shingle is up and I am at ur service.

Vivid Grove Racial Justice Fellowship

The vivid grove program offers full-season Racial Justice Fellowships with preferences to QT/BIPOC. Fellowship participants take several workshops throughout the season, are invited to develop a program of participation based on the offerings of over the course of a year, and create an agreement based on their intentions. Fellowships are also available for individual programs and workshops.

The Fellowship exists so that the vivid grove can mutually cultivate in equity and consciousness. For deepening in solidarity, to offer teachings to those who might not otherwise have the capacity to attend, and to participate in steps towards collective liberation. What has developed over time through the Fellowship is an ever-evolving community, sharing time and spirited ideas.

with loving curiosity

More info on the Fellowship

vg Equity, Inclusion and Racial Justice Statement









 

Spring Qigong Series ~ Wild Goose Qigong Online Tuesdays 5 - 6:15pm PST, April 6 - June 1 $100 for series, register by April 2 / $120 After / $25 single classes Zoom with video link for later viewing, shared upon registration

Wild Goose Qigong is a breathtakingly beautiful Taoist alchemical movement practice that harmonizes movement, breathing, attention, and energetic flow. It helps people experience the inheritance of their self-healing. In this nine-week series, our practice will concentrate on Wild Goose sets, and additionally we will practice foundational qigong movement warm-ups, healing sounds practices, and meditations. The forms emerged over a thousand years ago, inspired by the movements of geese, and were popularized in China after centuries of privacy through qigong master Yang Mei-jun. Our weekly classes will incorporate interests from the group, and sections from the several Wild Goose sets — each one offers different qualities of the movement of our qi. I will also offer outdoor qigong sessions if there is a small group ready for it :) imagine that, outside together > get in touch if you are interested. Movements can be modified for all body types and people, qigong for everyone! Payment Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. Please write what you would like to purchase in a note or within the cash application.Monthly Saturday Outdoor Movement Sessions

Next Session: Saturday April 3, 3 - 5pm East Bay Park, $ By Donation.

I am offering monthly movement sessions outdoors in the parks. These are small groups, masked, pandemia-safe. If you are interested, get in touch. Subtle and sensing movement. What can we receive from and offer to our environment, with our moving selves, and from being together-with? Inspired by the practices of attuning, Tuning, Amerta movement, qigong, and others. Art in movement creation. Opening-movement and conversation, facilitated, in real time, real space. I will also offer outdoor qigong sessions if there is a small group ready for it :) imagine that, outside together. I am in an inquiry with cultural structures and vibratory nature of things, in upending economic structures, connecting with where we come from, the specificities and evolutions of our lineages, learning about lineage through movement, about being in place and seeing what grows from being with place. By donation; opening up payment in trust. We will be physically distanced, please wear a mask. Payment Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. Please make a note what payment is for!

Embodied Mentorship and  Support for Creation ~ Available by Appointment

Tailor-made, private, and small group sessions in the Feldenkrais Method, Qigong, embodied mentorships, and tailor-made collaborative movement investigations. Offerings are based on the vital need to access our capacities for intimacy with our body-being in place, in this time. This personal attention can help you access significant changes in your life, help to develop your own foundational practices, provide a facilitated space for you to follow your unique embodied inquiries, and can help you access your creative power, clarity, and grace.

More on Movement Sessions

Vivid Grove Racial Justice Fellowship

The vivid grove program offers full-season Racial Justice Fellowships with preferences to QT/BIPOC. Fellowship participants take several workshops throughout the season, are invited to develop a program of participation based on the offerings of the season, and create an agreement with Margit for the year. Fellowships are also available for individual programs and workshops.

The Fellowship exists so that the vivid grove can mutually cultivate in equity and consciousness. For deepening in solidarity, to offer teachings to those who might not otherwise have the capacity to attend, and to participate in steps towards collective liberation. What has developed over time through the Fellowship is an ever-evolving community, sharing time and spirited ideas.

with loving curiosity More info on the Fellowship vg Equity, Inclusion and Racial Justice Statement

IMAGES: Vivid Grove Logo by Mara Poliak. Photos: Qigong by asha esco; Amerta photo by Mary Peterson. Tree Roof by Rosemary Hannon; Relay Encounter - SP, by Chani Bockwinkel, Racial Justice Fellowship, photo by Mary Peterson.

*** PREVIOUS  SCHEDULES SINCE SHELTER - IN - PLACE

Earth Qi Retreat in September

Friday Eve, Sept 18, 5 - 7pm Online + Sunday Sept 20, 2 - 5pm ~ Outdoors Qi Practice, Meditations, & Gathering for Sharing Time and Intentions (weather permits) $75, or $50 per session

A workshop space to delve into the qigong movement, meditations, and Taoist principles / theories supportive for the seasonal elemental force of Earth, and its energetic counterpart, intention (yi). Through harmonizing our vital forces in the earth season, we can cultivate the aspects of our body-being that can be nurtured in this time of transition. This is when we can support our commitments, our intentions, daily life rituals, and find our embodiment in them.  In this small retreat, we will access some foundational practices and principles that underlie our cultivation of qi — our vital breath, and the vivid space that comes from cultivating yi. Friday evening will be an online class and Sunday will offer the opportunity to practice either online or in person, and also include a potluck physically distances gathering for intention setting and "breaking bread" in the same place on earth. Please register by September 15, through your payment or by applying for the Fellowship. Payment Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Cash App: $MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome.

A Continental Garden: Worldwide Circulation Practice Streaming from USA Sunday, Sept 13, 10 - 11:30am PST Free

An Open Practice in Amerta Movement, inspired  by a weekend gathering in Amerta, at the tail end of the time when Prapto planned to come to the US. Instead, sharing Amerta with you. All are welcome:  first-timers, curious, Prapto-lovers, movement interested, yes. Zoom Info; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81336791263?pwd=UFB2MFZONEphRWx0bGRISDhDWmkvUT09Meeting

Meeting ID: 813 3679 1263 Passcode: 366196

*             * & Fall Amerta Series: The Speaking Being

I will offer an Amerta Movement series this fall starting in mid-October. To be in dialogue with land, neighborhood, our movement potential, and the atmospherics of our culturality. Free movement in conversation with our environment. We would meet five/ six times online with time to move outside in our own places. Please contact me if you are interested. I will be creating the schedule this September and am curious to organize around the timing of a few who show appetite. Is that you? *PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN IN THIS SERIES. TIME TO BE DETERMINED BY THE GROUP*

On Amerta Movement

& Coming up: Weekly Qigong Classes this Fall October - December Outdoor Wild Goose Qigong Season + Qigong and Meditations Classes Online

Qigong classes are offered as series to promote focused intention and ongoing practice. Gentle Qigong movement and meditations based in the practices of Taoist energetic medicine and Wild Goose Qigong. Wild Goose Qigong is a breathtakingly beautiful Taoist alchemical movement practice that harmonizes movement, energetic flow, and helps people experience the inheritance of their self-healing. The forms emerged over a thousand years ago, inspired by the movements of geese. In this ten-week series, we will concentrate on Wild Goose movement sets, qigong movement warm-ups and meditations. Our weekly classes will incorporate inquiries from the group, and various sections from the mosaic of Wild Goose sets — each one offers different qualities and principles of the movement of our qi. More Info Soon

Coming up: New Landings Fall Sessions ~ Embodied Earth Language

This is a space for landing. Intimacy with self and a small group. As we have been facing myriad devastations and consequent uprisings, how can a practice of embodiment and receptivity with our surroundings provide a key for just actions in this time? Through moving, writing, dialogue and quietude, we will practice living communication with ourselves, the environment, and one another. This is a place for subtle explorations in liberation, for reinvisioning the somatic experience, for unsettling colonialism, and for finding rooted connections with planet earth. Inspired by years research with Suprapto Suryodarmo, contemplative dance practices, collaborations with artists such as Cave Coast Continuum and Eleni Stecopoulos, and the potency of these times. *PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN IN THIS WEEKLY SERIES. TIME TO BE DETERMINED BY THE GROUP*

June Summer Fire Retreat

🌼   🔥  🔥  🔥  🔥   🌼   Friday Eve, June 26, 5 - 7pm Online + Saturday June 27, 11am - 1pm ~ Outdoors $80 A workshop space to delve into the qigong movement, meditations, and Taoist principles / theories supportive for the seasonal elemental force of Fire. Through harmonizing our vital forces in the summer season, we will cultivate the aspects of our body-being that are nurtured through the elemental force of Fire, and its energetic pair, our heart-mind, or shen.  In this retreat, we will access some foundational qi practices and principles that underlie our cultivation of qi — our vital breath, and the vivid space that comes from cultivating shen. This is how we root in spirit. Friday evening will be an online class and Saturday will offer the opportunity to practice either online or in person. Payment Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Cash App: $MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. Weekly Qigong Classes Through July 2 Mondays, 4pm +  Thursdays, 5pm ~ Online Qigong and Meditations Drop-ins, $25 Suggested July 6 - 30 ~ Final Summer Sessions Tuesdays 5pm ~ Outdoor Summer Qigong   Thursdays, 5pm ~ Online Qigong and Meditations Four-session Series, $70 Each Through July 2, Monday and Thursday are two separate series, and drop-ins are still welcome. In July, Tuesday and Thursday are also both separate series, each hour-long 4-session series ~ Tuesday is outside;  Thursday is online. Qigong classes are offered as series to promote focused intention and ongoing practice. Gentle Qigong movement and meditations based in the practices of Taoist energetic medicine and Wild Goose Qigong.  In July, Tuesday Outdoor series starts July 7 - 28, Thursday Online series starts July 9 - 30. $70 for either series; Drop-in rate is $25 suggested. NOTAFLOF Zoom Link Info https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86583132698?pwd=YTdrWThZQ2Via2dYSVRETFgrUFhQUT09 Meeting ID: 865 8313 2698; Password: 950933 Payment Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Cash App: $MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. NOTAFLOF, please be in touch if you would like to apply for the Racial Justice Fellowship, or if you need a scholarship for coursework. New Landings Summer Sessions: Moving and Writing 3 Wednesday Sessions, July 8 - 22, 5 - 7pm Live Oak Park, Berkeley. Please Register by July 5 By Donation, $60 suggested, pay what you can. This is a space for landing. In the past several months we have been facing myriad devastations and consequent uprisings. How can a practice of embodiment and receptivity with our surroundings provide a key for just actions in this time? Through moving, writing, dialogue and quietude, we will practice living communication with ourselves, the environment, and one another. This is a place for subtle explorations to hone / home our collective and respective liberation, and to inquire about reinvisioning the somatic experience - how to access a sense of belonging alongside the painful realities of settler colonialism,  and how to find rooted connection with planet earth. Inspired by years research with Suprapto Suryodarmo, contemplative dance practices, collaborations with artists such as Cave Coast Continuum and Eleni Stecopoulos, and the potency of these times. PLEASE REGISTER BY JULY 5. Embodied Mentorship and  Support for Creation ~ Available by Appointment Tailor-made, private, and small group sessions in the Feldenkrais Method, Qigong, embodied mentorships, and tailor-made collaborative movement investigations. Offerings are based on the vital need to access our capacities for intimacy with our body-being in place, in this time. This personal attention can help you access significant changes in your life, help to develop your own foundational practices, provide a facilitated space for you to follow your unique embodied inquiries, and can help you access your creative power, clarity, and grace. More on Movement Sessions Vivid Grove Racial Justice Fellowship The vivid grove program offers three full-season Racial Justice Fellowships with preferences to QT/BIPOC. Fellowship participants take several workshops throughout the season, are invited to develop a program of participation based on the offerings of the season, and create an agreement with Margit for the year. Fellowships are also available for individual programs and workshops. The Fellowship exists so that the vivid grove can mutually cultivate in equity and consciousness. For deepening in solidarity, to offer teachings to those who might not otherwise have the capacity to attend, and to participate in steps towards collective liberation. What has developed over time through the Fellowship is an ever-evolving community, sharing time and spirited ideas. with loving curiosity More info on the Fellowship vg Equity, Inclusion and Racial Justice Statement The Power is in Connection "This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There's no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. This is how civilizations heal."                             ~ Toni Morrison The foundations of this country are based on the labor, care, violence and deaths of black, indigenous, and people of color. What could reparations and a just transition look like today?  So much is being uncovered in this time. Displacements are growing exponentially, and the inextricable links between racial violence and ecological destruction are being increasingly revealed. More than ever it's time to explore the power of engaging through collective liberation and creative evolution. Like so many of us, I have been reading, gathering, watching, discussing, and archiving resources. Here are just some. Thank you to all who have provided links over these months, including dear inspirators Pearl Ubungen, Jess Dorrance, Raha Behnam, Gopi Sheldon, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, and so many others: Articles / Writing Taking a Loving Warrior Stance and Investing in Black Liberation A Love Letter to the Movement Raha Behnam Ways to be in Action against anti-Black Racism Race and Privilege, An Overdue Conversation Kia La Beija is Prioritizing Stillness Anti-Racism Resources for White People The Indigenous Communities that Predicted Covid-19 Video / Audio KidLit4BlackLives ~ Video See Black Womxn part 1 ~ Video See Black Womxn part 2 ~ Video The Poor News Network How to be an Anti-Racist, Ibraham X Kendi at Berkeley ~ Video What is Racial Capitalism and Why Does it Matter? Robin DG Kelley ~ Video Alchemy of the Reset ~ Video Somatic Abolitionism ~ Audio Pdf's Are Prisons Obsolete? Angela Davis ~ PDF Queering Prison Abolition, Now ~ PDF Chameleon: A Syllabus for Survival ~ PDF Websites Black-Owned Restaurants in the Bay Area Prison Activist Resource Center Young Women's Freedom Center mayfield brooks ~ Improvising While Black The Nap Ministry Black Trans Advocacy Coalition Collective Practice to End White Supremacy Cultural Coherence: Embodied Antiracism for White People IMAGES: Vivid Grove Logo by Mara Poliak. Photos: Qigong by asha esco; Tree Roof by Rosemary Hannon; Relay Encounter - SP, by Chani Bockwinkel, Racial Justice Fellowship Amerta photo by Mary Peterson. Mondays, 4pm ~ Online Qigong and Meditations  Tuesdays 5pm ~ Outdoor Summer Qigong  ~ Starts June 16 in Berkeley, 3-Week Series Thursdays, 5pm ~ Online Qigong and Meditations Monday and Thursday Classes meet once per week, an hour-long each, through July 2. $60 for monthly series, $120 for both Mon + Thurs. $25 suggested drop-in rate. In June, Qigong classes will be offered as monthly series, to promote focused intention and ongoing practice. Gentle Qigong movement and meditations based in the practices of Taoist energetic medicine and Wild Goose Qigong. If you need to drop in, it is welcome, at the higher rate. These monthly series go through the end of the week, June 29 + July 2. The Outdoor Summer Tuesday Qigong Series  will start June 16 and run for 3 sessions. Please get in touch if you would like to join. $60 for 3-week series. LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86583132698?pwd=YTdrWThZQ2Via2dYSVRETFgrUFhQUT09 Meeting ID: 865 8313 2698    Password: 950933 Payment Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Cash App: $MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. NOTAFLOF, please be in touch if you would like to apply for the Racial Justice Fellowship, or if you need a scholarship for coursework. Summer Fire Retreat in June                 🌼   🔥  🔥  🔥  🔥   🌼   Friday Eve, June 26, 5 - 7pm, Online + Saturday June 27, 11am - 1pm ~ Outdoors, Berkeley or Online. $60 ~ Register by June 19, $80 After A workshop space to delve into the qigong movement, meditations, and Taoist principles / theories supportive for the seasonal elemental force of Fire. Through harmonizing our vital forces in the summer season, we will cultivate the aspects of our body-being that are nurtured through the elemental force of Fire, and its energetic pair, our heart-mind, or shen.  In this retreat, we will access some foundational qi practices and principles that underlie our cultivation of qi — our vital breath, and the vivid space that comes from cultivating shen. This is how we root in spirit. Friday evening will be an online class and Saturday will offer the opportunity to practice either online or in person. Payment Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Cash App: $MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome. Garden Movement Fridays, June 19 - July 24, 12 noon - 2pm (no class July 3). $125-150 for series. A five-session weekly series in Amerta Movement. We will be practicing Amerta Movement as a way to develop our capacities to be in dialogue with land, neighborhood, our movement potential, and the atmospherics of our culturality. Free movement in conversation with our environment, respectively, together, and virtually. We will alternate between gathering online and practicing outside. It is possible that if a few were interested, we could meet in the same place sometimes for those local. If you are interested in learning some foundational practices of Amerta Movement, this is it, and this is also a way to deepen in this dimensional and vital practice if you have already experienced it. Please contact me if you are interested. There are only  a few places left for this class, so if you are interested, best to get in touch soon if you would like to register. On Amerta Movement Private Sessions in Mentorship and the Embodied Arts ~ Available online, by appointment Tailor-made, private, and small group sessions in the Feldenkrais Method, Qigong, embodied mentorships, and tailor-made collaborative movement investigations. Offerings are based on the vital need to access our capacities for intimacy with our body-being in place, in this time. This personal attention can help you access significant changes in your life, help to develop your own foundational practices, provide a facilitated space for you to follow your unique embodied inquiries, and can help you access your creative power, clarity, and grace. More on Movement Sessions

Online Qigong Classes During Shelter In Place ~ MAY

Here is the May qigong schedule to nourish our body-beings. I am offering some more classes per week as an exploration in deep resource-building as we continue to shelter in place, in whatever way it takes place for each of us.  Margit is based in Berkeley, CA; all times are PST.

Mondays, 4pm ~ Qigong and Meditations
Tuesdays 2pm ~ Nourishing the Root Qigong
Thursdays, 5pm ~ Qigong and Meditations
Friday Afternoon ~ Local Outdoor Qigong


Gentle Qigong movement and meditations based in the practices of Taoist energetic medicines and Wild Goose Qigong. Tuesday's class is especially focused on gentle qigong, meditations, and slow movement to nourish the root connections of the movements of life.

Fridays are an opportunity for a small group (4 students maximum) to practice outside in a West Berkeley park. If you are interested, please get in touch, suggested $20.

Four Weekly Hour-long Classes through May, Monday, Tues, Thurs, Friday
Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/215984648?pwd=QTNZTGJaSnFzTkpZdW5DQzNWaW9QZz09

Meeting ID: 215 984 648 / Password: 231559
$15 Suggested Donation. Fridays suggested $20. Pay as you are able, NOTAFLOF.

www.vividgrove.org

Payment
Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Cash App: $MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome.

Private Sessions in the Embodied Arts
~ Available online, by appointment

Tailor-made, private, and small group sessions in the Feldenkrais Method, Qigong, embodied mentorships, and tailor-made collaborative movement investigations. Offerings are based on the vital need to access our capacities for intimacy with our body-being in place, in this time. This personal attention can help you access significant changes in your life, help to develop your own foundational practices, provide a facilitated space for you to follow your unique embodied inquiries, and can help you access your creative power, clarity, and grace.

More on Movement Sessions

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Payment
$15 or Pay what you can. Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter  / Cash App: $MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome.

@freeskewl CLASSES
Tuning mediations for the end-times, new times
How to reimagine the communications between ourselves, one another, and the environment, in real time, in movement? Tuning is a way experience moving-in-relation with the places we inhabit all the time, and expanding from there. These workshops will offer compositional practices and movement meditations that can emerge through embodiment, sensory-perception, screen-time, and our surroundings, sheltering-in-place.  Attuning with our body-beings, the virtual, with the light, and our inner light.  Dance and movement for breathing, making space and finding place, to nourish life and cultivate life force. What is needed now and forever. Inspired by the luminary Tuning of Lisa Nelson, Suprapto Suryodarmo's Amerta Movement, and the radical connectivity of Taoist healing qigong.

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Tuning Scores are a fascinating mosaic of movement and performance discovery-games originated by Lisa Nelson. The Scores reveal basic elements of action, by attuning to the rich details of composition, behavior, and communication, altogether. They are a multisensorial and kaleidoscopic set of practices that are wildly fun to do. Through the specificity of solo movement warmups, group dancing, and verbal cues, tuning lays out an approach for performance research that can change how you make, perceive, and do in any creative medium.


Payment
Venmo: @Margit-Galanter / PayPal: http://paypal.me/MargitGalanter / Cash App: $MargitGalanter / Checks and cash also welcome.

The First Round, March 18 - April 6

Details
Currently MARCH 18, 19, 23, 25, 26, 30, April 1, 2, 6. Indeed the classes may extend as we learn more. When I can record them, I will try make them available, as possible. To nourish our body-beings. Please help spread the word.
Zoom Link:https://zoom.us/j/215984648
Meeting ID: 215 984 648





General vivid grove sign-up
If you prefer to pay directly, please send checks to Margit Galanter, 1120 Carleton Street, Berkeley, CA 94702, or contact me directly for other methods.  Please let me know you have sent a check, so I can look out for it.  
Some work exchange available, and scholarships in special circumstances. For either, please submit a written request.
Payment is non-refundable, but can be transferred to other classes in extraordinary circumstances. If you have any questions, please contact me via email or by phone.
vividgrove@gmail.com  
(510) 761 - 6097