Theme: Prepare to take flight. We open the portal with a ritual dance journey to ground, connect, and ignite the space. Rather than introducing guidelines through lecture, we move into agreements together — co-creating our sacred container through an embodied process, so what we commit to lives in the body, not just the mind. We close with an introduction to Energetic Architecture: what it truly means to hold space — with presence, attunement, and care — for others in movement.

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Facilitation Skill: Opening and Closing Circle

HOMEPLAY:​

• By Friday, September 11:

  • Please complete your Intake Form

  • Submit your Preparation Playlist (if not yet done)

  • Complete the Preparation Readings: Complete the Prep Readings: Sacred Women, Sacred Dance (Intro & Ch. 1); Sweat Your Prayers (p. 2–10)

    • Additional: Root Images of Healing by Ilene Serlin; browse the Dancestors Lineage PDF

Theme: Rooting into the origins of dance as prayer, resistance, and remembrance. We explore how the body carries the memory of those who came before us — and how honoring lineage is a facilitation practice. We reclaim cultural wisdom, sacred archetypes, and the understanding of the body as ceremony. This session asks: whose shoulders are we standing on, and how do we carry that forward with integrity?
 

Facilitation Skill: Honoring lineage through embodied practice 

HOMEPLAY:

• 🎵 PLAYLIST

  • For next week, create a 30-minute playlist of what you understand to be the ecstatic dance wave. Please submit by end of day Tuesday, June 23.

  • Name this playlist: Your Name (Playlist #2) – Ecstatic Dance Wave

  • And please update your Playlist #1 title to the correct format: Your Name (Playlist #1) – Playlist Theme

  • Going forward, all playlists follow this format 🎵

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• 📚 MYTHIC STORY JOURNALING PROMPTS

  • Tune into the Mythic Story Journaling Prompts that Aliza posted here. Share your responses in the comments there.

  • 🔗 Mythic Story Prompts

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• 🌿 DANCESTORS RESEARCH

  • Your full Mariposa Dancestors document is waiting for you here. These are the women whose shoulders we stand on. Spend some time with them this week. Let yourself be moved.

  • Watch as many of the Sacred Dance videos (shared here) as you feel called to watch.

  • Then research one sacred dancer, lineage, or tradition that called to you today. Let yourself be drawn — no need to be too academic about it. You might watch a video, read a paragraph, or simply sit with a name that moved you. Bring something back to share next week.

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• 🌀 EXPERIENTIAL

  • Add one thing to your personal dance practice sessions this week to increase reverence and bring a sacred quality — a breath, a bow, a prayer, a word in honor of your dancestors. Notice what shifts when you enter the dance with intention rather than just pressing play.

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• 📖 READINGS

  • Descent to the Goddess — Introduction + Chapter 1
    (A myth to feel into)

  • Gabrielle Roth: Sweat Your Prayers (Ch. 2, The Practice)

  • Catch up on any past readings, including last week’s:

    • Sacred Woman Sacred Dance – The Priestess Danced

    • Ilene Serlin: Root Images of Healing

Theme: Ritual structures, death/rebirth cycles, and mythic maps that guide emotional alchemy. Learn the Mariposa Movement Flight Path Map: our foundation for somatic dance journeys. 

 

Facilitation Skill: Develop understanding of the musical and somatic maps that shape effective dance journeys.

HOMEPLAY:
 

🎧 JOIN OUR SHARED PLAYLISTS!

• Collaborative Playlists… be sure to join! These Spotify invite links will expire after 7 days.
   

🎵 PLAYLIST CREATION
Create a 30min playlist inspired by the Mariposa Movement Flight Path.

• Name it: Your Name (Playlist #3) – [Your Title]

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🌀 EXPERIENTIAL

• Dance to Gabrielle Roth’s full 5Rhythms wave this week. Use Gabrielle Roth's recorded album here. Notice which rhythm is hardest to access. That's your edge. Stay with it.

Theme: The 7 Directions & The Medicine Wheel; The Power of the Circle in Dance Therapy & Indigenous Traditions; Energetic Architecture in Practice: Tracking the Room, Reading the Field, Leading vs. Following the Energy

• Facilitation Skill: Creating Sacred Space for Movement

HOMEPLAY: ​

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🌀 MOVEMENT OBSERVATION
This week, begin to observe your own movement through the lens of Laban's Effort qualities. Not to judge or fix — just to notice. What is your default? When does it shift? What does stress look like in your body's Effort quality? What does joy look like?

 

🌍 EARTH ALTAR
Between now and our next session, create a small earth altar honoring the 7 Directions.  Let it be a living practice, not a homework assignment. It doesn't need to be elaborate — a stone for earth, a feather for sky, a candle for fire, something for each direction that feels right to you. Share a photo on our Earth Altars thread, along with any stories or realizations from your process.​

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📖 READINGS 

• Pixie Lighthorse: The Directions

• Excerpts from Existential Kink