WilderDance Retreats in High Country
For more than 25 years, NatureMoves has produced the “WilderDance Retreat (WDR),” in which 12 to 18 people travel to a backcountry hut for a 3 to 5 day adventure in creating site-specific dance “scores” or rituals. These rituals, or “dances with a purpose,” are deeply personal, intimate and witnessed only by other workshop participants. The high altitude (normally 11K feet) and back country nature of the WDR means dancer participants must be well-prepared for rugged outdoor conditions
NatureMoves annual WilderDance retreats have been our signature event. Inspired by Anna Halprin’s nature-based work in the redwoods and beaches of northern California, we hold WDR retreats in the Colorado high-country and other wilderness landscapes to infuse the presence of art and nature into our daily lives.
We know nature and art work together for powerful personal and collective transformation. The natural environment and information it holds, guides our aesthetic expression and deep personal reflections to rekindle an ancient and intimate rapport with our natural heritage.
“Our aesthetics come from Nature and what is natural. We dance about what is authentic or true for us at a given moment. Truth is what is natural, what is natural is beautiful, truth is beauty. Our practice is to listen to the Earths’ elements which speak to us as we move in & out of spaces, in and out of our internal and external landscapes.” ~
NatureMoves co-founder Melinda West Harrison
This is advanced work, designed for qualified participants and graduates of the EAT foundational program, trained in Life/Art work in nature. It requires participants to be accustomed to working in challenging high altitude mountain conditions.
Over a 4 to 6 day period in midsummer, we are based at a cabin located in a beautiful high alpine zone, adjacent to Wilderness Areas. We live together, share communal food preparation and create dances. We dance in Earth’s wild, sacred places and explore Being Nature.
There is solo and group time exploring the landscapes – external and internal – discovering sites and elements that call us. We support each other to develop scores {a map of a dance} suited specifically to our chosen sites. Each site or environment can evoke unique qualities of emotions, textures, essences, archetypes. Our retreat culminates with a “Journey Score”, visiting each person’s site, to witness scores they created. Each year’s retreat is entirely unique based on locations, themes and elements of improvisation.
“The beauty of these wild places is the source of our creativity. Sometimes I show up with an intention already formed in my mind. Other times I have no idea, but the places and the landscapes take over, and create their own dances through me”.
~ NatureMoves Co-Founder David Harrison
We dance in Earth’s wild sacred spaces and explore the BEING NATURE.
These ritual offerings a process of being present, being seen, witnessed, a sharing of what calls us to a particular site, a specific landscape. We dance about body issues, the physical senses. Each of us discovers places and spaces safe to express what’s uncomfortable, what’s unmentionable, what’s shadowing me. When we move, draw, write about the shadow side it is less likely to show up in some unwelcome way.
When we welcome an experience/expression of the shadow, it becomes fuel for what we are committed to creating in our lives and art. As we honor these shadow facets, they transform into what we wish to create.
What we dance we create.
When we dance we create.
We bring power, energy and attention to our intentions.
“Ritual is a dance with a purpose.” ~ Anna Halprin
