Interplay & Ecstatic Dance: with Marta Swain & River Noel

Name: Interplay & Ecstatic Dance: with Marta Swain & River Noel
Start: 2025-02-27T18:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-02-27T20:30:00-05:00
Location: Clothing Matters

Schedule

Thu Feb 27 2025 at 06:30 pm to 08:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Clothing Matters | Grand Rapids, MI

This is a unique experience blending Interplay and ecstatic dance.
Show up with a curious mind, open heart and just as you are!
We will start with an Interplay awakening experience to summon awareness of and respect for interdependence/personal, social and ecological well being (facilitated by Marta Swain).
Then we will drop into a short meditation and ecstatic dance (facilitated by River Noel).
FREE event!!!
Space limited to 12 people so message @alexamagsoudi on FB ahead to register.
Bring a cushion or yoga mat to sit on.
About Interplay:
Marta Swain is creator of Interplay - a uniquely introspective, experiential methodology of inquiry, observation and interpretation that celebrates life and explores the principles of ecology that support it. Consultations & interactive workshops have served educational, recreational, and business organizations since 1980, (see Vitae below).
Interplay is a holistic, systems-based process that uses design and language to engage participants in personal and collaborative exploration of how we can create reciprocally rewarding influence in our lives through understanding principles that determine nature’s capacity to thrive--partnership, diversity, interdependence, carrying capacity, and the flow of energy & information.
Participants develop a personal context for recognizing themselves as part of Nature, exploring what sustainability is and can be, and developing their unique potential to improve quality of life for self, society and the interdependent system of life on Earth.
Interplay:
-Facilitates (re)discovery of ourselves, our lives, our organizations and our communities, as part of nature.
-Invites participants to recognize themselves as unique centers of influence in the world...unique, diverse resources capable of creating positive change as individuals & in partnership with others.
-Promotes understanding of nature as a model for healthy lives and learning communities.
-Encourages awareness of healthy relationships and conditions that promote successful lives and organizations.
-Vitalizes living and learning with whole-systems thinking.
-Cultivates individual and group capacity to develop practices that support sustainability.
-Develops practical knowledge transferable to all sectors, arenas and dimensions of life.
-Generates appreciation for the concept community, nature as a life support system, and self as a precious, renewable and evolving resource.
About Ecstatic Dance:
It's a free form dance, with no choreography. Simply intuitive movement. The dance playlist creates a wave of rhythms to facilitate journeying. The intention is to form community connection and connection with one's body/mind and soul.
Ecstatic Dance Guidelines:
-This is a substance free event. Please show up as you are.
-No photographs or video recording is permitted, unless the whole group consents.
-No verbal communication on the dance floor. Feel free to leave the dance floor if you need to speak with someone.
-You may dance with or interact with others during the dance but provide clear nonverbal communication to say yes or no to engage with another. Honor your needs!
-Have fun, respect the collective space and yourself and listen to your body!
*EVERYbody is welcome, regardless of ability. This event is a supportive space to move your body as much or as little as you'd like. Listen to what your body needs throughout the dance and feel free to honor its needs.

Marta Swain's Bio:
A lifetime student of Nature, Marta created & facilitated Interplay (from 1976), helping people explore how self, society & the system of life on Earth are interdependent.
In response to learning in 1996 that apparel was one of the world’s biggest polluters of water, she founded Clothing Matters, a world class collection of non-toxic, ethically produced apparel.
Nearly 50 years of commitment to improving personal social & ecological well-being compels new developments leveraging her unique experience to coalesce wellness modalities that empower thoughtful consideration, cooperative exchange and desired change.
River/Alexa's Bio:
Dance has been a soulful companion throughout my life. I first discovered ecstatic dance in the Red Woods of California in 2019 and became inspired to share this embodied, community driven and holistic practice. It has been a gift to host and co-create events in Lansing and Traverse City, Michigan, along with British Columbia, Canada. Ecstatic dance offers organic body movement, feeling waves of e-motions and connecting in a space that is supportive and liberating. Dance feels like home and sharing it is a calling and return to love.
~Osteopathic Healer, Artist and Ecstatic Dance Facilitator~
Connect with River via email at [email protected] or Facebook @AlexaMagsoudi

About the venue:
Clothing Matters is an intergenerational, world class collection of non-toxic, ethically sourced apparel since 1996. It supports sustainable clothing, organic and promotes body and environmental health. Check out the website and store in Grand Rapids for more details!