5Rhythms with Michael Gabriel

Tomorrow, Saturday 2/11… We dance! Continuing our series: “Let’s Dance and Turn UP the LIGHT!”, 5Rhythms in Woodstock, NY. Come join in (&/or send your friends / soul fam!)

When / Where: 7:30pm at Mountain View Studio.
Exchange: $20/class (students and seniors $15)

After the joy of exploring FLOWING, the first rhythm, during the 1/28 class, I feel compelled to offer... (passionate drum roll please!...) Yes: “STACCATO”, surprise! surprise! the second rhythm of the 5Rhythms.

Let's continue building a strong and deep foundation. Even if you missed FLOWING, don't fret... We will begin with Flowing anyway (and have the opportunity to experience all of the 5Rhythms!). In my journey I've come to realize that I can't have a "good" Staccato (masculine) without a "good" Flow (feminine). (Not good vs. bad, but more like an embodied experience of the rhythm moving and inFORMing me.)

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“Know the masculine, yet keep to the feminine.”
~ Tao Te Ching, also offered directly to us by Gabrielle Roth :)
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STACCATO
Expressing the masculine mysteries. Yang. Being clear, direct, decisive, and not wishy-washy or convoluted. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and don’t say it mean!

Examples of staccato: Striking a match. Heart pounding. Fire works!

5Rhythms ~ where movement is the Medicine, the Meditation, and the Metaphor.

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"If you want to give birth to your true self, you are going to have to dig deep down into that body of yours and let your soul howl."
-Gabrielle Roth
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I look forward to meeting you in the Dance and turning up the LIGHT, together. Come as you are... even if you feel like your light is buried way under that bushel!

With an ecstatic medicine smile,
Michael ❣️🌊🌟🎶🚀

Wishing each of Us many Blessings for a Happy, Healthy, and Fun 2023!

Starting this Saturday 1/14 @ 7:30pm ~ New series of 5Rhythms® in Woodstock, NY!
Come join in (&/or send your friends / soul fam!)

>> 2nd and 4th Saturdays through the end of March (followed by another new series! Yay!).

As we step into this new year, going a bit deeper into Winter time and the darker + (possibly!) more introspective months... "Let's Dance and Turn Up the LIGHT!" Great Spirit willing, we will dance "Through (refuge) Winter into (glorious) Spring!"

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So here's the info on this new series:

“Let’s Dance & Turn Up the LIGHT!”, 5Rhythms® in Woodstock
* Where: Mountain View Studio
* When: 2nd and 4th Saturday nights, 7:30pm to 9:30pm
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* Exchange: $20/class (students and seniors $15

Come join in: Through Winter… into… Spring!
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"If you want to give birth to your true self, you are going to have to dig deep down into that body of yours and let your soul howl."
-Gabrielle Roth
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I look forward to meeting you in the Dance and turning up the LIGHT, together. Come as you are... even if you feel like your light is buried way under that bushel!

With an ecstatic medicine smile,
Michael ❣️🌊🌟🎶🚀

This Saturday 11/26 - 5Rhythms® Woodstock NY!
Our “Fall into Ecstasy" series lovingly completes itself.
Come join in (&/or send your friends / soul fam!), 11/26 @ 7:30pm.

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Wishing you and your dear ones / beloveds, a wonderful Thanksgiving & week of re-membering Gratitude! (May we re-member every week…!)

This week’s class theme, indeed… : GRATITUDE!

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My Gratitude List for today:
1. I’m so happy and grateful that I DON’T HAVE TO FEEL grateful, that I can be exactly as I am and feel exactly what I’m feeling or not feeling.
2. Just writing number 1 got me off to a good start… :)
3. Ahhh….
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A reflection on Gratitude:
To me the point is not to be irreverent for irreverent’s sake, but rather to just to give yourself SPACE to have ALL OF IT, to find out what’s really going on in there.

Through the practice of the 5Rhythms often what can happen with me is: I end up getting in touch with my truth, I come home to my heart and my body, and to the Big Mind, my creative imagination, my feeling sense of being connected with the Great Dance itself and with the Life Force + Spirit that moves all things, and, last but not least… feeling connected with my commUnity. Maybe not all of that all the time, for sure! Every time I step into this practice, however, more and more, there is an opportunity to find out quicker what’s really happening in me, to meet it, to dance and express it with more authenticity, to let things go more easily, to have some space to choose how I really want to show up in this moment on the life journey and not how I've been conditioned or practiced myself habitually to show up.

“A Path with Heart” (thanks Jack Kornfield), a practice with heart that leads to the REAL LOVE, to FREEDOM.
Even if that first means being in the messiness, brokenness, feelings of being numb, disconnected, alone, lost… whatever IS. Or maybe I or you or we step onto the dance floor already feeling peace, blissed out, connected, “I’m exactly where I need to be”, grateful. That’s okay too lol :) Why not?! WTF

I leave you (for now) with this beautiful quote / message, I first saw it years ago in the opening of one of Gabrielle Roth’s books, I felt so grateful that it came to me.
Thank you Angeles Arrien (BTW she had an interview on Sounds True’s podcast back in 2010, “The Practice of Gratitude”, that serendipitously found me last week, I highly recommend it.)

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“In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: 'When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?” ~Angeles Arrien
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Looking forward to meeting you in the Dance.

With a grateful heart,
Michael ❣️🌊🌟🎶🚀

*****
Come join in for this 5Rhythms® "Fall into Ecstasy" series!
Where: Mountain View Studio in Woodstock, NY
When: 2nd and 4th Saturday nights 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Exchange: $25/class (students and seniors $15)

*****

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ec·sta·sy (/ˈekstəsē/) 
noun. A trance-like state, involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence.
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“I call them maps, maps to choreograph our energy and lead us to ecstasy, wholeness.” ~Gabrielle Roth (excerpt from 'Maps to Ecstasy')
Series event: https://fb.me/e/2mcxWCYC8

This Saturday 11/12 ~ 5Rhythms® Woodstock NY!
Our “Fall into Ecstasy" series continues... with class 5 of 6.
Come join in (&/or send your friends / soul fam!), 11/12 @ 7:30pm.

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It seems everywhere I look, conversations I have, things reverberating in me… I see the thread of this week’s class theme: Transition.

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Back to this week’s theme…

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“When one door closes, another one opens… but it’s hell in the hallway” ~anonymous

(I always liked that little addition at the end of that one lol, can feel so true sometimes)

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Transition: To me, the two biggest transitions we’ll ever make are when we are born and when we die… and in between there are innumerable transitions. From the out breath to the in breath, falling asleep to waking up, the seasons changing, moving, being “between jobs”, the full moon being eclipsed then released again, the cycles of life. Relationships transitioning their form or their level of relating.

Sometimes transitions are very difficult, there’s a lot of unknown, it can feel like the world is falling apart underneath us and around us. Even if we hear a message: “You’ll get through this” (and sometimes the “this” is a Dark Night of the Soul or intense grief). “On the other side of this moment of unknown (or fear) you’ll be in a new place, the air will be clearer, you’ll see new vistas that you couldn’t see before on your journey up the mountain”. Still, that hallway is no place I’d want to hang out too long 🙂

True… transitions can sometimes be fun & exciting. Yay!

Whatever the transition might be, however we might be experiencing them… how can a powerful practice like 5Rhythms moving meditation help embolden us, inspire us, energize dynamic states of being and awaken the latent powers we have within to gracefully carry us through to that new vista?
I look forward to dancing with you “in the hallway”, with the sweetness of Grace, of course!

Big Love,
Michael ❣️🌊🌟🎶🚀

***
Come join in for this 5Rhythms® "Fall into Ecstasy" series!
Where: Mountain View Studio in Woodstock, NY
When: 2nd and 4th Saturday nights 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Exchange: $25/class (students and seniors $15)

***

— * — * — * — * — * —
ec·sta·sy (/ˈekstəsē/) 
noun. A trance-like state, involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence.
— * — * — * — * — * —
___
“I call them maps, maps to choreograph our energy and lead us to ecstasy, wholeness.” ~Gabrielle Roth (excerpt from 'Maps to Ecstasy')
Series event: https://fb.me/e/5nkkHH85S

This Saturday 10/22 ~ 5Rhythms® Woodstock NY!
Our “Fall into Ecstasy" series continues... with class 4 of 6.
Come join in (&/or send your friends / soul fam!), 10/22 @ 7:30pm.

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The first three classes have been so beautiful! I was reflecting that we are deep in the series now...

This week’s theme: being Deep in!
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“Life is a journey, not a destination” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson (& future friends)
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What does it mean "being Deep in"? And how do we get there?

Very recently I was talking with a friend about her dance in the moving meditation practice (5Rhythms) and she said something like: “I’m almost there again, it’s been a long time - pre-pandemic / ‘the before times’ - since I’ve really been able to drop deep into the practice... “


To really be dropped in… it’s like saying “losing myself in the practice” but really, it’s more like finding myself, my essence / core / true self. How do I accomplish this? LOL What’s the secret mon frère? It’s interesting, being in that place is not something we can force or make happen. It’s like, if I’m thinking “this meditation is SOOO powerful”, am I really in the meditation? How do I go from “dancing” to “being danced?

Well, the best I can say in this moment is COME AND FIND OUT ~ it’s through the practice itself… Going through a Wave of the 5Rhythms is my trusted way for over 13 years now, to drop out of my mind and into my body. Sometimes it ain’t easy… the mind can be a b%*ch!

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“The only way out is through… through the body.” ~Gabrielle Roth
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Being deep in the body > the only place my body can be is in the Present! So... Voilà! (Sounds simple… tho, def not always easy!)
Come let’s explore how this practice can support us to arrive DEEP in the journey we are already on!

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I'll close with this:

Thich Nhat Hanh once had us in NYC (circa 2008) do this walking meditation (such a True Blessing): Each step landing was “I have arrived” and we were offered the practice: with each foot step we are kissing the great Mother Earth… and not to lift the other foot for the next step until you get that you indeed have arrived in THIS PRESENT MOMENT! :)

I look forward to meeting you being Deep in! (no pressure! LOL, "80% of success is showing up", thanks Woody Allen!)
Big Love,
Michael ❣️🌊🌟🎶🚀

*********************
Come join in for this 5Rhythms® "Fall into Ecstasy" series!
Where: Mountain View Studio in Woodstock, NY
When: 2nd and 4th Saturday nights 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Exchange: $25/class (students and seniors $15)

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~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~
ec·sta·sy (/ˈekstəsē/) 
noun. A trance-like state, involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence.
~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~
___________________
“I call them maps, maps to choreograph our energy and lead us to ecstasy, wholeness.” ~Gabrielle Roth (excerpt from 'Maps to Ecstasy')
Series event: https://fb.me/e/3zrNkbnqE

This Saturday 10/8 ~ 5Rhythms® Woodstock NY!
Continuing our “Fall into Ecstasy" series…
Come join in (&/or send your peops!), 10/8 @ 7:30pm.

This week’s theme: "class 108" ~ gentle SURRENDER
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The first two classes have been so beautiful. The feeling of building something + coming together ~> individuals unique in commUnity!

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Theme: "gentle SURRENDER"... I’ve often been amazed at the Power of Gentleness. Gentleness is not weakness, nor is it a half-hearted involvement. Gentleness can be a transformative medicine.

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
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One Friday night some years ago, in NYC during a “Night Waves” 5Rhythms class, we were in a very intense energy during chaos. Chaos in 5R is the rhythm of letting go, of surrender (can be like "shaking the world", or "being shook by the world"!). In the midst of the intense struggling energy I was in, I hear this question through the speakers loud and clear, offered by our dear teacher Tammy:

“Are you ‘getting rid of’ or are you letting go?”
That question had such a profound effect on me.

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Maybe you've heard the axiom: “what you resist, persists”. My struggling and fighting with something, trying to push it (or them!) away... can keep me attached to it > it clings more!

What are you ready to let go of? How can the power of gentleness support you to surrender? And what's on the other side?

This Saturday we won’t be THINKING about these… we will be asking our bodies, our hearts, our souls and the Great Spirit these questions THROUGH the Dance.
Surrender, Letting go can also be “in a gentle way…” (thanks Gandhi -- this week celebrating his BDay!!!):
Like a tree letting go of its leaf, like the leaf letting go of its tree.

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Let’s do it! I’m not saying there won’t be opportunities to dance hard, to dance deep, to be in your ecstatic passionate sweaty surrender.

Welcome it all in. And no matter what, be gentle with yourself!
“Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back. Remember that and be very gentle with yourself.”
~ Julia Cameron

I look forward to meeting you in the dance!
Big Love,
Michael ❣️🌊🌟🎶🚀

*********************
Come join in for this 5Rhythms® "Fall into Ecstasy" series!
Where: Mountain View Studio in Woodstock, NY
When: 2nd and 4th Saturday nights 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Exchange: $25/class (students and seniors $15)

*********************
~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~
ec·sta·sy (/ˈekstəsē/)
noun. A trance-like state, involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence.
~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~
___________________
“I call them maps, maps to choreograph our energy and lead us to ecstasy, wholeness.” ~Gabrielle Roth (excerpt from 'Maps to Ecstasy')

Series event: https://fb.me/e/30Sb1hM1C

This Saturday 9/24 ~ 5Rhythms® in Woodstock NY ~ we dance the Fall Equinox!
Continuing our “Fall into Ecstasy" series…

Come join in (&/or send your peops!), 9/24 @ 7:30pm.
This week’s theme: DARKNESS + Light!

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"The irony is the deeper you look inside, the more tuned in you get to the bigger picture outside. You descend into your own depths, your own darkness..." "not the paranoid, ego-driven darkness... but the peaceful, soulful darkness of emptiness, the darkness of the Great Nothing from which we are all sprung." ~ from “Connections: The Threads of Intuitive Wisdom”, by Gabrielle Roth

"You are the light of the world!" ~ Yeshua ben Yosef, aka Jesus Christ


"Don't be afraid to show your light.. If it ends up being too much for people... tell them to wear sunglasses!" ~ Gabrielle Roth

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*********************
Come join in for this 5Rhythms® "Fall into Ecstasy" series!
Where: Mountain View Studio in Woodstock, NY
When: 2nd and 4th Saturday nights 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Exchange: $25/class (students and seniors $15)

*********************

~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~
ec·sta·sy (/ˈekstəsē/)
noun. A trance-like state, involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence.
~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~
___________________
“I call them maps, maps to choreograph our energy and lead us to ecstasy, wholeness.” ~Gabrielle Roth (excerpt from 'Maps to Ecstasy')
“The 5Rhythms are a map to everywhere you want to go..." ~ G. Roth
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Well... let's do it, let's put in the GPS coordinates: "Ecstasy or bust!"
Truly, come and dance whatever is your truth. You are welcome as you are. The 5R practice holds a BIG space.

Meeting myself as I am, putting myself into motion... miracles can happen, even some good ol' fashioned ecstasy.
I look forward to meeting you in the dance!
Big Love,
Michael ❣️🌊🌟🎶🚀

Series event: https://fb.me/e/9cInTcVHL

Tomorrow night, Saturday 9/10! We begin "Fall into Ecstasy" series, 5Rhythms® in Woodstock!

Come join in (&/or send your peops!), 9/10 @ 7:30pm.
This week’s theme: FULL MOON HARVEST!

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ec·sta·sy (/ˈekstəsē/)
noun

1. an overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement.

2. a trance-like state, involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence.

>>> from Greek ekstasis ‘standing outside oneself’
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“I call them maps, maps to choreograph our energy and lead us to ecstasy, wholeness.” ~Gabrielle Roth (excerpt from 'Maps to Ecstasy')

“The 5Rhythms are a map to everywhere you want to go..." ~ G. Roth
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Well... let's do it, let's put in the GPS coordinates: "Ecstasy or bust!"
Truly, come and dance whatever is your truth. You are welcome as you are.

I have come: Tired, shattered, scared, disconnected, lonely... as well as blissed, in love, rockin' and rollin'...

The 5R practice holds a BIG space. Meeting myself as I am, putting myself into motion... miracles can happen, even some good ol' fashioned ecstasy.

*** I look forward to meeting you in the dance! ***

PS ~ each class will have a theme that lands within the overarching theme of "Fall into Ecstasy". This first one on Saturday 9/10, an auspicious day: FULL MOON HARVEST!

Beginning the harvest, gathering, integrating, celebrating (if that's right for you!) of all that we've lived since whatever seeds of intention + attention + action we've planted this past year!

Big Love,

Michael ❣️🌊🌟🎶🚀

Series event: https://fb.me/e/3EQz2Hpmw

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” ~ Sun Tzu
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Dance into Ecstasy* this coming Saturday with CHAOS + LYRICAL + STILLNESS! ~ July 23rd @ 7:30pm in Woodstock, NY.
(*Disclaimer / Invitation: I can’t guarantee that you’ll experience ecstasy in or from the class, however, the opportunity for it will definitely be Present! Always.)
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“We have entered the age of chaos…” Ya think!?!?

Session 1 and 2 (Beautiful) have come and gone… however, session 3, the last in this series is coming this week! (+ Stay tuned: after an August pause, regular Woodstock classes to resume in September!)

With all the chaos happening, why the hell would we want to have a class of chaos (+ lyrical + stillness)?

Well, one reason is that chaos is the 3rd rhythm of the 5Rhythms and we just experienced the 1st and then the 2nd. So there we go: Next!

For this class we will also revisit / re-experience those first two rhythms: Flowing and Staccato, the feminine and the masculine, Yin and yang. They “collide and create the rhythm of chaos” ~Gabrielle Roth. They are part of the foundation that we need to truly let go.

Chaos: Letting go. Shaking it up / down / in / out… the body and the breath. Spontaneously uncontrolled. The creativity of chaos. Disrupting patterns, breaking apart… and then…

Landing in Lyrical. The shapeshifter rhythm of the soul. Resilient. Lightness of Being. The music itself. Connection to nature… and then…

Arriving in stillness. The depth of Being. The Great Mystery. The core of all the rhythms. Interconnectedness. One with the Spirit that moves all things.

“If you want to give birth to your true self, you are going to have to dig deep down into that body of yours and let your soul howl.” ~G. Roth

“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Let’s come together and Dance, to break apart, and… to come (back) together… again! I look forward to meeting the dancing star of ecstasy that you are! BE that… whether you can make it to the class, or not.

Big Love,
Michael

Event link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/998328767543994/998328774210660/

“Know the masculine, yet keep to the feminine.” ~ Tao Te Ching
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Come and be danced! next Saturday, July 9th @ 7:30pm in Woodstock, NY.
Class 2 of 3 of this Summertime Series (you can come to any or all of the sessions, each one is whole in and of itself).

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Last Saturday, session 1, was so beautiful ~ I’m deeply grateful to experience how every body showed up for themselves in our dance together, exploring the first of the 5Rhythms, Flowing, the feminine | Yin principle (and all the rhythms)!

Session 2 on 7/9: we will meet and connect + dance with the masculine | Yang principle of Staccato, the 2nd rhythm.

“Know the masculine, yet keep to the feminine,” is one of my favorite Tao Te Ching teachings, which Gabrielle Roth also offered to us directly!

For over 16 years now I’ve been working on / with this thing called healthy + sacred masculinity as opposed to toxic + “shadow” masculinity, which we are all too familiar with.
Being clear, direct, decisive, and not wishy-washy or convoluted. Having healthy, “fluid” boundaries vs. rigid walls. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and don’t say it mean!
To be more concise (not easy for me!) I will leave it there... 😜

One of the most powerful teachings for me of a healthy Staccato, the loving clear masculine... is that it comes out of foundation of the feminine ~ so... we don’t lose flowing, when we move into staccato.
My prayer & blessing is that this may be an offering to all of us ~ some part of the medicine needed for our collective whole.

PS: there will be more than enough time and space to dance whatever dance that wants to come through you!

I look forward to meet you & Us ~ from the heart

Starting next Saturday, June 25th, a 3-part 5Rhythms Summertime Series in Woodstock, NY! 😎☀️🌊❤️‍

Come join in for any or all of these classes!
Each will have a "fascinating focus"... see the event and / or image for more info!

Whether it's your "first time ever" class or you stopped counting how many you've been to, we will dive a little (or a lot!) deeper into each of the rhythms that make up the 5R wave! Surfs up, let's go!!! And we will have more than enough space to just let it loose and BE danced!

I'm looking forward to meeting you in the dance.
Big Love, Michael

Event link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/998328767543994/998328774210660/