Ecstatic Dance Gathering with Omar Aena and Madeline Despres-Chen

Join us for a very special Dance Lab gathering featuring an ecstatic dance journey with DJ Omar Aena and Madeline Despres-Chen.

Madeline will guide us through a Qi Gong warm up, followed by movement sequences that relate to the fluids in the body and helps connect us with our fluid nature. The final portion of the class includes creative exercises that allow for individual expression, solo exploration, and moving in pairs or with the group. This class is about feeling and embodying, not about how you or your movement looks. Participants are encouraged to adjust any movement according to their own needs and level of comfort. A DJ set with Omar will follow.

This will be a safe and inclusive space, welcoming people from all walks of life to freely express themselves through movement. No prior dance experience is required, just come as you are!

Come dance and enjoy a discounted overnight stay at Race Brook Lodge for the night!

Sunday, May 21st, 2023 / Doors open at 2:30 pm, the event will start at 3:00 pm
In the Barnspace at Race Brook Lodge
864 South Undermountain road ( AKA Rt 41 ) Sheffield, MA
Ticket Price:  $20- Advance tickets/ $25- at the gate.
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Omar Aena is a world-music DJ, community organizer and event producer of Iraqi descent, based in NYC. Omar is the founder of Dance Lab, a Brooklyn-based collective that explores dance as a form of somatic therapy. As a DJ, Omar mixes together traditional world music with electronic sounds, with a particular focus on songs from his middle-eastern heritage + hip hop from his upbringing in NYC.  Listen to Omar’s DJ mixes on Soundcloud, to read

Madeline is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist/Educator. She is certified in SomaSoul®: Somatic Therapy and Shake Your Soul®: the Yoga of Dance by LIFE Movement: Leven Institute for Expressive Movement, and she is registered with ISMETA: The International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association. As a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist & Educator, Madeline supports others in discovering a greater awareness and understanding of their lives using a mind-body healing modality that combines Body-Centered Gestalt Psychotherapy with the freedom of the expressive arts and the heart of contemplative practices. As a Shake Your Soul® Teacher & Facilitator, Madeline leads participants through a fluid dance repertoire set to world music that relaxes the nervous system, energizes the body, and awakens the soul.

Madeline teaches Shake Your Soul® weekly at Berkshire Pulse in Housatonic, Great Barrington, and she meets with clients virtually in her private somatic therapy practice. Instagram: @theembodiedtherapist

Race Brook Lodge is a hidden gem in The Berkshires, at the foot of Mt. Race and a short hike from the Appalachian trail. The yoga & event barn at Race Brook is simultaneously rustic and sublime, steeped in hundreds of years of New England history. The Stagecoach Tavern is unpretentious fine dining, exquisite farm-to-table cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere. Much of the food is sourced from Race Farm, right on the property!