E l e m e n t a l V e s s e l I m m e r s i o n
the Water and Fire Cycles
8 weekends, October 2023 - September 2024
with Dana Iova-Koga and Frieda Kipar Bay
~ join for the full immersion or select weekends ~
How can this engagement cultivate groundedness in a groundless time?
In this offering, Frieda Kipar Bay (herbalist, tracker, artist, activist) and Dana Iova-Koga (movement artist, teacher, bi-continental resident) will be diving through a multi-layered inquiry of what it means to shapeshift through our lives and wayfind with grace and clarity. Through the foundations of movement, our collective health, and interlacement practices*, we will hone our awareness of ourselves, others, and the environment. We will look at how we can turn these inherent abilities into artistry, and how doing so supports our health, problem solving, communication, and fulfillment of Life. Creativity is our immunity!
This yearlong immersion meets on the 8 significant points on the wheel of time (from the Daoist, Baltic, Celtic traditions, among many others), and uses the relevant planetary wisdom at each point as our guide. We meet roughly every 6 weeks.
In our time together we will investigate:
Foundations of Daoist Medicine- Qigong, Tao te Ching, 8 Extraordinary Vessels
Universal movement patterns and principles
The 8 biological pillars that support all forms of life
Tracking a landscape and all it’s inhabitants
Recognizing cycles, systems, and the circularity of our experience
Learning to engage the movement of life and allow it to express itself is a way of caring for ourselves and all our relations.
*W h a t a r e i n t e r l a c e m e n t p r a c t i c e s ?
Interlacement practice is locating ourselves in relationship in a way that is self-reflective rather than self-absorbed. We notice how we relate to the ecology we are a part of, the seasons, our relations, the human organism, and creative processes. How do we navigate all of these overlapping threads? What shapes do we take? Life in its many forms is the story of nuanced adaptation to these complex interdependencies. We do not exist outside our relationships and landscapes.
“We are not self-contained individuals confronting a world out there, but developing organisms in an environment, enmeshed in tangled relationships. As we move through space, our knowledge under-goes continuous formulation…”
When we look closely, we see we are reflected over and over again in our landscape…
What’s included:
8 weekend intensives with 3 hour sessions on Saturday and Sunday, live via Zoom. Join the full program or select weekends.
Sessions will include guided, experiential movement practices, presentations by Frieda and Dana, solo investigative exercises, facilitated group discussions and sharing of creative makings.
Participants of the full program will receive an hour session for personal guidance with both Dana and Frieda, to be booked upon registration (a $250 value).
In between sessions, you’ll receive reading material, online resources, movement puzzles, and creative tasks for each intensive, along with recorded practice material in guided movement, qigong, and/or meditations.
You will deepen creatively, be tracked by a wide yet intimate community, find inspiration to arrive where you belong fully, and expand your resourcefulness to respond to the changing weather of your life.
The Water and Fire Cycles
This year’s Elemental Vessel immersion begins in the year of the water rabbit and ends in the year of the fire dragon according to Taoist Astrology. These two elements require each other in the act of balancing, and there is a discernment to be cultivated. When do we yield, shapeshift, and flow? When do we generate, actuate, ignite? How does water manage fire, and what grows out of the cinders? How does fire heat water, and catalyze transformation? How does all this relate to how we move through the world?
Water
Water creates the forms we take, including our thoughts and actual shape. Our bodies are as much water as planet Earth is. It is the force that makes the riverbed we walk, and acknowledging its power and significance can change how we experience our lives.
Fire
Fire represents our ability to activate awe and live by our truest passions. Fire, in its growth cycle, is our most generative and vital element, but in excess, is destructive beyond comprehension. A well tended fire is a joyful one, and keeping a flame active in the hearth keeps our body and spririt fed.
We are developing a decolonized approach to moving through the world.
Dates + Times:
8 weekends, Saturday + Sunday via Zoom
9am-12pm PST / 12-3pm EST / 6-9pm CET
Oct. 28-29, 2023 ~ We place ourselves.
Samhain/Celtic new year/end of agricultural (plant) year. Navigating from a dynamic center.
Dec. 16-17, 2023 ~ Internal Cartography.
Solstice/birth of the Sun. Navigating through wandering, getting lost, intuition.
Jan. 27-28, 2024 ~ The Roles We Wear.
Imbolc/beginning of Spring. Navigating through change; we are all shapeshifters.
Mar. 16-17, 2024 ~ Shifting Relations.
Spring Equinox/mid-spring festival. Navigating through shifting perspectives, from human to non-human.
April 27-28, 2024 ~ The Plurifluent Body.
Beltane/high flower festival/beginning of summer. Navigating through observation and the under-appreciated art of imitation.
June 22-23, 2024 ~ The Storied Path.
Summer Solstice/solar festival. Navigating through story and narrative.
August 3-4, 2024 ~ The Growth Cycle.
Lammas/beginning of Fall. Navigating through rhythm, timing and cycles.
Sept. 21-22, 2024 ~ Being Contextured.
Mabon/Fall Equinox. Navigating through extended self; we are woven bodies.
Is this for you?
This course is for anyone who is at a crossroads - in location, livelihood, family, or personal health -
interested in cultivating robust creativity in the face of change.
In this time on the planet, much is in a state of extreme evolution. We are not excluded in this volatile weather - what occurs externally is also occurring internally. Learning to adapt, creatively and with joy, is the work of this time, both individually and collectively. In order to align with the bigger planetary transformations, our capacity to transform must be deep and wide. Bring your uncertainty, vulnerable questions, and creativity to investigate the practices of navigating change for self-cultivation and collective well-being.
How do we find our way in this revolutionary time?
Cost + Registration:
This program is available on a sliding scale gift economy model, based on self-assessment of your income and ability to offer your resources in a way that supports others with lesser resources to attend. Please support us in using this model by engaging sincerely with the process and offering the highest level you can.
Further scholarships and payment plans are available as well, with priority given to BIPOC community members. Please email for availability.
~ Registration for the full immersion is closed. ~
Sliding scale: $1200 - $1500
~
Register for the April 27-28 weekend
Sliding scale: $180 - $225
~
If you are able, please consider contributing any amount that would support another participant. This too is an opportunity to practice generosity, and feel the growth and gifts that come from giving.
About Frieda Kipar Bay
Frieda is a weaver of knowledge, overlapping different threads to better understand the whole. Some of the threads she weaves with: Daoist medicine, qigong, five element theory and diagnostic practices, gardening and native plant restoration, tracking, writing, CI and improvisational dance, The Work That Reconnects facilitation and grief processing, making ritual and equity practice. She finds that beautiful things get made when she weaves with many perspectives. Find her full bio here.
Frieda sees clients as a clinical herbalist, unschools her 2 children, and teaches qigong and herbal medicine in Western Mass.
About Dana Iova-Koga
Dana has been a polymorph since an early age. Her formative training in movement was with Japanese dancer Min Tanaka. She lived and worked for several years with him on his farm- dancing, farming and studying nature of all kinds. Since that time Dana has continued to explore and discover the connections between body and landscape. She has been a member of dance/theater company inkBoat and has been teaching “Dance on Land” with husband Shinichi since 2006.
Dana is forever inspired by the complexity and diversity of life in all its forms, is fascinated by the phenomenon of creativity, and above all enjoys playing in the space occupied by the questions. Full bio here.
““You are a part of me I do not yet know.” - ”