An ELEMENTAL VESSEL Immersion
with Frieda Kipar Bay and Dana Iova-Koga
"a body is a rhythm related to time unfolding through space, not a substance." -f.k.b.
We move through a world of constant and dynamic change.
Our bodies themselves are constant and dynamic change.
Moving Seasonally is a yearlong investigation in moving through change with Dana Iova-Koga and Frieda Kipar Bay. It is a place for artists, creatives, culture supporters, and wanderers to orient and adjust physically to living, dancing, and choosing life in time.
8 day long sessions, marking the cardinal and cross quarter days of the year.
2 weekly movement classes throughout the year with 2 seasoned teaching artists.
Community inspiration and intimacy on an international level.
~ 2026-2027 cycle begins at the Autumn Equinox ~
Our interest is to provide a space for artists, creatives, culture supporters, and wanderers to orient and adjust physically to seasonal living, dancing, and choosing direction. We each offer a weekly movement class (no prior experience needed), facilitate gatherings along the wheel, and offer content to help us all orient more deeply to our own rhythms, our ancestral legacy, and the patterns of our place.
Frieda brings her knowledge of traditional herbal medicine, extensive research into taoist/pagan/animist cosmology, and a lifetime of movement study and practice.
Dana brings her life-long study of movement, ecology, and creative practice.
We move through a world of constant and dynamic change. Our bodies themselves are constant and dynamic change. Change can occur suddenly, unexpectedly, sweetly, cruelly. It can also be rhythmic and repetitive, and when it is, pattern emerges. In this year-long course, we will be looking specifically at the pattern of change represented by the annual passage of time, and how we move harmonically within the changing energetics of the seasons. What do we mean by “moving”? We mean the practice of human movement; we mean how we encounter the world and adapt to its flux; we mean how we orient ourselves according to internal and external directions; we mean moving as in to be moved, asking how we are moved by our landscapes, our relations, emotions, and beliefs. In moving seasonally, we are examining how to live inside of seasonal change, to support the living movement of change, in all the other ways it manifests.
the wheel of interlacement:
bow, listen, rejoice, imagine, create, discern, grieve, integrate.
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 elemental wisdom at each point as our compass. (Each word above corresponds to a spoke on this wheel.) We meet every 6 weeks, convening from around the globe to practice a different orientation to time. It is circular, we are spinning, but we can know where we are as we go.
saturday workshops:
9-12pm PST / 12-3pm EST / 6-9pm EU
sept. 19th
oct. 24th
dec. 12th
jan. 30th
march 13th
april 24th
june. 19th
july 31st
2 weekly classes*:
Qigong with Frieda Kipar Bay
Fridays 11:30-12:45pm EST
Live via Zoom; recordings available
Frieda teaches Qigong, working with several different movement sets according to the time of year. She includes her extensive knowledge of herbal medicine and the cosmology of the body according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, and weaves in the meridian system, the extraordinary vessels, and organ function throughout her teaching. Qigong is not vigorous, yet can deeply change metabolic and physical function with weekly practice. It is accessible, organizing, and self-healing. Class is best joined from an outside location of your choosing.
The Animate Practice with Dana Iova-Koga
Sundays, 12:00-1:00pm EST
Live via Zoom
In this class, Dana will be curating movement content to correspond with the Moving Seasonally course. This means the class will adapt and change according to time of year and the principles we are focusing on for that particular season. Multiple movement modalities will be explored and woven together including but not limited to: Body Weather, butoh dance, Yang Sheng Gong (life nourishing practice) Fighting Monkey, MovNat, Axis Syllabus, improvisation and voice work. One of Dana’s guiding words when it comes to movement is “tinkering.” In the class we play around, emphasizing the spirit of curiosity and emergence when it comes to physical practice. The aim is to give participants a rich array of movement remedies to enrich their unique lives and contexts. The class is called “The animate practice” because Dana wants that we each have living, breathing courses of study, not rigid formulas of training.
*these are community classes, open to other practitioners beyond this group
Participation is not required in the weekly classes but strongly encouraged and included in the price.
Reciprocity
$1300 / $1600 / $1800
Pricing includes 8 three hour workshops, 2 weekly movement classes throughout the whole program year, and ongoing inspired engagement with a community of creatives through signal and email.
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.
Payment Plans are available within the payment choices below. At registration you will make a $500 deposit. Your remaining balance will be charged in equal installments over the next 4 months.
Is this for you?
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.
This offering is for anyone interested in moving wisely through change. These weekly classes will offer ongoing orientation towards what is life nourishing, supporting the body through deep, easeful circulation. It will be supportive for those living with chronic imbalance, helping sleep, digestion, and spirit regulate according to the season. The seasonal workshops offer a spark of creativity in how to meet the elements at play, both individually and collectively. This is an offering based in creative practice, with medicinal benefit.
"I love Frieda's class because it engages my mind, my heart, and my body all at once. I'm able to slow down, focus and relax. Now and then, when all of us in the circle are moving silently in synchrony, time stands still for awhile." -J.R.
“As a teacher Dana helped me understand the pleasure, playfulness, and effectiveness of moving within the context of myself, my own boundaries, my own possibilities.”
"Qigong with Frieda not only brings me more deeply into my body but also into harmonious relating with the living worlds beyond my body. Frieda is an amazing teacher whose diverse background really adds to her classes. I always walk away grateful that I came." -M.E.
“As one of her lucky students, I always felt like Dana's classes flowed outside of time. She taught us to think deeply about what we were doing and also not think at all; she challenged and inspired us, all the while creating a deep sense of connection.”