For production information, please contact Kellie,
or, to register, click here.

Live Wire is a movement based theatre lab, a dynamic, raw, experimental base where anything can happen. A poetic landscape that is at the root and heart of our 5Rhythms practice.

Tuning into the artistic nature of our practice invites our dance to new depths of discovery, unlocking the stories our bodies are longing to tell, further articulating the threads of your life.

In this laboratory we illuminate language, uncover gesture and free the mind through our theatrical investigation. A ‘plug-in’ to creative action, an opportunity to reawakening and sharpen those places in ourselves that need realigning or perhaps rewiring back to what’s most original and true. A soulful surrender.

“Delivering one’s self back to the artistic nature of the body. Sculpting spirit into shape, writing soul into story, dancing mind into the wind and tracing the heart home.” 
— Lorca

*Live Wire: Soul Threading is a ritual theatre lab and part of the Live Wire series created by Lorca Simons.

Set right in the heart of summer, the weekend features six amazing movement teachers, each with a unique offering on our shared theme, Resilience. With a focus on nurturing embodied presence, we will explore taking shape and letting go, and movement as a transformative tool to actualize new ways of being in which we thrive.

Our Tribal Gathering is composed of dancers from around the world and a fabulous catered celebratory dinner together. Join new friends and old, for a remarkable weekend of movement and discovery.

Tuition:
US$205 Early bird* / US$235 after June 9, 2019
*To receive Early bird rate, payment in full must be completed by June 9, 2019

Hours:
Friday July 19th: 7pm to 9pm
Saturday July 20th: 10am to 5pm followed by catered dinner party
Sunday July 29th: 10am to 3:15pm

For production information, please contact Ronny, or, to register, click here.

“God, Sex and the Body is and always will be a profound and integral part of the 5Rhythms® curriculum. It has personally informed my way of being, my teaching style, and, most deeply, my acceptance of who I am and who I am not.” 
— Gabrielle Roth

In the series of maps that comprise the dancing path of the 5Rhythms®, God, Sex and the Body is an initiation into being an embodied soul. It is a deeply personal journey, a celebration like no other, a ritual for the hot and holy you. 

This journey is a call to stretch our imaginations with a long forgotten innocence and move through a spectrum of feminine and masculine archetypes, to dress up these characters in ritual theater, get inside them and give them expression. No one else can be a man or woman exactly like you. No one else can embody your soul, or project your magic or have your specific curiosity. Part lover, part artist, part god, we were born to rock the world and feel our way into each other’s hearts. 

Grounded in the 5Rhythms Movement practice, this experience can liberate and inspire us to emerge a bit more fascinated with each other and the mystery of it all.

Pre-requisite: 15 hours of 5Rhythms “Waves” instruction.

Dates: August 15 to 18, 2019

Workshop Hours: 
Thursday: 12 to 7pm
Friday: 12 to 7pm
Saturday: 11 to 5pm and 8:30pm to 12am party
Sunday: 11 to 5pm

Location: Polish White Eagle Hall, 90 Dock Street, Victoria, BC

Tuition:
$495 paid by July 1st 
$525 with $30 scholarship donation (towards another dancer’s tuition)
$560 after July 1st

To Register: please send your e-transfer to joanne@danceherenow.ca, or mail your cheque, made out to Joanne Winstanley, to 142 Moss Street, Victoria BC, V8V 4M3. To pay by credit card, please use the PayPal links below.

PayPal: 
$515 ($495 + PayPal fee) – Early Bird
$546 ($525 + PayPal fee)  –  Early Bird with scholarship donation

Alex MacKay has been teaching 5Rhythms for over 20 years, beginning in Manchester and Liverpool, and now offers workshops internationally. She loves travelling to different tribes and dance floors and returning home to beautiful West Wales.

“Offering these archetypal maps of God, Sex and the Body feels exactly right for me – I can honour Gabrielle Roth’s maps and be myself: delicate and deep, clear and playful, creating a safe space to be daring.

“I want it all – no divide between spirit and flesh, between the masculine and feminine within… the lover to feel desire and find beauty in many moments, the seeker to naturally connect to inspiration and devotion, the artist to design and take care of a life full of these riches.

“I am delighted at the surprise invitation to Vancouver Island this summer, feeling the call of ravens and the full moon, summer grasses and blackberries… such abundance around us as we connect with the archetypal and mysterious realms.”

— Alex MacKay

Pay Online:

$515 : early bird $546 : early bird with scholarship donation

A threshold is a place of potential; a delineation between one set of conditions and another. A place to gather resources. A cusp or an edge we may not have approached, or crossed over, until now.

As we move through time, we may find that each moment or new season requires something different from us. Even in times of relative stability, the world is poised to offer surprises. As citizens of a changing world, we may find ourselves being called to ‘step up,’ change course, learn new skills and perspectives, or take creative action that we haven’t taken before.

In this year’s retreat we’ll engage with the 5Rhythms® movement practice, ritual, and meditation to investigate this place of potential. We’ll explore where we may be ready to step beyond our own edges and we’ll practice moving, with purpose and presence, from awareness into action.

Supported by the land, guided by the 5Rhythms maps (Waves and Heartbeat) and accompanied by a committed group of dancers, we’ll gather and embody the resources we need to step into the fall.

Previous 5Rhythms® experience is recommended, but not required. If you are tracking hours for the 5Rhythms® teacher path, this retreat counts for 1 day of Heartbeat and 2.5 days of Waves practice.

All rates include tuition for the workshop, 3 nights of accommodation, and 9 locally grown organic meals. Vegetables grown on the farm are used whenever possible, and meals are vegetarian with the exception of a salmon dinner on Friday evening. The workshop starts with dinner on Thursday evening, and completes on Sunday afternoon at 4:30 PM.

Rooms are assigned on a first come, first served basis. We do recommend signing up early – this popular annual retreat fills up fast!

Early bird prices are in effect until July 31, 2018:

• Private room: $965/ $920 before July 31
• Shared room: $830/ $785
• Camping: $710/ $665
• Commuter (off-site accommodation): $630/ $585

To register, please follow the link to the registration page.

To join the Facebook event (for rideshares, announcements, etc), click here.

Cancellation Policy:

• All cancellations will incur a $50 administration fee.
• Cancellations after August 15th will receive a 50% refund.
• Because this is a residential workshop with individualized meal and accommodation planning, no refunds can be issued for cancellations after August 28th.

We can’t control the circumstances of our birth – or the challenges and gifts Life presents to us – but we can turn towards these gifts and challenges with the intention of doing our own work, meeting Life as it is, and strengthening and purifying our heart.

In this workshop we will engage with the wisdom, subtlety, and vitality of the heart through a process of transmutation: using the 5Rhythms® maps (Waves and Heartbeat) as a container and our instinct as our guide, we will shine light into dusty corners, turn over the rich muck of unexpressed emotion, tend to our tender places, and welcome the glint of buried treasures too.

Together, and with a gentle touch, we will apply ourselves to the work of refining our own raw materials – spinning the straw of apparent misfortune into art, embodiment, and maybe even gold. 

Session Times:
Friday March 16 – 6:30 to 9:30pm
Saturday  March 17 – 11:00am to 6:00pm
Sunday March 18 – 11:00am to 5:00pm

Location: Lochdale Community Hall, 490 Sperling Avenue, Burnaby, BC

Cost: $235 | $210 early bird (paid in full by February 23rd) | $265 with scholarship contribution

Contact: Marcia Wakarchuk Jones | 778-232-8388 | marcia@innerdancer.ca

For information such as payment options, cancellation policy, carpooling, and directions to the venue, please visit the registration page.

To join the Facebook event (a great place to arrange carpooling), click here.

If you have any questions you would like to discuss in person, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Since 2001, Joanne Winstanley has held a steady space for the growth and evolution of a robust 5Rhythms community in Victoria BC, and has shared her love of this practice with students throughout the region. She approaches this work with a deep respect for its alchemical nature, and for the unique discovery process of each participant.  

The 5Rhythms® is a powerful movement practice that guides participants to re-connect with their own innate body-knowledge, wellness, and wisdom. In the Heartbeat™ map, each of the 5Rhythms becomes a gateway to our essential emotions: Flowing/ Fear, Staccato/ Anger, Chaos/ Sadness, Lyrical/ Joy, and Stillness/ Compassion.

This workshop fulfills 2 1/2 days’ credit as a Heartbeat prerequisite for Cycles and other advanced 5Rhythms workshops.

Dreams and movement – especially when engaged within a group – are places where the mystery peeks, and sometimes shines, through. In my experience, both these forms allow us to practice listening, and relating deeply, to this mystery.

In this group we will use movement to engage and animate our dreams. Approaching with reverence and a soft, non-analytical focus, we’ll share and reflect on our dreams together. After that, we’ll practice moving with our dreams in various ways – likely a slightly different form each week. Together, we’ll invite our dreams to move and speak through each of us, to all of us. We’ll wonder, without too tight a grip, about what they may have to say, or suggest, or reveal. I know that once we get started, the dreams will lead.

I have studied dreams, and worked with my own – in 1:1 therapy, in groups, and with various teachers – for more than 20 years; with dance and embodiment practices for longer. Most of my dream teachers have been informed by the work of Carl Jung, some by ancestral work, and many by Gestalt practice. For the past three years, I have been fortunate enough to study with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

Pre-registration is required for this series.

Previous experience with dreamwork and/or movement is welcome, but not required.

4 Thursday evenings: February 8th | February 16th | (no class February 22nd) | March 1st | March 8th
Time: 7:00 (or 6:45) to 9:00pm
Location: Roundhouse Farm, 1506 Burnside Road West (near Helmcken)
Cost: $135 for the series

To Register: please send your e-payment to joanne@danceherenow.ca, or your cheque, made out to Joanne Winstanley, to 142 Moss Street, Victoria, V8V 4M3. If you would prefer to use PayPal, please let me know and I’ll send you a request.

To join the Facebook event (a great place to arrange carpooling), click here.

Please note: while embodiment will be a major ingredient, and some of our movement work will be familiar to 5Rhythms dancers, this is not a 5Rhythms workshop. The emphasis for this group is on embodying and engaging our dreams.

As winter approaches, our energy begins to draw inwards and we are often called to return to home base, to sit at our own Hearth, and to tend to our inner fires.

This three-part series is an opportunity to stir, explore, and embody the natural movement and intelligence of our own hearts – to gather with others in a committed group and to be warmed and enlivened by what we may discover there.

Grounded in the Heartbeat™ map – where our 5Rhythms practice meets the movement of our emotions – we will use physical investigations, personal inquiry, and the presence of our companions to awaken and move with the stories of our hearts.

This year’s series will also consider how we might tend to our ancestral lines by befriending our emotional inheritance. We’ll approach our emotions as both an inheritance that has been passed to us in direct and unspoken ways, and as a source of vitality and deep intelligence in each moment.

Pre-requisite: 15 hours of 5Rhythms “Waves” instruction.

Workshop Hours: 11am to 5pm
Dates: November 19th | December 17th | January 21st
Location: Polish White Eagle Hall, 90 Dock Street, Victoria, BC

Tuition:
$265 if paid in full by November 1st
$285 if paid in full by November 19th
$300 if paid in 2 instalments ($150 by November 1st | $150 by December 17th)

To Register:
Please send your e-payment to joanne@danceherenow.ca, or your cheque, made out to Joanne Winstanley, to 142 Moss Street, Victoria, V8V 4M3, or register by PayPal below (instalment option not available on PayPal).

Dreams and movement – especially when engaged within a group – are places where the mystery peeks, and sometimes shines, through. In my experience, both these forms allow us to practice listening, and relating deeply, to this mystery.

In this group we will use movement to engage and animate our dreams. Approaching with reverence and a soft, non-analytical focus, we’ll share and reflect on our dreams together. After that, we’ll practice moving with our dreams in various ways – likely a slightly different form each week. Together, we’ll invite our dreams to move and speak through each of us, to all of us. We’ll wonder, without too tight a grip, about what they may have to say, or suggest, or reveal. I know that once we get started, the dreams will lead.

I have studied dreams, and worked with my own – in 1:1 therapy, in groups, and with various teachers – for more than 20 years; with dance and embodiment practices for longer. Most of my dream teachers have been informed by the work of Carl Jung, some by ancestral work, and many by Gestalt practice. For the past three years, I have been fortunate enough to study with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

Pre-registration is required for this series.

Previous experience with dreamwork and/or movement is welcome, but not required.

6 Thursday evenings: October 5th | October 12th | October 19th | October 26th | November 2nd | November 9th
Time: 7:00 to 9:00pm
Location: Roundhouse Farm, 1506 Burnside Road West (near Helmcken)
Cost: $165 for the series

To Register: please send your e-payment to joanne@danceherenow.ca, or your cheque, made out to Joanne Winstanley, to 142 Moss Street, Victoria, V8V 4M3. If you would prefer to use PayPal, please let me know and I’ll send you a request.

To join the Facebook event (a great place to arrange carpooling), click here.

Please note: while embodiment will be a major ingredient, and some of our movement work will be familiar to 5Rhythms dancers, this is not a 5Rhythms workshop. The emphasis for this group is on embodying and engaging our dreams.

Sometimes our movement practice can support us, hold us steady, and return us to the holy ground of flesh and breath and bone. Other times, it ignites our inner spark, encouraging us to move and connect from the heart. Our practice can cleanse us, soften our edges, and carry us through times of upheaval and change. It can uplift us, expand our vision, open us to new gifts and possibilities, and return us to our very center.

In this year’s retreat, we will enter our practice as a refuge, as a sanctuary – as a way to come back into balance.

Together, we’ll tune our senses toward the intelligence of our own bodies, dropping deep into the resources of community, of movement and stillness, sound and silence. We will invite our movement to both enliven us and reconnect us with our body’s natural capacity to rest, to belong, to give and receive what’s needed. We’ll find a pace that allows the goodness and gifts of this life to catch up with us, so we can open to the resources that are available to us in the present moment.

All rates include the tuition for the workshop, 2 nights of accommodation and 6 locally grown organic meals that are infused with love. Vegetables grown on the farm are used whenever possible, and all meals are vegetarian with the exception of a salmon dinner on Saturday evening.

Meals are vegetarian with the exception of a salmon dinner on Saturday evening. Rooms are assigned on a first come, first served basis. We do recommend signing up early – this popular annual retreat fills up fast!

Early bird prices are in effect until July 31, 2017:

Private room: $575 / $605
Shared room: $515 / $550
Camping: $430 / $465
Commuter (off-site accommodation): $370 / $405

To register, please follow the link to the registration page.

To join the Facebook event (for rideshares, announcements, etc), click here.

Dreams and movement – especially when engaged within a group – are places where the mystery peeks, and sometimes shines, through. In my experience, both these forms allow us to practice listening, and relating deeply, to this mystery.

In this group we will use movement to engage and animate our dreams. Approaching with reverence and a soft, non-analytical focus, we’ll share dreams and reflect together. After that, we’ll practice moving with our dreams in various ways – likely using a slightly different form each week. Together, we’ll invite our dreams to move and speak through each of us, to all of us. We’ll wonder, without too tight a grip, about what they may have to say, or suggest, or reveal. I know that once we get started, the dreams will lead.

I have studied dreams, and worked with my own – in 1:1 therapy, in groups, and with various teachers – for more than 20 years; dance and embodiment practices for longer. Most of my dream teachers have been informed by the work of Carl Jung, some by ancestral work, and many by Gestalt practice. For the past three years, I have also been fortunate enough to study with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

Pre-registration is required for this series.

Previous experience with dreamwork and/or movement is welcome, but not required.

4 Thursday evenings: July 20th | July 27th | August 3rd | August 10th
Time: 6:45 to 9:00pm
Location: Roundhouse Farm, 1506 Burnside Road West (near Helmcken)
Cost: $110 for the series

To Register: please send your e-payment to joanne@danceherenow.ca, or your cheque, made out to Joanne Winstanley, to 142 Moss Street, Victoria, V8V 4M3. If you would prefer to use PayPal, please let me know and I’ll send you a request.

To join the Facebook event (a great place to arrange carpooling), click here.

Please note: while embodiment will be a major ingredient, and some of our movement work will be familiar to 5Rhythms dancers, this is not a 5Rhythms workshop. The emphasis for this group is on engaging and embodying our dreams. 

It takes faith to follow our feet, to offer our contributions, and to keep turning towards the mystery. To honour what’s being born, what is already manifest, and what is ready for release. Let’s gather, in this quiet time of year, to pause and listen in. Together we’ll invite our bodies’ intelligence, and the wisdom of our practice – as well as what is seen and unseen – to guide us gently into the New Year.

The 5Rhythms® is a powerful movement practice which guides participants to re-connect with their own innate body-knowledge, wellness, and wisdom. Joanne’s classes and workshops are held with good humour, clear intention, and a deep respect for the unique discovery process of each participant.

Dates: Sunday, January 8th, 2017, 11am to 5pm

Location: Polish White Eagle Hall, 90 Dock Street, Victoria, BC, Canada

Tuition: $85 if paid in full by January 6th | $95 after
Pre-registration is required.
Electronic Money Transfers can be sent to the email address below.
Or pay online (below) using PayPal.

Contact: joanne@danceherenow.ca, 250-380-1902, or register online below.

“Love is emotional energy flowing rightly. It is the full range of emotions expressed appropriately, in the moment, honestly, directly. A lover is a child grown up.”
— Gabrielle Roth

It takes courage — and practice — to notice and express what we are feeling in the moment. It can be even more risky, and more rewarding, to share what’s moving in our hearts.

How do we honour the truth of our own heart while we are in connection with another? What if we are ‘too much’ for the person we are with — or we express an emotion that our partner is unable to meet? We might believe that a harmonious relationship means we are in sync with one another, feeling the same feelings. Or we may have unspoken agreements — with lovers, friends, family, co-workers — that we will only share the emotions which are comfortable for us both.

This weekend, we will explore and move with the truth of our hearts — on our own, and in relationship to others. Together we’ll explore the range of our emotions, and we’ll practice the art of relating with courage, compassion, and connection whether we are ‘on the same wavelength’ as our partners or not.

Pre-requisite: 15 hours of 5Rhythms “Waves” instruction.

Dates: November 18 to 20, 2016

Workshop Hours:
Friday November 18 – 6:30pm to 9:30pm
Saturday November 19 – 11:00am to 6:00pm
Sunday November 20 – 11:00am to 5:00pm

Location: Polish White Eagle Hall, 90 Dock Street, Victoria, BC

Tuition:
$200 paid by November 1st
$240 after

Marc is an enthusiastic teacher, a big dancer, a lover of life. He lives in Amsterdam, and teaches far and wide. Joanne lives and teaches in Victoria, where she holds a deep and grounded space for practice and transformation. They met on a California dancefloor in 2007 and have been fast friends ever since. This workshop is rooted in their friendship, and in the heartful connections that can arise from honestly discovering, respecting, witnessing and enjoying our similarities and our differences.

This extended exploration into the 5Rhythms practice will guide and inspire you to move deeper into the creative possibilities of your dance. With an emphasis on the medicine of Chaos, we’ll practice the soft side of surrender, exploring alternatives to effortful or rigid movement patterns so that the dance, and life, can take us where it wants to take us. In the spirit of the season, we’ll practice letting go.

No previous 5Rhythms experience is required.

The day begins with an all-ages 5Rhythms class, from 10:30am to 12:15pm, led by Shauna Devlin; the afternoon workshop is open to dancers 15 years and up.

Joanne is a certified 5Rhythms teacher, trained by Gabrielle Roth. She has held classes and workshops for Victoria’s thriving movement community since 2001.

Hours & Date: 1pm to 4pm Sunday, November 6th

Cost: $25 if paid in full by November 1st; $30 at the door

Location: the Hub at Cowichan Station, 2375 Koksilah Road, Cowichan Station (near Duncan) BC