Upcoming
Heartward Sanctuary
Siler City, NC
Past events
Exploring touch as a mode of creative care Wednesday Apr 23, 2025 at 5:15pm
Duke School of Medicine, Durham NC
We communicate so much through physical touch. From the smallest gestures with strangers to a lingering embrace with a loved one, touch can be a way of connecting with, communicating to, and caring for others.
This workshop will be a playful exploration of touch as a creative mode of care. You will be invited to partake in simple embodiment practices that will support listening with the whole body. Together, we will practice navigating consent verbally and nonverbally through partner and group exercises.
Open to all. No prior experience necessary. Info on Duke Arts website.
Long Shake Saturday May 17, 2025 2:00-4:30PM
Hosted by Anna Maynard & emily liptow. We invite you to the beautiful Heartward Sanctuary to join us for our first long shake! Our afternoon will include a 90 minute shake with a curated playlist in a gorgeous dance barn and spacious arrival and cool down time with snacks. Consider it an afternoon retreat to connect with your body through movement– your shake may be gentle and subtle, vigorous and bouncy, or likely some combination of both.
Through Living Arts Collective at the Shared Visions Retreat Center, Durham, NC
Movement Research: Explorations in Mutuality with emily liptow + Anna Maynard
Tuesday evenings 7:00 - 9:00pm November 4 – December 16
A 6-week series exploring themes of mutuality, interdependence and emergence through solo and ensemble improvisational practices.
Rooted in the lineage of contact improvisation, we will draw from the intelligence of our connective tissue–a mycelial network between muscle, bone, and tendon, and explore its presence in community structure integral to our movements.
We will draw from a few select texts throughout the six weeks to inform and shape our dancing. This includes engagement with reading and listening to materials outside of our studio time.
This emergent container in movement research and group improvisation will be facilitated by Anna Maynard and emily liptow and shaped by everyone in the room.
Some of the QUESTIONS guiding our inquiries over the 6 weeks–
What does mutual support feel like in our bodies?
What can collective improvisation practices teach us about being adaptable and responsive in community?
How might we imagine and embody the connective tissue between us?
Through Living Arts Collective at the Shared Visions Retreat Center, Durham, NC
Letting water Guide the Dance
Tuesday evenings 7:00 - 9:00pm September 16 – October 21, 2025
Water flows, falls, spills and sloshes. Water powerfully shapes our surroundings and is shaped by containers that attempt to hold it. A beach towel saturated with water becomes heavier to lift, and yet our bodies, boats, and ocean kin can float and defy gravity in open seas. Water is a master shapeshifter and a longtime teacher to contact improvisation dancers.
In this 6-week series, we will practice letting water guide our dances. We will connect with the felt-experience of water in our bodies and the many ways it moves us. We will let water guide our embodied imagination, working with the rich metaphors and imagery that water offers for solo, partnered and group dancing.
Rooted in lineages of contact improvisation, we will explore themes including:
pouring our weight into the earth and our dance partners
embodying qualities of sloshing and spilling to access momentum and wave-like movement
finding flow and connection through spiral movement patterns in solo and partnered dancing
cultivating a sense of play and adaptability in collective improvisation practices
Shake it Up
Tuesday, October 27th 2025
12-2pm, EST, ONLINE
In this potent 2 hour workshop, we will literally Shake It Up— by moving through a set of practices designed to regulate our nervous system and cultivate presence and possibility with whatever is keeping us stuck. The practices we will share together include a Group Shake, automatic writing, and vagal toning (think humming).
The goal is to meet ourselves where we are at and move some energy around, so we can ground into our knowing and move forward with clarity. Drawing from somatics, Polyvagal theory and creative process, this workshop will introduce a set of practices that you can weave into your daily life.