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‘Art Or Not’ Retreat Wellness Resort At Coorg By FLUX
‘Art Or Not’ Retreat Wellness Resort At Coorg was a 3-day dance retreat program by FLUX School of Arts. It took place on 5th, 6th and 7th July 2024. The retreat was structured and facilitated by Sahiba and Yashu, emphasizing the importance of an artistic way of being. The said artistic way was designed by utilizing the body, breath, and mind-body connection.
Our venue was away from the hustle-bustle amidst lust green forests. Here our bodies and soul were one with the nature around us. The purpose of the retreat was to dive deeper into a journey inside out into the soul. It would affect our relationships within the community and with the world around us. There was also a side emphasis given to finding a break from urban life. This retreat was curated with an aim of creating mindful gatherings with sharing and listening to life stories. It engaged us with expressive arts and body practices as a collective group.
Such retreats at FLUX are facilitated time-to-time by highly informed practitioners. Their essence is wellness, transformation and healing. The focus is also there on community support and compassionate inquiry. It’s because FLUX believes that we grow deeper together, not alone. In fact, FLUX strongly believes in Art for Change as its mission. It’s an ecosystem that nurtures and supports everyone who walks through its doors.
FLUX believes in collaboration and not competition. Here every individual grows with each other, can be their authentic self and connects intuitively in an authentic way. We breathe through each other’s energy, hold it and create space for each other by interdependence. It helps in recharging our soul with the presence and support of each other. It is all about giving and receiving.
‘Art Or Not’ Retreat: Movement Research
The activities were focused on diving deep into movement research. It comprised elemental exploration, improvisation technique and more while connecting with the nature – both outside and within us. The retreat was not only for dancers; it was open to all by creating a safe and inclusive space. This made them feel empowered to explore everyone’s artistic potential and connect authentically with others away from mundane city life.
We were 20 of us and we all met at our second home, FLUX school of Arts. We boarded our vehicle and headed toward our destination, Coorg. On the way as a community, we had so much fun with our playlists on full volume. We kept playing some exciting indoor games after making sure our stomachs were full and hearts, pouring out of love.
‘Art Or Not’ Retreat: The Beginning
We reached Coorg in the afternoon around 12 pm. Everyone freshened up after the room allocation got done. Then we gathered in a circle, surrounded by tress and magical sounds of rain. The retreat started with checking in all the community members and intention setting for the retreat the very first. The instructors told us about the purpose of the retreat, its vision, and the space we were in.
We began with getting attuned to our mind body and soul. Everyone was asked to journal about how they intended this retreat for themselves to be. We tried to get into an intimate touch with our five senses. It was meant to perceive the nature and journal about the relationship within and with the outside nature. Everyone shared about themselves with one another, and the ice got immediately broken.
It was followed by a small card reading session with affirmations and we all affirmed each other with our presence.
It being a dance retreat, we started with our bodies warming up (our hearts were already warmed up). Nature had surrounded us from all sides and we were introduced to its elements – Air, Water, Earth, Fire and Ether.
‘Art Or Not’ Retreat: Elements Of Nature
All these elements were explored by all of us, through movement research. Then all of us dived deeper into expressing all these elements that reside within and outside us, through dance. We explored how to flow, how to ground and how to have lightness and passion in our movements. We were aiming at expressing all of these with our bodies.
It helped us identify what element comes naturally to us, and what element we need to explore to make it efficient. It helped us what each element provides us with and what we seek within it. It enhanced our connection with nature, reminding us how we are an organic part and a natural extension of nature. It taught us balance, curiosity and power within us to express and move through each element while we navigated life.
We were given a self-assessment questionnaire to assess our body’s prakriti (nature). According to Ayurveda, “Vata”, “Pitta” and “Kapha” are three such prakritis (natures) to dive deeper into what dominates our nature.
We all had our lunch together, once we had gotten to know each other more personally.
‘Art Or Not’ Retreat: Safety & Trust
We connect in a community by feeling safe with and close to each other. This started with a beautiful activity where we all dared with our courageous vulnerability. Each one of us took turns and were asked to cover one side of our face. Everyone shared what they noticed about us. This was an activity where we came to understand how kind, honest, and resilient we all were. How we met our shadows and lights to show up with our true self without masking it up.
It was a very nonjudgmental curious space, full of empathy and authenticity. We got to meet ourselves through the eyes of others, dissolving our egos without projecting being this or that. It inculcated kind, strong and gentle hearts within us in a relational way of being. We got to know each other through our eyes that spoke louder than words. It brought us closer to one another through taking our masks off and feeling comfortable in our beings around them.
The essence of community is always about building trust. This all came around to how much we trusted each other and had each other’s support. It was beautifully explored by us through going blindfolded. We got divided in two groups trusting each other by doing a trust walk amidst the forest, blindfolded. Not once any one of us questioned if should we do this or not.
We trusted each other and walked blindfolded by one person instructing the way forward and leading us. It was truly a magical experience where collaboration and trust could make us reach our highest social potential. It uncovered how we were true social beings walking each other home. We also did trust falls and every time our inner child could safely fall and be held by the rest without getting hurt.
‘Art Or Not’ Retreat: Partner Work
We then explored improvisation and partner work through our blindfolds. We completely gave in to the process of listening and speaking in silence through music in nature and our bodies. Every sense organ other than seeing helped us explore layers within us, delayering them slowly and letting them unfold. We also did somatic exercises on sensing and activating our deepest memories that our skin held within. This healed us by activating the mind-body connection. Our traumas and healing are all stored in the body. And we released them through the body where we were safely seen, heard, and held.
The retreat kept unfolding its magic and we had no idea what more it had in store for us. We were out in the mountains, where it was raining heavily. And we all stood with our fire on being drenched in chilling cold like resilient beings. We danced our hearts out as a group. This became one of the core memories of this entire retreat. We felt like we discovered a new home in each other. We dared adventurously, found the sanity in madness and madness in our sanity. The power of community was truly experienced and embodied.
Improvisation techniques were introduced to us and we were told to improvise and move intuitively with all that we learnt. We moved like trees grounded, in ether and air, flowing like water and passionately expressing our deepest desires through dance. We mirrored each other and we mirrored our own selves. It helped us reveal deepest parts of ourselves. It showed us what lied within and where it all stemmed from. We could break and unlearn old patterns. We also learned to seek, let go, hold on, release, carry, center ourselves and embody everything. This helped us come back to our body, listen to it and give it what it needed the most.
‘Art Or Not’ Retreat: Healed Bodies & Souls
We were toward the end of the retreat. We asked for support and we gave it to others through movement. And we all as a community shared gratitude and kindness. We poured all our love for each other through the activity of Angel Walk. In this we shared with all the vulnerability and love for one another. We acknowledged, affirmed, and held space for each other beautifully. We also gave and received with our hearts full and arms wide open for the warmest hugs. We manifested our deepest wishes on a full moon night, with Shamanic Card reading.
We found family in each other, and we built a community that we could always come back to. It ended with community cooking, eating together, dancing and playing with our happy inner child and the wise adult together. We came out as transformed and healed beings navigating our lives through community healing as gentle and intelligent souls!
ART and Act for Change came to a full circle. All that we were left with was a deep feeling of unconditional gratitude.
For further information about our retreats at FLUX Bangalore, please give us a call on 9606555607.
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A Memorable 'Art Or Not' Retreat Wellness Resort At Coorg
Art Or Not' Retreat Wellness Resort At Coorg was a 3-day dance retreat program by FLUX School of Arts. It took place on 5th, 6th and 7th July 2024.
Service Type: Retreat