With Simona Aronow, Latifa Berry Kropf and Julie Leavitt
July 25 - 31, 2011 (Morning and Afternoon Classes)
Miriam celebrated the crossing of the Sea of Reeds with dances of gratitude. King David danced his praises with joyous abandon in community. We continue this embodied expression each time we light Shabbat candles, dance with the Torah or wrap ourselves in a tallit. Judaism holds sacred and integral this relationship of body and spirit.
During our full-day sessions, we will explore Torah, prayer and ritual through expressive movement, Jewish Sacred Circle Dances and Authentic Movement as avenues of embodied learning. Participants will discover the body as a vehicle of sacred creativity, receptivity and a source of inner-knowing. Joy, play, gratitude and presence in all facets of Jewish life will be fostered. We will also help students develop proficiency with body-centered and movement practices that can be taught and shared with others.This training is open to everyone. Students may choose this class for their own enrichment and deepening of their work as healers, teachers, leaders and movement practitioners. If you have worked with us before, this class will continue our sharing and exploration of sacred movement leadership work.
"The week was transformative. The teachers were warm, supportive and complimented each other with their unique skills and talents. I journeyed between the four worlds through movement, dance, song, chant and silence. I became a part of an evolving, accepting community. I am so thankful to be part of this holy work." —Karen Fox
"What an amazing experience... moving in silence and sound, witnessing each other and myself. I watched the sunlight dance on the water, danced my prayers, wrote in my journal, found places in myself I had forgotten. Embodied spirituality is an intensely satisfying experience opening doors and windows to the infinite, creating pathways through the body’s wisdom. In a supportive environment designed to access Jewish spirituality through self-awareness and sense of community, the amazing facilitators gently guide participants through a variety of activities. I highly recommend this profound experience to anyone who wants to explore their body’s way of knowing." —Michele Diel
"I will definitely be able to use this material to deepen my spiritual connection and teach it to members of my chavurah." —Anonymous
"They were incredible teachers who knew how to create a wonderful group experience and help each of us open to our own truths." —Anonymous
"Dance through the tears, the pain, the numbness to light and joy." —Anonymous
"Who knows the dancer from the dance, the toucher from the touched." — Anonymous
"I praise you with my bones and sinews." —Anonymous
"Being Present, Open Heart, Dance the dance yearning to be set free, Enter in, the quiet pool. Listening, listening. Breathe of life." —Anonymous
Your inspired and passionate faculty, drawing on many years of combined experience in exploring Jewish prayer, music, text, history, and soul through the lenses of dance and movement, ritual, psychology, and the healing arts, will guide and empower you to grow the roots of your spiritual aliveness, watered by the well of your body’s wisdom.
Learn body and breath awareness skills in relationship to Jewish teachings.
Develop and enrich a personal theology that is based on body-based experience through dance and movement exploration.
Experience text and prayer in a direct and personally meaningful way that allows the material to come alive.
Gain a deeper connection to your body/soul wisdom through Authentic Movement as you build skills for witnessing self and others with compassion and understanding.
Learn Jewish Sacred Circle Dances for Shabbat and holidays and how circle dancing can be a potent liturgical method.
Play will be incorporated as a creative tool for deepening our understanding of and delight in Jewish teachings.
Learn about dance and kinesthetic centering as prayer.
Mindfulness movement meditation and prayer opportunities will provide a vehicle for relaxing and rejuvenating.
Leadership mentoring will be offered to bring ideas back to home communities through modeling, student participation and group discussion.
Innovation and creativity will be integrated into ritual creation that can be carried back to home communities for personal or group use.
Develop your own movement spiritual practices to expand your authentic Jewish learning.
Authentic Movement is a self-directed practice of listening, moving and witnessing. From the emptiness form arises. We journey inward, listening for our authentic and spontaneous truth as it emerges and changes. Through trusting the spontaneous and organic sensations, impulses, thoughts and feelings that arise, and giving them expression, we become more fully ourselves. Through movement and stillness, and the interplay of the conscious and unconscious, we allow the wisdom of the body to guide us in allowing something to happen that is often transformational. The movement can be a small gesture or full body expression. In this form, all movement is equal and honored in a loving, compassionate and non-judgmental way. This process is a container for self, relationship and collective knowing. Movement is experienced with closed eyes in the presence of at least one sacred witness. This intuitive and embodied practice can be a vehicle for the sacred and contemplative, for therapeutic healing and for creative expression. It is an ongoing form unfolding.
Jewish Sacred Circle Dance is a participatory practice using simple dance steps and liturgical songs in both English and Hebrew. The circle of dancers creates a vessel for peace, joy, holiness and connection. Many of these dances are partner dances in which the dancers have the unique opportunity to bless one another and to glimpse the Divine spark in each other’s eyes. The dances are both meditative and joyous and can be included in Shabbat and holiday services. You will receive guidance in how to lead these sacred dances and an opportunity to practice leading. Handouts with songs and musical notations will also be provided. View these examples of Jewish Sacred Cirlce Dance online: Kadosh, It is Perfect and Barkhu.
"One day instead of running errands I decided to dance them. Suddenly, my world flooded with sensations of grace and ease. I was awake, bigger. My steps didn’t change. My tasks didn’t change. Nothing was different except my smile. Or was it? Thich Nhat Hanh calls this peace. I call it the dance of life." —Cynthia Winton-Henry creator of Interplay
"Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery." —Martha Graham
"It is necessary that we are each created for that one gesture that the world needs and that can come through only us. " —Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz
"We dance for the good of the community." —Zuni
Simona Aronow has been in private practice for over 30 years as a Dance/Movement Therapist, Movement Analyst and educator, body worker, teacher and supervisor. Raised orthodox, she integrates her traditional yeshiva background with the direct experience of somatic awareness and movement, to foster personal connection and meaning. Simona has taught through the National Havurah Summer Institute, Laban Institute of Movement, and Gesher Center for Spirituality Meditation and Healing, on whose Board of Directors she has also served since 2000. She has supervised students through Goucher College and Antioch University, and currently maintains a private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her love for movement and somatic healing is inspiring.
Latifa Berry Kropf has been creating and leading sacred dance for 35 years. As a leader of her Renewal chavurah in Charlottesville VA, Latifa enriches Shabbat and holy day services and celebrations with dance and movement and weaves dance into life cycle events. She has published dance materials for both adults and children, has had the privilege of sharing sacred dance with many communities, and has been honored with the title of Eshet Hazon, Woman of Vision. In the words of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, "Dance has shown to be the best entry form to communal prayer. Latifa has a spark of Prophetess Miriam and she transmits this to those who dance with her. All your bones will join the soul, mind and heart in prayer."
Julie Leavitt is a registered Dance/Movement Therapist and practices body-centered psychotherapy and spiritual direction in Newton, MA. She has taught Sacred Movement classes at Elat Chayyim and the Aleph Kallah and serves on the core faculty of the Lev Shomea spiritual direction program, teaching movement and body-centered knowing to spiritual directors-in-training. She has taught Movement and Healing classes at Lesley University for the past 22 years. In 2004, Julie’s community, B’nai Or of Boston, honored her with the title Eshet Hazon: Miyaledet Ruchanit, Woman of Vision: Spiritual Midwife.
Registration Information
The program fee for this full-day class is $600 per adult, and includes both morning and afternoon sessions. Our Children's Program is available for $180 per child. Fees are per person, and do not include the cost of Room and Board (below). We strive to make our programs affordable to everyone. For information about Financial Assistance, please see below.
Room and Board
Our goal is to help you feel at home while on retreat. We provide you with comfortable accommodations in a beautiful, natural setting and three homemade meals prepared each day with your health and well-being in mind.
Room and board rates are per person and include housing, meals and full use of our facility. To calculate the cost of your stay, add the program fee above and your room and board rate below.
We offer a variety of housing accommodations that enable individuals with a wide range of financial capabilities to participate in our programs. All rooms are air-conditioned in the summer, heated in the winter, and simply decorated in a country style without modern multimedia distractions.
Rooms are available as single or double occupancy, with private, shared, or hall bathrooms. If you are coming alone and request a shared room, you will be paired with a roommate of the same gender. Please note, however, that some cabins and shared bathrooms may be co-ed.
For children's rates as well as commuting and tenting options, please see below.
Standard Plus Rooms: Weinberg, May
Standard plus rooms have private bathrooms and are available with either two queen-sized beds or three twin-sized beds.
Standard Rooms: Scheuer, Pine, Cedar, Maple, Blue Heron
Standard rooms have either a private bathroom or a bathroom shared with one other room. Most standard rooms have twin-sized beds; queen-sized beds may be available on a limited basis.
Campers supply their own tents and equipment and have access to bathrooms and showers. Camping fee includes all meals and snacks, use of the facility and its amenities, and participation in any open programming provided, such as meditation, yoga or non-holiday prayer.
The commuter fee includes all meals and snacks, use of the facility and its amenities, and participation in any open programming provided, such as such as meditation, yoga or non-holiday prayer.
There is no charge for infants and children ages 3 and under. Children ages 4–17 must share a room with at least one parent or guardian. Young adults ages 18 and above must pay the regular rates.
One of our core values is that our programs should be accessible to everyone. We provide limited financial aid for Room and Board fees. This financial support is only available for dormitory rooms with hall baths and economy rooms for couples and families. If you would like to request financial support, please complete the Application for Financial Aid. In your request, please consider that we have a limited pool of resources.
All requests must be received at least three weeks prior to the retreat.
Please note that we are not able to make any refunds in order to grant an aid request. If you choose to register prior to being awarded aid, and your remaining balance is less than the aid award, you will forfeit any award in excess of your outstanding balance.
Please support our ability to continue to provide financial aid by making a donation online or by calling 800.398.2630.
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Cancellation Policy
Payments made will be refunded in full (less a $50 processing fee) if you cancel more than 14 days prior to your arrival. If you cancel between 13 days and 72 hours prior to a retreat for which you have registered, a non-refundable, non-transferable credit (less a $50 processing fee) will be held for one year from the date of issue. No credit or refund is available if you cancel within 72 hours of a retreat or on the retreat arrival day, if you do not show up, or if you leave a retreat early for any reason.
Isabella Freedman reserves the right to cancel any program at any time. In the event of such a cancellation, you will receive a complete refund.
Inclement Weather: Isabella Freedman reserves the right to cancel a retreat due to inclement weather if, in its judgment, it will be unable to operate safely. In the event of such a cancellation, a full refund will be made to all registrants. In the event that the retreat proceeds as scheduled, no refund or credit will be available.
Shuttle and Transportation Fees: A full transportation refund is available if you cancel a transportation reservation at least 3 days (72 hours) in advance. No refund is available if less than 3 days notice is given.
Training Institutes: If you are participating in a two-year training institute and you miss or cancel one of the weeklong retreat sessions, your room and board fee will be refunded according to the policy above, but the program fee for a missed or cancelled retreat session is still due. Withdrawal is permitted only after the first retreat session. If you withdraw from a training institute after the first retreat session, or if you are asked by faculty to leave the institute, you will receive a full refund on your program fee for any remaining pre-paid retreats.
Travel Insurance: We recommend you contact your travel agent to purchase travel insurance in the event that you need to cancel or change your travel plans.
Exceptions: Exceptions to these policies may be available in the event of severe weather emergencies or the death of a close family member. To request a non-transferable credit for one of these reasons, please submit a written request to registrar@isabellafreedman.org no more than three days after the start of the event.
Simona Aronow has been in private practice for over 30 years as a Dance/Movement Therapist, Movement Analyst and educator, body worker, teacher and supervisor. Raised orthodox, she integrates her traditional yeshiva background with the direct experience of somatic awareness and movement, to foster personal connection and meaning. Simona has taught through the National Havurah Summer Institute, Laban Institute of Movement, and Gesher Center for Spirituality Meditation and Healing, on whose Board of Directors she has also served since 2000. She has supervised students through Goucher College and Antioch University, and currently maintains a private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her love for movement and somatic healing is inspiring.
Latifa Berry Kropf has been creating and leading sacred dance for 35 years. As a leader of her Renewal chavurah in Charlottesville VA, Latifa enriches Shabbat and holy day services and celebrations with dance and movement and weaves dance into life cycle events. She has published dance materials for both adults and children, has had the privilege of sharing sacred dance with many communities, and has been honored with the title of Eshet Hazon, Woman of Vision. In the words of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, "Dance has shown to be the best entry form to communal prayer. Latifa
has a spark of Prophetess Miriam and she transmits this to those who
dance with her. All your bones will join the soul, mind and heart in prayer."
Julie Leavitt is a registered Dance/Movement Therapist and practices body-centered psychotherapy and spiritual direction in Newton, MA. She has taught Sacred Movement classes at Elat Chayyim and the Aleph Kallah and serves on the core faculty of the Lev Shomea spiritual direction program, teaching movement and body-centered knowing to spiritual directors-in-training. She has taught Movement and Healing classes at Lesley University for the past 22 years. In 2004, Julie’s community, B’nai Or of Boston, honored her with the title Eshet Hazon: Miyaledet Ruchanit, Woman of Vision: Spiritual Midwife.