Dance Your Medicine Retreat

COSTA RICA • FEB 2022

Restore • Connect • Ignite

 

February 5th – 11th, 2022

at Danyasa Eco Resort

Playa Dominical

COSTA RICA

 

DANCE YOUR MEDICINE is a multi-day, eco luxury retreat about remembering, recharging and reaching our peak vitality through intentional movement and community. Together, for 7 days and 6 nights, we will imbibe pristine nature and food, dance to luscious music, embrace our sensuality and learn how to harness it for creating good in the world.

 

 Is Dance Your Medicine is the right fit for you in this time of great change?

 

Schedule a discovery call with Cocréa founder, Wren LaFeet, and see how Cocréa can support you in remembering the wisdom of the body and reconnecting with others in the spirit of change.

 

Liberate yourself within the limitless realm of Cocréa.

It is time to remember.

Remember who you are, how to be nourished by one another, how to trust yourself and how to trust each other.

It is time to be unafraid; of breathing the same air, of being in physical contact, of sharing our hearts and mind.

We are coming back slowly from a very dark time. We must lean into the support of community and fortify our being for the time ahead.

• LISTEN •

• E M B O D Y •

• CONNECT•

• COC R E A T E •

 

EMBODIMENT is the practice we invite you to cultivate; of your purpose, of your truth, of the unique medicine you bring and how to find that through moving your body with others.

SHIFT YOUR PARADIGM into a full love embrace of what turns you on and lights you up. Discover how living in acceptance and curiosity of your body, boundaries and what brings you alive, and how honoring that in others gives way to a radiant, thriving life.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT of conscious dance infusing the world with mindful connection and the pleasure of being alive. Adventure with Cocréa’s brilliant team of facilitators as they masterfully weave the themes of consent, emotional intelligence, radical self expression and holistic living through the mediums of movement, breath, music and touch.

Retreat Features

 

Fusion Partner Dance Technique Classes

Solo Movement Classes

Trauma-Informed Somatic Education

Dance Parties with Stellar DJs

Meditation • Yoga • Breema

Epic Jungle Waterfall Trip • Beach Hangouts

Outdoor Pool Lounge

All Organic, Vegetarian Meals

Cacao provided by Ora Cacao

Love • And MORE!

Click Here for more details and images of the luxurious Danyasa Eco-Retreat accommodations!

COME PLAY WITH US!

The Studio Space

Release and let go into the full embrace of Danyasa.

Curated and cultivated over the last 10 years by loving hands, this bamboo enshrined dance floor is an incubator for sacred movement and a powerful container that can hold you in all the versions you want to share.

Come as you are.

Leave as you want to be.

Inspiration on Tap

In addition to the stellar content provided by the Cocréa team, you’ll have opportunities during the week to learn from Danyasa founder, Sofiah Thom, and other Danyasa teachers.

Soak in the beauty of this living work of art and its curators.

“Before this retreat I was feeling disconnected from myself, my body and my dance.

I left not only having reconnected with myself and my dance but also having had the realization that this is what makes magic on the dance floor…to be embodied, connected with myself and have an open heart to connecting with others.

What I loved most about this retreat was the way in which the whole experience was skillfully crafted to lead me down this spiral of learning, self realization and interpersonal connection.

I just trusted the process and the skill of these beautiful facilitators…the result was deep transformation for myself and for my dance!”

– Michelle Raine, Integrative Trauma Therapist, Dance Your Medicine participant

michelleraine.com/

“These are staple somatic practices you’re teaching in a totally different context.

It’s non-verbal consent without the new age fluff and it WORKS.”

-Buster Rådvik, Founder and Owner at Embodied Intimacy

www.embodiedintimacytraining.com/

“What I loved about this retreat is the opportunity to step in deeply to a dance that brings both structure and freedom together.

This dance is like therapy. It’s an analogy for life on so many levels. To dive in with others feels connecting in ways so rare, precious and soul enlivening.

Thank you!!!”

– Kiki Mariotti, Dance Your Medicine retreat participant

“I have always loved to dance, but had limited vocabulary and some dense blocks preventing me from feeling comfortable in social dance settings…

I feel like I have deepened my connection with my own body, learned a new and delightful language, and received techniques to commune with others in a more profound way.

And it was fun and easy. I am so excited to go out and dance!”

– Niema Lightseed, Coach, Yoga teacher and Poetess

www.radicalwellbeing.com

“If you see these people doing a workshop within a 10 hour drive, you should make it.

It’s not just a dance class, it’s a life training that helps with all forms of connections and relationship.”

– Martín Bullo, Owner/Chef, Sierra Nevada Camp Chef

https://sierranevadacampchef.com

I learned so much about myself and how I relate to people and my environment, and now weeks after I see my relationships are also transforming.

From the start of the week to the end I felt like a completely different person, so full of energy and life.

Wren has a beautiful and unique style of teaching that is welcoming to each part of the soul, he invites a space of  healing and true authentic embodiment through words of wisdom and movement.

I will forever carry these teachings with me, so much gratitude for Cocréa.

– Jensyn Stanley, Momentom Collective Green Resident participant

“Eloquent, articulate and talented…

spreading the consciousness of connection through the lens of partnered dance far and wide.”

– Mark Metz, Creator/Editor of Conscious Dancer Magazine

www.consciousdancer.com

FACILITATION TEAM

Wren LaFeet

Wren LaFeet

Cocréa Founder and Retreat Lead Facilitator

Wren’s eclectic movement style has largely informed fusion as an emergent dance form free of any fixed aesthetic. Fueled by his curiosity in spirituality, the body, global community, the natural world and relationships, and guided by his devotion to love and the idea of the Beloved, partner dance has served as the vehicle for his inquiry and understanding. He has inspired the formation of multiple fusion dance communities on the west coast of North America, and teaches partner dance internationally as a practice for mindful, authentic living.

His facilitation encourages individuals to create themselves as safer spaces for the embodiment of the full range of human expression. Promoting dance as medicine, spirituality and salve for our modern ailments of disconnection and alienation, his practice insists we trust our bodies with the music and our partner to catalyze elevating our whole being into higher vibrational states.

Working with the holographic overview of humanity provided by the Gene Keys and combining its contemplative practice with his own somatic exploration and intuitive listening through the body, as well as his study of human conflict through theater, Wren empowers individuals and communities to dance with joy, helps free insights locked in the body, coaches people to more easily access their sensuality and even on privileged occasion supports the healing of chronic disease. Wren’s deepest desire is to guide people into right relationship with the moment; to listen and respond appropriately to what is being called for in service to the highest possible good.

Usha Rose

Usha Rose

Guest Facilitator - Somatic Sex, Intimacy, and Relationship Coach

Usha Rose is a Somatic Sex, Intimacy, and Relationship Coach, Workshop Facilitator, Dance and Yoga Teacher, and Licensed Massage Therapist. She is trained in the Somatica™ Method of Sex and Relationship Coaching and is a graduate of the International School of Temple Arts Practitioner Training. She also spent three years studying closely with Sonika Tinker and Christian Pederson in the LoveWorks Relationship Training Mastery Program, including two years in the Assistant and Leadership Program.

She is the co-founder of Foothills Fusion Dance, a weekly, social dance in Grass Valley, CA and co-founder of Convergence, an annual Ecstatic and Fusion dance mini-festival in Northern California. She is also the Production Manager and Facilitator for Cocréa, a mindful partner dance company that produces transformational dance retreats and workshops around the globe.

Usha discovered the conscious dance community in 2010 when she started attending Ecstatic Dance Oakland. Since then she has studied SoulMotion™ with Vinn Marti and Zuza Engler, completed the JourneyDance™ Teacher Training with Toni Bergins and continues to be inspired by the many teachings of Contact Improv and 5Rhythms™.

She took her first partner dance class (Salsa) in 2005, although she was first introduced to partner dancing as a young child in her living room with her grandmother who was an avid Lindy Hop dancer. It was around 2010 when Usha discovered Blues dancing, and soon thereafter fell in love with Fusion dancing. She has studied several other partner dance forms including Salsa, Tango, Swing and Zouk, to name a few. In addition to teaching locally, she has taught dance at several events around the country including Enchanted Forest Gathering, Jumpsuit Family Gathering and Northern California Dance Camp.

Odessa Avianna Perez

Odessa Avianna Perez

Guest Facilitator and Trauma-Informed Somatic Educator

Odessa Avianna Perez is a trauma-informed somatic psychotherapist, embodiment and social justice educator who helps individuals and groups heal from fragmentation and remember agency, magic, and belonging.

Odessa is a cis gender, able-bodied, biracial white-presenting latina currently residing in Kumeyaay territory – what is now known as San Diego, CA. She holds an MA in Somatic Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies and triple bachelor degrees in Dance, Theater Arts, and Sociology from Rutgers University. She is a ThetaHealing practitioner and instructor, and has a background in massage and bodywork. She has over 2 decades of movement and dance performance experience, and has been practicing and teaching Contact Improvisation as a form of self inquiry and relationship alchemy for over ten years.

Odessa is deeply curious about the intersection of personal and collective trauma, collective nervous system states and expression, and how we can use somatics to integrate our trauma for better relationship, community and planet.  She has facilitated workshops at dozens of retreats and festivals up and down the west coast using somatics, movement, and contact improvisation as the platform through which to explore safety, relationship, building capacity for discomfort, interdependence and inclusion.

In her psychotherapeutic private practice, she weaves somatics, movement, interpersonal neurobiology, polyvagal theory, attachment work, and social and racial justice frameworks.

With spiritual lineage in western Sufism and a background in ThetaHealing, she invites the mystical and metaphysical perspective, while remaining grounded in the reality of this planet and the structures and power dynamics we find ourselves in.

Taj Richards

Taj Richards

Yoga Teacher

A forever student, Taj has been practicing and teaching yoga for the last decade. Her yoga journey has included Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin and Goddess flow certifications. Through movement practices, she’s experienced her most profound moments of realization and emotional breakthroughs. Naturally she enjoys helping others tap into something new, be it emotions, sensations, or thoughts through the modalities she’s most familiar. She believes yoga is a lifestyle and that lifestyles often ebb and flow with life. As she continues to grow and change, so does her practice as it incorportes traditional and nontraditional ideas, topics, music and more.

FEATURED MUSIC ARTISTS

Scott Nice

Scott Nice

Northern California producer Scott Nice brings the listeners mind and heart into a flowing adventure through world music colors, sounds of the jungle, and dance music aesthetics. Nice, a former turntablist who has logged time in the skateboard and snowboard industries, returned to making music with a newfound clarity and focus following health challenges that saw him stop making music for an extended period. The healing arts and indigenous wisdom that supported his recovery weave a thread in every song he creates, finding a place within the juxtaposition of his skateboard soaked childhood and heart centered present. Through inner journey and personal triumph, Nice has arrived at an exotic cross-section of styles, yet maintains a sound all his own.

In 2016 Jumpsuit Records released Scott’s freshman album ‘All the Wild Creatures’ and in 2017 the follow up EP ‘One Under the Sun’. In 2018 he released his sophomore LP ’A People Called Home’ and 2019 saw the release of Scott’s first remix album comprised of 11 producers including El Buho, Uji, Volo and more. Scott has been a featured producer and remixer on many releases including Ayla Nereo, Wildlight, Volo, Equanimous, DJ Taz Rashid and The Polish Ambassador albums.

Jonas Ketterle

Jonas Ketterle

Ora Cacao Founder

Jonas crafts unsweetened ceremonial grade cacao that is used in cacao ceremonies around the world. After first encountering sipping chocolate in Oaxaca Mexico in 2012, Jonas founded the bean to bar dark chocolate company, Firefly Chocolate, in 2014, with the mission of inspiring awe and wonder through cacao. Always with a focus on health, he initially launched 85% dark chocolate in a variety of flavors, sweetened with low glycemic coconut sugar. He also pioneered a bio-regional wild harvested chocolate bar, celebrating bay nuts, a food used by the native peoples of the SF Bay Area.

Sponsored by Ora Cacao

Sponsored by Ora Cacao

We are so thrilled to be joined by Ora Cacao on this exquisite journey.

Ora’s ethos and business model around cacao and its incredible properties are in perfect alignment with our own and we’re honored to get to journey through dance with this beautiful medicine.

“Cacao is not a commodity. It belongs not in the candy aisle, but in the holistic medicine aisle. It is time for a new way of producing chocolate that is a reflection of humanity’s highest potential of stewarding all life on Earth. This is why people choose cacao ceremony: they desire to know that the chocolate they so enjoy creates thriving for the ecosystems in which it grows, and for the people and communities who grow it. Our regenerative model is based on respect, true relationship and stewardship, for only with this as a foundation can cacao’s true medicine be realized.”

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND RESPONSIBILITY

 
If you would like, we have an option to make a one time, $100 donation in addition to your event registration fee.
 
For every $100 donation received from participants, Cocréa will match it with an additional $100. This ensures that we can cover the cost of food for a local Costa Rican desiring to attend, and offer our program to them on a pay-what-you-can basis.
 
By living – simply being alive – in a time of such change while holding systemic, global privilege, we at Cocréa believe that we have a responsibility to leverage that power to do good things. 
 
Our time here is finite. As such, part of the way we desire to leverage our power is by providing access to our programming at minimal cost to those for whom the cost of an event would be prohibitive.
 
Everyone deserves to have a good time dancing with others, no matter what culture you were born into. 
 
We also believe in ending systemic oppression which is why 1% of all our year end profits go to Color of Change, and 1% of THIS event will go to the Found Nation to assist in their continuing work of enriching the lives of the indigenous Costa Rican people, the BriBri.

 

DETAILS

We are creating space for 1 Non-Costa Rican scholarship participant, and 5 Tico participants.

 

SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION

Our scholarship application is closed and has been awarded. However, if you are requiring financial assistance to attend, please reach out and we will be happy to consider your needs.
If you are a Tico living in Costa Rica and would like to attend, please fill out the application form and follow the prompts.

ON SITE ACCOMMODATIONS

Our rooms strike a balance between eco-friendliness and luxurious comfort. We provide top quality mattresses, 1500 thread count sheets, hot water, AC, high-speed WiFi and access to free filtered drinking water to maximize your comfort.

We use only the most eco-friendly and carefully sourced soaps, detergents and cleaning products, as well as energy efficient lighting and appliances, going the extra mile to respect and preserve the beautiful nature around us.

We built everything off the ground and in the air, to let the jungle life and the tropical rain flow unimpeded below us. 

For your comfort and enjoyment we have the following available:

• Single Beds: shared occupancy rooms (rooms sleep 3)

• Private Queen Bed Rooms for an individual or couple

Offsite Accomomodations also available

 

All Tickets Include All Meals

View Ticketing Page for Availability

Private Queen Room

Private Queen Room

Shared Single Room

Why Partner Dance?

Dancing in intentional connection with others offers a wealth of benefits. It has been shown time and again how necessary it is for us humans to engage in healthy, physical contact with one another. We hold this truth at our core and endeavor to offer spaces for this need to be met in a good way. Building upon this foundational aspect of our humanity, Cocréa opens doorways to finding versatility and ease as we move through life.

Improve Communication

  • Improve awareness and sensitivity to emotional and physiological states of other people.
  • Practice listening to verbal and nonverbal cues.
  • Calm the mind to increase presence and attentiveness to another person’s sharing.
  • Increase emotional intelligence.

Embody Consent

  • Practice asking for and giving your full embodied No and enthusiastic Yes.
  • Honoring and respecting boundaries.
  • Interpreting and understanding body language.

Build Confidence

  • Practice taking risks and trying new things in a supportive environment.
  • Become more comfortable with spontaneously expressing yourself through movement.
  • Enjoy the experience of feeling grounded in a powerful, fluid body and calm, curious mind.

Practice Community

  • Add variety and fun to your week through playful interaction with likeminded people.
  • Gain skills you can teach to existing dance partners.
  • Experience a sense of belonging within the larger Cocréa and Fusion communities.
  • Connect online with national and international Cocréa community.
  • Have fun and laugh with new friends.

Expand Creativity

  • Open new neural pathways of self-expression through exploration of dance form and a diversity of music.
  • Strengthen and integrate all the parts of your body to support that expression.
  • Release self-limiting beliefs that hold you back from being fully expressed.
  • Develop trust in the phenomenon of emergence and learn to be guided by the moment.

Enhance Somatic Awareness

  • Discover movement of your body as a living wisdom within you.
  • Develop stronger body awareness for more graceful movement.
  • Master spatial awareness for greater ease of movement in daily life.
  • Find flow as you move through your world.

Ready to Shift Your Paradigm?

 

COVID POLICY

We require everyone who attends the event to provide proof of a negative COVID test within 24 hours before arriving at the venue whether you are vaccinated against the virus or not. We desire to hold the safety of both our attendees and our host country in highest degree possible while also honoring that not everyone is in alignment with current trends around the vaccines.
 
In the event of a cancellation due to COVID, 100% of your ticket will be credited for a future Dance Your Medicine retreat to be announced.
 
In the event you cannot attend because you became sick with COVID, 50% of your ticket will be credited to be applied to any Cocréa event within a 12 month period or to the next DYM event you can attend.