DATES & TIME

 

Sat. March 22, 2025
11a-11p

In Partnership with

 

NEVADA COUNTY, CA

 

LOCATION

 

Elk’s Lodge

Grass Valley, CA

LEADING WITH THE HEART

Step into a space of connection, presence, and transformation as we explore the alchemy of the heart through mindful movement and partner dance. This immersive 7-10 hour experience invites you to deepen your relationship with yourself, others, and the universal energy of devotion.

 

Rooted in the principles of Cocréa, we’ll weave the art of conscious, co-creative dance with the wisdom of Gene Key 25—a portal to universal love using the transformational tool of acceptance. Together, we’ll explore how vulnerability and presence can open the door to profound connection, and how movement can be a pathway to overcoming constriction in the heart, and embodying devotion in every step.

 

The day will include:

  • • Guided practices to cultivate presence, openness, and connection
  • • Explorations of the Gene Key 25 themes: constriction, innocence, and universal love
  • • Partner dance exercises to develop trust, deep listening, and embodied communication
  • • A curated dance journey with live DJs to integrate and celebrate

We are honored to feature Wren LaFeet, Brother Jag, and Heather Christie & Vir McCoy as your DJs and sonic guides for our evening dance experience.

No prior dance experience or knowledge of the Gene Keys is needed—just a willingness to show up as you are and move from the heart. Whether you come alone or with a partner, you’ll leave feeling more connected, grounded, and inspired.

Join us in Grass Valley, CA, and let the alchemy of the heart transform your dance and your life.

 

 

“The more you can accept yourself and others, the more love will bloom in your life.”

 

-Richard Rudd, The Gene Keys

What others say about their Cocréa experience:

“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

NIGHT TIME MUSIC VIBES

with Vir McCoy

Fusing electronic beats with silky vocals and world instruments, Heather’s hybrid live-electronic DJ sets take people on a journey through genres, focusing on afro house, latin house, organic house, medicine music, bass, and more. Usually joined by her husband, Vir McCoy, on ethnic strings and guitar, the set is dynamic and alive. Sometimes joined by special guests (sax, live drums, dancers, etc.)

With her babe in arms, Heather has been forging a new pathway among the festival and ecstatic dance scenes with her “mama power” electric DJ sets that don’t take away from her motherhood nor artistry’; in fact, they enhances the visionary nature of what she has to offer. Going viral in July 2023 for breastfeeding onstage during a DJ set, she means it when she says “we’re making a new way.” With her motherhood-focused record label Möonbabe Records, Heather is on a mission to uplift all women in music.

NIGHT TIME MUSIC VIBES

Brotha Jag (aka Isaac Williams) creates an immersive sonic experience that guides us both deeper into our heart and also wider into a connected and powerfully unified group.

Being not only a DJ and producer, but also a dancer, he knows how to make a body move.

His sets include an insatiable array of sounds and genres, from afro-house to disco, French house to funk, remixed oldies & classics to new original productions and collaborations, and much more.

Brotha Jag plays music for the people. Music that empowers, uplifts, and takes us into realms of feeling through movement. Music that touches something real.

 

EMBODIMENT FACILITATION &

NIGHT TIME MUSIC VIBES

Wren is an embodiment guide intent on learning how to be in right-relationship as a 21st century human so he can best serve life. A trained dancer, theater worker, mindfulness facilitator and recovery counselor, Wren shares body-based practices synthesized from social partner dance, mindfulness, Taoism, the Gene Keys, waterways and relating with humans that support interpersonal connection and positive change. In 2013, Wren co-founded Cocréa with Antje Schaefer as a vehicle for exploring mindful, consent based relational practice through movement and dance. Channeling what he has come to acknowledge as an intelligence that wants the best for humanity, he creates brave spaces for humans struggling with disconnection and longing for a deeper sense of belonging to come home to themselves through the body. 

Wren is a TEDx speaker, featured author in “ReInhabiting the Village”, certified Attunement Therapy practitioner and HeartMath certified trauma sensitive educator. He holds a BA in Drama and Dance and began dancing in 1998 at the height of the swing dance revival. Immediately starting to fuse dance styles of swing, hip hop and contemporary movement in composition and socially, Wren has followed his own path of fusing styles and ideas from the very beginning of his journey.

Wren recently completed working with Embodied Recovery as a substance use disorder counselor in Los Gatos, CA. A devotee of the Gene Keys since 2013, he is currently training to become a certified Guide.

​​

AS A DJ…

Wren has been instigating dance parties since 2008. Always working with an awareness of the room he’s in, Wren crafts dance sets that are sonic journeys facilitating deeper embodiment, connection and presence. He also throws down booty bouncing bass sets that open up your sacral chakra and unwind your spine, as well as deep downtempo sets that drop you into the far reaches of the subtle currents of consciousness.

Having danced his own way towards freedom since 1998 with his roots in swing, salsa, hip-hop and contemporary styles, he holds a deep connection to the power of dance to liberate, and the importance of the music fueling the journey. His broad musical tastes and hyper-attuned facilitation skills offer a container for the numinous experience of spinaesthesia to emerge:  becoming the music. Wren welcomes you home to yourself, to let go of what is not serving, or better yet, integrate that sh!t and be danced into your higher self.

EMBODIMENT FACILITATION

BRENÉE ROUSSEL

Brenée is a birth doula, trained CPM (Certified Professional Midwife), and is a developing preconception coach assisting people in intentionally conceiving babies. She has studied how to hold this sacred container of ushering in new expansions of the human experience since 2013. Learning the wisdom of being a gatekeeper of life has created a nuance on “midwifing” people within their personal processes from birth and beyond, knowing it is all interconnected.  

Dance always came naturally to Brenee, even as a child. As a young teen she attended dance classes to deepen her connection to movement, but found herself uninspired by choreography, or a dance regime. In time, she began exploring her “Yes!” through authentic movement on whatever dance floor she could. Eventually majoring in concert dance floor sessions, as well as fire dance performance, she outgrew her roots in Maine. Drawn to travel the states, she eventually landed on the west coast. 

She first journeyed with 5 Rhythms in 2012, and that catapulted her into the world of the human genius within ecstatic dance, dancing freedom, contact dance and then into the world of transformational festivals. Her teachers became those whom she danced with, knowing every person had their own story and gem to be offered within that shared moment of movement. She learned to deeply listen to what someone’s body was saying in the smallest of nuances by deeply attuning to their flow, allowing a transmission of invitation, permissioning and surrender. She gained insight into how to move like water with most people at any level of dance, informing how she grew as a dance partner. 

She discovered Cocréa at Beloved 2018 finding a home within its practice that was innate in her personal practice. She began her training to become a Cocréa Mindful Partner Dance instructor in the fall of 2019. After the long pause COVID inflicted on the training, Brenée is excited to be sharing this body wisdom once again as the first graduate of Cocréa‘s facilitator training.

SLIDING SCALE PAYMENT

For the most part, Cocréa now operates our events on a sliding scale.

Please choose the level of exchange that gets you excited to be all in for the experience.

NOTAFLOF

No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds

We at Cocréa strongly believe a better way of living on earth is possible that doesn’t depend on enabling exploitative structures, wealth hoarding or exponential growth. With service and integrity at our core, we are truly doing our best to embody the ideal of “enough truly IS enough”.

Therefore, for those who have limited financial resources, and/or those who have been most impacted by systemic oppression, if you feel drawn to this event but don’t have all the funds, please reach out to connect so we can work together to make it possible for you.

Send Us a Message

11 + 15 =

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?

 

 

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