• Workshops, kept small, happen in a big carpeted tent with windows on the woods.
• Workshop leaders are artists offering inspiration within a disciplined structure.
• Meals are organic and delicious. If special dietary needs, tell us.
• 10% off workshop fee if paid a month before workshop.  If can’t afford full fee, let us know and we’ll negotiate. 

                                                               Peter Columbus, administrator
                                                                Deb Katz, executive director
                                                 Jean-Claude van Itallie, founder/artistic director
 
Through its mission -- the practice and exciting cross-fertilization of theater, meditation, and healing, -- and through conservation of its pristine natural environment, Shantigar nurtures and inspires individuals to engage more profoundly with the world.

Shantigar’s workshop leaders are artists who delight in teaching, original thinkers offering wisdom and inspiration within a disciplined structure. Workshops are kept small.  Enrollment is limited.

Until we’ve rebuilt our theater barn, workshops take place in a big carpeted white tent with windows on the woods. 
Meals are organic and delicious.  They're served in the Shantigar shed.  If you have special dietary needs, please tell us.

When you register, we’ll tell you if rooms are available to rent in the farmhouse or cabin.  Click to view local inns and bed-n-breakfasts. There's free camping at Shantigar (we have many gorgeous tent sites, solar showers and portapotties, but no running water or cooking facilities).

To register, call (413) 339-4332, email us at email@shantigar.org, or register online via the register new buttons below.   Our address is 63 Davenport Road, Rowe, Massachusetts, 01367

Speaking From Your Heart: a transformative retreat with Jean-Claude van Itallie

April 12-15: At Ratna Ling Retreat Center, 35755 Hauser Bridge Rd. Cazadero, CA. 95421

Laying the groundwork through different kinds of movement and meditation, gently guided by Jean-Claude, you’ll center yourself according to his unique disciplines,. Taking your time and staying in movement, you’ll address the circle of your encouraging fellow workshop participants. Slowly performing the powerful practice of speaking from your heart, your breath will be liberated from anxiety. You’ll easily enter remembered or imagined places, giving voice to what you see, hear, smell, touch and taste. An astonishingly muscular, personal language will spontaneously emerge from you. Words created in this way are visceral, rhythmical, and, if written down by a fellow participant, alive on the page too. Poets Homer and Rumi “wrote” by spontaneously speaking and singing.

Everyone is welcome in this workshop. Come if you write or perform, if you want to write or perform – or simply to deepen your ability to speak from the heart.
“I take Jean-Claude’s workshops because they’re fun.” – Kathy Benners
“I came to my first workshop with Jean-Claude to learn to be a better writer and speaker, and left discovering a hidden part of me…” John Adams
“Jean-Claude is the only playwriting teacher I ever had.” – Tony Kushner

Jean-Claude van Itallie was central to the explosive American theater of the 60's. Author of “Playwright’s Workbook,” his over 30 works include acclaimed anti-Viet Nam war play “America Hurrah;” “The Serpent” (ensemble piece with Open Theater); “Tibetan Book of the Dead,” often-produced translations of Chekhov’s major plays; “Light; Voltaire, the Mathematician, and the King of Prussia;” and his one-man show, “War, Sex and Dreams.” He’s taught play writing and performing in colleges and retreat centers for many years. He’s currently co-writing the libretto for “Mila, Great Sorcerer,” an opera about Tibet’s singing yogi, Milarepa. (www.vanitallie.com)

Cost: $360 – Early-bird discount ($425 after February 29th)
 
To register: http://www.creativeinquiry.org/develop/registration-speaking-from-your-heart/

Emilie Conrad, visionary and a movement pioneer, founded Continuum Movement in 1967. Her inspiring innovations are being incorporated into Rolfing, Cranio-Sacral, physical therapy, dance, yoga, Somatics, movement education, therapeutic massage, kinesiology, psycho-neural-immunology and physical fitness.

Jean-Claude says admiringly of Emilie that, “She’s invented a yoga for our times.”

"Jean Claude and Emilie, my love and thank you for the work you did with us.  It was an amazing 3 days of shared exploration.  In the world we live in with all the frenetic noise and distractions, it is so easy to lose connection to our universal selves; to become isolated and to close off that part of us and our soul that is directly linked to the spark of creation.  My time with both of you was an awakening in my heart that I will nurture.  It is that place where we connect to the creator and be the creator; where we remember that we are a microcosm of the universe and made of that same source.  I love and am thrilled to have met such sages, who generously pass their wisdom.  Peace and light to all  involved in this endeavor.".. Gerald T. Glackin

"I enjoyed the entire experience! But more specifically...I deeply appreciated hearing both Emilie and Jean-Claude talk about the body and performance from their respective and overlapping expertises. These discussions/mini-lectures helped clarify, and deepen my experience of the "exercises" so I came to understand what the "continuum of performance" means in a multi-layered way.
I loved the actual embodied exercises we did all three days, moving from the floor to standing, and also adding words. I felt parts of myself wake up and move, or express, that I know have been dormant for many many years. I discovered how deeply we are moved, and how much each of us carries that wants to be expressed, and how innately formed that is, how ready we are at any moment to perform what we carry "inside". I also loved the feeling of pure pleasure in moving/being moved. How deeply this all informs our well-being was a profound revelation.".. Rhea Lehman

Emilie Conrad, visionary and a movement pioneer, founded Continuum Movement in 1967. Her inspiring innovations are being incorporated into Rolfing, Cranio-Sacral, physical therapy, dance, yoga, Somatics, movement education, therapeutic massage, kinesiology, psycho-neural-immunology and physical fitness. Jean-Claude says admiringly of Emilie that, “She’s invented a yoga for our times.”

Workshop Description
A revolutionary approach to a quantum re-mapping of the human body. In Continuum movement the body is nourished so that tissue structure becomes multi-dimensional, as if you were bathing in the elixir of life itself.

In Continuum movement we thrive by expanding the scope of our sensory experience, leading us to access alternative streams of life. We enter the world of cells and mitochondria micro-moving beneath the surface of our conventional world. Our movements become fractals of universal motifs, orchestrating themselves within our versatile tissue.

No longer bound in limited time/space, we adventure freely within the universe of our organism. The human body becomes a continuum of creative possibilities.

Experience the scope of our humanity by entering into frequency realms not bound by time, space or condition.
Learn to move with profound restorative energies enriching consciousness and nourishing the soul.
Just as outer space has increased our knowledge of the world, the same holds true for our inner space. We become pioneers of new ways of moving, knowing, and engaging in the glorious mystery of existence. Welcome to Our Future!! (Early Registration: $340; Late Registration: $378)

Emilie Conrad, founder of Continuum and author of Life on Land is a visionary whose innovations are incorporated in the Somatic, movement education, and physical fitness fields. Jean-Claude says of Emilie, “A master who’s created a yoga for our times.”www.continuummovement.com

Shantigar, named by the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa who wrote his Shambhala teachings here, and where many theater pieces have been created since the sixties, is the ideal place for this retreat.

"Everything excellent. Particularly enjoyed every aspect of the teaching, my own little room, the unbelievable grounds and the house, and Alix the cat -- the generosity and ease of the experience."

"Workshop was wonderful and this is a beautiful magical place."

"I enjoyed everything, really. Would have enjoyed a hike on the grounds led by Jean-Claude, though I saw a lot by myself."

"I particularly enjoyed the small group, hearing comments specific to me and to everybody, establishing space of love and safety, and a lively and fun accompanist."

"I particularly enjoyed having time on my own in my tent and walking around Shantigar outside the wkshop experience."

"Fabulous:"

    "I particularly liked the walks on the land with Mr. van Itallie."

    "Carol and Steven are brilliant teachers -- delights."

    " I particularly liked drinking raw milk, my room in the house, and walking the grounds."

     "I particularly liked working with Carol and Steve -- it's always wondrous."

    "The workshop was totally great."

     "It was fantastic in every way."