Kaynaktan Topanga Retreat
October 20-23rd
Topanga, CA
We gathered for three days in the sacred mountains of Topanga, California to remember some of our collective dances, ancient movement rituals. We had the honor and delight of collaborating with three incredibly talented and soulful teachers who share a deep devotion to the cultures, places, and emotions from which the dances they carry forward have sprung.
Day 1: West African Dance from the Mandingue Tribe
On the first day of our Kaynaktan Dance Retreat in Topanga, we connected with the roots, through Kara Mack and her honoring of her ancestral wisdom from the West African Mandingue ethnic group. With an intimate connection to the history and soul of West African Dance, Kara Mack’s powerful essence, accompanied by live drumming, took us on a journey to embody the images and stories that gave rise to the movements of these ancient dances. Kara is a choreographer and creative director with an expertise in African Diasporic music and dance. She worked with Fatima Robinson on Kendrick Lamar’s iconic performance at 58th Grammys, Busta Rhymes performance at VMAs, “The Color Purple” movie and many more!! Kara is the founder of Africa in America®️, which serves as a primary resource for professionals and participants of African Diasporic music, dance, arts & culture in America. It was a gift to be immersed in her powerful energy, wisdom and wit.
Day 2: Hula and ‘Ori Tahiti
On the second day of our Kaynaktan Topanga Dance retreat, we experienced the graceful flow of Kumu Anna Liza, accompanied by live ukulele and drumming. Following the footsteps of her ancestors towards their deep connection to the natural world and the cosmos, Kumu invited us to shake our hips and stamp our feet embodying the spirit of Hula and Ori’ Tahiti ancestral dance. As well as her beautiful movement, chants, drumming and ukulele, Kumu made us a nourishing Polynesian spread for lunch and snacks celebrating the culture of her ancestors from the inside out. We began the day with Becky Hicks, guiding us through a somatic "awareness of presence" session and ended the day with weaving our lei po'o flower crowns, learning chords on the ukulele and watercolor painting. We left the day with the deep remembrance of the strength that can be found in softness and flow.
Day 3: Whirling and Sacred Circle Dances
On the third day of our Kaynaktan gathering, we immersed ourselves into the wisdom of whirling and circles with Miriam Peretz. The grounded and devoted energy of Miriam and her teachings enabled us to step into a space of prayer and surrender. We started the day with Ruya Gunergin guiding us in movement. Having learned from ancient dances the healing function of moving in community, we chose a collective challenge of our time and created a dance to move through it together. To explore the impact in our subconscious collective mind, we followed this by uninterrupted journaling, painting and moving to each other’s paintings. Our teacher Miriam Peretz arrived into this tender space with the grounded wisdom of Central Asian circle dances. We moved as one circle, spinning as we cleansed our bodies, and offered roses to life from our hearts. She then guided us into the profound practice of whirling. We began the process by working with different ways of elemental breathing, which became our anchor point as we whirled and everything around us seemed to blur into a single movement. We ended the day with prayers for ourselves, our community and the world through chanting and moving to Rumi’s poetry. Miriam created such a special space for us to know our hearts deeper and connect with one another in our common humanity.