Integrative Arts Festival: Explore Deep Ecology: July 7 – July 12!
“In this time [when all beings are in danger] the kingdom of Shambhala will emerge. The Shambhala Warrior has two weapons: compassion and insight into the deep interconnectedness of all things. The smallest act with clear intention has repercussions throughout the whole web, beyond your capacity to see . . . We need to show up — with the heat of compassion and the coolness of a wisdom that recognizes how things connect . . . without wisdom, the compassion burns us out, but without compassion, wisdom remains cold.”
–Joanna Macy, Active Hope
The 2014 Integrative Arts Festival is based on the interconnectedness of humanity and ecology — called Deep Ecology — a experiential toolbox one develops by moving along the Spiral of the Work that Re-Connects.
The Portland Shambhala Dharma Arts Council once again delights to share our space with Be.Space for the 2nd Life.Art.Being. Integrative Arts Festival, beginning on Monday, July 7 and continuing until Saturday, July 12th. This year’s festival has the theme: restoring intimacy with our world, and it focuses on the pioneering Deep Ecology work of Joanna Macy, which brings together Buddhism, ecology, and social action. In this work, we first connect with the heat of compassion we feel based on gratitude for the world and by honoring the pain we feel for the suffering in the world. Then we look further into the cool reality of interdependence — that we are part of the world and when we act on its behalf, we don’t act alone but rather as part of a network acting for positive change.
The Shambhala Center will host three events: a Panel Discussion with festival facilitators, a rare Introduction to Shambhala Arts with Lisa Stanley, and a Feast of Perception Performance Salon/Potluck.
Please note, our Generosity Policy is available for all Shambhala-hosted Arts Fest events. If you are free to help out, please contact Abbey Pleviak at [email protected]
Thursday, July 10 at 7pm. The Earth Body/Body Story, Panel Discussion, a conversation with Barbara Ford (Active Hope), Mary Seereiter (Authentic Movement), Damaris Webb (Deep Play), and moderated by Shambhala Dharma Arts representative Abbey Pleviak. We’ll reflect on themes from the week, particularly, the step of Belonging– intersections of community, identity, and artistry. We’ll explore how the Earth Body inter-relates with our own poetic, artistic bodies and our bodies of work, and how we feel called to express our passions for the benefit of the world. Reception follows. To register, for the Panel Discussion, please click here.
Saturday, July 12 at 1pm. Our Center Director Lisa Stanley will lead Waking Up to the World: an Introduction to Shambhala Arts based on the Dharma Arts teachings developed by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. These practices open us to the richness and magic of our everyday world. In this way our sense perceptions serve as the gateway to experiencing our own inherent creativity, and our ability to connect with the power of phenomena. To register for Waking Up to the World, please click here.
Saturday, July 12 at 6pm. We’ll close with the Feast of Perception, a Potluck and Performance Salon, hosted by Shambhala Dharma Arts representative Abbey Pleviak and Canadian Clown Ingenue Ashley Gillies. We’ll fill our plates and feast upon performative explorations of themes from the week through dance, song, words, and theater. No need to have taken part in the whole festival to attend or even to perform. Please bring a dish to share. To reserve a performance spot, contact Abbey at: [email protected] To register for the Feast of Perception, please click here.
Each day of the Life.Art.Being. Integrative Arts Festival explores a step on the Spiral of the Work that Re-Connects. This process begins with strengthening ourselves with Gratitude for the gifts of beauty and nourishment we receive from the world. It continues with Honoring Our Pain (Compassion) for the plight of the world and the suffering inflicted by shortsighted business-as-usual practices. Honoring this painful reality helps us feel our connection to the world, so that we can See with New Eyes (Belonging) — that we are not separate from the world. In fact, experiencing this pain restores our connection and helps us experience our own identity in larger ways, so that we see that our passion and desire to express ourselves is not selfish. In fact, the world calls us to act by Going Forth to share our gifts and skills for the benefit of the whole world.
“Because the relationship between self and world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened and then acting. As we work to heal the world, the world heals us. . . . As we care enough to take risks, we loosen the grip of ego and begin to come home to our true nature. For in the co-arising nature of things, the world itself, if we are bold enough to love it, acts through us. It does not ask us to be pure or perfect, or wait until we are detached from all passions, but only to care, to harness the sweet, pure intention of our deepest passions, and — as the early scripture of the Mother of All Buddhas says– ‘fly’ like a bodhisattva.”
— Joanna Macy in World As Lover, World as Self
The Be.Space is hosting the majority of the festival which occurs in three tracks — early morning, afternoons, and evenings. It is possible to purchase full festival passes, passes for one or more of the tracks, and also to do single class drop-ins.
For more information, you can view the whole Festival Schedule here.
The festival opens with an evening session in Active Hope with Barbara Ford, who will be presenting Joanna Macy’s Deep Ecology work. Each night, Barbara will introduce and explore a step on the Spiral that will be further explored in the following day’s classes. In Deep Ecology work, Hope is something you do, not something you have. It is a kind of intention, with tools- emotional, spiritual, and embodied- which help us offer our gifts in service to the healing of the world.
In the mornings, Mary Seereiter will lead sessions in Authentic Movement, a practice derived from dance therapy and Carl Jung’s ideas about active imagination. The process helps one develop self-compassion and acceptance, freeing us to connect deeply with others with true compassion and non-judgment resulting in a sense of belonging.
In the afternoons, Damaris Webb will lead Deep Play sessions based on contemplative movement practices and postmodern improvisational dance. Yielding to deep play, we evoke our individual kinesthetic delight with an awareness of the group, showing us a path to manifesting spacious, confident and balanced improvisational performance.
Friday, July 11th will be a day to rest, listen to the body-mind, and integrate the week’s work. In the evening, everyone is invited to get loose and dance their week-long inspiration at a Full Moon Village Drum Circle hosted by music therapist Ted Owen.
We warmly invite you to join us for the 2nd Annual Integrative Arts Festival!
