Each morning starts a two hour practice including somatic meditation, movement (somatic meditation, free movement with music, yoga, and breathwork), and time to reflect and share. This practice is designed to be inclusive for both beginning and experienced movers. Returning to meet ourselves in the space of our own bodies is a potent skill for understanding where our biases live, how we are culturally conditioned to think about bodies, and how we can shift our beliefs through embodiment.

Afternoons begin with a guided creative exploration to explore our relationship to our own creativity and how our art can be part of a vision for cultural change.  From there we will head offline. This is your undistracted time to dive into whatever project you’re working on. After a morning of embodiment practice, we are primed to do this work from our true center.

In the evenings we gather back on Zoom with an opportunity to share any work that you’ve made and receive feedback. We’ll close the day with an evening restorative practice. 

We believe the combination of embodiment and artmaking is incredibly potent.

“I find this a really fun way to shake it loose, revel in the body, and widen my community while being stuck in my room. Very affordable, very fun, and a great support to sitting practice.””I experienced some rich and vivid sensations during today’s practice – that was nice since I’ve found it hard to cultivate that richness in other online spaces. I was letting go – it felt like I was shaking leaves or marbles out of my body!”

“I was impressed with the ease in which Neva taught this class via zoom. I could feel her…her presence and warmth…her teaching was clear and she checked in enough and in non-invasive ways.”

“The work in our private session, which I’ve been practicing most every day, has allowed me to re-inhabit my infant body. In one instance, my arm actually ‘became’ a baby’s arm as my hand curled in, then opened up. This new territory has invigorated the re-experiencing of my one year old self. There was trauma at 11 months, and the somatic work we did gives me another doorway into that time. So grateful for our co-creation!”

This retreat is designed for artists who are looking for a supportive environment to create, and also want time in the day for meditation and embodiment practice.

Dancers & physical performers will enjoy a full morning of physical training, arriving to the afternoon ready to create. 

Artists working in less physical mediums, will arrive to the afternoon relaxed and refreshed in body and mind.

Neva tours internationally with Pilobolus and directs new dance-theater works in the US, Dubai, and Europe with her company Loom Ensemble. She is passionate about teaching and leads many forms of embodiment practices, including her own 2-hour creation, Catalyst Training. She has been practicing meditation for the past 15 years, joined the Art Monastery in 2012, and has been serving as a co-Director since 2015. Through this journey she has found beautiful overlap in her artistic creations and her meditation practice. Her life path is deeply grounded in communal living, body-based activities, art-making, being outside, and contemplative practice.