Flowing through the Spring: A Jewish Dance Series

Through this four-part Jewish movement series, we are going to use different modalities of dance to explore and express our Jewish past, present and future. By participating in dances that have been performed for generations, in dances that are new and in dances that has never been done before, these easy-to-follow workshops will help participants feel what it means to bring in your whole self in movement through Jewish embodied dance.

Join us as these dynamic local dance masters in SF Bay Area, take us through a series of creative movement. From choreographed, guided movement to expressive free form dance, this series will bring the joy of movement to all, no previous dance experience needed.

Ecstatic Dance: April 26th

Want to experience joy, even ecstasy and transcendence? Jewish music can lift us up to realms beyond the personal and put us in touch with something much greater than ourselves. As we move to this music, beginning with a structured warm-up, the music begins to move us. At this point, a shift happens in which we are not controlled by our egos, but instead are witnessed by our inner witness and find balance in our inner Tiferet (inner beauty). Ecstatic dance is part of many religious rituals, but Jewish ecstatic dance finds Jewish music that lifts us up into these higher realms. No prior movement experience necessary and no judgments…just come and listen to the transcendent music with your whole bodies.

No dance experience needed.

Led by:

Ilene Serlin is a psychologist and dance movement therapist from the Bay Area. She began Israeli folk dance with Fred Berk in 1962, and has brought her love of dance into her work as a psychologist with culturally-sensitive healing practices. She also spent many years studying Tibetan Buddhism and meditation practices, but missed the rhythms of her own culture. She is now happy to work with other Jewish movement specialists to bring meditation, the body, Jewish cultural and religious rituals together through dance as a form of embodied Judaism.

Series Schedule: Every other Wednesday at 4pm

April 12 // Gaga, freeform modern Israeli dance with James Graham

April 26 // Ecstatic Dance, free flowing, feel the rhythm movement with Ilene Serlin

May 10 // World Jewish Dance, easy to follow Yemenite, ecstatic Hasidic, joy-busting Klezmer dance and beyond with Bruce Bierman

May 24 // Embodied Dance, conscious dance through themes of The Tree of Life with Julie Emden