Shamanism and Dance

Friday-Sunday 6-8 December 2024

Metsäkartano & Tiilikkajärvi National Park, Finland

Guided by Katariina Elonkehrä and Helena Karhu

What is more liberating than dance? When you give yourself permission to dance completely freely without any choreography or genre, but as if like wild nature moving to the rhythm? In this course we dance our inner nature  - taking the movement to the external wild nature. Together, we explore embodiment and different levels of existence through dance.

Shamanism is considered a trance technique. Trance means ecstasy, which can be experienced as a certain kind of happiness, formed by the experience of connection and freedom. Shamans have used trance as a state of altered consciousness to seek wisdom, knowledge and guidance from the lower and upper worlds for their community. With this course you can approach the experience of trance and ecstasy in a safe and guided environment. Katariina Elonkehrä guides you towards ecstatic movement with gentle embodied exercises, where step by step we approach our wild inner nature. The experience of inner wild nature through dance can help release many kinds of bodily, emotional and mental tensions, release stress and anxiety, help with fatigue, raise joy and inspiration, and release creativity and intuition towards a sustainable and happy lifestyle.

Rewilding is a nature conservation principle whose goal is to restore natural areas and natural processes that have been singled out due to human activity, closer to their natural state. Wild feeding can also be well applied to experiencing human life. Do you remember what you were like as a child and what were your biggest passions and dreams? Can you still find a connection to those parts of yourself? There is so much in all of us - shades, expressions, gestures, sounds, expression, movement! The diversity of nature! Aspects of being that have been repressed, left unfinished or unexperienced at different stages of life.

The closer we find our wholeness, our wild diversity and get to integrate different parts of ourselves - the more fully, freely and naturally life can flow through us. Then Life manifests itself and its entirety, cherishing and respecting it through us.

So let's become wild again, innocent children free from chains! Each to our own rhythm, respecting each other, in a safely supported space. Underneath all that, we can remember and feel a glimpse of our core, which is all and one. Nature and holiness. Silence and the sea in a drop.

During the course, Helena teaches how dance has been used in shamanistic traditions, and tells more about the different levels and experiences of enchantment, trance, and ecstasy. Dance is central to shamanistic traditions, and throughout time the healing power of dance has been experienced above all as a communal experience. Helena recommends dancing as perhaps the best method towards awareness and well-being. Shamanism is based on bodily awareness, and dance helps us move towards bodily flow. (Another great practice is sauna - and we will have sauna too!)

We dance with all of nature when we meet. We take the dance outside to nature, to the fire, and under the starry sky. We have a special turf cabin for our fire circle, which is like being inside of Mother Earth's womb, partly under the earth and by the lake.

This course is intended for anyone interested in the subject, and no previous experience in dance or shamanism is necessary. Katariina and Helena have led retreats together before, and this time we are taking the crowd dancing towards even higher treetops and stars. Feel free to come along!

FACILITATORS:

Katariina Elonkehrä Katariina Elonkehrä is from Oulu, a passionate dancer who cherishes her roots and the nature of Lapland and Northeast Finland in her heart, instructor of dance-movement therapy methods, body therapist, folk healer (traditional blood cupping), and born as a mother through two empowering home births. Katariina's path has gone through diverse environmental studies (Helsinki University and Aalto University) to the grassroots level to find tools with the help of body awareness and body and dance movement therapy for the growth and change of inner awareness before the change of external structures.

At the moment, Katariina works mainly in her current home regions in Pirkanmaa and feels that one of her most important tasks is to offer women and pregnant women support and confidence towards the journey of waiting and giving birth, e.g. Through online coaching. Katariina is the founder of Tampere's popular dance circles (free and conscious dance concept). In her dance-movement therapy work, Katariina has been touched again and again by the participants' powerful and sacred experiences while dancing. "Dance is the best medicine."

You can find more information about Katariina's work at: www.gaiariina.fi

Helena Karhu is a North Karelian practitioner of shamanism, mother of twins, cultural producer and researcher. Karhu is writing a dissertation research on northern shamanism at the University of Eastern Finland. In 2018, Helena returned to her ancestral lands after more than 13 years in Copenhagen, and she has also lived in Greenland and Alaska. The spirit of the Northern ancestors and nature invites her to tell more about the northern nature, the original shamanistic tradition, and to combine archaic methods and their possibilities in contemporary culture. Helena works at House of the Bear (www.karhuntalo.com), which she founded, through whose services we learn more about folklore and shamanism to help self-knowledge and community education. Helena is also the chairwoman of a cultural foundation promoting shamanic and wisdom keeper traditions. 

Helena knows Metsäkartano inside and out, as she once worked there for a couple of years, and organized courses and retreats there for several years.

Course venue:

Metsäkartano Wilderness Centre is a unique and comfortable nature resort in the middle of the woods and lakes.  The address of the place is Metsäkartanontie 700, Rautavaara, Finland. The place can only be reached by private cars, but we help each other in coordinating rides and carpooling. Access is via Kuopio or Joensuu airports/railway stations. 

Accommodation and meals:

During the course, we stay in Metsäkartano's comfortable and cozy double rooms, all of which have their own bathroom. The common areas also have a fireplace, a small kitchen and our dance hall. Full board is booked for the course participants, starting with the dinner on Friday and ending with lunch on Sunday (including breakfast, lunch and dinner). Meals during the course are vegetarian, but Metsäkartano usually offers meatier dishes as well. 1-person rooms are available for an additional fee.

Is the course suitable for me?:

The course weekend is alcohol- and substance-free.

Price and registration:

Register for the course via e-mail: info@karhuntalo.com

The price of the course is 240 EUR incl. VAT 25.5%, course tuition, course materials. In addition to this, accommodation with full board (starting with the dinner on Friday evening and ending with Sunday lunch) during the entire course is 164 EUR/person, which is paid to Metsäkartano at the latest upon arrival. Additional fee for 1-hh is +30 EUR/person/day.

The booking and cancellation conditions are here: https://www.karhuntalo.com/booking-and-cancellation-conditions

Preliminary schedule of the course:

Note: Friday is a public holiday as it is Independence Day. If you wish, you can arrive at Metsäkartano earlier and enjoy, for example, the peace of Tiilikkajärvi National Park. For international guests, Helena is also willing to give additional teachings on Thursday-Friday, if you like to extend your stay in Finland.

Friday:

15.00- Arrival of participants. Settling in the rooms and resting

16.00 Start of the course and getting to know each other

17.00 - Independence Day celebration dinner at Metsäkartano

18:30-20:00 Welcome dances and ceremonial start of the course

20.00 Sauna by the lake

Saturday:

08.00 Breakfast

09:00 Morning meditation (Helena)

Gentle movements for the morning and morning dances (Katariina)

Break

Helena lectures on the essence, meanings and effects of trance, enchantment, and ecstasy. After this, Katariina guides the dance and embodied exercises. (Helena)

Lunch

Rest and relaxation

16.30 Trance & Dance (Katariina and Helena)

Shamanistic practices supporting embodiment, dance and movement (re-wilding) (Helena)

18.00 Dinner

19.00 Drum ride with dancing on the campfire with peat combs (Helena and Katariina) & Puhekeppi circle

Drumming together

Sunday:

08.00 Breakfast

09:00 Morning meditation (Helena)

Gentle movements for the morning and morning dances (Katariina)

Break

Lecture and exercises on shamanism supporting embodiedl work (Helena)

Dance exercises (Katarina)

12:00 Lunch break

14.00-15.00 Course program: Final circle & closing ritual