‘a body-based creative exploration, nature experience, and environmental justice fundraiser!
A few weeks ago, in mid-October, a group of us spent the weekend out in Nationalpark Sächsische Schweiz (a nature area crossing the German/Czech border) for explorations of body-based creative process and quiet experience of nature, amongst the wild rock formations and changing fall colors of the trees. This was this year’s manifestation of the Dancing Wilderness Project which i have been running sporadically since 1997. It was a really beautiful and quietly nourishing time with a lovely group of dancers, mixing hiking, movement and sensory studies, sleeping in rock shelters (“boofen”) under the stars, and quiet reflection time.
The project was also a fundraiser for environmental justice causes. Many in the worlds of dance and contact improvisation talk about positive aspirations of political impacts from body-based explorations and dance. I feel compelled to act on this aspiration and make those benefits real and material. In addition to having a lovely time together, we also raised 930 euros for good causes. I was so inspired by everyone that I also donated my own expenses for the project into the general donation!
I’ll also be making a regular practice of these Dancing Wilderness Projects in Europe, so if you are interested in joining one, send me a note at info@bodyresearch.org.
In the spring, I hope to do two weekends: one a normal adults’ weekend and another as a family-friendly event for parents and kids.
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The 4 organizations that the money is split amongst are working in Canada at the intersection of First Nations sovereignty fights and environmental defense and in Eastern Europe, fighting to protect the largest expanses of old growth forest left in Europe. They are…
In British Columbia, Canada…
- Raven Trust … a collective legal fund and public education NGO supporting First Nations legal fights in defense of their territories against colonial extractivist destruction.
- The Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition … a local NGO based in the territories of the Gitksan First Nation and supporting the protection of the Skeena watershed, the third largest salmon river in the world. A particularly effective and respectful organization trying to bring together settler and indigenous communities to support First Nations led resource stewardship and First Nations sovereignty.
In Europe, working on protecting Romanian old-growth forests, Europe’s largest tracts of old growth forests, currently threatened by both illegal and legal-but-unsustainable logging, reinforced by violence and organized crime connections
- Euronatur … a German based NGO working to connect local grassroots organizations fighting for environmental protection with the skilled professionals and resources that they need
- AgentGreen … a local, grassroots Romanian forest protection group, working on the ground to build a sustainable local forest based life and economy and bringing attention to destructive logging, both legal and illegal
For more information on these groups, click on the links. If you feel inspired, send them some money!
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