Mid –Winter Dance Workshop: Dancing the Hope in Front of Me

Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. —Jacques d’Amboise

No matter how long the cold, bleak days of winter may continue, winter always turns to spring. This is the law the universe and the law of life. As long as we hold on to hope, spring is sure to come. —Dausaku Ikeda

Come to the Abbey for this mid-winter work–shop to pulse, breathe and rhythmically move one another into the hope in front of us, into the sacred encounter with the dream God calls us to be. Dancers, musicians, artists, lit–urgists and poets of faith are called together this weekend to translate hope into art and prayer reflective of God’s creative presence in all of humankind.

Presenter: John West, Obl.OSB

John West is an oblate of Valyermo and the founder of the Valyermo Dancers. A gifted dancer, choreographer, liturgist and writer, he has been conducting workshops at St. Andrew’s Abbey and Holy Spirit Retreat Center, as well as at international and national collegiate and university levels. His professional associations include serv–ing on the board of the Sacred Dance Guild and as a member of the prestigious North American Academy of Liturgy.