Contact Improv Sundays @ WildHeart
2025-05-18 16:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York)
Contact Improv Sundays @ WildHeart

With Facilitator: Alexandra Bayeva

First and Third Sundays

4:00-6:30pm (2nd and 4th Sundays in Kingston!)

BYO dinner for a studio-floor picnic afterward

CI Lab 4-5pm

Open Jam 5-6:30pm

Internal States in Contact ImprovisationIn this class, we explore how internal states—such as focus, flow, distraction, and play—shape our movement experience and physical expression. Through guided exploration and simple movement tools, we’ll learn to recognize, navigate, and shift between these states. The aim is to support a more grounded, responsive, and expressive CI practice, deepening both self-awareness and connection with others.

Alexandra Bayeva is a professional dancer and a teaching artist originally from Belarus passionate about bringing art of self-expression through dance and movement to adults and children. Alexandra has been involved in contact improvisation practice for the last 18 years and taught CI at Dance Lab, Dance Beyond, Unifier Festival, Hudson Valley CI Jam, and various venues in NYC. Alexandra is the creator of “Let Your Body Talk”—a class that focuses on connection through dance and movement as well as an organizer of “Hiking and Dancing” events in Hudson Valley.https://alexbayeva.wixsite.com/dance

Register in advance

Or if you prefer to pay cash at the door, send us an email to let us know you’re coming, so we can help you find your way to the studio.

Overnight guests welcome (with advance notice). Let us know if you want to make a longer visit to WildHeart… email contact@wildheartcenter.art

Weeks that we’re not Jamming @ WildHeart, Hudson Valley Contact Improv continues in Kingston. Email Hudsonvalleycontactimprov@gmail.com for more on the Kingston Jam

Location- This workshop will take place in the Barn. If you’re coming to WildHeart for the first time, please visit our Directions page for arrival info.

Canceled- Yin-Restore with Niki
2025-05-21 18:00 - 19:30
Yin-Restore with Niki (in-person or online)

May 21st & May 28th classes are canceled. See you in the fall 🙂

Touching Fat: Sensual Somatics for Fat People
2025-05-29 13:00 - 2025-06-01 16:00
Facilitated by Jules Pashall and Scarlet Tunkl, this retreat will explore and celebrate the magic of being present and embodied with fatness in community with other fat folx. We will use touch, movement, noise making and creative play to experience the sensuality inherent in our fat tissue. This retreat will uplift fatness as more than just a descriptor of bodies, but as an energy and access point to sensual presence. Each activity will pull inspiration from the formal qualities of fat: soft, lush, velvety, deep, full, whole. This retreat will have a special focus on touch so that we can learn new things about how we like to be loved, touched and tended.

Contact Improv Sundays @ WildHeart
2025-06-01 16:00 - 18:30
Contact Improv Sundays @ WildHeart

First and Third Sundays
Facilitator: Lillian Kemanis

4:00-6:30pm (2nd and 4th Sundays in Kingston!)

BYO dinner for a studio-floor picnic afterward

CI Lab 4-5pm

Open Jam 5-6:30pm

Register in advance

Bio:
Lillian Kemanis is a registered Somatic Movement Educator + Therapist, dancer, yogi, and artist who offers support to individuals seeking a holistic and alternative approach to navigating life’s challenges. With over 10 years of professional experience in the movement healing arts, Lillian supports her community through personalized 1:1 Somatic Therapy sessions, immersive group workshops, and accessible online education. Her sessions prioritize body awareness as the primary pathway to address underlying emotional, mental, and physical needs, following a “bottom-up” therapeutic approach. Her methods facilitate the development of internal self-awareness and mind-body integration, helping clients restore a deep sense of connection to their vitality.

Or if you prefer to pay cash at the door, send us an email to let us know you’re coming, so we can help you find your way to the studio.

Overnight guests welcome (with advance notice). Let us know if you want to make a longer visit to WildHeart… email contact@wildheartcenter.art

Weeks that we’re not Jamming @ WildHeart, Hudson Valley Contact Improv continues in Kingston. Email Hudsonvalleycontactimprov@gmail.com for more on the Kingston Jam

Location- This workshop will take place in the Barn. If you’re coming to WildHeart for the first time, please visit our Directions page for arrival info.

Embodying the Organs in Voice and Contact Improvisation
2025-06-12 14:00 - 2025-06-16 15:00
This Body-Mind Centering® retreat will offer an introduction to the organs through the practices of vocalization and contact improvisation. We will explore the principles and qualities of the organs, celebrate the deep visceral knowledge in our bodies, and unwind any holding or tension in our organs.

Contact Improv Sundays @ WildHeart
2025-06-15 16:00 - 18:30
Contact Improv Sundays @ WildHeart

June 15, 2025
First and Third Sundays
Facilitator: Miranda Busansky

4:00-6:30pm (2nd and 4th Sundays in Kingston!)

BYO dinner for a studio-floor picnic afterward

CI Lab 4-5pm (with rotating teachers)

Open Jam 5-6:30pm

Register in advance

Class Description:
In this class, we will explore attention and the ways in which it travels through our collective and individual bodies. In times of political distress and unknown, how can we continue to move at the speed of our attention, move with our dysregulation, soften impacts, and build support systems in our dances? We will modulate between scores that center our attention through slow weight pouring and then expand outwards into more scattered forms of attention to explore how tracking multiple things at once can loosen and attune our dance. In my teachings I always like to honor these practices as research into how our dances can teach us about the world, and how to care for ourselves and each other in times of crisis and unknown.

Bio:
Miranda Busansky is a wanderer, imperfectionist, and queer multi-disciplinary artist interested in the off-centered experiences of clay, dance, and performance. Their work is sewn in the fields of Wood-Fired Ceramics, Wild Paper Sculpture, Contact Improvisation, and Butoh. Clay, movement, and Miranda, are interested in the facilitation of therapeutic care, arts education, and capitalist intervention through collective practices of dance, ceramics, and improvisation.
Miranda most recently participated in a 6 month community based residency with an organization called Free-Columbia. They inquired into the fertile relationship between dance and ceramics while observing the experience of our bodies as conduit. Miranda taught a weekly movement class called Dancing The Disturbance, facilitated monthly music and dance jams, and concluded this residency with a performance art exhibition at Lightforms Art Center in Hudson NY.

Or if you prefer to pay cash at the door, send us an email to let us know you’re coming, so we can help you find your way to the studio.

Overnight guests welcome (with advance notice). Let us know if you want to make a longer visit to WildHeart… email contact@wildheartcenter.art

Weeks that we’re not Jamming @ WildHeart, Hudson Valley Contact Improv continues in Kingston. Email Hudsonvalleycontactimprov@gmail.com for more on the Kingston Jam

Location- This workshop will take place in the Barn. If you’re coming to WildHeart for the first time, please visit our Directions page for arrival info.

Solstice Workshop: SOMA SOMA SOMA
2025-06-28 13:00 - 17:00
Join us for a Summer solstice workshop celebrating embodiment, community, and creative expression. In this 4-hour workshop, participants will experience the power of somatics, an intentional change process by which we realize transformation, individually and collectively.

This retreat offers space for contemplative movement + joyful play. Held in the nourishing environment of WildHeart, we’ll move, meditate, draw, journal, and practice politicized somatics. Our practice will invite the softening of bodies and breath while staying rooted and engaged with the present moment. Through this work, we will consider and embody new ways of being together in liberation and care.

Contact Improv Sundays @ WildHeart
2025-07-06 16:00 - 18:30
Contact Improv Sundays @ WildHeart

First and Third Sundays

4:00-6:30pm (2nd and 4th Sundays in Kingston!)

BYO dinner for a studio-floor picnic afterward

CI Lab 4-5pm (with rotating teachers)

Open Jam 5-6:30pm

Facilitator: Raffles

Register in advance

Or if you prefer to pay cash at the door, send us an email to let us know you’re coming, so we can help you find your way to the studio.

Overnight guests welcome (with advance notice). Let us know if you want to make a longer visit to WildHeart… email contact@wildheartcenter.art

Weeks that we’re not Jamming @ WildHeart, Hudson Valley Contact Improv continues in Kingston. Email Hudsonvalleycontactimprov@gmail.com for more on the Kingston Jam

Location- This workshop will take place in the Barn. If you’re coming to WildHeart for the first time, please visit our Directions page for arrival info. Refund policy No refunds, no transfers

Eros in Motion – A Sensory Journey Through Landscape
2025-07-14 08:00 - 2025-08-13 17:00
3 Weeks of Devising + 2 Public Showings

From July 14 to August 13, WildHeart artist-in-residence Pascal Buyse will lead a group of participants through a unique process of building performative installations in nature. This residency explores eros as a life force – a queer, sensual energy rooted in desire, connection, and creation. The installations are not static objects but embodied performances of the labor and movement that created them. Participants lift, crawl, stretch, and reach – the act of building becomes choreography. Later, these forms invite the audience to move through them and reawaken those gestures intuitively.

Core Research QuestionCan an installation—built and physically experienced by its creators—invite visitors, without words, to move in specific ways? How can the maker’s intention be felt purely through material, shape, and landscape?Theme: ErosEros here is not about sex, but about the drive to create, connect, and feel. It’s the energy that pulls us toward another body, a tree, a thought. It is soft, curious, powerful – never aggressive. It is what moves us.

Authentic Movement
2025-07-15 18:00 - 19:30
Authentic Movement is a contemplative dance practice where a mover explores the unconscious mind through self-directed, expressive movement while being witnessed with compassion and non-judgment. This relational practice of “seeing and being seen” fosters trust, self-awareness, and a deeper connection to one’s inner experience.

Infant Developmental Movement Education
2025-07-22 15:00 - 2025-08-04 11:00 | Wildheart, 183 East Road, Wallkill, NY, 05156, United States
with Amy Matthews and Sarah Barnaby

The Infant Developmental Movement Educator program is a child-centered and relationship-centered approach to observing and facilitating infants, and educating parents and caregivers about touch, movement and handling in the first year of life.

This program is designed to train people to evaluate and facilitate normal development in infants using an embracing, child-centered approach.

In this training, participants will learn:

the layering of movement patterns that leads to typical ‘developmental milestones’

how to observe infants and see ‘normal movement pattern’ development

how to hold and handle infants, to support their movement experiences

how to identify ways to support infants who might be having movement difficulties

how to support parents and caregivers in learning new movement patterns with their infants

MORE Info is available at https://www.sondermsma.com/idme

Eros in Motion – Opening Performance
2025-08-08 18:00 - 19:30
OPENING PERFORMANCEFriday, August 8, from 6–7:30 PM (doors at 5)Join us for a multimedia dance performance unfolding through the stunning natural surroundings of WildHeart. Expect an embodied experience shaped by the queer force of eros: creation, connection, and curiosity. Eros here is not about sex, but about the drive to create, connect, and feel. It’s the energy that pulls us toward another body, a tree, a thought. It is soft, curious, powerful – never aggressive. It is what moves us.

Eros in Motion – Afternoon Queer Party
2025-08-09 14:30 - 18:30
EROS IN MOTION AFTERNOON QUEER PARTYSaturday, August 9, from 2:30–6:30 PMSaturday afternoon we shift into party mode. Expect music, open installations, spontaneous performances, and the joy of moving together. Bring a swimsuit and towel – water is part of the experience! Let’s celebrate eros not as spectacle but as energy: playful, sensual, communal. Come feel it for yourself.

Clown & Voice Retreat
2025-08-14 12:00 - 2025-08-17 18:00
The Clown and Voice Retreat is a 4 day heart-first, deep dive into serious play! Songs, movement, games, improvisation, creative exploration, and much more will fill our days as we explore the ridiculous and wondrous world of the clown, and our capacity for play and resonance through the voice. Wholesome meals, outdoor nature walks, swimming, collective dinners and singing ‘round the campfire make up this restorative and connected weekend of FUN!

The Moonstone Covenant - a book launch
2025-08-24 15:00 - 19:00

Pop-Up Contemporary Dance Class
2025-08-27 18:00 - 19:30
Mid- level intermediate class
Two Wednesdays;
August 27 + September 3
6- 7:15 pm
In depth warm up, musically driven phrases, somatic approach.
Classes lead by Jerylann Warner
Pay what you can. For questions or to register reach out to jerylannwarner16@gmail.com

Contact Improv Sundays @ WildHeart
2025-09-07 16:00 - 18:30
Contact Improv Sundays @ WildHeart

Facilitator: Nicole Bindler

First and Third Sundays

4:00-6:30pm (2nd and 4th Sundays in Kingston!)

BYO dinner for a studio-floor picnic afterward

CI Lab 4-5pm (with rotating teachers)

Open Jam 5-6:30pm

Register in advance

Class Description:

CI and Attunement: consent as an embodied practice

In this class we will practice our CI communication skills with an emphasis on identifying and going for what we want in our dances while finding common interests with our partners by dialing up our listening. We will cultivate curiosity about our partners, and approach consent as a playful, embodied practice. We will attune to ourselves, our partner, and the ensemble by enlivening our senses and clarifying our perceptual awareness.

Bio:

Nicole Bindler is a dance-maker, writer, activist, and Body-Mind Centering® practitioner and Yoga teacher. She is a Registered Master Somatic Movement Therapist with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association. Her teaching and performance work has been presented at festivals and intensives on four continents. Conference presentations include The Future of CI Conference, Body-Mind Centering Association Conferences, International Conference on Disability Studies, Arts & Education, Conney Conference on Jewish Arts, Women in Dance Leadership Conference, Jews and Jewishness in the Dance World Conference, Bodily Undoing Symposium, and the Dance Studies Association Conference where she was a conference fellow. Recent projects include curating an evening of Palestinian dance films; co-producing the Consent Culture in CI Symposium at Earthdance; somatic research on the embryology of the genitalia from a non-binary perspective; and a solo dance, The Case for Invagination, in which her scars speak candidly about trauma and desire. Her writing on dance, somatics, and politics has been published in numerous journals, and she will be included in the forthcoming Embryo Book Project. She is collaborating with Kristen Smiarowski and Ben Spatz on a new book, Gathering Sparks: Jewish Arts and Somatics that will be published by punctum books. She is currently enrolled in the Polestar Pilates Teacher Training.

Or if you prefer to pay cash at the door, send us an email to let us know you’re coming, so we can help you find your way to the studio.

Overnight guests welcome (with advance notice). Let us know if you want to make a longer visit to WildHeart… email contact@wildheartcenter.art

Weeks that we’re not Jamming @ WildHeart, Hudson Valley Contact Improv continues in Kingston. Email Hudsonvalleycontactimprov@gmail.com for more on the Kingston Jam

Location- This workshop will take place in the Barn. If you’re coming to WildHeart for the first time, please visit our Directions page for arrival info. Refund policy No refunds, no transfers

An Evening of Acoustic Music with MacS
2025-09-12 19:30 - 21:00
Join The MacS Band for an evening of acoustic live music. Elena, Joe, and Vinny will be performing classic to modern covers of your favorite artists as well as some original compositions.

Joe and Elena P. McLaughlin have been performing locally, and nationally, for more than 30 years in various musical projects and together as a duet. They are both accomplished vocalists and multi-instrumentalists and both teach music.

Vinny Sardo, as well, has been performing in various musical projects for more than 30 years and is also an accomplished vocalist and multi-instrumentalist.

Joe and Elena met Vinny at an outdoor open mic in 2020 during the height of covid where The MacS Band was born. The MacS Band name is an acronym for Mclaughlin and Sardo. The musical chemistry between these three artists is unique and enjoyable.

www.macsband.comwww.facebook.com/MacSBandNJwww.instagram.com/macsbandnj/MacS Band – YouTube

Get Tickets

Performance Location

WildHeart is located on 46+ beautiful acres in the Hudson Valley at 183 East Road, Wallkill, NY. This event will take place in the Barn, the large building at the end of the driveway. You can park in either of the two parking areas on the right side of the driveway before you get to the Barn. There are also a few spots in front of the Barn. More info about directions and transportation options HERE.

Get Tickets for MacS

Refund Policy

In advance of 2 weeks – full refund (less processing fee)

Within 2 weeks – no refund(This policy stands even in case of sickness so we encourage participants to plan accordingly)

Advance ticket sales have closed. You can purchase tickets for $10 at the event.

The Body as Threshold: A Practice of Return and Departure
2025-09-13 10:00 - 15:00
This workshop examines the body as a threshold—a space where what is known meets what is waiting to emerge.

We start by returning home—to breath, sensation, and presence—before moving toward movement and creative discovery. Through guided improvisation, structured frameworks, and attentive presence, we explore how form and constraint can unlock freedom, expression, and transformation.

This practice encourages you to deepen your presence, expand creative resources, and discover movement that feels both new and deeply personal. It provides tools to support choreographic inquiry, the creative process, and embodied exploration.

Together, we experience cycles of arrival, departure, and return—each time discovering new territory. This workshop features live music by musician and composer Lisa DeGrace. We invite you to join us; the only requirement is a willingness to begin.

Sonic Immersion with Timothy Hill
2025-09-14 19:00 - 20:00
This sonic immersion will be a soulful, intimate journey with our most primal and organic musical instrument, the human voice. As a pioneer in the art of harmonic singing (aka: overtone, or throat, singing) and a lifelong student of Hindustani vocal music (raga) as well as being a composer in his own right, Timothy has gone deeply into the interior frontiers of expression. He will accompany himself on tanpura, acoustic guitar, and lyre. To conclude, Timothy will offer a song for two to bring our expansive meditative state into a renewed, grounded awareness.

Unboundaried Voice – from Laughter to Lament
2025-09-18 11:00 - 2025-09-21 13:00 | Wildheart, 183 East Road, Wallkill, NY, 05156, United States
We’ll gather to sing, sound, laugh, adventure, dream, research, play, lament and celebrate the Human Voice in all its colors surrounded by woods, lake, earth and sky.

Facilitated by: Myra Lowry

Bread & Puppet Fall Circus Tour
2025-09-21 15:00 - 16:30
The Bread & Puppet Theater presents

Our Domestic Resurrection Revolution in Progress Circus

Sunday, September 21, starting at 3 PM
Ladles and Jellyspoons! The one and only Bread & Puppet Circus is back with Anti-Empire Art that acknowledges our beloved Mother Dirt, who makes us and unmakes us, and who presents urgently needed domestic resurrection services for the victims of this latest genocide. We are joined by Palestinian cranes on their way to Washington to replace the excrement in the White House with organic bird droppings, green frogs who teach the art of hopping over seemingly insurmountable problems, and gaggles of kindergarten butterflies who frolic to their hearts’ desire. Join us for a serious and silly circus: Our Domestic Resurrection Revolution In Progress!
Tickets: $20, no one turned away from lack of funds
Buy Tickets Here: Bread & Puppet on Tour – Bread & Puppet Theater

FAQ
How long is the show? About an hour.

Is the show ok for kids? While there is nothing inappropriate for children in our shows, we do speak on heavy topics. We generally tell parents that if they would allow their children to read a newspaper, the show will be fine for them.

Will there be bread and aioli? Yes, bread with optional garlic aioli. It’s vegan.

Can I be in the show? At some places we are offering a workshop before the show to work folks into the show, but otherwise, the show is not built for volunteer performers.

Will the show be the same as what I saw in Vermont? Or last year? Or back in the 70’s? While the structure of the show is always the same (flags, many short acts, garbage men and washer women, paper mache animals, a brass band, etc), the show is constantly evolving in response to the moment. Some of the puppets were made this year, some were made decades ago.

You say “No one turned away for lack of funds” but do you mean it? Yes. If you need financial assistance with a ticket, please email breadandpuppetreservations@gmail.com and let us know which show (including where) you are looking to attend.
Admission by donation upon arrival for kids 6 and under.

Where can I learn more about B&P? https://breadandpuppet.org/about-bread-and-puppet

BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER
The Bread and Puppet Theater is an internationally celebrated company that champions a visually rich, street-theater brand of performance art filled with music, dance and slapstick. Believing that theater is a basic necessity like bread, the company frequently brings its work to the streets for those who may not otherwise go to the theater. Its shows are political and spectacular, with puppets often on stilts, wearing huge masks with expressive faces, singing, dancing and playing music.
Bread and Puppet is recognized throughout the world and has won distinction at international theater festivals in Italy, Poland, Colombia, and Yugoslavia, beginning with their break-out performances at the 1968 Nancy Festival in France. Notable awards include the Erasmus Prize of Amsterdam, 4 Obies, the Puppeteers of America’s President Award, and the Vermont Governor’s Award.
Founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann on New York City’s Lower East Side, the theater has been based in the North East Kingdom of Vermont since the early 1970s and is one of the oldest, nonprofit, self-supporting theatrical companies in the country.
https://breadandpuppet.org/

Vertical Dance Workshop with Steep Horizon Dance
2025-09-24 18:00 - 2025-09-25 21:00, 2025-10-04 12:00 - 2025-10-05 15:00
An open level workshop for movers who are interested in the challenging and rewarding mode of harness-based vertical dance. Participants will get the chance to fly, skim, glide, swing, and tumble. No prior experience required. Minimum of 4 participants needed to hold the workshop, max of 6 participants allowed. Please register early!

Be the Change: Improvising Towards Justice
2025-09-26 14:00 - 2025-09-29 16:00
This is a space to practice liberation not just as an idea, but as a felt experience—starting in the body, moving through community, and rippling outward into change.

Step into a sanctuary of embodied practice where justice begins in the body. Rooted in the concept of innervism—inner work as a foundation for outer change—we’ll explore how movement can nourish our spirits, deepen connection, and seed the future we long for.

Through contact improvisation, authentic movement, and nature-based practices, we’ll resource our hearts, cultivate resilience, and vision new possibilities. Together, we’ll practice liberation as a living, breathing act—starting from within.

Authentic Movement Fall Series
2025-10-07 18:00 - 19:30

Somatic Movement Education Program - Muscles Module
2025-10-09 16:00 - 2025-10-21 11:00 | Wildheart, 183 East Road, Wallkill, NY, 05156, United States
MUSCLES 10/09 – 10/21/25 (days off 10/13 & 10/17)Arrivals, orientation and welcome dinner 10/09 – Morning Departures 10/21/25 (day off if you’re staying for Professional Issues and SME Competency)

The muscles establish a tensile three-dimensional grid for the balanced support and movement of the skeletal structure by providing the elastic forces that move the bones through space. They provide the dynamic contents of the outer envelope of flesh encompassing the skeletal structure. Through this system we embody our vitality, express our power, and engage in the dialogue of resistance and resolution.

Somatic Movement Education Program - Professional Issues & SME Competency
2025-10-22 16:00 - 2025-10-26 11:00 | Wildheart, 183 East Road, Wallkill, NY, 05156, United States
Professional Issues & SME Competency, 10/22 – 10/24/26 Arrivals and welcome dinner 10/22, Morning Departures 10/26

Completion of other SME courses is a prerequisite for Professional Issues. Time is spent considering what it means to be a professional and how do you transition into this role? This course will cover some of the important issues facing professionals in the somatic field.SME Competency is for those ready to graduate.

Logic of Support: how to find and create support
2025-11-01 13:00 - 17:00
The Logic of Support

This workshop will look at Gait Mechanics and human fascial anatomy as a resource for exploring the fundamentals of human locomotion and dance. We will work with Contact Improvisation and The Axis Syllabus© as resources for finding support.

Waiting for the Weight: sequencing tension and release while dancing
2025-11-02 13:00 - 17:00
Waiting for the Weight

We are disassembling and reassembling all the time into different shapes. The “success” of motion comes from a balance of tension and release. Together we will explore our ability to “fall and catch” ourselves and others using the Axis Syllabus© and Contact Improvisation.
