A 5-day Movement-Based Expressive Arts Retreat:

This is a movement- based expressive arts retreat in which we will be invited to re-connect to our ‘inner nature’ through increased awareness of ‘outer-nature’ (Mother Earth). We will be calling out our authentic self (spirit/soul) including our humanity: light and shadow.

“I am nature: a calling of nature to the inner spirit” workshop designed to help you to reconnect with Mother Earth as a path of self-inquiry, integrating artistic, somatic and embodied approaches (body movement, dance, arts, poetic writing, etc) as the journey to awaken your artistic and creative parts.

Participants will be invited to have space and time to contemplate and build a relationship with their outer and inner natures and to listen deeply to their own deep questions, increasing possibilities for connection and wholeness.

Retreat Highlights

• To reconnect with outer and inner nature using an artistic and creative (expressive arts) approach

• To cultivate this relationship with our inner-self by using Life/Art process (dance, movement, arts, poetry, performance, ritual and voice.)

• Be able to chart a path towards wholeness for the future that is integrative with true-self

Retreat Instructor

Thanarat Pui

As my personality which was too shy to move and express, I had never thought that I would be interested in a body movement before. Dancing was too far from my lifestyle until I found a free-formed dance class. Like a hidden door within me was opened to a new possibility to allow myself to express freely. Since then it has become my life. I started a journey to experience and explore different styles of movement until I decided to study at Tamalpa Insitute, CA , where I found a Tamalpa Life/Art process, which is a movement based expressive arts approach of exploring the wisdom of the body through movement, poetry, drawing and performance. A process worked deeply in my life stories behind each part of the body. Like my undiscovered self was discovered again and again.

After coming back to Thailand, I has started to share this work to Thais and foreigner. It’s always been a reward for me when I heard participants told what they found within themselves. Currently I am on the journey to share and create more space to express with love and respect of the knowledge and the body.

“I am nature: a calling of nature to the inner spirit” derived from the inspiration when I moved back to the big city after spending most of the time in the forest for a long time. Nature become a home to me. Living in the area where the moon hidden behind big buildings and hardly find a nature created space nearby, which made me think about the moment that I and nature dancing together.

I had an idea “What if I could dance in nature again and what if I could create the space to let people dance together to connect and listen to the outer and inner nature.” There are something beneath what our eyes can see, which always calling us to come back. Hopefully, participants will find what they are looking for and the way back home at the end of the retreat.

About the Retreat

This workshop is suitable for all, especially individuals who have a desire to use an experiential approach to their self-inquiry and who are searching for deeper meaning.

No artistic/dance/singing skills required…just an open mind!

Retreat Program

Day 1  Listen to nature (6 hours)

• Introduction to movement-based expressive arts

• Body and breath: Building body awareness through somatic movement and tuning in to body sensations

Day 2  Who am I in nature? (6 hours)

• Inner spirit animal: We will discover parts of ourselves in a deeper way, showing us we are not alone in this journey of life.

Day 3  Nature within me (6 hours)

• How do I walk in my life now?: Experience the rhythm of life by using our feet/legs to answer what we most want to move forward to, and move away from.

Day 4  My body is nature (6 hours)

• Sacred place: Listening to the calling of space and engaging in dance ritual

Day 5  I am nature (6 hours)

• Answering our questions: “What do I want to take away”?   “What do I want to cultivate”?

• Closing