Wisdom Dances Circle
Joy, Ease, and Inner Knowing
Wisdom Dances Circle
Guided by Emily Jarrett Hughes
Weekly drop-in class on Thursdays
Thursdays, 6:30 - 8:00 PM through October 24 - Outside
Thursdays, 4:00 - 5:30 PM October 31 - Outside
Thursdays, 4:00 - 5:30 PM November 7 - March 6 at the Signature Arts Building, 130 Warwick St SE Minneapolis MN 55414
Cost for class: $15
Registration quick link
Sliding scale and class bundle options at bottom of page.
Joy, community, and connection to nature form the heartbeat of the Wisdom Dances Circle. Tap into the healing and transformative power of women’s ritual dances and discover how it helps you cultivate your inner authority, a grounded sense of purpose, and ease amidst change.
Join the circle and receive the gifts of the beautiful music and harmonizing movements of women’s ritual dances from the Balkans, Greece, and Asia Minor. These circle dances are like moving mantra meditations. The dance movements are gentle on the body and quicken the life force energy - many people comment on feeling more relaxed and energized at the end of class.
Newcomers are welcome any week. You can come with your aches and pains. People from any cultural background and all gender expressions are welcome.
What’s New
Fall color is here and I love it so much! I love seeing the rainbow of colors in the leaves. I love pruning back my garden and feeling like I’m going to win against overgrowth (at least for a few months).
Fall is so many things. The end of the harvest season is so sweet and delicious. The impulse to cozy up inside is getting stronger. Our bodies want to sleep more. And we also know that right behind the cute pumpkin decorations is an election and frenzied holiday season.
While the décor might change, our pace doesn’t always change with it. If we see seasons as a dance we can dance with it.
Click here to continue reading the October 2024 dance updates.
More Than A Dance Class
Simple Steps Are the Door to Wisdom
Part of the treasure of women’s ritual dances is that they are simple enough to quickly and at the same time they offer infinite dimensions of insight. The steps are in fact only 10% of the the potency of the dance; the rest is about activating the feel of it within ourselves. Connecting with the steps is the door that connects us with ancestors, the earth, community, our inner strength, and the Great Mystery flowing through it all.
Women’s traditional dances can help you:
Activate, cultivate, and express life energy through the body.
Energetically mediate between the physical and spiritual realms through posture, dance, and leadership.
Share leadership and power.
Align with the rhythm of life, death, and rebirth.
Find your place in myths and sacred stories that speak to humanity’s highest purpose.
Attune to inner knowing and guidance.
Become comfortable with difference and paradox.
Awaken non-dual consciousness.
Move through loss and change with grace.
Live with generosity, mutuality, and hospitality.
Powerfully transmit love and care for others and planet.
Dancing is the art of being in community.
The dancing circle reflects how we are in relationship to each other and all of life. As your teacher, Emily incorporates relationship building and tuning into nature as part of every class.
Thursday dance night is your night to cultivate real connection and share with a community your dance through life.
Wisdom Dances is a contemporary
dance-based wisdom school with ancient roots.
Wisdom Dances is based on Laura Shannon‘s original research on the common symbolic language within women’s ritual dances, music, costume/textiles, and myth. She has come to “see these dances as a kind of women’s mystery school,” and “living inheritance of indigenous European wisdom with direct and active roots in early egalitarian matriarchal cultures of Neolithic Europe.” (See Women’s Ritual Dances and the Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality“ Part One)
Photo to right: Laura Shannon
Seasonal Celebrations
Often outdoors and featuring live music, seasonal celebrations with the Wisdom Dances Circle bring joy and meaning through the continuous cycles of growth, death, and rebirth.
Opportunities to Deepen
Dancers who have developed a basic understanding of the dances may be invited to private deepening dances. These dances are often held at the full moon or other significant time on the calendar, and accompanied by live music.
Price Structure for Wisdom Dances Circle
There are three pricing tiers available for the Wisdom Dances so the circle stays accessible for all. You’ll see these reflected in the registration area just below.
Choose the one that makes the most sense for your current financial situation.
Actual Cost
$15 - This amount supports Emily and Eye of the Heart Center providing the weekly class. Option to purchase a 6 class bundle for $85 (cash or check for offline registration).
What works
$12 - This amount reflects a discount for those that need a discounted price. Please do not use if you are able to pay more without issue. Option to purchase a 6 class bundle for $70 (cash or check for offline registration).
Scholarship Support
$20 - This amount is for those who can afford to give above the basic cost as a way to cover those needing a discount. Option to purchase a 6 class bundle for $110 (cash or check for offline registration).
About Emily Jarrett Hughes
Emily Jarrett Hughes is a mother, dancer, healer and wisdom teacher. She completed a two-year intensive training in women’s ritual dances with Laura Shannon. The weekly dance circle and seasonal celebrations she leads through Wisdom Dances are dedicated to joy, community, and connection to nature. She gets tremendous satisfaction witnessing how the dancing helps women cultivate their inner authority, a grounded sense of purpose, and ease amidst change.
Emily is also a qigong healer and loves to teach qigong to help others activate their own healing power. She is a Spring Forest Qigong Certified Instructor.
