Join Wren LaFeet for a day of Fusion classes designed to inspire and uplevel dancers.
Wren is excited to be returning to his roots in Lindy Hop, Swing and Blues for inspiration in these classes. Since 2012 he has been gathering many different ideas into his brand of Fusion, called Cocréa. This day brings together mindfulness, consent, energetic attunement and many of the things you likely love about Fusion dance already, including the juicy bass bumping music.
With 24 years of experience in partner dancing, and a lifetime background in theater, Wren calls his teaching style, “facilitainment”. “Facil” in Spanish means easy. So combined with the word attainment, he loves to make attaining advancement and understanding both easy and fun.
This day of classes is meant to bring dancers of different levels together, but be accessible to all. If you take the whole day as a progression, you’ll absolutely be able to grasp the material the whole way through. Wren has been honing his teaching for 11 years, and has an uncanny ability to bring rank novice dancers up in level with incredible speed and efficiency.
His primary motivation is to spread the joy, connection and healing power of partner dance. He is so happy to be returning to teach in one of his most beloved homes, where he now lives, and one where he finds so much inspiration both in movement as well as in stillness amidst the redwoods and the waves.
LOCATION
Motion Pacific
131 Front St
Suite E
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
DATE & TIME
May 20th, 2023
12PM – 4:30PM
EXCHANGE
$60-$100 Early Bird
$85-$125 Pre-Register
$110-$150 At the Door
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
12:00 – 12:50 Intro to Mindful Partner Dance (Novice)
With its origins in the Fusion partner dance movement, and giving huge appreciation to Blues, Swing, Hip-Hop and other resistance dances that have massively shaped fusion, the Cocréa practice is to meet one another where we are and engage in an explorative movement dialogue while paying attention, with intention, non-judgmentally. As we hone this dynamic, kinetic toolbox, we emphasize connection, communication and creative expression between two humans within a community of others, and endeavor to make ourselves a safe space for others to express and interact with.
1:00-2:00 Blues Fusion: Groove and Flow (Beginner)
Using the Blues vernacular, this class teaches the juicy qualities of blues with different musical contexts and helps dancers craft smooth, elegant, and unified dances. Groove, pulse, contrabody, swivels, we’ll get into all that jive and be a lot looser and hopefully more free by the end.
2:20-3:20 Spinaesthesia: Refining Musicality and Tone for Clearer Communication (Beginner – Intermediate)
Learn some sweet skills specifically tailored to help you embody the high variability in much of the break-beat electronic music genre we love to dance to in Fusion and in this Santa Cruz community. We’ll play with refining connection, stalls, tone and speed ramps, recognizing when the music is about to hand you an epic drop to accent, and how to communicate how you want to express it all with your partner without exploding. ;P
3:30-4:30 Swing Hop: Lindy Hop and Hip Hop Fusion (Beginner – Intermediate)
The world of Hip-Hop offers so many versatile movement ideas to incorporate into our dance. We’ll focus on the shapes and physics of Lindy Hop without getting in the weeds on the footwork, and see how this syncopated 8-count dance drops into a swagger filled, back-beat joyride of fluid delight.
Meet the Facilitator
Wren LaFeet
Wren is celebrating the exquisite privlige of getting to dance in partnership for almost 25 years now and loves serving humanity as a somatic permissionary. Teaching partner dance internationally as a practice for mindful, authentic living, and enlivening communities by facilitating his signature modality, Cocréa, has been his joy for over a decade. Wren guides humans curious about embodiment towards right relationship by exploring the realms of Self, Earth, Music, Sacred Other, Community and Whole through listening and responding, and inviting, allowing and embracing change. He is a celebrated TEDx speaker, featured author in “ReInhabiting the Village” and ardent proponent of pioneering a new renaissance through authentic connection and consensual touch.
Wren is a cis-gendered, able bodied white male residing in Awaswas Ohlone territory (Santa Cruz, CA). As a non-binary identified, 11th generation American descended most recently from artist and blue collar working class parents, Wren is in a deep reckoning with the numerous and nuanced aspects of self that influence how we navigate interpersonal relationships and cultural identity on the journey into right relationship.
As a trauma-sensitive HeartMath trained practioner, Danyasa trained and former Awake at Work program facilitator, certified Attunement Therapy practitioner, Do Good Things with Power program graduate, and holder of a BA in Drama and Dance from the University of Washington, Wren promotes dance as an embodied approach to spirituality and medicinal salve for our modern ailments of disconnection and dislocation.
Believing in life as a dance, Cocréa is a continually evolving holistic movement modality intended to bring individuals into strong, empowered, expressive relationships with their bodies and their communities.
At its core Cocréa is a somatic methodology for working with life’s changes and adapting with them for a more regenerative, nurturing and harmonious world. We build resilience by holding an attitude of curiosity and interest, pausing with depth of breath, listening into what’s needed and true when offering new ideas, and before saying yes or no to invitations.