Kia ora tatou, I am writing this ‘newsletter’ type blog post specifically for my students and those who are interested in studying creativity and music with me this year. I am organising myself a little differently in 2017. I have some important dates at the bottom of this newsletter and a request for students whom I have worked with for some time. I escaped from the … Continue reading Musical conversations 2017
A second Music and Mindfulness retreat with Karen Hunter and Akasadaka Robison was held and Sudarshanaloka Buddhist retreat centre, near Parawai / Thames in the Coromandel in October 2016. Here are two testimonials from participants : “Akasadaka & Karena created a space for freedom of expression, play, joy and deep feelings to be held equally and safely ( and served to connect us so beautifully … Continue reading Music & Mindfulness retreat 2016
An interesting new completion and celebration process emerges during a ‘wrap’ session for a hard working team. There were ten people in the group with one additional member who ‘skyped in’ for one hour during the day. I had chosen ‘self and peer assessment’ as the heart of our schedule with warm-ups and energisers as required. To foster a sense of retrospection for the completion of … Continue reading Are you the RIGHT facilitator for this group?
I was part of a team recently delivering a 2 day residential creativity retreat at Sudarshanaloka Buddhist Retreat Centre in Thames, on the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand. Our retreat was called Music and Mindfulness and the team consisted of Mindfulness facilitator Akasadaka Robison, a Buddhist ordained in the Triratna order and our assistant Heather Garland, a local Thames based musician. I lead the Music sessions with 13 … Continue reading Music and Mindfulness Retreat – July 2015
Summer in New Zealand is full of fabulous lifestyle festivals. My favourites are the ‘Transformational Festivals’ that offer camping, musical performances, healers and workshops in modalities including: massage, yoga, tai chi, diet, meditation and what I could loosely call ‘philosophy’. For the last couple of years in addition to performing music at the various festivals I have been introducing the work of Zenergy Global to … Continue reading Transformational Festivals, NZ Summer 2015
20 January 2015 Updated 13 October 2105 The Circle Stage first ran as a performance space using Zenergy Facilitation processes at Prana Festival in Opoutere, Coromandel Peninsula over the 4 day New Years Celebration Dec 30 2014 – Jan 2 2015. This blog is here to document The Circle project and hopefully to inspire a conversation about the use of facilitation tools within a transformational festival environment. Background My area of expertise … Continue reading The Circle – A place to breathe music. Prana Festival 2015
This workshop ‘Being In Music’ was presented at the Australasian Facilitators Conference in Alice Springs Australia 2014. Being In Music introduces ‘musical’ processes to explore the three basic awarenesses of a facilitator. Of simultaneously being with the self, being with another ( i.e with each member of the group ) and being with the group as a whole. I created these ‘musical’ processes to accompany … Continue reading Being In Music
Here is wonderful team building soundscaping process that I used in a workshop at the transformational festival Prana which I call “Emerging Music”. The group chose the theme of the soundscape and created their own sounds and sonic ideas, while the facilitator role is to encourage people to make sounds freely, without inhibition. This is best done by modelling. Emerging Music Process In a circle, … Continue reading Emerging Music workshop
I was talking to a street musician, she was about 17 I think, playing the accordion outside the supermarket, and she was tired….but there was a ethereal beauty about her fair complexion and dark ringlets. She reminded me of a ballerina, an opera singer, a performer I might have seen and aspired to be when I was a child. The game of ‘bags’ was a … Continue reading The Positive Power of Illusion
I was invited to deliver this workshop by the leader of a leading local Yoga Academy that offers a teachers training programme. Powerful voice skills are included as part of the course First I explained to the participants their Course Leaders purpose for the session: To explore tools to develop voice: Projection Tone Pitch variation How to enhance each persons individual voice to engage their … Continue reading Powerful voice for Yoga Teachers Workshop
