Surrender to the Call: Dreams, Drum & Dance

A Weekend Immersed in Symbol and Alive with Embodiment

With Colleen Hendrick of Bush Mango Drum & Dance

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Want to unlock answers from the symbols pervading your life?

The ontological nature of symbols in dreams attempts to focus our attention directly toward Self. Listening to the wisdom of the symbol itself asks us to let go of interpretations -- not an easy task! Colleen Hendrick's unique gift for getting to the core of the symbolic language will assist participants in their quest to discover greater meaning through ancient symbol.

Participants will each contribute a dream and a few will be selected for in-depth group study.

Other Highlights include:

An Introductiton to Nimba - West African Fertility Goddess
A West African drum class (drums provided)
A West African dance class

More on the Assisi Conferences and Seminars

A review of Colleen's 2003 presentation at Assisi

By Janet Brown (Mental Health Counselor/ MEd,
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Boston, MA)

Colleen’s broad experience in understanding the depth and integrity of the authentic matriarchal language has led her to caution against taking the power of this archetype lightly. She warned that the initiation into the inherent mysteries of The Great Mother brings with it an eruption of "archetypal fermentation", and a startling glimpse of the archetype’s enormous power and range.
She is wise to recognize that archetypes are neither human nor humane and that their power, unmediated by consciousness, is as blind and savage as animal instinct.

It is clear both from her considerable talent as a professional dancer, and her likewise considerable scholarship, that Colleen has spent now half a career personally integrating the complicated, collective features of West African dance: the athletic, aesthetic, disciplined, replicated sequence of movements, the navel -outward energies that define the temenos (or sacred circle) within which the dance is performed; the percussive insistence of the drum rhythms and sounds that signal the beginning, shifts, and end of the dance; and the central, critical, unifying recognition that the dance is a prayer within which the dancer is held.

Of particular interest, is her recent suggestion that West African dance is not only an opportunity to catch the spark of an archetype and feel it ignite your soul, but also a potential healing space for those of us who have grown up in patriarchy. She sees the sacred circle of an individual’s dance as a potential psychological container for both the conscious and unconscious aspects of Self – a place for partnering with The Other(s) within ourselves. This emphasis widens the focus of the dance’s meaning to include not only the interpersonal realm of objective reality, but also the transpersonal and intra-personal realms of subjective integration.

The idea of dancing with our Inner Other or Others invites us into the powerful mysteries of the deep unconscious, both personal and collective, wherein the archetypal energies are as dangerous and un-transformed as lightning, and it’s hard to separate fear from excitement.

As she continues her work, hopefully Colleen will offer to guide us precisely through the treacherous steps of dancing with the Janus-faced, inner Divine/Demons that offer their Trickster hands simply, and choreograph our steps quickly, imperceptibly, to match their particular style of stampede.

Any serious student interested in "dancing" with the concept of psychological depth and the archetype of The Great Mother would benefit from attention to the on-going work of Colleen Hendrick who lives, teaches and performs in Rochester, NY. She has completed her two -year certification from The Assisi Institute in Brattleboro, VT., where she explores the mind/body, psyche/matter connections through the lens of Jungian psychology and "the new sciences" under the direction of Michael Conforti, Ph.D. She may be reached at colleen@bushmango.com.