The Fluid Movement workshop is inspired by the natural dynamics of H2O. Participants will be guided through a warm up followed by a series of movement techniques aimed at helping to increase one’s awareness of the fluidity of their own movement while awakening the sacred energy of the root chakra. There will be an accompaniment of live drumming throughout the workshop to facilitate the creation of a healing and uplifting space for all to share. Wear comfortable clothing for movement, we will be both sitting and standing. See you there!
Amber Victoria is a movement artist, social activist, naturalist, and a certified Liquid Motion instructor. Her ideal fitness practice is one which fosters muscular strength, endurance, and most of all an uplifted spirit. Having trained in various classical forms of dance as a teen, she now gravitates towards free form styles that allow the dancer to experience their unique movement expression while maximizing fitness benefits. Amber has studied and extensively performed as a GoGo Dancer, Showgirl, Hooper, Hype Girl, and Modern Dancer throughout the South East. She began teaching at UNC Asheville in 2013 before receiving her BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Amber explains that her whole being has benefited from this therapeutic art; Spiritually, Physically, Mentally, and Emotionally. Amber strives to go through each class with an intention to help each student nurture their own unique movement style, and find the joy and strength that comes through moving in one’s own body!
Roshon Cray is Director and Founder of FLOW Event Services LLC. He helps manage every aspect of the company operations, and is intimately involved in the long term vision and planning. “For 20 years now I have been a Co-Founder and Producer of a unique and free solar powered kitchen and theater, which a couple times a year, travels nationally and even at times, internationally to events and gatherings to share Arts, Culture and Cuisine. As time passed, outreach for people in need became much greater. How do we rise up and build again, rise up to meet a new day, ultimately rise up and take our stance again. This, my friends, was how F.L.O.W “Functions Logistics Operations Works” was born. We strive to keep people safe and educated at events, festivals, and gatherings. ”
What is the indigenous diet of humankind? We explore this question in this talk, entitled The First Supper, by using the theory of evolution as our guide.
More specifically, we cover the evolution of our human foodways--that is, how we evolved to sense nutrients in our environment, then move towards, capture, process, digest and metabolize and synthesize those nutrients--as well as use our intelligence, creativity and culture for that same purpose. And through understanding our foodways, we can better understand our indigenous diet--and answer the question above. We start our story of our evolution at the Big Bang with the creation of the four organic atoms that later bonded into the macronutrients (sugars, amino acids and fatty acids) and eventually formed into cells, plants and animals and then humans. Along the way we concentrate on two "common ancestors" who laid the foundation for our own foodways: Eukaryotic cells and Chimpanzees. Since Eukaryotes exist in us, as well as in all animals, we can learn so much from them about the underlying nutritional needs and various metabolisms of our own cells. Since Chimpanzees are frequently used as models of our common, hominoid ancestor, we can see in them the origins of our own foodways, especially our considerable similarities.
We then cover the next seven million years of Hominoid evolution. While our common ancestors/chimps lived and ate mostly in the lush trees, eating primarily fruits, tender leaves and small amounts of other animals, our ancestral hominoids, like Australopithecus, slowly evolved to live both on the ground and in the trees. While maintaining much of their ancestral diet, they also integrated other foods from the ground, especially starches, such as tubers, sedges and grains, as well as greater amounts of animal foods, especially ones with greater amounts of fats. Later in our evolution, our ancestor, Homo Erectus, processed their food through grinding and cooking and other methods, making that food easier to digest and less toxic. Through these changes all aspects of our foodways became more efficient and powerful, allowing us to evolve three of our most distinguished human traits: our enormous brains, vast culture and greater metabolism.
We then develop our model of our universal human foodways--while being ready to explore that question: what is the indigenous diet of humankind? It’s the diet that provides the proper ratio of nutrients to optimize our various metabolisms--while also being easy to digest and lower in toxins. Accordingly we will discuss the proper ratios of macronutrients to each other, including fatty acids, amino acids, sugars and fermentable fibers and other nutrients as well. We will also cover the possible problems in various types of diets, including the extreme ones. Even though we humans have universal patterns in our foodways, we are also able to adapt to different foodways. In the cold arctic, the Inuit subsist almost entirely on animal flesh while the Hadza, in the arid desert, subsist mostly on plants and only smaller amounts of animal foods; so these two people are not only eating different foods but also different nutrients. We explore some of the ways we further adapt to our foodways--through such traits as intelligence, culture, nutrigenetics, epigenetics, and chemical synthesis. During Neolithic and Modern Times, we continued to evolve and adapt to our foodways through many mechanisms but not fast enough to keep apace to our cultural evolution through modernization. So we thus discuss some of the ways that we humans are maladapted to the foodways that surrounds us that potentially cause enormous compromises to our lives and culture. Through hearing the big history of our biological existence, we encounter another way of interpreting our existential self--while also developing better tools to avoid dietary hype and to formulate our own First Supper--thus optimizing our biological self to better express our mythic self. I have been conducting research on The First Supper for around ten years now; and my research assistant, Rebecca Cox, for around three years. We will launch our website and social media and publish the first of several books within the year.
Luke Comer is the author of the novel, "Yoke of Wind," about a slave revolt on an island off the coast of Florida; the creative director and executive producer of the rock opera, "The Portal"; the executive producer of the music and transformational festival, "Arise"; and the executive producer and creative director of the small, experimental trance-dance called "Ride the Dragon"; and the author and executive producer of the upcoming project, one decade in development, called "The First Supper," about the relationship between human evolution and nutrition. He is an investor in the privately held Ebsco Industries, which, amongst other things, disseminates scholarly and popular content for libraries worldwide and builds towns based on new urbanists principals. While working in different mediums, he nonetheless uses many of the same artistic techniques and motifs in all of his work. Through his exploration of human biological and cultural evolution, he attempts to identify the fundamental needs of humanity that are not met in modern society--and then devises ways to fulfill those needs. He owns, produces, publishes and controls all of his own work but loves to collaborate with others.
This workshop is an introduction to Afro Cuban music focusing on how the music relates to Clave. Scott and Jonny will teach some basic parts to Rumba and answer any questions participants may have about the fundamentals of Afro Cuban music. They will also explore the clave relating to the quinto and show how the quinto locks into all Cuban music.
Jonny Jyemo is a "1st call" drummer/percussionist from Denver, CO. He plays in various bands and is known for his versatility of drumming styles. From salsa to funk, reggae to rock, Jyemo puts his signature on the music while still faithfully respecting the roots.
Scott grew up in New Orleans and began playing drums as a young child. Music has always been a huge part of his life and after being in bands throughout his younger life, moved to Colorado where he started the Motet and began shaping his interests in Cuban, African and Brazilian music. Scott has studied Cuban music intensively and continues to grow and learn, as the challenges of this music really have no limits. Scott is excited to share his knowledge and insight with Cuban music with friends at ARISE. Scott can be seen playing with The California Honeydrops, Sambadende, and Los Chicos Malos, as well as many other pick up gigs in the Denver/ Boulder area. We hope to see you at the workshop!
