Date

29 Jan 2025 - 04 Feb 2025

Time

5:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Fool-ly Breathing with Brandon Schwinn and Juliana Griese

A playful creative retreat to fall into the beauty of life and interbeing

Wednesday 29th January to Tuesday 4th February

We would like to invite for this retreat anyone who is open to exploring the mystery of life through the lens of the clown (or through clowning work). It is not really about being funny and performing.  It’s more about listening deeply and responding spontaneously.  It is a way of communication that is not limited to the intellectual/logical mind.   We will use clowning work to gently and gradually awaken even more of our creativity and passion about being alive, to love and enter the interconnectedness of living. This work can be incredibly useful for meditators and creative people sitting on the edge of breakthrough, as it has a way of naturally dissolving self-created obstacles.

Through an in-depth process of working with clay and listening to the wisdom of our bodies and creative imagination, masks will articulate themselves in a structured space for exploration, enlivened by spontaneous play. The invitation is to surrender to the power of mask and the potential for this alchemy to reveal hidden aspects of our being.

The transformational process will be integrated and supported by compassion in community, meditation, and connection to the natural world.

Costs

The Course Fee includes all meals and snacks, accommodation, and a resource fee

Private single room or hut
Non-members
– $712 plus dana/koha
Members – $652 plus dana/koha

Camping
Non-members – 
$544 plus dana/koha
Members – $526 plus dana/koha

There is an invitation to practice Dana, or generosity, giving from the heart. To contribute according to our means, to our facilitators’ sharing of these wonderful teachings, as a gesture of appreciation.

Facilitators

Brandon Schwinn is a dance artist, clowning practitioner and meditator living in Vancouver, Canada.  He has been studying Dharma for over twenty years and finds it a fundamental tool for living a life that values compassionate action.  He has always found creativity to be essential for his spiritual practice and has been studying contemporary dance in Vancouver Canada intensively for the past 6 years.  He has also completed a transformative training program in the art of clowning, and is active in Vancouver’s thriving clown scene which is where his interest in presence work and creative process in community began to take an artistic form.

Juliana Griese: I am a free woman, living the beauty of midlife, constantly exploring how to live and collaborate to create a culture in tune with Gaia’s ways.

I love to bring people together in an intentional way, supporting rituals and community building. I love to sing and create opportunities for singing circles because of its power for human connection and stirring the depths of our hearts.

On the path to healing, growth and maturity, I have been connected with Wangapeka and its teachers since 2016. Meditation is a constant in my life with a passion to merge it with Deep Ecology and traditional ways of living coming from indigenous people.

I am excited about this retreat because of my passion for clowning and the archetype of The Fool – the energy intentionally generated in oneself that communicates the truth through the body and deeply legitimate and goes for the human need for connection and love.

Information and Registration

For further information contact the course manager Jacinta jacinta.nowland@gmail.com

To register please fill out our online registration form

Register now

If using Paypal please add 5% of the total cost and include with your payment to cover Paypal’s fees.

Please consider becoming a Wangapeka member – click here for details.

Main Image: Unsplash

Welcome to the Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre. People visit from all over the world to meditate and enjoy the peace of this remarkable destination. The Wangapeka is a purpose built retreat centre, with fresh clean air and beautiful vistas. It is very quiet and ideal for respite, stress relief and deep meditation. We have a meditation hall, solo retreat huts, a main hall for dining and community, and a fully catered kitchen and an onsite vegetable garden.

The Wangapeka Study and Retreat Meditation Centre is a Universalist centre home to a wide range of teachings, paths, and studies. Retreats are held on Mindfulness, Vipassana, Insight, Heart based practices, Loving Kindness, Calm-abiding, Metta, Compassion, Conscious Movement, Nature, Forest Walks, Yoga, Dance, Feldenkrais, Wellness, Wellbeing, Archetypal Integration, Western Mysticism, Non-Duality, Zen, Dzogchen, Mahamudra, Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings with Empowerments and Sadhana Practice.

We are located in the foothills of the Southern Alps overlooking the Wangapeka River, about an hour and a half drive SW of Nelson, in the South Island of New Zealand.

We have meditation retreats throughout the year, have huts available for solo retreats, and welcome bookings from external groups. There are also opportunities available to work on our land. Come and enjoy this uniquely vibrant and peaceful centre.

355 Wangapeka River Rd
R.D.2. Wakefield 7096
New Zealand
Phone: +64 3 522 4221
info@wangapeka.org