Although often called a “dance”, Contact Improvisation is more a conscious movement practice. Not using music as a drive, not involving “steps” that can be right or wrong, this delicious practice is about focusing on connection: connecting with yourself, or self-awareness, and connecting with another, or other-awareness, and the fascinating balances we can find in between.  There are also physics involved and attended to: gravity, weight, the floor, momentum and inertia. The degree of focus is the most important variable, and the greater it is, the more wonderful the dance becomes. (See more about it by clicking “Contact Improvisation” in the sidebar to the right.) It’s indescribable ~ it has to be experienced!

TUESDAY nights, 6:30 - 8:00 pm
at The Labyrinth Room, 1165 NW Monroe (corner of 11th, upstairs)
September 30 - November 18 (8-weeks)
$80 / course, $15 drop-ins
**Qualifies for SHS Wellness Benefit**

Soft Words in Hard Times:

Tools for Communicating With Compassion

A FREE Workshop at the

Samaritan Albany Cancer Resource Center

Facilitated by Tina Taylor, RN, MS Counseling

Registration / info: SACRC, (541) 812-5880

Both care-givers and care-receivers are under enormous stress. Communicating in stressful situations, about stressful topics, or with stressed-out people, can feel frustrating, if not hopeless.

In this workshop, we will explore specific communication techniques that give us the ability to express our needs with respect, empathy and clarity for self and other. Your compassion will then be able to shine out and nourish, just as you were intending.

In this class we’ll focus on fun!  With your friend/partner/spouse/whoever, playing with gravity and the earth and your bodies and your awareness of all the above.  Slow and fast, heavy and light, balanced and unbalanced ~ but always awake, to the awareness of this moment and you and your partner’s presence in it. Using exercises from Contact Improvisation, meditation, and awareness development, you’ll find whole new ranges of movement and discovery.  Come play!

FRIDAYS, 6:30 - 8:00 pm
at The Labyrinth Room, 1165 NW Monroe (corner of 11th, upstairs)
October 3 - November 28  (8 weeks)
$150/pair,  $25/pair drop-in
**Qualifies for SHS Wellness Benefit**

This group will focus on RELAXATION and SUPPORT for mothers. It will be held in the Timberhill Athletic Club’s new “Den” room, so that the excellent daycare facility there can be utilized by group members. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A TAC MEMBER TO BE IN THIS GROUP,  or to use the daycare while you’re here. Group size will be limited.

We’ll take this hour to meet and get to know each other, hear each other’s stories a bit, and to learn and enjoy together some guided relaxation techniques. This is not to be considered a therapy group. (But please contact me if that is what you are looking for).  A Friday morning opportunity to pause and breathe, check in with yourself and each other, and start your weekend refreshed.

FRIDAYS 10:30 - 11:30 AM
at Timberhill Athletic Club, 2855 NW 25th Street, Corvallis
OCTOBER 3 - NOVEMBER 21 (8 weeks)
$80 TAC members, $95 Nonmembers (no drop-ins)
**Qualifies for SHS Wellness Benefit**

Registration: Please call to discuss your interest with me first. And then, because the group size will be limited, please confirm your registration by sending a check made out to Heart & Soul Wellness, 2255 NW 25th Street, Corvallis, OR 97330.

Here’s your opportunity to let meditation help you start your workday, clear and centered.  An oasis in the middle of your workweek, Wednesday Morning Meditation resumes this Fall. My intention is to split the time between brief instruction/discussion and guided/silent practice; for the focus to be on experience and reaping the benefits of practice. Meditation is true magic; let it enchant your life! Expanded now to a full hour, and open to beginners and repeaters, members and nonmembers (of TAC).

WEDNESDAY mornings, 7:00 - 8:00 am
at Timberhill Athletic Club, 2855 NW 29th Street, Corvallis
October 1 - November 19  (8 weeks)
$75 TAC members, $90 nonmembers,  $15 drop-in
**Qualifies for SHS Wellness Benefit**

To register, please call Tina at 753-2255, or use the Contact and Registration page here on the website, or sign up at the TAC front desk.

“Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery.  Like the moon, come out  from behind the clouds! Shine.”  ~Buddha

MONDAY or WEDNESDAY EVES (undecided yet)   7:30 - 8:30 pm
THURSDAY AFTERNOONS                                  3:45 - 4:45 pm
at Timberhill Athletic Club, 2855 NW 29th Street, Corvallis
September 29 - November 28 (8 weeks)
$80  members, $95 nonmembers,  $15 drop-in.
**Qualifies for SHS Wellness Benefit**

Exciting New Feature: Student Recital Party in June!!  Here’s your big chance to break into show biz, or at least justify all the sparkly goodies you’ve bought since starting bellydance!  Last year’s was VERY fun, so we’re doing it again! You have 9 months to get ready!

Flex-schedule: Missed classes may be made up at other class times ~***MOMS: BIG BONUS!!*** TAC has a fantastic daycare center on-site, and my students may utilize their services for an extremely reasonable fee. (Only open until 8pm on some evenings.) Call the club for details at 757-8559.

I (alias “Levanah”) am frequently one of the performing Bellydancers at the Old World Deli in Corvallis. The shows are every Wednesday, begin at 8:00 pm, last about an hour, and feature mostly solo performances by 4 - 10 dancers, who bring a wide range of delightful expressions to the stage. Admission is free; the Deli is open and serving wonderful food and drink. Come early for a good seat, and be sure to stay after the show and visit with me! My next performance will  be sometime in October… If you really want to know, feel free to email me.

If you would like to be on my HSW email list, please use the “Contact and Registration” form.  I send out notices on new offerings, about quarterly, and do not share my list with others.  Thanks!

The Heart and Soul Wellness website has been recreated to use WordPress, a phenomenal open source Content Management System (CMS). While Wordpress is usually used to create blog sites, with a few simple changes, it becomes a CMS. The page you are reading now is the only ‘blog’ part of the site and will be used to communicate what’s new.

Please let us know if there are broken links or other problems.