A Playful Workshop on Rituals Using Sound, Movement & Imagery
Guided by Santjes Oomen, Elia Mrak & Kate Faust
Sunday, August 20th 11am-12:30pm
by Santjes Oomen
$120
If you are unable to access this workshop due to lack of funds, please reach out to us through the Grounded Grace Guardian Program so that we can assist you. Alternatively, if you’d like to sponsor a workshop slot for someone else in the community, please contact us at connect@mastnantucket.com
About Santjes
I was born of Dutch parents and raised in East Africa and the Netherlands. I was educated in the Visual Arts in Amsterdam. In my artwork, I express my fascination of the experience with the place where the physical and dream worlds meet through multi-media sculptures and paintings.
My interest in life and the human potential led me to pursue studies in the Universal Shamanic traditions of the Tibetan Bon. I pursued studies in different modalities for awakening the physical body and connecting it to the spiritual possibilities within.
I trained in healing work across Europe as well as in the U.S. I combine therapies from multiple modalities from East and West. I completed my Holistic Health Practitioner certification in the U.S. in 1992, and is well versed in Swedish massage, circulatory massage, deep tissue massage, lymph drainage, passive joint movement (Trager), structural integration (Rolfing), cranial-sacral therapy, polarity therapy (Randolf Stone), vibrational healing, Tui Na, and Seitia Shiatsu. Additionally, as a teacher of yoga and sound therapy, I work with the healing power of breath and voice therapy.
In group settings, I practice Shamanic tradition of healing family systems by tapping into the sacred power of the group field.
I am committed to my work and hold it as sacred, always seeking the physical expression of the locus where Art and Healing meet, greatly supported by my husband, Peter Lochtefeld, and I am the lucky mother of Zuzu (25), Sam (23), and Sophia (21).
About Elia
I grew up in Seattle, doing Seattle things - hiking, skiing, cycling, camping, playing baseball, basketball, and doing theater. I began dancing before I could walk as my mother rocked around the house to Janis Joplin records with me bobbing in her arms. Later, as a little kid my mother enrolled me in creative movement classes where I got to walk like a crab, crawl like a bear, and make scary lion sounds. Next, I took control of my own dance journey and watched MTV with a VHS tape ready to record all the new Michael Jackson choreography.
I then left dance behind for awhile, and returned to it in college, after giving up my dream of playing professional baseball. I had this void in my life of physical movement. I joined the cycling team, but quit after one year because it was physicality without expression. So one day my friend told me, “Hey, come take a dance class with me. You are always dancing at all the parties, and you told me you loved it when you were a kid.” So I consulted with my 5-year old self for some wisdom. He said to take the class, and I never looked back.
I came to a life cross-roads when I graduated college with a degree in Mathematical Economics and a love for dance. I remember the day I got the call from the hiring manager at the Los Angeles consulting firm. He told me, “Congratulations, I would like to offer you a job at our firm.” I felt nothing. Not happiness, not relief, not pride, not success, nothing. After 5 years of studying for a career, this was not the sensation I wanted to have. It was clear. I couldn’t keep lying to myself. Or anyone else. So I called him back and told him, “Thank you. I am grateful for your offer, but I need to humbly decline.” He said, “But nobody says no to this.” I said, “Well I’m not trying to make history, but it would be dishonest to you and to myself to accept this position.” He said, “Okay, but why?” And I replied, “Because I need to dance.” He paused, and said, “Great! This is LA, you can take dance classes on the nights.” And I said, “Thank you for the idea, but I need to pursue dance more as a career.” And he replied once again, “Yeah, but you know that you can also take classes on the weekends!” And I replied one last time, “Thank you, but I feel that dance is my spiritual path, my calling. And I need to answer that call.” He paused and said, “I understand. Good luck.”
This is all to say that I have always been a dancer. Before I could even walk. I am a dancer in the ancient sense of dance as healing, dance as ritual, dance as storytelling, dance as music, and dance as community. My current practice fuses Contemporary Dance, House Dance, Breaking, Qigong, and Somatics. I have performed, taught, and directed throughout Europe, Central/South America, and the United States since 2008.
About Kate
Kate is the director of production at BrandHuman. She is also a trained singer and songwriter who released her first album at the age of fifteen. She spent her teens and twenties touring and performing and earned her B.A in Vocal Performance from the University of the Arts. Kate taught voice, piano, and songwriting lessons for over a decade and her most famous piano and songwriting student is Olivia Rodrigo. She went on to develop her own methodology called Intuitive Voice, which combines traditional classical vocal technique with energy work, breathwork, and embodiment.