Day Retreat Location
The retreat will be held at the beautiful Green Mondays Studios, a community-focused space hosting a range of yoga, dance & art practices based on Wurundjeri Land in Carlton.
Meditation and slow flow
Balancing softer and stronger elements at a meditative pace, Albee will guide us through gentle grounding techniques, pranayama (breathwork) and slow, flowing asana (yoga shapes) and visualisations as a tool to draw ourselves into the present moment. This practice is open to all levels of experience, and allows students to explore each shape at their own pace with ample room throughout the hour-long practice to rest as needed.
Embodied Poetry workshop
Shannon will be hosting an embodied poetry workshop in the late morning, exploring how we can use active imagination, sensory experience and contemplative practice to access storytelling and poetic prose. We will be practicing writing as an incantation or invocation for making tangible what is otherwise only felt or imagined, where poetry becomes the artifice of a practice that prioritises paying attention over all else.
Creative Dance Workshop
After lunch, Albee will guide us through a somatic, embodied practice that carries us into the spaciousness and joy of dance. The practice will draw on a contemporary form of dance that combines movement and creative expression, beginning with structured improvisation, using ‘scaffolding’ techniques to ease people into the improvisation process. As the class progresses, the structure will become more free and liberated. Movement exploration will be prompted by a theme, poem, quality of movement, or specific music/prop. The intention is to draw on the essence and nature of our movements, allowing the dance to emerge from within. There is a focus on expression rather than formal technique, so everyone is welcome and no experience is needed.
Restorative yin practice
In the afternoon Shannon will host a restorative yin practice that focuses on rest, integration and tending to the nervous system, using self-massage and somatic mindfulness techniques for self-soothing. The practice will begin with gentle somatic movement and ease towards longer holds and restorative yin yoga shapes.
Your hosts
Shannon May Powell
Founder and co-director of Small Beyond, Shannon (pronouns: she/they), is a writer, artist and embodiment practitioner of Irish and French settler descent who currently lives and works on sovereign Kulin nation lands (Melbourne, Australia). They believe embodiment is a human right and their practice is person-centred and grounded in creativity, care and liberation.
Shannon has trained in dance, creative writing, yoga, massage and somatic therapy. Alongside their art practice, Shannon also works for a non-profit, trauma informed organisation called Collective Being whose aim is to provide wellbeing practices to communities who don’t have access to mainstream resources and services.
Shannon is interested in how creative and embodied practices can support our values and actions becoming aligned, building our ability to live from a place of creativity, purpose, joy and resilience.
Albee Barton
Albee, the Co-founder & Director of Green Monday Studios, previously known as Mangala Studios, has been practicing yoga and dance in this space since she was 4 years old. Throughout her life, movement has been her chosen form of communication, serving as a source of regulation, enquiry and self-expression.
Her business, Conscious Practice, extends from these foundational beliefs. Its central purpose is to foster harmony within the body and mind, advocating for practices that facilitate this equilibrium.
Albee's self-enquiry has guided her across diverse disciplines, including Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga, Mangala Creative Dance, Trauma-Informed Facilitation, Embodied Yin, Meditation, Mantra/Chanting, BMC Technique, Dance Therapy, Yogic and Non-Dual Philosophy, Poetry, Improvisation and Performance Art. She recognizes the vast mozaic these disciplines have to offer, and their merging is her gift to you.
Albee’s practice respects the origins, cultural traditions and lineage of her studies whilst honouring truth, Country and acknowledging her and our positionality within that. Bringing in elements of other philosophical, spiritual, musical and poetic traditions whilst leaving space for play and laughs when they inevitably arrive.
Albee hopes through these practices she can nurture delight and compassion in the collective, whilst supporting the rediscovery of our adaptable and resilient nature.
Retreat itinerary
Morning
9:45am: Arrive and settle
10 - 11am: Welcoming circle and flow w/ Albee
11.30 - 1pm: Poetry workshop w/ Shannon
Lunch
1 - 1.30pm: Break for lunch and rest in the gardens
Afternoon
2 - 3.30pm: Creative dance workshop w/Albee
4 - 5pm: Restorative yin yoga with Shannon
5pm: Closing circle
Book your retreat (back to top)
We offer concession and non-concession places ($200 - $240) and this day retreat is free for First Nations mob, please email small.beyond@gmail.com to reserve your free place.
To ensure we’re making our retreats as financially accessible as possible, only a 50% deposit is required to reserve your place. The following 50% can be paid in the week leading up to the retreat.
Your deposit is fully refundable until 14 days before the retreat commences to give us enough time to find someone to take your place.
