WELCOME TO OPEN HOUSE 2023

Put dance on your calendar and join us for 24 hours of round-the-clock dance & embodied movement with Open Floor teachers from around the world.

RESOURCE THE SELF

REVIVE THE WORLD

Open House is a global, online fundraising event offering movers around the world 24 hours of Open Floor movement practice. Our annual event showcases both leading and emerging Open Floor teachers.

Join us for this embodied exploration of body, heart, mind and soul. 

Everybody is welcome to dance and learn with us.

Online

October 20 – 21 – 22, 2023

(start and end time depends on your time zone)

Register for a 24 HOUR PASS for $25

or get tickets for a dance or two starting at $10

It was transformative to participate and highly inclusive. I was twice favored: with the scholarship and the possibility of being at home. These are the miracles of life: the challenges that create openness to new ways of seeing and acting in the world!”

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

All funds raised will go to our Diversity & Inclusion Scholarship Fund.

We currently have trainees from all over the world who are facing challenging financial hardship. We raised over $20,000 in the last two years at Open House, and with additional fundraising we have already awarded over 30 scholarships. Funds raised go towards ensuring that our teachers in training can complete the teacher training.

Become an Open House sponsor!
To become a sponsor of Open House and make sure that new teachers reflect the beautiful diversity of world’s people, let us know by selecting a sponsorship option on the Eventbrite ticketing page. We will get back to you right away to see how you or your business would like to be acknowledged for your gift.

2023 Open House Sponsors

Click on a logo below to find out more about businesses that share the values of Open Floor International. These values include diversity, inclusion and belonging.

OPEN HOUSE SCHEDULE

October 20 – 21 – 22, 2023

Sessions are listed in chronological order, in the teachers’ local time zones.
All sessions are live, participatory, 60 – 90 minutes movement sessions.

A new session starts every two hours.

I've been practicing inquiry movement in many different ways, but I've never experienced anything quite like Open Floor. I know I love this modality and that it truly resonates for me.

kerry-ann stanton
TAISIYA KUPRIYANOVA
teri mcneil
imraan ismail
catherine elvinger
Deborah Lewin
idan meir
griet verstraete
Zuza Engler
Lori Saltzman
kathy altman
jenny macke

SUBSCRIBE HERE FOR UPDATES

Don’t miss a session! Sign up for email reminders.

MEET THE OPEN HOUSE TEACHERS

Listed in chronological order 

FLIGHT OF HANDS • KERRY- ANN STANTON

InSpirited Aging (Art-in-Motion session) is a practice of movement, writing, simple art making and conversation, open to anyone exploring what it means to age in a spirited way. Our focus will be on our hands. “Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.” Rumi The session begins with guided movement, followed by writing/art making/conversation. We finish with gentle movement and a listening meditation.

DANCING WITH PARTS • TAISIYA KUPRIYANOVA

We all have parts. Some parts we love, some parts we want to get rid of. In Open Floor we move and include. Take time to meet different parts of yourself and dance with them.

4 DIMENSIONS OF EMBODIMENT TERI MCNEIL

Physical, Emotional, Mind and Soul are all invited into the dance to acknowledge our humanness more fully. We will cultivate open awareness of each dimension to feel more embodied in our dance, as well as in life.

SPIRIT DANCE • IMRAAN ISMAIL

English: Dancing in connection with spirit, expanding the dance to encompass something bigger than us.French: Danser en connexion avec l'esprit, élargir la danse pour embrasser quelque chose de plus grand que nous.

OPENING UP THE SPACE: from the inside to the outside • CATHERINE ELVINGER

English: In this Open Floor session, we will take the time to perceive our body from the inside, place ourselves into a body part and discover this inside space. We will let our inside visions, thoughts and images travel us, move us, surprise us. This new perspective can open us to unexpected dances on an unexpected and creative journey.French: Dans cette session Open Floor, nous prendrons le temps de percevoir notre corps de l'intérieur, de nous placer dans une partie du corps et de découvrir cet espace intérieur. Nous laisserons nos visions, pensées et images intérieures nous transporter, nous (é)mouvoir, nous surprendre. Cette nouvelle perspective peut nous ouvrir à des danses inattendues au cours d'un voyage inattendu et créatif.

LUCID FLOW ~ an introduction to Therapy-in-Motion group work • DEBORAH LEWIN

This session requires having your camera on and attending for the whole 90 minutes.
This LUCID FLOW taster session might appeal to you if are curious about: How a therapeutic movement space works online and enables in-depth work utilizing Open Floor Curriculum. Developing your embodied emotional intelligence. Exploring working 1:1 within a group context. Offering your presence through witnessing someone working 1:1. The charged energetic field created through witnessing and being witnessed. Reflection time with others (in breakout rooms). You want to MOVE!

THE RETURN HOME • IDAN MEIR

Most of us didn't land into a family that provided us with the Home we wished for. Most of us were not well contained or nourished; many felt alone, some unsafe. Our vast range of emotions was shrinking according to the limitations of our caretakers. A cruck and a doubt started when asking if we deserve a Home in this world and to be loved just as we are. In this session, we will gently connect to the child we were, contain her just as she is, nourish him and allow them to Return to the belief that there is a Home for her, for him, for us, in this world.

BODY SENSE - an introduction to Therapy in Motion • GRIET VERSTRAETE

Discover the incredible power within your body and movement patterns that hold your unique experiences, stories, and emotions. The session will be a vibrant, conscious space where you're fully seen and heard. We will start with a community dance and inquiry. From the group 2 people can experience an individual session while the rest of the group takes on the role of witness. We delve deep into the wisdom residing in our bodies, tap into deeper layers through dance and movement. Embrace the first step of this incredible process: Openness and Curiosity.
Therapy in Motion is more than a method— it's a dynamic fusion of leading psychological concepts with the vocabulary of embodied movement. Are you ready for this extraordinary journey of self-discovery? Join us and discover the magic within!

GRAPPLING WITH OUR LUMINOUS DOOM • ZUZA ENGLER

If you have danced once or twice you may know the power of movement to unlock the hidden places inside, yes? the shortcut it creates to what years of talk therapy may have never touched? the elegant way it offers for moving with what inside us needs attention and love? Experience again the magic of this simple, powerful practice of embodied awakening. Connect with yourself deeply. Feel, express, release, and recover the capacity for facing the life we have been given. Relax into body, heart, and spirit for true and profound belonging.

ART & SOUL: The Marriage of Movement and Writing • LORI SALTZMAN

Our dance practice opens the gate of creative movement. Then, moving directly from breath to heart to hand to page, we write past the critical world without a backward glance, allow ourselves to be messy, wild and unpolished. Then we read, listen, laugh, shed tears, dream aloud and fumble together — until we are struck silent by the unexpected moments that leap from us all. Whether you love to write or freeze at the thought, this session will help you dip a pen into your own rich well. Rather than think something up, you’ll learn to listen onto the page. There is nothing to make up. There are no skills required. You already have everything you need.

ART & SOUL • KATHY ALTMAN

Visual art speaks to us beyond words. It speaks in the universal language of pictures, understood and unknowable. Dance and art are married to each other in that they each offer a different perspective and language to let our unique take on this wild life shine. This is soul music that only we can make.*Note: attendees should have ready some paper as well as markers or crayons or colored pencils to use during this session.

AGILE HEART • JENNY MACK

Our emotions are one of our greatest teachers of our humanity. Working with the core movement resource of activate and settle we will explore embodied emotions. We practice agility in being with their wild activated nature and conscious settling to quiet the field and give ourselves resourced space.

Read Our Global Impact Stories

V is for Vector

Making a difference with the Open Floor International Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Scholarship fund. Simone simply wouldn’t have been able to participate in the Open

Read More »

Reshaping The Future

A common purpose and a shared intention… Jo Woods & Sarah Winter, Open Floor teachers from Melbourne, Australia, are using Open Floor movement practice to

Read More »
Dance for Life with Open Floor movement practice

Dance for Life

One of the most important tenants of the Open Floor movement practice is to make dance accessible to everyone, regardless of age. Our movement practice

Read More »

Put dance on your calendar

Subscribe for the latest Open Floor news and events

Donate to Open Floor International

Your donation supports resilience, compassion, and joyous connection with others.

Your gift will support our efforts to diversify the field of mindful movement, develop the OFI curriculum, and expand our philanthropic programs.

Open Floor International is incorporated in the United States as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Donations made to Open Floor International are deductible to the full extent allowed by U.S. law.

We provide an electronic receipt at the time of the donation. Both the receipt you see onscreen at the completion of the donation process and the e-mail you receive shortly thereafter meet all IRS requirements as a record of donation. If you are asked to provide a paper receipt for IRS purposes, please print out a copy of your email receipt. If you need another copy of your receipt, please email us.

Open Floor International uses industry-leading Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to keep your personal information as secure as possible. We protect your information by working with partners that provide a secure and safe environment for credit card donations.