The 2010 Esalen International Arts Festival
A Celebration of Art, Culture, and Spirit
Six Workshops & July 3rd Performances
The Esalen International Arts Festival is a three-day celebration of the infinite
creative spirit within. Esalen will resound with irresistible rhythms and sounds,
acts of truth and imagination, and invocations of joy and beauty woven into a vibrant tapestry of art, culture, and spirit.
The aim of the festival is to ignite our imagination and awaken us to new possibilities within ourselves and the world. With an extraordinarily diverse group of artists, musicians, performers, and teachers we’ll celebrate our creativity as a vital force to lift our spirits and facilitate personal and global transformation.
Arts Festival 2010 features six weekend workshops, a group of visual art exhibitions, and a special World Music and Dance Festival Celebration on the afternoon of July 3.
Weekend workshop registrations are open now.
The July 3 celebration is open to the public; however advance tickets to the event are SOLD OUT. Workshop participants receive free admission.
The Three-Day Arts Festival Workshops
Afro-Cuban Music and Dance: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella (1925-2010)
Jesus Diaz & Pedro “Muñeco” Aguilar
Aguabella is the John Coltrane of the Conga Drums.
—Dizzy Gillespie
In this high-energy workshop of Afro-Cuban music, dance, and culture, we will celebrate Francisco Aguabella, one of the world’s greatest Jazz artists and master of the bata drums and congas. Taught by two world-renowned Cuban performers, the workshop weaves together traditional and contemporary concepts of Afro-Cuban percussion and choreography. Drumming classes will provide students with an introduction to techniques, strokes, and basic patterns for the conga, batá (talking drum), and hand-percussion instruments such as cowbells, claves, shekere, and others.
Diaz and Aguilar will teach participants the fundamentals of solo and group playing. The dance classes will focus on the three basic types of Afro-Cuban rumba, Rumba Yambú, Rumba Guaguancó, and Rumba Columbia, plus traditional and folkloric dances of the Orisha. Through singing, movement, and infectious rhythms, the group will create a joyful and passionate time in honor of Francisco.
Make an Online Reservation Request
Singing from Your Heart and Soul
Reneé Wilson
This a cappella singing workshop explores improvisational singing, composition, vocal training, and performance. Covering the basic elements of vocal improvisatory sound and voice technique, Singing from Your Heart and Soul is a powerful course that will help give you the valuable life skills and confidence in finding your voice from the heart and soul. Whether you sing in the shower or perform onstage this workshop is designed for singers of all levels.
Make an Online Reservation Request
Family Arts Celebration
Jayson Fann & ClimbingPoeTree
Join Jayson Fann, Arts Festival founder and creative director, Alixa Garcia and Naima
Penniman of the art and performance duo Climbing PoeTree, and guest artists for an
extraordinary multicultural family arts celebration. Mask making, drumming, dancing,
fire dancers, storytellers, and performances under the stars will be among the many creative and dynamic elements woven into an unforgettable family weekend. Drawing from an incredible group of artists from around the world, this workshop will be an inspiration for both children and adults. All ages are welcome including parents with small children. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
Jayson Fann has twenty years of experience as a musician, performer, visual artist, musical director and multi-cultural arts education consultant. The former director of the Esalen Arts Center, he has taught at California State University, Monterey Bay.
Make an Online Reservation Request
Until I Overflow: Unearthing Your Creative Genius through Writing and Poetry
Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo
This workshop is for both beginning and experienced writers, slam poets, actors, and nonwriters who seek to discover the empowering medium of poetry. Through group exercises and nightly jam ciphers, participants will form a fertile environment to express their creative poetic soul.
Writing can become a spiritual exploration that brings you into contact with your authentic voice. The aim of this workshop is to bring each participant face to face with the invincible spirit of his or her own being. Weave a spellbinding tale, tell the burning story or poem that will tap into the genius and beauty inside of you, lifting you into greater self-expression, passion, freedom, and joy. Here we experience deliberate spiritual nourishment and poetic powers to recharge our spirits, bodies, and hearts.
Make an Online Reservation Request
Arts Festival Filmmaking Intensive
Bella Shing
"I believe that filmmaking is a highly metaphysical practice," writes Bella Shing. "Especially with documentary, I find that there is often a flow that if you are available to the energy of a story, you find yourself in exactly the right place at the right time, where serendipity, circumstances, and people all arrive to help a story unfold."
Whether you are an emerging filmmaker, a seasoned professional, or just a movie lover, come to the Esalen Video Project and experience a full spectrum of filmmaking. Get inside the filmmaker’s world as you explore the art of low and no-budget digital filmmaking. Bella Shing, an independent filmmaker from the Bay Area, presents a complete filmmaker’s workshop, from screenwriting to directing, shooting to editing. Through this hands-on three-day crash course, you will gain invaluable experience of film and video as you make your own films (narrative, non-narrative, documentary, music, and video), or you can team up and collaborate.
Bring a camera to shoot your own short film at the festival.
Requirements: Any digital camera, any editing system (computer), microphones, and head phones (optional). If you do not have a camera or a computer, it may be possible, with enough advance notice, to rent equipment from the leader. Please contact bella@sweetermedia.com for details.
Make an Online Reservation Request
Awakening Creativity and Inspiration: Art, Spirit and Transformation
Wawi Amasha, Dulce Maria Perez & Nasambu Wamalwa
Haraka, haraka haina baraka/Pole pole ndio mwendo.
Hurry, hurry has no blessings/Slowly is the way to go.
—Swahili proverb
Welcome to a three-day exploration of the infinite creative spirit within you. Join Wawi, Dulce Maria, and Nasambu for an unforgettable multi-media arts celebration. Painting, dancing, poetry, and performances under the stars will be among the many dynamic elements woven into an unforgettable weekend. The Art Barn will be pulsating with colors, irresistible rhythms, and imagination. The aim of this workshop is to ignite your imagination and awaken you to new possibilities within your creativity.
($50 materials fee paid directly to the leaders)
Make an Online Reservation Request
July 3rd World Music and Dance Festival Celebration and Concerts
On July 3rd from 2 in the afternoon until 10 at night, the public is invited to join performers and artists from around the world in a celebration of art, culture, and spirit at Esalen. Art exhibitions, musical performances, and dance mark a day when it is possible to visit Esalen without being enrolled in a workshop or Personal Retreat.
Event Info
July 3rd general admission: $50, 14 and under $35, 3 & under free
2-10pm
Includes performances, mineral baths, and a delicious, organic dinner made with sustainable ingredients from Big Sur's bioregion.
Tickets
ADVANCE TICKETS TO THIS EVENT ARE SOLD OUT.
A limited number of tickets will be available for sale at the gate on event day beginning at 1pm with CASH ONLY. Gate opens at 2pm - no early entry.
Festival Artists
A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella: Dizzie Gillespie called the late Francisco Aguabella the "John Coltrane of the conga drums". His incredible band of percussionists and Afro-Cuban dancers are a talent not to be missed.
Rocky Dawuni: "The Bob Marley of Ghana", Rocky Dawuni has achieved international acclaim for his social activism and progressive fusion of reggae, soul and traditional African sounds.
Climbing PoeTree: A Brooklyn-based, internationally-acclaimed performance duo, ClimbingPoeTree obliterates the boundaries between performance and activism. With roots in Haiti and Colombia, Alixa and Naima overcome destruction with creativity.
Reneé Wilson: Singing a unique mix of jazz, gospel, funk, soul, blues, Renee Wilson is best known for portraying Raelette Pat Lyle in the Academy Award winning film Ray.
Antics Hip Hop Dance Theater Company: Antics Performance is a hip hop dance/theater company based in Los Angeles under the artistic direction of Amy “Catfox” Campion. Antics Performance creates multi-media urban dance performances that incorporate breakdancing, locking, popping, DJ’s, spoken word, theater, and film into hand-clapping, foot-stomping performances.
Ma Muse: Sarah Nutting and Karisha Longaker, two alto-sopranos, weave a blend of whimsy and emotional depth in their Roots music. This texture is spun with upright bass, mandolin, bazuki, guitar, flute, kalimba, ankle bells, train whistles, gospel claps, jazz snaps, and laughter.
Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo: Poet/vocalist, 2nd place 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion.
Viviana Guzman: Virtuoso flutist, composer, dancer and poet.
Festival Exhibitions
The arts festival will present 30 visual artists from all over the world. Below is a preview of some of the artists.
Wawi Amasha: A Kenyan painter working and living in the US. Wawi draws inspiration from her home country. She was born and raised by her grandmother in a small village in Embu district, about 220 miles from Nairobi, Kenya.
Women Painters of Big Sur: Big Sur's beauty is often referred to by writers as deeply feminine, and the expression of this beauty by the Women Painters of Big Sur is bold, visionary, colorful, and touching.
Beyond The Eyes:Works of Masauso Mchiumya: A native of Zambia, South Africa, Masauso Mchiumya journeys into the subconscious beyond the naked eye, provoked by color, words, and images abstract and real.
Festival Food
Join us in celebrating delicious, local and sustainable culinary art at Esalen! This year's festival features an unprecedented menu of fresh, locally grown and consciously prepared food. This is the first year we will serve ALL locally grown and harvested food from our Big Sur coastal bioregion. Enjoy freshly caught Halibut, fresh veggies, a variety of greens and lettuces, citrus, fruit desserts,lemonade, esalen spring water, local beers and more. We are committed to serving up healthy and delicious choices for sustainable, conscious eco-living.
Eat Local with us for the day and get inspired to explore what it means be a "Locavore". These food production methods are healthy, do not harm the environment, respect workers, are humane to animals, provide fair wages to farmers, and support farming communities.