CLASSES ARE FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE
The Esalen Movement & Activity Program has evolved into a popular and varied schedule of movement and meditation classes. Every day of the week, classes are open to everyone at Esalen, guests and staff, and all levels of experience. Check the Movement Program schedule when you are here.
Body Moves with Bryan Scott
Shake your booty to contemporary dance music in this free-form class.
Dance Church with Lance Lindborg
Free-form improvisational dancing influenced by the methods of Gabrielle Roth and Vinn Marti. Spirit in Motion!
Dance Awake with JJ Jeffries
Groove to your music muse in a Zen Boogie of mindful movement meditation. Explore your connection to the self, to the other and to the divine in a spirit of playfulness and curiosity with the dance of heart opening.
Moving Into Presence with Nora Matten
A dance awareness practice exploring relationship to self, others, community & the mystery. Inspired by Soul Motion.
TransDance with Maggie Minervini-Zick & Heather Munro Pierce
Each TransDance Journey begins with a movement meditation designed to unlock and unlayer unnecessary tension and invite you to a deeper experience of enlivened embodiment. We'll explore through intention, imagination and freeform ecstatic dance a symbol, theme or ritual from one of the great wisdom traditions as a gateway to conscious awakening and the celebration of life. Spaciously facilitated. All movement is at your own pace.
5Rhythms Ecstatic Dance with Luica Horan
This dancing meditation practice presents the work of Gabrielle Roth and the 5Rhythms™, flowing, staccato, lyrical, chaos and stillness.
Spirit Dance with Ellen Watson
Since the dawn of time, peoples from all cultures have used dance as a path to re-establish connection between body and heart and spirit, and experience an offering that can lead one beyond temporal mind into a dance with the divine…this is movement as a spiritual practice.
Yum Session with PJ Novotny and Friends
A space to explore soulful body awareness through breath, through beat, through dance, through movement..! Live, continuous, improvisational music blends. East,West and World grooves with ambient sound landscapes, moving you through an energetic wave into a blissful stillness at journey's end...
Gestalt Movement with Dianne Miller
Our bodies move in repetitive patterns of joy and stress. Participants will be offered a larger vocabulary of movement to realize, express, shape and dance patterns of their lives.
Qi Gong with Shankara Barrera
Pronounced "chee-gung" and translated as energy cultivation. Qi Gong is an ancient Chinese system of postures, breathing techniques, self massage and meditation designed to improve the flow of your body's energy. Inspired by Dr. Roger Janke.
Tai Chi with Kevin Burke
A gentle, flowing introduction to the ancient Chinese movement form with a "non-martial" art approach.
Tai Ji with Chungliang Al Huang
Learn some of the important aspects of this ancient, gentle and powerful movement system with this engaging and inimitable master.
NIA with Cristin Devine
NIA will pump your heart, lubricate your joints, release your tension, enhance your balance, and tone your muscles with creative movement, mindful awareness, and joyful spirit for all levels.
Hatha Yoga with Bea Sochor, Anna Pierce-Slive, Jan Sinclair, Debra Simpson, Seema Christie and Thomas Fortel
Mindful yoga postures that emphasize breath, a practice for building strength, enhancing flexibility, creating energy, spacious presence, and compassionate listening to the needs of your body - all levels are welcome!
Kundalini Yoga with Shankara Barrera
A gentle introduction. Practice includes postures, dynamic breathing techniques, muscular contractions and chanting to awaken the spiritual, creative energy of the body (Kundalini) and guide it through the chakras with intention. As taught by Yogi Bhajan.
Restorative Yoga with Bea Sochor, Seema Christie, Debra Simpson and Anna Pierce-Slive
By supporting the body with props in the relaxed poses, participants alternately stimulate and relax the body to move
towards balance.
Yoga Nidra on Shankara Barrera
Relax into a guided visualization through the body and its energy channels. If 45 minutes of lying in shavasana (corpse pose) sounds good to you, then come join us. From the Bihar School of Yoga.
Vinyasa Flow Yoga with Carl Swanson
This vigorous class combines Vinyasa (a continuous series of postures which are linked together with fluid connecting movements, synchronized with the breath) with longer holds of some poses. As we practice presence both in stillness and in movement, we cultivate an environment for stilling the mind, deepening body awareness, and allowing prana (life energy) to flow freely.
Community Meditation with Leo Thomson, Jan Sinclair and Bea Sochor
A silent sitting practice with guidance provided by an Esalen Community member.
Didgeridoo Meditation with Daniel Peterson and Gabe Skvor
Sink into calm pools of the SELF at the baths with the soothing and mysterious sounds of the Australian didgeridoo.
Sensory Awareness Chakra Meditation with JJ Jeffries
Awaken the wisdom of the body through the pathways of sensation as revealed within each of the Chakras, opening the blocks to resonance, flow and essence with the focus and support of voice and guitar.
Om Meditaton, Drop In with Rick Cannon
Chant the primal sound of the universe and drop deeply into meditation. Accompanied by the sacred sound of the shruti box. Stay for the whole time or part of it.
Rise Up Singing with Lisa Goettel
Sing! This super fun group singing class is for singers, shower singers and non-singers alike. Lisa G. teaches songs in the round and guides the way to vocal freedom, joy and connection.
Kirtan with Carl Swanson
Call-and-response devotional chanting in the Bhakti Yoga tradition. Open your heart to the divine as you prayerfully drop into the ocean of sound that we create with our own voices.
Singing Gestalt with Nancy Lunney
Join Nancy at the South Point House, located between the garden and the ocean, for a moving experience. You choose from a variety of songs and sing with your heart, guided by Nancy's wisdom and musicianship.
Celebrating the Spirit of Big Sur with David Schiffman and Friends
Come out and drum and dance your glory and enjoy a cleansing saging. A 21st century revival of an Esalen tradition.
Open Seat with Josef London, Brita Ostrom, Mary Anne Will and Gordon Wheeler
Open seats are a long standing Esalen tradition in which an approved Esalen facilitator makes him or herself available for two hours for anyone willing to participate. As a participant, you are free to sit in witness or work on an issue you know about or let one emerge in the dialogue between you and a facilitator.
Writing Group with Bill Herr
This writing group is open to all and is a supportive space in which to explore writing as a means of self expression.
