CURAWAKA
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YOZEF DRAGON | IXCHEL MUNAY
ANDREW SEALY | ALEX BUTA
JANUARY 2 - 4, 2025
Imagine singing and dancing every day, feeling life force and creativity flowing through your body, the heart expanding joy of authentic connection with amazing humans from all over the world.
Imagine waking up to a rejuvenating morning yoga practice, swimming in waterfall pools, massages, high vibe farm to table meals, opening your heart and voice in singing circle around the sacred fire, being moved by the music to dance your prayers, receiving the frequency medicine of sound healing - all in a community that is holding the space of presence, and radical acceptance or non-judgement for you to feel free to express yourself.
This will be a very special way to set the energy for your entire year with vitality, expansion, joy and connection!
In Africa if someone says they are depressed the first question they ask is -
When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing?
The opposite of depression is not happiness, but expression. In a world with so much suppression, singing and dancing are some of the most powerful ways to allow our life force creative energy to be expressed.
Humans have been singing and dancing together for millennia. Join us for five glorious days of ecstatic song and dance and awaken the ancestral remembrance of connection to this living earth and all her beauty.
There is something extraordinary about the field that we create in these immersions. Many people have said they've experienced the best days of their lives.
I attribute this to finally having the feeling of being at home with yourself. That deep peace that comes with not needing to waste any energy in an internal battle of what you think you should do to be loved and accepted.
To finally have a space where you let all the parts of yourself you've judged, abandoned or repressed be seen, felt and expressed.
Wholeness, holiness, liberation!
Alegría Schedule
You have the option to come and stay at Yacumama for the whole immersion, come for just the day or even just a workshop.
January 2
11:00 - 1:00 Arrival & Check Ins
11:00 - 3:00 Tribal Market
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
2:00 - 3:00
Make offerings to the Land at the Abuela Ceiba Tree
Opening Ceremony with Ana Boruca Tribe
4:00 - 7:00
Cacao Ceremony with Sacred Fire
Ecstatic Dance, Song Circle
Ixchel Munay, Yosef Dragon & Friends
7:00 - 8:30
Dinner
8:30 - 10:00
Music Jams around the Fire
January 3
7:00 – 8:30
Morning River / Creek / Nature Time
8:30 – 9:30
Breakfast
10:00 – 12:00
Quantum Breathwork & Ecstatic Dance
Alex & Ixchel
12:00 – 1:00
Lunch
1:00 – 3:30
Vocal Workshop
Anna Curawaka
4:00 – 7:00
Medicine Music Workshop & Sacred Fire
Curawaka
7:00 – 8:30
Dinner
8:30 – 10:00
Music Jams around the fire
January 4
7:00 - 8:30
Morning River/Creek/Nature Time
8:30 - 9:30
Breakfast
10:00 - 12:00
Therapeutic Acro Yoga
Andrew Sealy
12:00 - 1:00
Checkout or Option to Stay and Have Lunch
1:00 - 3:00
Optional Massage/Nature Time or Blue Clay Experience
7:00 - Onwards
Option to join all night prayer circle with Curawaka
GUEST ARTISTS
CURAWAKA
We are blessed to have a Medicine Music Workshop with the band Curawaka. What is medicine music? How does sound become medicine? How can we grow into being medicine musicians, to share music that carries healing?
Anna Bariyani, Tavo Vazquez, Alberto Arroyo and Dario Santamaria Romero are the members of one of the world´s leading Medicine Music bands - Curawaka. Each of them have a long journey as musicians behind them, each one with their own story, instrument, technique and musical specialty. With the Medicine Music Workshop, each member of Curawaka offer their insights into the essence of the medicine of sound, and sharing techniques on how to cultivate that healing frequency when playing music.
The workshop often includes guided breathing exercises, lessons on rhythm and melody, theoretical discourse and discussions, always making sure participants get an understanding of the cultural context and the importance of connection to places and traditions. Through different exercises, we practice authenticity, spontaneity and the importance of play. Ending the workshop with a jam session and/or a singing circle, sharing the joy and connection so vital to Medicine Music.
The Medicine Music Workshop is for anyone, beginners and masters of music, no experience needed. If you play an instrument, feel free to bring it for the jam sessions.
Anna Bariyani
Curawaka singer Anna Bariyani works with the voice in as a portal for connection, healing and prayer. She will be sharing a transformative vocal workshop guiding us to weave our voice as a thread in the large tapestry of life. Weaving is the word she uses to refer to this unique way of singing, where she aligns her song with sacred design of life, allowing the voice to weave its own story into the great tapestry of life, for the channel of the soul, to connect one's own spirit with the Great Spirit.
When we reconnect our voice to source, we reconnect with our origin and our purpose. Using her distinct vocal techniques, mainly rooted in her native Scandinavian traditions, Anna shares her way of using the voice for channeling, healing, prayer and divination. Her unique methods allows for authentic expression, conscious creation, and spiritual connection.
Get acquainted with the technique of weaving as a way of using the voice and explore the art of weaving song with spirit. Get inspired to infuse your vocal expressions with intention, inflection, and resonance that elevate your connection to the divine, allowing you to co-create with the universe
Andrew Sealy
Andrew Sealy is a connection catalyst, a yoga artist, and a movement creator. His days are spent traveling to share inspiring experiences, practicing to cultivate growth, and constantly embodying wisdom to create safe space for positive transformation. Andrew shares his practice of Yoga, Meditation, and Chocolate Making with light hearted love, to friends around the world.
Andrew will guide us to take our connection skills to the next level with AcroYoga flying therapeutics. You get to harness your inner healer to give and receive healing touch in this 2 hour deep dive into the art of Acro Yoga’s therapeutic side. Be prepared to give with compassion and receive with grace. This will be a nourishing way to close this gathering so we leave fulfilled and content with a smile on our faces. No partner necessary. All Levels welcome.
ixchel munay
Hola I'm Ixchel, visionary behind Alegría & Yacumama.
I am forever a humble student of life, the living world, indigenous wisdom and the ancient teachings of yoga. I value authenticity, keeping it real and creating spaces free of judgement where we can feel safe to let go of the masks to experience true intimacy and connection.
After almost 20 years stewarding community in Bali, for the past four years I’ve been spending half the year in Costa Rica devoted to creating Yacumama - a regenerative community land project where we are happy to welcome you home for this gathering.
Singing and dancing have been some of the most profound spiritual practices of my life. From dancing all night on ecstasy in my teenage years to chanting in the Kirtan Mela in India all day and night to dancing nearly every Sunday in Ecstatic Dance for over 15 years.
Singing and dancing returns me to my true essence, my true nature, my center. I’ve been bringing community together in gatherings of devotion and connection, song and dance all over the world for many years.
I’ll be sharing a Cacao Ceremony for this gathering to tap us into the magic that happens when we drop in together in flow state through singing and dancing.
My prayer is that we can come together and create a magnetic field to amplify connection, joy and harmony and remember how important singing and dancing are for us to create a world of peace and beauty.
Yozéf Campos
Yozéf Dragon is the Artist/DJ name for Adrián Yozéf. Born and raised in Costa Rica he is the founder of Beyond Dance and one of the most important local space holders in conscious dancing in the South Pacific and Central Valley of Costa Rica. He is an embodiment mentor and DJ committed to creating a safe, substance-free, and therapeutic space for the exploration of the inner self through music and movement.
Yozéf is not only continually growing and evolving as a leader and DJ, carefully weaving together lush fusions of worlds for the subtle landscapes of the soul, but he is also a pioneer who captures the full spectrum of the rainbow in his field of work, bringing a dynamic, sumptuous and satisfying experience for the healing and rejuvenation of the individual.
He has toured around Europe twice playing at different Ecstatic Dance communities such as: París, Montpellier, Burdeos, Nantes, Rome, Napoli, Zagreb, Barcelona.
Inspired by the movement medicine he carries he has led embodiment workshops in Colombia and for many transformational experiences in his own country in different retreats centers such as: Imiloa, Kinkara, Vida Mountain and Tierramor in Nosara.
As an Embodiment Mentor and Facilitator he is dedicated to supporting people in their journey to liberate themselves mentally and physically through the pleasure of their own and free self expression in groups and 1:1 settings.
Alex Buta
Alex Buta is an Ecstatic Dance DJ, Sound Alchemist, Writer, and Creativity Mentor. He'll be sharing an ecstatic dance following a quantum breathwork session guided by Ixchel.
His passion for music began at the age of 7, but it wasn’t until his 30s that he stepped into the role of an ecstatic dance DJ during the pandemic in Bali. Inspired by the collective desire for movement and connection after months of lockdown, Alex began organizing small, intimate ecstatic dance gatherings at his home.
Collaborating with talented dancers and creatives in Bali, these gatherings grew into large community experiences. After the lockdown, Alex continued to nurture his passion, evolving as a DJ and weaving deep, grounding frequencies with 5th-dimensional soundscapes into his music.
Over the years, he has contributed to art and music events in Bali, Costa Rica, and Peru, always focused on creating transformative and heart-centered spaces.
ACCOMMODATIONS
We have a variety of accommodations all nestled in nature to connect you with the forest and inspire you with expansive views of the ocean, mountains and jungle. You will likely see blue morpho butterflies, hummingbirds, toucans, scarlet macawas, monkeys and more right from your room.
Being onsite is the best, however there is also the option to come as a non-residential participant.
LOCATION
Yacumama is in Ojochal, a small town near the Pacific Ocean, known for its international fine dining, which is part of the Ballena (whale) Coast.
We are 30-40 minutes south of Dominical and 15-20 minutes south of Uvita, where the Envision Festival has been held for the past ten+ years.
Yacumama is a 3-4 hour drive southwest of the international airport, SJO.
From San Jose or other airports in the country you can also take a 45 minute flight on a small plane with Sansa or even hire a small private plane to Quepos airport which is about an hour drive from Yacumama.