Thank you for awarding the New Moon Circles and Retreats for Pre-teens a Neighbourhood Small Grant! We are so grateful to have the opportunity to provide these girls with different experiences that enable them to grow in their intuition, sovereignty, self-confidence and connectedness with themselves and their community.
With these dollars we were able to invite local artist Katie Wertz to do an interactive blend of art and dance with the participants. Katie is an emerging contemporary dance artist and choreographer based on Gidimt’en clan territory of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. She offered the participants exercises from her artistic practice that dive into self inquiry and awareness and are accessible for multi ages to engage in. Through prompts and observing embodied gestures, participants were invited to intuitively express sensations in their body using visual arts and dance making tools. The process was broken down into steps with reflection sharing throughout. Connections were made through listening to personal reflections as well as a final collaborative creative process.
We were able to provide dinner, dessert, and a small gift for each of the participants to take home to continue to incorporate elements from the circle such as gratitude, self-reflection, intuition, and collaboration.
The participants seemed to thoroughly enjoy this experience and are now asking us if we can apply for more grants to do a sleepover event!
As we hold Moon Circles monthly, planning was relatively easy so no challenges arose. We did have to budget for dinner, snacks (which were provided through a donation from Safeway), gifts and honorariums. We were able to gift each girl with a journal, pen and tumbled crystal. Some of the journals had been donated by a local woman who had an abundance in her craft room and thought the girls would like them.
There many things we learnt during this process. Working as team is so much more fun and less stressful than working alone. Allowing each of us to take on parts of planning that felt aligned with our strengths helped with flow and ease. As we invite more guests into the circles, I absolutely love watching and learning different techniques on how to connect with the girls as well as keep us track while still allowing space for vulnerability and connection. Katie definitely brought that to table. It’s always a lesson in patience and pivoting, being flexible and bringing us back to centre. It truly is as much a growth experience for us as it for the girls.
Thank you!
Noelle and Kaila
