Shambhala Art – True Perception, Authentic Gesture

” Do we really know how to see things, how to do things? Do we really listen, do we really know how to do this? The teachings here are very much to do with the power of perception”.– Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche 

The Dharma Art Teachings of Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche are not just about making “art”. They are about how we are creating ourselves each moment, the artistry of life itself, how we create our environments, and how we communicate and express ourselves to others.

Program

Open to everyone, the program will combine Dharma Art teachings with the Shambhala teachings about daring to be in the present moment – connecting with the energy and magic of being alive. 

In Shambhala Art, we learn mostly through exercises that make us aware and make us explore and discover the creative process:

• Opening our mind, freeing our basic potential with meditation and exercises,

• Clearing perception, tuning into ourselves and our world through our sense perceptions and inner perception, insight and intuition, removing the filters of habitual patterns,
• Creating and expressing, in structured and unstructured approaches, with form and without form or rules. Using painting, movement, object arranging, voice, and writing…, the exercises are designed to help with finding your own voice, your unique mode of expression. 

Shambhala Art consists of five parts, which will all be covered during this week.

Part 1 : Coming to Your Senses
Part 2 : Seeing Things as They Are
Part 3 : The Creative Process
Part 4 : The Power of Display
Part 5 : Art in Everyday Life & the Feast of the Elements

Each part of the five-part program takes us deeper into what it means to see and experience things as they truly are and how inspiration arises from that discovery.
Herbert ELSKY is very happy to announce that he will be teaching this 2017 program together with Fatou TRAORE and Liesbieth SCHOLTEN. These two talented women will bring a beautiful richness of experience to the program.

Practical

This program is taught in English. Translation into French or other languages are available at no extra costs. Please give us notice of your request as early as possible, so that we can provide translation service.

Arrival day (Sunday April 23):Orientation talk at 8 pm. You’re invited to come from 4 pm in order to register and settle in your room. Dinner is served at 6.45 pm.
End of program (Friday April 28): Closing circle and Banquet in the evening.

Departure day (Saturday April 29): You may leave anytime (no program). You’re welcome to stay for lunch.

Material: Please be aware that there’ll be an additional materials fee of 15-20 Euros to be paid upon arrival.

Teachers

Herbert Elsky is a senior student of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche and Mipham Rinpoche.
 He met Trungpa Rinpoche in Los Angeles in 1971 and he was one of the founding members of the Los Angeles “Dharmadhatu”, the original name for Shambhala Centres. He was the Director of Shambhala Training in Los Angeles and later the Head of Practice at Karme Choling. He worked closely with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, when Rinpoche was developing and presenting the teachings about “Dharma Art”.
In 1995 he moved to France with his wife Catherine, to establish Dechen Choling as a major practice centre. He was the Head of Practice at Dechen Choling from 1995-1997. Herb teaches all levels of Shambhala Training and Shambhala Art throughout Europe.
He is an artist, a sculptor, who exhibited his sculptures of transparent resin regularly in art galleries whilst living in Los Angeles. Since moving to France he has created the “La Baluba” theatre as his work has evolved towards sound and performance work.

Liesbeth Scholten is a poet and dancer. She lives in Amsterdam with her son. Liesbeth studied Innovation Science and worked for 15 years in Philips, a multinational company, on people-centred research and innovation. She got to travel the world and study people’s behaviours and mindsets, and to develop new solutions to people’s needs. Today she runs her own business FreeUp.nl , aimed at co-creating purposeful change.

Liesbeth first came into a Shambhala centre in 2006, and started Shambhala Training in 2009. She lives and loves this path of warriorship – to create enlightened society. She became a Shambhala Art teacher in 2015. To Liesbeth, Dharma Art is the language that can reveal deeper layers of insight and inspiration, beyond ordinary understanding. This is like magic that cannot be taught – but it can be discovered and experienced in the creative process.

Fatou Traore is an explorer of movement and sound. She has been a professional choreographer, dancer, singer and musician for more than twenty five years. She has been giving dance workshops for thirty years in various Academies and Dance Centers, as well as Circus Schools throughout Europe. She also presents a laboratory of movement aiming at everybody twice a week in Brussels. The multiple projects in various forms that she invests herself in express her incessant desire to experience a living art which creates authentic connections with dance and music.
Alternating between intimate and spectacular pieces her career as a dancer / choreographer includes Experimental Dance performances in major venues as well as intimate spaces, working with Contemporary Circus groups, and work in the Theater. She is a multi dimensional artist who can enrich her performances using the expressive arts of painting, sculpture, and costume making. She also is a musician who plays the african N’goni.
For the past five years she has been singing with, and artistically directing with Dounia Depoorter, a choral group of twenty five women called the Patshiva cie. This joyful and energetic choir travels and performs in disadvantaged areas mixing with the local populations and including them in their street performances, and in theaters. Their work can uplift a entire neighborhood bringing inspiration and confidence to many people who otherwise have very few resources.