if you want to save a seat for the next series! (You can also tell us on that page when you want what ....).
All classes are held at the Healing The Zebra Geodesic Dome Arts Center in Redwood City, California. Students currently need to be age 18 or older - but younger (above age 12) might be appropriate for some classes, so please do call us! In the Fall or Winter, we want to start expanding to include younger ages, especially if this 501(c)3 project is successful enough, we can make it its own non-profit entity.
For all the class descriptions ... classes For the class schedule ... schedule For info on your instructors ... instructor bios
Visual Artists …. Drawing, painting, collage, mixed media: See classes from Lisette, Laura, Cathy, Minouche, Rinat. Bodyworkers…. Yoga, health movement, dance: See classes from Valerie, Chelsy, Kristina, Lacey, Heidi, Steve. Writers …. Creative writing, poetry: See classes from Matthew and Melanie. Expressive Arts Facilitators…. Problem-solving focus: See classes with Douglas, Heather, Nancy.
What's "Healing The Zebra"?
Overview by Nancy Ries
The zebra as a symbol can represent a wholeness of duality – the black and white appearance as a part of a one living reality. Hence, these art workshops have been named: ‘Healing The Zebra’.
The work that is done here in our workshops is exactly about exploring how to genuinely unite opposites within a common ground, whether the conflict is within or without.
A story that gives you a glimpse into the heart of the dancer, into the heart of what dance is: the passion that leads to the most beautiful freedom of the body. Some of us are given the body for it, others the soul, but to have both the body and the soul, that is a nearness to God.
To dance is everything for me. The embodiment of all there is - in the music, in the poetry, in the beauty of the universe. All that exists dances if you have eyes to see - from the smallest cell to the greatest of galaxies - and when we truly join in the dance, we know what love is: Complete surrender.
May 23, 2009
In an article I found online, published in the Boston Globe, I found this….and it’s perfect for what Healing The Zebra is doing….:
“Like observing, envisioning is a skill with payoffs far beyond the art world. Einstein said that he thought in images. The historian has to imagine events and motivations from the past, the novelist an entire setting. Chemists need to envision molecular structures and rotate them. The inventor - the envisioner par excellence - must dream up ideas to be turned into real solutions.
"Envisioning is important in everyday life as well, whether for remembering faces as they change over time, or for finding our way around a new city, or for assembling children's toys. Visualization is recognized as important in other school subjects: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Science Education Standards both see it as essential to problem-solving, but art classes are where this skill is most directly and intensively taught….
This is a healing arts center dedicated to the creative well-being of each of us, and using art to get there.
There are many art schools that will improve skill and develop talent in creative expression, but Healing The Zebra is interested in using the arts to create the life that you want, the relationships you want, the world you want.
There was a book that came out years ago called ‘The Dance of Anger’, and one of its very interesting perspectives on that volatile subject was that anger helps us to define important boundaries for ourselves.
Now I happen to be a big fan of Ken Wilbur, author of many books including No Boundary, but there is, of course, a place where boundaries serve a wise purpose.It’s a balance, in fact, between structure and essence, that makes the most sense, rather than one or the other, and getting too tightly wound up about either one can result in either a broken container or a lost essence.
Relating this to these workshops being held here, and the intention and purpose behind creating the space for this particular niche (which is pretty much generally referred to as the expressive arts in psychological circles, and hence, expressive therapy), i.e., emphasizing personal development over developing fine art skills, some boundary issues do come up.
Ever hear of Anna Halprin?Famous Bay dance performer for decades – who did a most remarkable thing in the world of the healing arts.
She danced her way into cancer remission.
That’s her story – and whether you believe that or not, what’s important is that she believed she could exorcize the disease through her art form, and, hey, it did work for her.
So it all begs the question of how powerful our belief systems are, how powerful our mind is.
Not sure how it happened, but somehow the words ‘healing’ and ‘spiritual’ have become taboo in polite social conversation.
Maybe because of some unfortunate experience of attending some kind of ‘enlightenment’ seminar that promised - in a quick but intensive weekend, generously removing a chunk of your wallet - a higher state of consciousness and maybe a couple of psychic powers thrown in. [continued in Nancy's Blog]
May 2, 2009
Out of Chaos ….
In every culture throughout time, economic depression is the muddy waters out of which new life is born.For America, in this time, now, that new life in the next several years will be a very dramatic transformation, creating a far healthier American mindset.
It is already becoming that and you can feel it in the air. [continued in Nancy's Blog]
For many years I have found that the arts are far more than entertainment. The arts are 'healers' in and of themselves.
I have also discovered that people and companies who have 'done their homework' are consciously using powerful symbols to make a better and healthier life for themselves and others.
This website is partly to offer insight into these awake people and companies, their products and services --to find out why they are the future of a world where making a difference is not just a 'good thing to do'.
It's a necessary way of life.
It's an eco-conscious life. It's a life where we recognize that love and acceptance unites all people, all religions, all cultures, all philosophies.
It's a life when we remember that all of the arts - music, art, poetry, drama, dance - is not a luxury, not a pasttime, not an entertainment .... but the piece of our collective soul we have neglected and now must re-own to be whole.
The arts unite the world, in fact. They are a universal language.
