mark

Do you ever get involved in a project that seems like it’s never going to end? Do you have first-hand experience with seeing ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’?

Sometimes we struggle by ourselves in the dark, only to get more caught up in the weeds. And then at some point we reach out for help and find a collaborator and everything starts to fall into place.

My personal case in point is our MoveMap. For a long time I’ve had the vision of our website being a clearinghouse where dancers could tap into conscious events anywhere in the world. Yet for years I’ve been wrestling with various providers, software as a service solutions, and most recently WordPress themes and plug-ins.

A few months ago I fired our previous proprietary provider and decided to bite the bullet and build it the way we want it in WordPress. You folks in the conscious dance community have unique needs. Your offerings happen over the world. Your events might run for just a few hours, or for a week or more. You offer repeating classes that run indefinitely, as well as specific series that might look like “the fourthThursday of each month except in November when our class happenson Wednesday.”

And most of all, you need the ability to upload your own photos, add your own events, and edit them later once they’re posted. I’m happy to say that our new MoveMap interface allows all that and more. Once I found an expert WordPress developer to execute things on the backend I needed someone with knowledge of the dance community to help me dial it in and put it through the paces. Lo and behold a former member of my Magnetic Marketing Mastermind came forward and offered to help!

Sara Earl is a Nia facilitator and active member of the community in Austin Texas. She’s joined up with me to be a Dance First Ambassador in the area and has proven herself instrumental in helping me figure out the website. We think we’ve pretty much got it ready for primetime, and are working with our members to populate the map.

Once we’ve got most of the offerings from our current Dance First members posted, we will be launching a promotional campaign to drive traffic and build awareness for the MoveMap amongst the global conscious dance community at large.

I’m so happy and grateful to see one of my long-held visions for this community coming to life! The day is coming soon where any traveling dancer will be able to pull up the MoveMap and locate a community dance, conscious movement workshop, or teachers training anywhere in the world.

Please visit the MoveMap and see for yourself. And check back often, as more events are being posted everyday. If you’d like to see your events on the MoveMap and in this newsletter, just hit reply and we’ll tell you how it works.

Much love and happy dancing!

M+

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine

Dance First Member Spotlight:Visudha de los Santos

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Dance First Member

Today’s spotlight shines on a Dance First member who’s making waves around the world. Visudha de los Santos is a model of much of what I recommend to the up-and-coming facilitators I work with. Find a way to differentiate yourself and be original. Diversify your offerings. Blaze trails into new territory where you can be a pioneer. Develop strong relationships with your producers.

5Rhythms classes and workshops sometimes emphasize the psychological aspects relating to Gabrielle’s Gestalt lineage from Esalen. Visudha’s unique approach delves into the shamanic roots of the work, grounding her practice in the ancient mysteries of sacred dance. Her reputation precedes her, evidenced by the wide range of her travels.

She holds it down at her home base in Taos, New Mexico with a weekly Sweat Your Prayers every Sunday, with the assistance other space holders while she’s on the road. She’s also famous for her epic Gong Journeys – unique sound healing experiences provide another level of depth.

She’s built a strong reputation through years of dedication to the practice. With the help of Dance First, she’s able to lighten her promotional workload a bit, and focus on what she does best; creating amazing experiences on the dancefloor.

Her modus operandi is to only go where she’s invited, so feel free to reach out and bring her to your community. Take a moment to read the heartwarming testimonials on her website and learn more about this dynamic shamanic leader.

Hats off to you Visudha! Thanks for all your hard work and devotion to the field. We really value your membership in the Dance Firstcommunity.