Each year, Wassa Dance offers retreats at several inspiring facilities who steward the connections between land and spirit. These immersions in specific environments and movement studies provide enrichment on many levels.
(If you have a favorite place or know of a situation where you think Wassa Dance could create a new intensive, please let us know!)
It’s rare that I get this sort of thing but today I received this really lovely piece from one of my beloved long time students. Darryl is a wonderful human being with a large heart and a wicked fun sense of playful adventure. I am honored by what he has to say here:
About Wassa Dance
I’m a runner and 63 years old. I had never taken a dance class, except for square dancing in my entire life. Then, more years ago then I dare to count, I decided to take a risk and walk through the door to an African dance class taught by Lara on the second floor of the Physical Culture dance studio. My wife was taking Lara’s class and said I would love the music. She was right. I loved the music and did my best to imitate Lara’s moves. The music pulled me in and to my amazement I believed I was learning the movement and the dance. At least I was moving in the right direction most of the time and even my feet occasionally seemed to follow Lara’s pattern and rhythm. But when I took a moment to observe amidst the excitement of of a new experience, I seemed to be moving in dancing in a dimension different than the one Lara and the other dancers were dancing in. During classes Lara described bowls of light, johnny jump-ups, lava flows, internal rubberbands, sugar cane harvesting, star fish and Bamako club dancing. Lara kept describing the experience of moving from the center and letting the movement begin internally and flow, shimmy, warble and wisp out to the fingers, toes and crown of the head and beyond to the sky and earth and then loop back for another go. I loved the class and just wanted it to go on for hours. Somehow over the years the watching, imitating and listening seemed to sink into this runner and I would begin to experience brief moments of pure joy and ecstasy when somehow I would sync in with Lara’s moves, the spirit and beat of the music and the moves of the other dancers. I just wanted that fleeting moment to last forever. I am still running long distances and have now gotten bit by the trail running bug. When I’ve consumed my initial burst of energy in the first couple of miles and have many more to go, I find that center for running and try to relax and settle into it with legs, arms, body and energy moving from the center, connecting and reconnecting to the earth and moving through space. Thanks Lara!
Darryl Eastin
“I believe that Lara a marvelous leader, visionary for African dance in America, and powerful instructor. I was thrilled to see that our dance group was “my” age group. I have enthusiastically shared my wonderful Wassa Dance experience with many family and friends.”
Bettina M- Alaska
Participant in “Spring Tuning” at Kalani Oceanside Retreat Center, 2014.
WASSA DANCE’S SAVORY AUTUMN INTENSIVE
with Lara McIntosh
Madrona MindBody Institute
Fort Warden in Port Townsend, WA.
Friday Oct. 10 – Sunday Oct. 12th, 2013
Join us for a delicious autumn weekend of inspiration and concentrated experiences of Wassa Dance’s joyful African-infused offerings at one of the Puget Sound’s most beautiful resources for movement studies.
Inspired by the elemental roots of music and moves from Africa and the Americas, this retreat is designed for people who love to move in a nourishing, structured environment. Our sessions will include image-rich movement meditations, floor work and stretching, along with spirited dancing in Wassa’s unique style.
Prices include five intensive Wassa Dance sessions, lodging, 2 breakfasts and lunches, all fees and taxes.
Single rooms : $475
Couples/Shared room : $800
Limited enrollment for one or two day movement sessions Saturday and Sunday and scholarships, available by request.
To register for this workshop or for additional information contact Lara McIntosh: lara@wassadance.com
More about Madrona MindBody Institute.

Bringing their collective years of movement and music explorations together, collaborators Lara McIntosh and Marla Simms invite you to
WASSA DANCE – SPRING TUNING
March 9-15, 2014
Big Island, Hawaii
Kalani Oceanside Retreat Center
Shake out your winter bones and seed a new season of your body’s potential for ease and joyful vitality through dance and movement exploration. Come as you are and let the rhythms take you deeper!
Included in this six day sweet island style retreat are daily sessions of image rich movement meditations, floor work and stretching along with spirited dance segments in Wassa’s unique style. Spontaneous offerings for group or individual sessions TBA throughout the week. Portions of each day are purposefully left open for participants to enjoy their own experience of Kalani’s offerings along with the many other delights and resources of Kalani and its neighborhood. Delicious daily buffet style meals, accommodations and use of Kalaniʼs grounds, pool and spa are also included.
We will
- Cultivate fresh vibrancy in our physical wit and wisdom.
- Establish healthy practices designed to take and grow at home to nourish an active longevity.
- Free our bones with Afro-infused dance inspired by some of the best music the world has to offer.
- Engage our senses with the complex natural and cultural beauty that IS the Big Island where ocean meets lava, mongoose, wild pigs, tree frogs, bird song, hula, solar power, compost, and not so far away strip malls all exist with the newest earth and cleanest air in the world.
To register contact Lara McIntosh: lara@wassadance.com
Registration requires a $250 nonrefundable deposit
.
| RETREAT FEES (per person) | Single Occupancy | Double Occupancy |
| Lodge Room (shared bath) | $995 | $1240 |
| Lodge Room (private bath) | $1225 | $1475 |
| Tree House Room | $1350 | $1675 |
| Bungalow Room | $1350 | $1675 |
Lara McIntosh has studied dance all her life and is an active member of Seattle dance, music and public art communities.
Lara is the originator of Wassa Dance which is inspired by dances and music from the African diaspora. She has been teaching independently in this Afro-fusion style since 1997. Travels to Brazil and Mali, West Africa and ongoing study with locally based teachers are great influences in her work. “Wassa” is the Bambara name Lara received during her first visit to Mali. It translates as “one who acts for joy and fulfillment.”
Lara’s curiosity about movement and cultures are combined with a deep love for music and community building. She has a long history of collaboration for performance, event production and movement education which include ten years with THREAD DANCE, multiple collaborations with artist Cameron Anne Mason and the Fremont Arts Council for parade and pageant presentations. During her six years on the Board of Directors of the
Seattle World Percussion Society (SWPS), she helped oversee the production of the World Rhythm Festival at Seattle Center, which is one of the largest free percussion festivals in the country.
Lara is an adjunct faculty member of the ARC School of Ballet. She also offers school residencies and conducts annual intensive workshops in Washington State and Hawaii.
Marla Simms started her love affair with the human body and its magic from the inside out. She experienced the boldness and explosive energy of a gymnast in her youth. Later, she studied modern dance and performed in the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest (Pat Graney & Co. and THREAD DANCE). She then turned to focus on the exploration of other’s bodies through the study and practice of massage. She has been a massage practitioner and massage educator for 20 years. She teaches continuing education classes for massage practitioners in the greater Puget Sound area. As an educator, she pursues a better understanding of the soft tissues of the human body and how they react, however subtly, to the stresses and challenges of life and living. For Marla, the body continues to be a venue of art, joy, and discovery. marlasimms.massagetherapy.com,