Facilitation Approaches

Soul Village is a “Gathering”

Facilitators and participants work together to create the culture and atmosphere of Soul Village. The gathering is a chance to co-create our experience together in a shared vision of healthy community. Each afternoon there is an opportunity for participants to lead their own events. We invite you to learn from others and share what you you know.

To counter the cultural patterns of hierarchy and dominance, Soul Village supports a balanced respect for both leadership and participation. We are not about hype and hyperbole. We recognize that all our experiences are co-created, and that we are all both leaders and followers.

Healing the Sense of Separation

Soul Village strives to be egalitarian and inclusive. We gather, based on shared values, and we welcome and embrace people of all races, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, and other identities. We welcome people to speak their personal experience and personal needs.

We understand that trauma, including trauma from racism, gender oppressions, and other social injustices, may result in challenges to authentic connection. We strive to respond these challenges with empathy and respect for the uniqueness of each person’s experience.

Welcoming Cross-Cultural Inspiration

We believe that demographic identities do not determine who you are in your soul, or what art inspires you. We recognize that cross-cultural sharing can be a source of pain for people when it is done without respect, or an understanding of the artistic sources and/or their associated oppression. We believe that supporting cross-cultural expression, however, is a vital part of creating a more unified, connected world culture.

Thus, Soul Village welcomes cross-cultural sharing and welcomes the understanding and empathy that can emerge whenever such sharing triggers the trauma of racial and ethnic separation and oppression.

2024 Facilitators

Debbie Nargi-Brown

Dance Teacher & Songleader

Debbie Nargi-Brown (Santa Cruz) relies upon drumming, dancing, singing, and the creation of a safe place to ignite joy, passion, and a sense of community in her workshops. She embraces and embodies the healing and sacredness of the songs and dances. She writes songs for the heart, for healing, for transformation, for love, for grief, all those things that connect us as human beings. Website.

Rana Satori

Dance Teacher

Raina Satori has been leading contact improvisation workshops and jams for over 20 years. Her approach is that play and improvisation are the essence of physical, social and spiritual evolution in the human body as we are taking quantum leaps of expansion in our capacity by playing in this way. Raina apprenticed under Anna Halprin and Martin Keogh in her early years and has since gone on to produce workshops and teach at festivals across California. Raina’s capacity to offer clear, effective instruction for all levels with levity is her trademark.

Sarah MacEwan

Songleader/Circle Facilitator

Sarah MacEwan (she/her), aka The Singing Therapist, is on a mission to heal and be healed through creative self-expression. As a psychotherapist, singer, storyteller and grief-tender, Sarah brings her open heart and emotional expertise to every circle she facilitates. Sing with her in Santa Cruz at her Singing Heals Song Circles, or join her for the healing at www.healingishappening.com.

Denise Martini

Movement Facilitator

Denise Martini has been involved in the Healing Arts since 1989. Her passion is the Art of Being Alive and assisting others on their journey towards knowing their wholeness through movement, presence, embodiment, and spiritual practices. Denise is a Certified Hakomi Practitioner, Minister of SomaSense; a
Mindful Body Ministry of AIWP, and group facilitator of ceremonies and workshops. She is dedicated to her own personal and spiritual growth and brings the gift of deep, compassionate presence to everything she does. Website.

Jo Cobbett

Dance Facilitator

Jo Cobbett is a master of poetic suggestion, facilitating each dancer’s ability to open and express their fullness in their bodies and in their connection with one another. Trained in Gabrielle Roth’s 5 Rythms work, Jo has expanded her capacity to inspire whole groups on a dance floor to realize the sense of wonder and oneness we only rarely touch. Jo is based in Los Angeles, but travels the world to offer workshops and classes. Website.

Brian Judd

Songleader

Brain Judd has been leading sing-alongs around the campfire and with groups for years. Four decades of music have given him a deep reservoir of songs that he can strum, feed the words, and bring people together through song. He sings folk, rock, Americana and pop songs of our present and past that stir memories and good feelings.

Amy Cooper

Organizer

Amy is a healer, singer, community builder and co-creator of Soul Village and Song Village. Amy worked many years as both a massage therapist, and a sexual enrichment coach. Nowadays she is focused on honing her homesteading skills, nurturing the landscape, garden, animals and residents of Sunshower Farm, her intentional community.

More Facilitators will be added here as the planning for 2023 unfolds

Cara Luft

Musician & Songleader

Cara Luft has been steeped in folk and traditional roots music almost from birth, yet she willingly alters the fabric, stretches the boundaries and fearlessly bends genres and styles. A founding member of Canadian folk super-group The Wailin’ Jennys, and Winnipeg’s duo The Small Glories, Luft deserves her solid reputation as songwriter and performer. Cara’s the real deal, there’s nothing pretentious about her. A sense of honesty, integrity, personality and spontaneity permeates both her music and her teaching.

Saffire Bouchelion

Dance Facilitator - Musician

Saffire Bouchelion has been passionately practicing Nia for 18 years. He is also a professional performer and musician who has been featured on over 40 CD’s. His embodiment and transmission of music and rhythm stir profound transformation in his students. Saffire co-founded two experimental dance companies in 1986 and 1989, and has performed with Danelle Hellander Dance Company and Mergence Dance Theater. For seven years he was co-director of the Ecstatic Choir, five at Naropa University where he was also a musical accompanist for dance and movement classes. He has taught Drumming and Dance into Being workshops throughout the US, Europe, Mexico and Bali for the past 10 years. His greatest joy is helping to Embody the world, one Community at a time! Website.

Tim Hartnett

Organizer

Tim is a community builder, songwriter, performer, and co-creator of Soul Village and Song Village. A licensed therapist, Tim is the director of Shine a Light Counseling Center, and author of Consensus-Oriented Decision-Making. Tim weaves song, humor, dance, vulnerability and emotional attunement in a unique facilitation style to foster open-hearted connection. Website.