I'm Offering a 9-Week Chakradance Course in Bozeman Starting October 20

What? When? Where? Who? Why? Cost?

What? Nine-week Chakradance course facilitated by Jim Macdonald

When? Most Sundays starting October 20, 6:30-8:00 PM

Where? Montana Ballet Company (at the Verge Theater building on 2304 N. 7th Ave. in Bozeman)

Who? Anyone interested who can commit to the full course and being present for 7 of the 9 classes and is willing to make up what is missed (no experience required)

Why? Dance is its own reward, but also greater inner balance, healing, and help reaching our own personal potential

Cost? Free for the full nine weeks, with a $50 refundable deposit for attendance at least seven of the nine sessions.

More questions? Contact Jim and read below

An Invitation to Chakradance

I invite you, starting on Sunday, October 20, at 6:30 PM at the Montana Ballet Company (over at the Verge on 2304 N. 7th), to dance with me on a beautiful nine-week course in Chakradance.

Chakradance has been for me a life-changing dance modality. You are not required to learn a single dance move in order to dance it. All you need to be is present and open to the power of dance to uplift, heal, or help you work on whatever it is in you that needs working out. Chakradance focuses on seven energy centers that ancient people identified in our bodies that represent physical, emotional, and psychological functions within us. By moving to, around, and with that energy, you can unravel blocked energy and deepen your connection with yourself.

A class involves both still and moving meditation, a little sharing, some exercises to get us grounded into our bodies, and even some work with mandala art. None of it requires any experience with dance, art, or chakras. Really, all it takes is presence, an open heart, and a commitment to complete every step of the course. For seven of the nine weeks, we will also dance and work on a particular chakra.

You will dance with your eyes closed or gaze lowered, and so this truly will be – though in a shared space – your own dance and your own process in a judgment-free environment.

What Is Required

If you are interested in taking this nine-week dance journey, the biggest thing I need from you is a commitment to the course. We will not be meeting every week because of holidays and my own travel, and so anticipate the actual course to be closer to three months. The time between classes is important because a lot tends to come up in the classes, and the real work is often the integration we do on our own throughout the week. More importantly, chakra work is about achieving balance throughout our chakra system. Your energy system will receive the most benefit from completing the full program and may feel imbalanced if it is only completed partially (much like getting a massage on one arm and not the other!) Therefore, a commitment to the full nine-week process is essential. However, because we all have lives (myself included) that do not always make attendance possible, please make a commitment to attending at least seven of the nine courses. If you cannot be at a class, please commit to making up the work in the week or two that you miss. I will make special arrangements with you so that this can be possible.

To cement your commitment and the value we put into it for your time and my time, I ask that you place a $50 deposit either by check (payable to Jim Macdonald) or by cash. If you complete the course, then the check will be ripped up or the cash returned. If this is a hardship for you but you are truly committed, we can make arrangements.

I also ask that by agreeing to take the course, you take responsibility for your own safety. I will do everything I can to hold the space, and the dance tends to be gentle, but I am cognizant that accidents can happen. Because I am offering a basically free service, I would just ask that to keep it that way, we all take responsibility for ourselves through this.

Great, But What If I Am Still Unsure?

If you are unsure of whether Chakradance is for you or whether you want to make a commitment to it, besides talking with me, you may drop in to the first class for free, and try that out. The first week is an introductory week. If it turns out that it is for you, then you can make the commitment during that week.

If you end up needing other arrangements, please contact me separately to see if we can do one-on-one work or whether you might be available for the next cycle that I facilitate. Once the cycle gets going fully in week 2, we cannot add new people to the class. It is important that we keep the energy of our circle and those in it with us safe and protected. I am not offering the class to build as big or open a class as I can; I am offering a journey for those who want to take it first for themselves and secondly with the other dancers who have chosen to take that journey with them.

I may, at times, offer some separate classes for those not in the nine-week cycle.

Okay, But if I Am Trusting You, Jim, What Is Your Background?

While you can read about me more here on my bio, let me say briefly here that I am a licensed Chakradance facilitator, having completed my facilitator training with the founder of Chakradance – Natalie Southgate – and also a nine-month deep dive course into Chakradance, also led by Natalie. Moreover, she has recently hired me to co-facilitate with her in next year’s online deep dive course and to help with future live trainings for Chakradance facilitators. Beyond that, I’m just a regular person who has lived in Bozeman for 12 years, with a day job at Oracle, a father of a 12-year-old boy, an M.A. in philosophy, and who loves to camp and hike in Yellowstone. In addition to Chakradance, I dance 5Rhythms, and I also love to swing dance or just dance anywhere and everywhere. However, I am not a licensed therapist. That is not my role here. I am someone who simply facilitates you through the dance and helps hold the space for your journey.

I have numerous other interests we will surely discover as we get to know each other. If you are interested, please contact me.