We are happy to announce the Healing Arts Program for the 2nd Annual Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival
We are honored to be partnering with Zen Village of Coconut Grove in creating this experience.
Here at the Zen Village at Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival you can experience 4 full days of Zen Tea Service, workshops in various lineages of Yoga, Meditation, Tai Chi, Traditional Dance and Drumming, a Healer for your every need, Tensegrity Practice, and a Dance for Universal Peace- All set to the rhythm of the ocean. Come, allow yourself to set adrift in this healing current.
Master Chufei Tsai founded charitable non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations Zab Sang Institute, Heart for Humanity and Zen Village in Miami, Florida in 2000. With over 28 years of experience teaching and counseling around the world, she has gathered all of her knowledge and experience to develop a training program that can benefit people from all walks of life. In her educational practice and experiential training programs, Master Tsai integrates proven historical methods based on ancient wisdom, philosophy as well as other healing systems and adapts them for today’s world with a proven record of beneficial results that allows individuals to heal, restore, and maintain optimum psychological, spiritual, physical and environmental health and wellness.
We recommend visiting Master Tsai and the Zen Village in Coconut Grove!
Now, for the offerings & programming, also see the schedule, for programming at the Zen Village Pavilion:
Zen Village Tent – Feb. 21 – 24, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Tea House – Zen Tea Ceremony.
Art exhibition – Artists on-hand with their meditative artwork for sale.
Gift shop – Articles such as Buddha statues, prayer beads, yoga mats, t-shirts, incense, candles, etc. for sale.
Reception desk – Reading material/pamphlets/instructional guides available.
Zen Tea Ceremony – Chinese traditional tea ceremonies can trace back thousands of years in history. The gift of tea has strongly embedded in Chinese culture. Zen Tea ceremony is created by Master Chufei Tsai, who has over three decades of tea experience in educating people on how to use their five senses, along with mind and body, to bring peace and openness to one‘s life. Experiencing a Zen Tea Ceremony can ease your mind, beyond words.
Get on the mat! We are excited to present a yoga workshop with the husband and wife team of MC Yogi and Amanda Giacomini, accompanied by the stylings of DJ Drez!
MC Yogi and Amanda are a yogic partnership based in Point Reyes, Ca. When they are not on tour all over the world at yoga festivals, conferences, studios, teaching centers, Asian Art museums and even the White House(!), they teach regular classes and workshops at Yoga Toes, the studio they founded in 2001. Their classes are a fun, high-energy flow, balancing expressive movement while simultaneously honoring stillness. The backbeat is provided by DJ Drez, a devoted Yogi and veteran DJ of festivals, movies, tv, and artist collaborations. His sets often combine Traditional Kirtan with Hip Hop, Electronica, Reggae, and much more! Check it out at 1pm Saturday in the Dance Tent. Let’s Flow!
Expand the Love, This powerful workshop explores our intimate connection with the world around us and the common threads that weave us together in the web of life. Through exercises, meditation, and reflection, we will create a sacred space to challenge our perceptions and deepen our understanding of ourselves. Led by Val Silidker, a Deep Ecologist, inspirational speaker, writer and facilitator. Saturday 3:30pm. ZVP.
Dance for Universal Peace, Doing these dances with all of the generations participating allows us to feel the oneness of community and is very empowering. These multi-cultural circle dances use sacred phrases, chants, music, and movements from many of the earth’s traditions to promote peace and harmony within individuals and groups. No experience is necessary, everything is taught in the moment, all ages welcome. Saturday 10:15am. Meadow Stage Area.
Tibetan Healing Yoga – Fri 10am; Sat 9:15am; Sun 9:15am, Dance Tent. Guido Porto, a senior student of Master Tsai with over 7 years of practicing this set of yoga will lead us in a practice designed to slow down and Be. The perfect balance for dancing the night away. Join us!
This soft fluid yoga is a combination of Taoist and Tibetan Buddhist traditions that use relaxing movements to heal and release tension and stagnant energy in the body and mind. Hectic lifestyles tighten and block our energy center, especially in our limbs and spine areas where most of our minor chakras are located. Slower motions of exercise help you to slow down your body and relieve tension. Students will break old energy patterns and create new energy status while finding balance in the breath. This practice will help your body to adopt a new motion of relaxation. Benefits include: restful sleep, detoxification, flexibility, and help slowing down to live in the present. 3 months is recommended for establishing practice. Master Tsai has designed this program especially for western-trained yoga instructors, massage therapists, chiropractors, and instructors of other healing arts who wish to offer this unique method to their students or clients.
Meditation – Friday, 11:30 a.m.; Saturday, 10:30 a.m.; Sunday, 10:30 a.m., Dance Tent
Marco Marini has studied and practiced under Master Tsai for over 7 years. He has completed many courses including private instruction and, following her guidance throughout the years, has transformed his life in many ways. This meditative technique trains the mind to focus on and synchronize with the breath and body sensations, achieve a deeper awareness of one’s self, one’s surroundings, and still the wandering mind. Gradually, one is able to release tensions, unpleasant thoughts and sensations, relieve stress, and calm and relax the mind to be able to be at peace and appreciate every moment of life as it comes.
Vinyasa Yoga – Fri 4:30pm, Sat 8:00am, Sun 8:00am, Zen Village Tent
Vinyasa yoga; breath with movement. Each conscious action honors our existence. Each breath can be taken in an act of gratitude and acknowledgment of our interconnectedness with all of creation. The dance-like practice of Vinyasa Yoga is a powerfully effective way of developing an intimate knowledge of the interplay between the Prana (life-force), through the vehicle of the breath, and the physical emotional and mental bodies. The more in-tune we become with the power of our breath through stillness and movement, the more these other systems reveal themselves, thus creating a bridge to an awareness of the higher-self. The beauty of teaching Vinyasa is its open structure. If you have chosen to explore Vinyasa Yoga, you recognize the importance of being able to create sequencing spontaneously, based on individual needs in the given moment. In this teacher training you will learn the necessary components of a well-balanced Vinyasa class and the many variations and modifications available, through an in-depth knowledge of the core asanas (postures). Through fluid movement, connected to conscious breathing, in carefully crafted sequencing, you will learn how to transform and transcend the physical body, honor and uplift through the emotional body, and create a peaceful and constructive mind through the mental body.
Joan Varini’s teaching methodology comes from a deep understanding that every human being has their own unique path. The discovery of this path can only be found on an individual basis. Joan creates an environment that supports and encourages this processes of unraveling layers of karma and negative thought processes in order to find one’s inner peace and path towards their life’s purpose.
Tai Chi – Sunday 11am, Zen Village Pavilion
Tai chi, which originated in China as a martial art, is a mind-body practice in complementary and alternative medicine. Tai chi is sometimes referred to as “moving meditation”—practitioners move their bodies slowly, gently, and with awareness, while breathing deeply.
In the late Ming Dynasty, Taichi was created by a garrison commander Chen Wangting the ninth generation of the Chen Family in Chenjiagou, Wenxian County in Henan Province. Based on the inherited family Wushu and the theroy of Yin and Yang in Yijing, combining Chinese medicine Jingluo Theory, Daoyin and Tuna, Chen Wangting comprehensively initiated a set of Taichi, which not only has the quality of Yin and Yang, but also is characterized that with activity and looseness, some movements were energetic while others were gentle, and some rapid while others slow. As being in correspondence with human physiology and the nature operation rules, it was named as “Taichi”.In the long run, Taichi developed into four representative, different main styles, including Yang style, Wu style, Wu style, and Sun style.
Led by Mingwei,sun from Zhengzhou henan province, China.He holds many titles including; the Thirteenth specialist of Chen Style Taichi in Chenjiagou, China, the Fifith Duan in Chinese Martial Arts by the General Administration of Sport of China, and the Senior Assistant by General Administration of Sport of China.
Tensegrity Practice also known as “Magical Passes” these movements were discovered in dream states by shamans in pre-columbian Mexico. Handed down for generations in secrecy until anthropologist and writer Carlos Casteneda brought the movement practice out of secrecy. This practice session will review the first series of movements from Casteneda’s book. Friday 12:15am; Saturday 11:15am; Sunday 11:15am, Dance Tent
Martial Arts – Sunday 2pm, Zen Village Pavilion
Tajik Dance with children- Sat. 12pm, Zen Village Pavilion
Drumming with children- Sat. 2pm, Zen Village Pavilion
Anthony and Yasmine are co-founders of Yasmanth, an all-volunteer, youth-led 501 (c)(3) Non-Profit organization with the mission to preserve the world’s culture by exposing both the present and future generations to its history, dance, and music. They created Aurora Over the Silk Road, a project with a mission to share and exchange knowledge about the Silk Road, specifically Xinjiang, China – the heart of the Silk Road – along with the many ethnic cultures that make up this region. At only 13, Yasmine has been dancing for 10 years.
From Hong Kong, Pasha Umer, renowned Uygur dancer from Xinjiang; the Uygur Autonomous Region of China provides mentoring, artistic direction, consulting, and choreography for the music and dances of Xinjiang, China. Under her mentoring, in the past 5 years, Yasmine has become an international young exponent of the variety of ethnic folk dances found in Xinjiang, China. Yasmine presents the dances of the more than ten ethnic groups that live in Xinjiang. This includes the Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, Tajik, Mongol, and Russian groups. She has taken these dances to stages in Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Florida, Walt Disney World, Kennedy Space Center, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
At 16 years old, Anthony has been playing the Dumbek/ Darbuka (a Middle Eastern hourglass-shaped drum) for 6 years and continues learning through private classes with Joe Zeytoonian; an exponent of Middle Eastern music and an internationally recognized musician and composer. Anthony has performed on stages in Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Florida, Walt Disney World, Kennedy Space Center, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
Aurora Over the Silk Road Presentation-
Tajik Dance (Yasmine) This dance represents the way of life of those the Tajik people who reside in the mountainous areas of Xinjiang. This dance is 3 minutes and 23 seconds.
Percussion Performance (Anthony) A presentation of the different Middle Eastern rhythms found throughout the music of the Silk Road performed on the Darbuka*. (The Darbuka is also known as the Dumbek. This performance lasts about 3 minutes.
Modern Uzbek Dance (Yasmine) The story of the Uzbek dance tells of celebration, joy, and happiness. This dance is 3 minutes and 8 seconds.
Percussion Performance (Anthony) A musical presentation using a frame drum from Xinjiang. This performance lasts about 3 minutes.
Wishes: Classic Uzbek Dance (Yasmine) A beautiful Uzbek girl dances to the singing melody of the birds. The twinkle in her eyes expresses her everlasting good fortune and happiness. This dance is 3 minutes and 28 seconds.
Healing Arts Tent
Open Thursday 12pm-6pm, Friday-Sunday 10am-6pm
These modalities will be offered throughout the days: Reflexology, Shaitsu, Deep Tissue Massage, Yoga Massage, Thai Massage, Reiki, Prana Healing, Singing Bowls Sound Healing Meditation & more, see below for further descriptions.
Reflexology – A natural healing art based on the principle that through application of pressure reflexes in the feet, hands, and ears, reflexology relieves tension, improves circulation, and helps promote the natural function of the related areas of the body.
Shiatsu – A type of alternative medicine consisting of finger and palm pressure, stretches, and other massage techniques that help people relax and cope with issues such as stress, muscle pain, nausea, anxiety, and depression.
Deep-Tissue Massage – This type of massage relieves severe tension in the muscle and the connective tissue; it focuses on the muscles located below the surface of the top muscles; often recommended for individuals who experience consistent pain, are involved in heavy physical activity (such as athletes), and patients who have sustained physical injury.
Yoga Massage –
Thai Massage – Thai Massage is a system of massage and assisted stretching. It’s performed on the floor, and the client wears comfortable clothes that allow for movement. No oils are used.
Reiki – Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by “laying on hands” and is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one’s “life force energy” is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.
Prana Healing -
Singing Bowls Sound Healing Meditation with Jed Shlackman, Jed is a multi-talented spiritual energy healer, musician, and holistic therapist who shares a great collection of bowls and the soothing, transformational sound waves from these beautiful instruments.
Sound healing methods can foster deep healing and rapid transformation – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Jed will be sharing the soothing, uplifting vibes of Tibetan/Himalayan singing bowls and crystal singing bowls at this sound meditation. Come dressed comfortably and prepare to let go and be carried into a deep state of relaxation and transformation.
Jed Shlackman, LMHC has worked in the wellness field for more than 15 years. Jed is a mental health counselor with a Master’s degree from the University of Miami. Jed is also a certified hypnotherapist, Reiki master, and practitioner of multiple mind-body and energetic healing modalities. Jed writes on topics of spirituality and holistic health and is author of the book Consciousness, Creation, And Existence: A Guide To The Grand Adventure.
Jed’s private vibrational sound healing sessions use healing tools such as quartz crystal singing bowls and metal (Tibetan/Himalayan) singing bowls, and tuning forks. These sound waves and sound frequencies help clear and balance your energy system. As your aura, chakras, and energy meridians resonate with these sounds, harmony can be restored and old patterns and resistance are released. Sound healing is especially helpful for relaxing the mind and balancing the nervous system.