sabuhallá: a healing workshop in Abene, Senegal
Led by Gena Corea. With the participation of Caro Diallo, his Black Soofa dance troupe, and traditional healer Awa Bodian Diedhiou.
The capacity to heal oneself and others is inherent in the human body. The sabuhallá workshop will awaken this capacity. With the help of African musicians and dancers, the workshop will also explore vibration and resonance in healing.
The workshop will include:
- Private healing sessions with Senegalese traditional healer Awa Bodian Diedhiou and with Gena Corea whose sessions, in addition to hands-on healing, include Experiential focusing with physical symptoms.
- A daily dance of thanksgiving celebrating what is already right and whole in our bodies and in our lives. This immune-strengthening dance is led by Senegalese choreographer Caro Diallo and joined by dancers and drummers from his Black Soofa dance company. In the field of gratitude and joy we create, the group will offer a healing presence to any members in need of it that day. By activating the fluid systems of the dancers and musicians, African dance may create a "larger body" with greater healing power than that of an individual. Further, as Alphone Tierou writes in African Dance Is Life, dancing allows the ailing person "to adopt a physical attitude of recovery, of well-being, of good health, because it is, above all, a manifestation of joy and a song of harmony. When one dances, all the body is in festival, all the cells burst with joy and love."
- The daily dance concludes with Kofluba, slow, gentle movement explorations to access the body's innate healing ability. African musicians accompany us, playing kora, flute and ballaphone.
- Instruction in Reiki, a healing art in which we move the universal life force (termed ki, chi, or prana, in various cultures) through us. Attunements in Reiki will be held on the beach at sunrise, sunset or under the moonlight.
- Various methods of holding a healing presence for others involving sound, breath, intention, attention, movement and deep listening.
Gena Corea, American author of books critiquing Western medical practices such as The Invisible Epidemic, The Mother Machine and The Hidden Malpractice, has trained in African dance since 1990, traveling to Senegal four times to further her training. African dance is in the “marinade” from which sabuhallá emerged. Corea explains:
sabuhallá is the essence of the healing techniques I’ve learned, all marinated over the years in my Being: Reiki (to Master level), Experiential Focusing (Certified Trainer), Continuum, Quantum Touch, Chi Lel, Healing from the Core, Cranial-Sacral Therapy and meditation practices. African dance is here too—an art I suspect has the capacity to serve as an attunement for healing.
You who come to the sabuhallá workshop arrive with your own magnificent Being. What you give here will marinate in all of us. What you receive at the workshop will marinate in you, along with all your life’s learning and experience. The healing presence that then emanates from you will have your own flavor. You can call it “sabuhallá” if you like, or anything you choose. It’s not a technique. You don’t need to be certified in it. You already have the credential that matters most: the vast Authority of your own human body.
Place Where Good Will Be Encountered
The workshop will take place in a comfortable camp in Abene, a small village in the Casamance region in the south of Senegal whose name means “place where good will be encountered.” Just a five-minute walk from a spectacular beach, guests sleep in attractive round huts. African cooks prepare delicious meals. Guests live in a safe and protected environment in the camp and can venture as much or as little as they like into village and city life, always with the accompaniment of Senegalese friends from the workshop.
See the Abene Camp photo gallery.
You may choose to arrive early—late December and throughout January—to participate in Caro Diallo’s African dance camp.You can also elect to vacation as long as you like after the workshop. You may enjoy lazy days at the beach, visits to villages, markets, mangrove swamps, bird-islands, concerts and festivals—or further contact with the traditional healers who participate in the sabuhallá workshop.
Register Early
Contact Gena Corea at 802-257-3099 or genovefa@sover.net.
