20+ FACILITATORS
Our skilled teachers are here to share their gifts in benefit of your experience.
Dance & Conscious Movement
Discover awareness through expert-led dance and movement.
Live Music & Sound Healing
Experience healing vibrations through live music and sound
Presence, Poetry & the Self-arising Circle
Engage deeply with presence and poetry in our transformative circles.
‘There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the earth, there are hundreds of ways to dance the soul awake’
What makes your soul dance? Lift your head, open your chest and stand with a gentle dignity while the earth dreams you and the sky rises above you.
SoulDance is an investigation of presence through movement, music, stillness and the self-arising wisdom of the circle. This is a gathering of souls who wish to dance while they are here in this life. To dance with their innate and natural beauty, their inevitable grief and their humanity. Our bodies function as intricate ecosystems, intertwined with various communities within the natural world. From the subtle movements at the cellular level to the expressive power of our muscles, we resonate with each other and the wider cosmos as we move through existence.
There are as many ways to dance as there are flowers in the meadows or humans on the earth. Presence is the key and the doorway in all of them. Your dance brings you here into your embodied experience, into your longing and into your life. At SoulDance we will gather to explore presence together.
We’ll awaken conscious embodiment through Ecstatic Dance, Contact Improvisation, and a rich array of somatic practices including Body-Mind Centering, Somatic Experiencing, Dance Therapy, and other exploratory dance and movement forms. Gathering as a circle and community, accompanied by live music and storytelling, we move towards understanding and remembrance to nourish our souls and body-mind systems.
We are all in this together.
Join us from October 3 till October 6, 2024
CHECK-IN & CHECK-OUT
Check-in at reception: 17:30 – 18:30
Dinner first night: 18:30 – 19:30
Welcome ceremony: 20:00 in Upper Barn
Last meal: 13:00 – 14:00
Check-out*: 15:00
*Clean your room before this time. You don’t need to formally check out at the reception.
Is this festival for me?
You do not need to be a dancer to be here, SoulDance is a gathering to learn new skills like somatic movement and embodiment of your inner experience. It is a chance to connect with other like-hearted people and to simply drop into a more balanced way of being.
Supported by the healing embrace of the forest and the Ängsbacka community, SoulDance is a chance to recharge and rest, to awaken and re-invigorate ourselves so that we can return to our lives as more loving and integrated individuals hopefully bringing a little more balance to the everything around us, our families, our communities and our earth.
Join the festival
Embrace the power of Soul Dance, a sanctuary where movement unites, heals, and thrives.
Teachers & Musicians
The creative process of inviting facilitators who will share their gifts in this festival is now underway. In the months leading up to the festival, we will regularely announce new teachers and musicians so do come back to check it out every now and then!
Festival ticket
Entry to the festival including standard accommodation.
3900 SEK
- 4 days of deep connection through dance and movement
- Daily breakfast and two warm meals
- 20+ Teachers & Musicians
Accommodation choices can influence the price per ticket.
COME AS A VOLUNTEER
Even though we don’t have a full “volunteer program” for Soul Dance, there are always a few special roles that we are recruiting for.
If you are interested in applying please contact our Volunteer Office.
They know exactly what roles we are looking for and what practical information applies.
A typical day at an Ängsbacka festival
Our events all have their unique program of workshops and other activities, still there are some fixed points that you can expect at the festival:
- An early morning program is offered - yoga, breathing, meditation etc. - before..
- Breakfast - our first meal of the day.
- A gathering for all with music and togetherness setting the tone of the day is followed by..
- Morning workshops and other activities until..
- Lunch - the main meal of the day.
- Afternoon workshops and activities go on until..
- Dinner - a lighter, still fully nourishing meal.
- An evening program follows; workshops, dance, live music or a cozy hang-out in the café.
Once per day everybody meets in their sharing groups; all of us come together for the core practice of Ängsbacka!
Workshops on the program are described and categorized in such a way that you can find out how advanced or challenging exercises you can expect beforehand.
Accommodation
The basic festival ticket includes a spot in a bunk bed in one of our dormitories.
All our indoor accommodations come at hostel standard with shared showers and toilets. We advise you to bring earplugs for better sleep if you are sound sensitive as the festival area can get loud at times (the program will end latest 02.00).
UPGRADE YOUR ACCOMMODATION
Depending on availability and your budget we offer the following options for indoor accommodation:
- 4 bedroom (bunk bed)
- double room (twin bed)
- Single room
Indoor accommodation includes a blanket and pillow for each person. You need to bring your own bed sheets or a sleeping bag and a pillowcase. Towels are not included. We offer a possibility to rent sheets and towels at an additional cost.
CARAVAN OR CAMPER
If you would like to bring your camper or caravan - check availability when booking your ticket. Unfortunately we do not have the capacity to offer electricity for any of these spots.
Sometimes you need more privacy or tranquility or maybe you want to bring your dog (no dogs allowed on site). Booking an off site accommodation can be a good option and many private house/flat owners offer spaces for rent during the summer. Please request the list of people offering off site accommodation by contacting our booking office.
Title
FOOD AND SERVING
The festival ticket includes all meals; breakfast lunch and dinner are prepared and served daily. Ängsbacka offers a vegetarian diet prepared with love. We use locally produced and organic products to a large extent. In connection with your booking, you can ask for a vegan diet (same as lactose free) or gluten and nut-free food options. For practical reasons, we cannot meet any other wishes related to allergies or diets during festivals. All meals are presented at the outdoor serving tent area.
ALCOHOL-FREE & DRUG-FREE
Ängsbacka has a policy of zero tolerance for illicit drugs and alcohol. We don’t serve alcohol, and it is not allowed to drink or to be under the influence of alcohol or other substances when you are at Ängsbacka. If you are found under the influence, we will ask you to leave immediately.
Please find our other general policies and guidelines here.
Code of ethics
Ängsbacka is continuously developing intentions for offering supportive and transformational spaces - read our Code of Ethics here.
PAYMENTS AND CURRENCY
Remember! We always request you to book and pay your event ticket online before arrival.
Both our café and the reception at Ängbsacka are cash-free, so once at Ängsbacka you will only be able to use card or Swish (Swedish direct payment service) as a payment method at our reception and in the café.
We only accept the currency SEK.
For cash withdrawal, there is a cash point at Coop in Molkom (the nearby village).
ÄNGSBACKA CAFÉ
The Café is a cosy meeting place for hang-out, new friendships and deep conversation. You can buy yummy home-made cakes, a wide range of coffee, teas, golden milk, smoothies, chilled beverages, chocolate, raw food goodies and more!
During the summer our café is a tech-free zone, so the café is not a place for work or gaming on your digital devices. Charging your digital devices can be done in "The Hub".
SAUNA
Our amazing Sauna is open all evenings of the festival. Come relax and enjoy the heat in the company of new and old friends. It is a requirement to bring a towel to sit on in the sauna.
Holy Tree crafts and instrument shop
In the Holy Tree shop you find a unique selection of music instruments such as shamanic drums, flutes, rattles and more.
The festival program
Information about workshop leaders and Festival programs for each day can be found in the entrance of the yellow house and on the staircase towards the Upper Barn.
Healing Circle
The Healing Circle offers personal sessions for bodywork, energy healing, massage, counselling and other forms of therapies/modalities. Make sure to bring your own towel to your session to lay on.
You can book and pay your sessions directly with the session givers during your stay at Ängsbacka
LOST ITEMS
As a visitor at Ängsbacka you are solely responsible for your personal belongings at all times. During the actual event Ängsbacka will support you to retrieve any items lost by setting up, and maintaining specific “Lost & Found”-labelled boxes nearby the workshop-spaces.After each Festival the lost & found boxes will be emptied and all collected items will be stored in our Lost & Found tent for a total of 2 weeks upon completion of the event.
Valuables such as wallets, digital devices, keys and similar are handed in and kept at our booking office for a maximum of 3 months and will be returned upon description. Valuables are the only items that will be sent to you after the event is over and you will be charged for the postage plus an administrative fee of 100 SEK.
Please be aware that Ängsbacka does not take any responsibility for personal belongings - the above is to be considered a service and not a guarantee that you will be able to retrieve lost items whether valuables or others, such as clothing.
ELECTRIC cars
In case you choose to travel to Ängsbacka with an electric car, here are some things you need to know. Since we have a limited power grid we can’t provide charging facilities for electric cars. The closest charging station is in Karlstad (30 kilometres) or Forshaga (25 kilometres). On this website you can find the best one for you https://chargefinder.com/se/
WELCOME LETTER
A welcome letter with more detailed information about the festival will be sent out to all participants.
LANGUAGE
Ängsbacka is an international course and festival center with people from all over the world. The main language spoken during the festivals is English.
KaSia Soraya & Ben Bushill
Program Coordinators
Kasia Soraya and Ben Bushill are working together to bring us gently to the place where we meet ourselves and our humanity in love. As therapist and poet, lover and beloved, woman and man their passion is the remembrance of a life lived in its fullness, of a life lived in love. Their work is to bring us to a willingness to embrace grief and transition, love and heartbreak, joy and celebration. The real re-enchantment of our lives here on earth.
KaSia Soraya embraces many roles, from law, therapy, pedagogy to arts, all while raising two children. She concentrates on holistic well-being, creating spaces that foster harmony in Mind, Body, and Spirit, all rooted in authenticity and groundedness. With a profound commitment to nurturing the Soul, she values the significance of mythopoetic thought, symbolism, and wonder. Her passion lies in fostering self-regulation and resilience, advocating for compassion and loving-kindness.
Ben is a poet, mystic and ritual space holder using words and ceremony to bring us to the point of remembrance and the recognition of our humility and majesty as an integral and perfect part of the unfolding wave of existence. His books and recordings are listened to and read all over the world.
