Decolonizing the Heart: Dancing the Political
Sunday, MAY 3
10AM PT ○ 1PM ET ○ 6PM GMT
Join Aviva Arts’ Artistic Director Debórah Eliezer and special guest Saed Mansour for a live, online workshop.
Our bodies carry stories, pain, and memory that extend beyond our personal experience, shaped by ancestry, identity, and the political and social worlds we move through. In this workshop, we will explore and embody these layers of perception through movement, improvisation, and creative expression.
Drawing from Saed’s years of somatic performance, participants will engage with questions such as: What histories live in my body?How do social and political realities shape the way I move? And how might we transform or transcend these imprints, even if just for a moment?
Through guided exercises, reflection, and improvisation, we will explore identity, gender, collective experience, and personal narrative, creating space for emotional depth, care, and joy.
This workshop is open to all levels. No prior dance or improvisation experience is required, only a willingness to move, explore, and be present. We will move at a pace that supports each participant while gently inviting creative risk and embodied expression.
What to expect:
Embodied movement and improvisation practices
Reflection on personal and political themes
Creation of short dance sequences
A supportive, grounded, and exploratory environment
Whether you are seeking creative expression, political engagement through art, or a deeper connection to your body and community, this workshop offers a space to move, reflect, and transform, together.
🟣 Registration: SOON!
🟣 Fee: $35 - $65 (see options below)
🟣 Join us via Zoom: The link will be sent to your email after registration.
Pricing Structure
We offer a sliding scale to support accessibility while also sustaining the artists and this work.
🟣 Supported Rate — $35*
For those who would benefit from a lower price.
Full access to the workshop.
🟣 Standard Rate — $60*
Covers the full cost of your participation and supports the continuity of this work.
🟣 Solidarity Rate — $70*
Supports the artist more directly and helps keep this work accessible to others.
✨ Full-Price Bonus (Standard & Solidarity Rates)
Choose the full-price option and receive access to two additional sessions in the Decolonizing the Heart series:
May 10, 2026: Celebrating the Song of the Mother with Amal Bisharat & Debórah Eliezer
May 17, 2026: Poetry as Resistance with Gabriel Cortez
This is an opportunity to continue the journey across different artistic practices, deepening your exploration of expression, voice, and storytelling through the body and beyond.
*Eventbrite fees will be added
Financial & Values Statement
We invite you, if you are able, to align your payment with your values.
Saed is a touring Palestinian artist working independently, without institutional support while navigating a systemically inequitable and unstable financial landscape during an ongoing genocide. Your contribution directly supports his ability to continue creating, teaching, and sustaining his work and life.
Choosing to pay the full price is a meaningful way to support all marginalized artists to ensure transformational work can continue to exist at the grassroots level and reach others.
If you have the financial capacity, we encourage you to choose a higher tier, this is a direct way to put your values into action and support marginalized artists.