CRS Healing Circle: Meditation + Whirling Prayer
2019-07-18 19:15 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing), 41 E 11th St 11th Fl, New York, NY, 10003, United States
Join us Thur, 7/18 @ 7:15 pm for our monthly Healing Circle + Whirling (Sufi Dance) Prayer!
Led by Sufi Dance Artist Lâle Sayoko and CRS co-founder Christopher Pelham, we create a safe space in which to let go of our small selves and recognize the divinity in one another and within ourselves. When we do so, we can trust ourselves to fully experience our feelings with the awareness that they cannot hurt us, or overwhelm us, or change us at all, because we are still as Love created us.
After we’ll enjoy social time with tea and snacks.
The participation fee is $20 with advanced registration and $25 at the door. Direct registration link:
https://bit.ly/2Lcbtws
Through whirling, we learn to trust ourselves to go off balance, to be dizzy, to surrender control as we give ourselves over to prayer and connect with a greater power, the still center within, around which we turn, that we may share our divine strength and bear witness to the divinity in others.
If you are quiet and in a state of prayer when you Turn, offering everything of yourself to God, then when your body is spinning, there is a completely still point in the center… The heavens respond; and all the invisible kingdoms join in the dance. But the world does not understand. They think we Turn in order to go into some sort of trance. It is true that sometimes we do go into that state you call ecstasy, but that is only when we know and experience at the same time. We do not Turn for ourselves. We turn around in the way we do so that the Light of God may descend upon the earth. As you act as a conduit in the Turn, the light comes through the right hand, and the left hand brings it into this world… We turn for God and for the world, and it is the most beautiful thing you can imagine. — Mevlevi Shaikh Suleyman Hyatt Dede
Sufi Dance Instructor Lâle Sayoko lives to embody and transmit the voice of spirit through music and dance. As CRS resident Sufi Dance instructor, choreographer, performing artist, and musical curator, she loves to welcome people into this holy practice to explore and share their own divinity. After a long professional dance career, she retired to support her young daughter through a life-threatening medical crisis. Several years later she discovered that she could whirl as a form of prayer to support her daughter and began studying Sufi Dance with Paris-based Sufi Artist Rana Gorgani. In April 2018 Gorgani awarded her the International Sufi Dance Certification Of Cid UNESCO, granting her authority to teach Gorgani’s method of Sufi Dance training. She currently teaches Sufi Dance classes at CRS every first Thursday of the month from 7 – 8:30 pm and leads the CRS Healing Circles + Whirling Prayer that take place every third Thursday of the month from 7:15 – 9 pm.
https://www.facebook.com/lale.sayoko
Christopher Pelham is a spiritual healer/counselor/teacher/artist who draws on practices from ACIM, Non-Violent Communication, improvisational theater, Sufism, and contemporary shamanism to help people remember who they really are. He is the Director and co-founder of CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing). He has also taught and/or offered healing in London, in Japan, at the 2018 Awakening to the One Mind Retreat, and at the 2017 Enlight Festival of A Course in Miracles in Ibiza, Spain.
http://www.chrispelham.com

Whirling (Sufi Dance) Practice with Live Music
2019-07-26 19:00 - 20:00
We invite you to join our Sufi Dance community for an hour of meditative whirling known as Samâ (spiritual listening), hosted by Sufi Dance Artist Lâle Sayoko with live music by Iranian daf player Kamyar Arsani. Together, we create a sacred space for you to free your mind, transcend your limits, and share your light. By receiving the divinely inspired vibration of the music and developing our control of the body while surrendering the mind’s worries, let’s share the ecstasy that arises with repeated whirling.
This is not a class (i.e. there is no instruction) but an open space where we can come together to practice and is open to people of all backgrounds who whirl and follow the path of oneness. You should already know the basics of how to whirl. If you have not already learned whirling from a Sufi teacher — for example, from our teachers Rana Gorgani, Lâle Sayoko, or Paola Garcia or from a Sufi lodge or community — please first attend one of our Sufi Dance classes with Lâle Sayoko, which takes places the first Thursday of each month from 7:30 – 9 pm at CRS, to learn the basics. Sayoko is also available for private instruction weekdays and weekends by appointment.
Please remember that whirling commonly induces dizziness or nausea. Avoid eating a large meal for two hours prior to class. Over time, through whirling, we learn to trust ourselves to go off balance, to be dizzy, to surrender control, allowing us to whirl for longer periods. You do not have to whirl for the entire hour, but you are encouraged to explore whether your perceived limits are immutable or only self-imposed.
Please wear comfortable clothing (white, gray or black color is preferable, avoiding prints and shiny material which might distract the eye while whirling) safe for dancing in (for women your tops should have straps or cover your shoulders) and wear socks or soft soled shoes. If you have a whirling skirt, please feel free to bring it.
$20 with advance registration, $25 at the door
About Sufi Dance Artist Lâle Sayoko
Lâle Sayoko lives to embody and transmit the voice of spirit through music and dance. As CRS resident Sufi Dance instructor, choreographer, performing artist, and musical curator, she loves to welcome people into this holy practice to explore and share their own divinity. After a long professional dance career, she retired to support her young daughter through a life-threatening medical crisis. Several years later she discovered that she could whirl as a form of prayer to support her daughter and began studying Sufi Dance with Paris-based Sufi Artist Rana Gorgani. In April 2018 Gorgani awarded her the International Sufi Dance Certification Of Cid UNESCO, granting her authority to teach Gorgani’s method of Sufi Dance training. She currently teaches Sufi Dance classes at CRS every first Thursday of the month from 7 – 8:30 pm and leads the CRS Healing Circles + Whirling Prayer that take place every third Thursday of the month from 7:15 – 9 pm.
Lâle was one of the founding members of Japan’s famous Samanyolu professional bellydance group and since developed her own solo career touring with UK’s Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers on a 44 city tour of the UK, to Turkey’s Baba Zula, and around the world many times with New York’s Bella Gaia multimedia Earth from Space concert.
https://www.facebook.com/lale.sayoko
About Musician Kamyar Arsani
Kamyar Arsani (daf) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter born and raised in Tehran, Iran. Kamyar’s musical mission is to spread cultural awareness and unity by mixing contemporary musical trends with traditional Persian folk music. A multi-instrumentalist Sufi poet, from age 7 he studied Daf (Iranian frame drum) with Master Bijan Kamkar. After mastering the Daf, Kamyar learned Kamancheh (Iranian bowed string instrument) with Master Ardeshir Kamkar and Sohrab Pournazeri. In the midst of the Green Revolution in 2009, Kamyar and his family left Iran and now reside in Washington, DC. Kamyar’s songs and performances are very much inspired by the people of Iran and their history of struggle and protest. He produced his first solo album in 2015, entitled “No Freedom.” Kamyar also plays in two other collaborations: “Huda & Kamyar,” a Daf and Oud Duo, and “Time is Fire,” a weird world/post-punk band. Kamyar recently collaborated with Benjamin Schurr and DC’s BLIGHTRECORDS and produced an electronics-backed Daf album called “Voices in the Dark.” In the words of a reviewer: ”this isn’t so much music as it is downright spiritual. It is a movement.”
https://music.blightrecords.org/album/voices-in-the-dark
https://kamyararsani.bandcamp.com/releases

Persian Daf (Sufi drum) class
2019-07-27 10:30 - 13:00
Dear friends, we are excited to have Kamyar Arsani‘s Persian daf lessons at CRS on a monthly or near monthly basis! This is a wonderful opportunity to learn to play a magical instrument from a master who learned from masters in Iran. Kamyar has been playing and singing for decades and recently for our Sufi Dance events at CRS when he is in town and taking us ever deeper into the heart.
Daf is a big frame drum with lots of rings inside that you can shake when you play for added effect. It is an integral part of Sufi and Persian music because of the variety of sounds it can produce and its ability to induce trance.
Let’s learn the basic techniques together so we can play for one another at our Sufi events including our next public Sufi night in September!
10:30 am – 11:45 am Beginner lesson
11:45 am – 1 pm Intermediate lesson
1 lesson $50
both lessons $70
Bring your own Daf or frame drum, a pen & a 3–line or 5–line blank musical staff notebook (or paper, which you can find templates of online to print).
Some Extra Dafs are available to rent ($5) for the class, but you must RSVP because they are limited and you will want to get your own so you can practice!
While many different dafs are available for purchase online, one such as this one, which has a synthetic head, is reasonably priced at $119, has good tone and construction, is not too heavy, and can be delivered in a few days by DHL, would be a great choice for learning on:
https://salamuzik.com/products/professional-daf-rad-404
About Instructor Kamyar Arsani
“Kamyar Arsani is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter born and raised in Tehran, Iran. With his focus on Daf (Persian frame drum), through years he expanded circle of his instruments to Drums, Percussions, Guitar, Ukulele and Melodica. He currently resides in Washington D.C, teaching and performing around DMV area and working with individuals with Autism.
Kamyar began Daf lessons with Master Bijan Kamkar. Kamyar has spent over a decade performing and researching the Daf and its roots. His second choice of instrument was the kamancheh (Persian string bow instrument) and he studied it with Masters Ardeshir Kamkar and Sohrab Pournazeri. Ten years ago, Kamyar and his family migrated to the United States around the same time that Iran’s Green Revolution was occurring. Kamyar’s songs and performances are very much inspired by the people of Iran and their history of struggle and protest.

At the time he started working as Autism classroom Teacher Assistant in Virginia and Washington DC public schools, and the science of Behaviorism and creating motivation for students with Autism became his passion. But he did not put music behind, Kamyar produced his first solo album in 2015, entitled “No Freedom.” It was written on Guitar and Ukulele. The album was dedicated to those oppressed by Iranian Government.
https://kamyararsani.bandcamp.com/releases
Aside from his solo work, Kamyar also plays in other collaborations and has performed series of concerts at Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Georgetown University, UMD, WVU and VOA.
Kamyar is also the poet and singer of “Time is Fire (TiF).” Their music has been described by Washington Post as “Music from a country that does not exist.”
https://youtu.be/2rn3u92MAR8 (Kennedy Center Performance)
Kamyar takes on a different character performing with Time is Fire, wearing his sikke (a Sufi hat representing the “tombstone of Ego”) and singing poems of resistance and freedom in English and Farsi. Within the four member band’s worldly, funky, post-punky, afro-infected music, the sikke and poems make perfect sense. Their sound has been evolving since the group first came together in 2015. Washington City Paper: “Time Is Fire could have limitless places to go.” Time is Fire recently released an EP that can be found here:
https://electriccowbellrecords.bandcamp.com/album/stories-untold
With the new wave of hatred portrayed among our nation, Kamyar could not sit quiet and wrote four songs inspired by Rumi and Hafez and Ferdowsi poems on his Daf,inviting people to believe in a new spring together. He collaborated with Benjamin Schurr of Blight Records and produced an electronic backed Daf album called “Voices in the Dark” , which can be found on Blight Records Bandcamp (Production of DC,2018)
https://music.blightrecords.org/album/voices-in-the-dark
For more information you can contact Kamyar at:
Kamyararsani31@gmail.com
Instagram: @kamyararsani
FB: Kamyar Arsani

ShaktiDance Workshop with Mishaal
2019-07-28 12:00 - 15:00
CRS invites you to celebrate and explore the divine feminine with Bali-based sacred dance artist Mishaal!
Shakti Dance Circle is a gently guided, free flowing, sacred sensual healing dance for women, based in the mystical roots of bellydance, and sacred temple dance. We use a language of sacred geometry, tracing circles, spirals, serpentine waves, infinity loops, and shimmies throughout our body, cultivating our Shakti flow, and honouring the divine feminine within. In Sanskrit, Shakti, means goddess, and power. Shakti is the primordial cosmic energy, and the creative force within us all. All Women are welcome, no dance experience necessary. There is no counting, no choreography, nothing to memorize.
your body is your temple
relax your mind
awaken body and soul
celebrate the goddess within.
— Love, Mishaal
The workshop is $70 in advance and $80 on the day of the workshop. Please wear clothing appropriate for dancing. Long skirts are fine (as in the photo). You will probably want to also bring a bottle of water.
I’ve been sharing sacred dance offerings around the world for over 30 years. I love dancing barefoot in nature, connecting with the elements, the spirit of the land, and the ancient ones. As a professional dancer, and instructress, I weave my life long taste for the deep and mystical into my art, and my classes. I love coming together with women in circle, where we can relax, awaken, transform, and honour our divine feminine essence through dance and sisterhood. I am devoted to bringing the healing energy of feminine wisdom, beauty, and love out to our world through dance. Its time.
with love,
in sisterhood,
Mishaal
https://devadasistudio.com

A Course in Miracles Wednesday Classes
2019-07-31 20:00 - 21:30
Mondays 7:30 – 9 pm
Taught by Yasuko Kasaki, assisted by Christopher Pelham
Wednesdays 8 – 9:30 pm
Taught by Christopher Pelham
Know your life purpose and the meaning of your current situation clearly. Communicate with your Inner Teacher. Heal yourself and others.
These ongoing classes focus on mind training designed to help you to experience the lessons and loving wisdom of ACIM. Each class contains some lecture from the ACIM Textbook, some discussion and Q&A, and typically 10 – 20 minutes of meditation, creative visualization and/or spiritual reading practice in order to experience mind change.
Our primary goal in these classes is for each student to learn to listen to the guidance of Holy Spirit and live his/her life with certainty and peace. Slowly, you will re-train your eyes to see the world around you without judgment. You will learn to communicate with your holy spirit.
It is OK to attend without having studied the Course, but we highly encourage you begin reading the Text and, especially, to begin the workbook lessons if you can! This course is meant to be experienced rather than simply talked about. You can find the text and lessons online.
Students of all experience levels and backgrounds are welcome!

The Voice of Nature: Meditation and Talk with Sacred Dance Artist Shizuno Nasu
2019-08-03 13:30 - 15:00
What do you think and for what do you pray? CRS invites you to meditate on these questions with Hawaii-based Spiritual Dance artist Shizuno Nasu. Both classically and traditionally trained, Shizuno has for many years been creating, performing, and teaching her own unique form of dance all over the world.
Please bring paper and pen for taking notes.
Listen to the voice of life on earth according to the voice of one’s own heart while discovering your own dance to the rhythms of fire, water, air, and earth.
Release the mind and body and shed beautiful vibrations.
You will be embraced by light and love.
Slowly and quietly,
While looking at one’s own body
And inward at one’s own mind,
Let’s let flow pure life energy.
1:30 – 3 pm Meditation and Talk on Prayer Dance $30
3:15 – 5:45 Prayer Dance / Earth Dance Workshop $70
Shizuno Nasu was born in Osaka, Japan and began her classical ballet training at the age of 3. She was chosen as an exchange student with the Bolshoi Ballet at the age of 7 and made her debut as a professional dancer at the age of 19. She has won high praise in Europe, Asia, and in U.S.A. Seeking a deeper understanding of dance, she started exploring ancient Japanese mythological and traditional dances in search of an answer. Focusing on the foundational forms of traditional Japanese dances, Shizuno undertook a multi-year pilgrimage, performing throughout Japan, deepening a sense of spirit and refining her skills on the art of Mai — a specific style of traditional Japanese dance that emphasizes repetitive body movements that are done elegantly and with beauty.
In 2002, Shizuno moved to Volcano, on the Island of Hawaiʻi, from New York. Subsequently, she has created a great number of staged performances that express her passion and inspiration with her unique Mai attuned to the rhythms of Mother Nature. Shizuno says, “Spirit of Nature can be seen in the movement of wind, the stark land of Pele, and in the interweaving energies of opposites, yin and yang… We must heal the earth with renewed spirit and awareness of the interconnections of all beings and elements.“
In 2010, she established her “Shizuno Nasu Mai Dance Studio” in Volcano, as a base of her creation. She has set to work on a new dance method, “Origin of Life,” being inspired by the majestic nature of Hawaiʻi, receiving “Moments of Precious Life” from the four elements: Fire, Water, Wind and Earth and refining her identity with her purity toward dance. Through dance, she hopes to contribute to an international exchange that bridges Hawaii and Japan.

CANCELLED — The Voice of Nature: Sacred Dance Workshop with Shizuno Nasu
2019-08-03 15:15 - 17:45
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Join us for an afternoon of sacred dance inspired by nature with Hawaii-based Spiritual Dance artist Shizuno Nasu. Through spiritual listening and improvised movements, you will discover your own dance inspired by the rhythms of nature and your own heart. Both classically and traditionally trained, Shizuno has for many years been creating, performing, and teaching her own unique form of dance all over the world.
All are welcome. No dance experience necessary. Please wear clothing comfortable to move in, ideally a long flared skirt or long pants in all white color. Please bring a white cloth, if you have one, water to drink, and paper and pen for taking notes.
1:30 – 3:00 pm Meditation and Talk on Prayer Dance $30
3:15 – 5:45 pm Prayer Dance / Earth Dance Workshop $70
Listen to the voice of life on earth according to the voice of one’s own heart while discovering your own dance to the rhythms of fire, water, air, and earth.
Release the mind and body and shed beautiful vibrations.
You will be embraced by light and love.
Slowly and quietly,
While looking at one’s own body
And inward at one’s own mind,
Let’s let flow pure life energy.
Shizuno Nasu was born in Osaka, Japan and began her classical ballet training at the age of 3. She was chosen as an exchange student with the Bolshoi Ballet at the age of 7 and made her debut as a professional dancer at the age of 19. She has won high praise in Europe, Asia, and in U.S.A. Seeking a deeper understanding of dance, she started exploring ancient Japanese mythological and traditional dances in search of an answer. Focusing on the foundational forms of traditional Japanese dances, Shizuno undertook a multi-year pilgrimage, performing throughout Japan, deepening a sense of spirit and refining her skills on the art of Mai — a specific style of traditional Japanese dance that emphasizes repetitive body movements that are done elegantly and with beauty.
In 2002, Shizuno moved to Volcano, on the Island of Hawaiʻi, from New York. Subsequently, she has created a great number of staged performances that express her passion and inspiration with her unique Mai attuned to the rhythms of Mother Nature. Shizuno says, “Spirit of Nature can be seen in the movement of wind, the stark land of Pele, and in the interweaving energies of opposites, yin and yang… We must heal the earth with renewed spirit and awareness of the interconnections of all beings and elements.“
In 2010, she established her “Shizuno Nasu Mai Dance Studio” in Volcano, as a base of her creation. She has set to work on a new dance method, “Origin of Life,” being inspired by the majestic nature of Hawaiʻi, receiving “Moments of Precious Life” from the four elements: Fire, Water, Wind and Earth and refining her identity with her purity toward dance. Through dance, she hopes to contribute to an international exchange that bridges Hawaii and Japan.

Fly in Water: A Multimedia Concert by Pianist Hyo Jee Kang
2019-08-09 20:00 - 21:30
CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) presents CROSSING BOUNDARIES Concert Series Vol. 7: FLY IN WATER, curated by gamin. By turns poignant and thundering, FLY IN WATER is a structured improvisation and meditation on the inter-relationships between humanity, the environment, and the other life forms created by MAG (Multidisciplinary Art Group). FLY IN WATER features music from Oliver Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jesus” performed live by classical pianist / performance artist Hyo Jee Kang amidst a multimedia apparition of coming ecological collapse.
curator: gamin
concept: Bo Choi (Korea) and Hyo Jee Kang (Korea)
composers: Oliver Messiaen, Hyo Jee Kang, Damian Mahurlets (Germany)
performance: Hyo Jee Kang (piano)
wearable art: Bo Choi
media art: Damian Mahurlets

Music performed live by Hyo Jee Kang:

Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jesus

XVI. Regard des prophètes, des bergers et des Mages (“Contemplation of the prophets, the shepherds and the Magi”)

XVII. Regard du silence (“Contemplation of silence”)

Hyo Jee Kang: Mu:l

Additional pre-recorded music composed and created by Damian Mahurlets.

This is the fourth of eight concerts in the series during 2019 and will take place on August 9, 2019 at 8 pm at CRS.
Tickets are $25 in advance $30 at the door. Students and seniors with valid ID can purchase tickets for $20 at the door. Tickets are available online at crsny.org, by phone (212-677-8621), and at CRS.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
MAG (Multidisciplinary Art Group) is a collective of artists focuses on the avant-garde idea of spatial deconstruction. It paves the way for the future interpretation of time and space. It has produced communicative multi-art shows such as MY Room-Demian, conceptional performance Butterfly II and a theatrical music piece, Notes from underground.
The common theme for the artists of MAG is the artistic interpretation of contemporary philosophy. Through the works, MAG (re-)discovers the aesthetic of the existential and the social fabric.
Drastic changes in modern society that are unparalleled in terms of the magnitude and the speed sometimes cast the bleak shadow over the lives and the environment that surround them. The onus is on the artists to expose the conditions of contemporary life.
The Fly in Water-Interspace is an official invited work to the 20th anniversary of Hong-gah Museum, Taipei.
Bo Choi is a fashion designer and artist. With a primary focus in fiber art and fashion design, she envisions clothes as both rendering explicit their capacity to represent the self, as well as building upon, and breaking with, past conventions in order to allow an endless refashioning of the self-disallowed by the limited vocabulary of much art and fashion today. She completed her MFA 2009 in Fiber at School of art in University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Her undergraduate studies were at University of California, Davis, in Fashion Design and Studio Art. Previously, as a fashion designer, she created a fashion line that explores and transgresses the typical ways the body contour interacts with clothing. Choi’s solo fashion show “Second Skin” was presented at Jacob Lawrence Gallery in University of Washington, Seattle. In 2009, she was a finalist at the InspirAsain Fashion Competition, hosted by International Examiner where her wearable art line was presented at the Bell Harbor Conference Center. Internationally she has presented her designs at the Wearable Art Awards in Port Moody, BC, Canada, 2009 and 2010 and had a residency at Kulturprojekte, Berlin Germany in 2008 and Seoul, South Korea in 2012. Currently, she teaches fashion design at Indiana University.
bch1.myportfolio.com/
Hyo Jee Kang has been focusing on transformation between media and objects to create a new art form. She works with media artists and live electronic performers presenting improvisation and recomposed composition as well as her originals. Her activity as a composer, performer, creator and improviser has been featured throughout the world in Germany, Spain, Italy, Korea, Japan, USA, Israel, and so on. Hyo Jee currently resides in New York City and serves as a faculty at Seoul National University. In May 2018, she gave her solo performance with great success at Lincoln Center, including the Conceptual Transformation Performance “Pyung Yang.” This August she was one of 12 artists from around the world selected to particpate in Seminar in Taipei, a platform for in-depth exchange in both theoretical and practical fields, at the 2018 Taipei Arts Festival X in Taiwan. Seminar in Taipei is an initiative of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, in partnership with the National Culture and Arts Foundation of Taiwan, Korea Arts Management Service, the National Arts Council of Singapore, and the Arts and Theatre Institute of the Czech Republic, realised in collaboration with the Taipei Arts Festival. Hyo Jee’s YouTube channel is youtube.com/hyojeekang.
Damian Marhulets is a Germany based composer, visual artist and producer. His musical education began at the age of 6, when he was accepted to prestigious Minsk College of Music. It was not long until Damian began performing as an oboe soloist with some of the most renowned orchestras in the country and abroad. Still in his early childhood, Damian became a prizewinner of major international music competitions. His music career took a new turn in 2000 when he relocated to Germany. Following his artistic inquisitiveness he soon immersed himself in underground experimental music scene. His musical education shifted from oboe performance to modern composition and electronic music, that he studied first at the Music Academy Hannover and later in Cologne.
As an artist-in-residence Damian worked at such renowned venues as Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, ACROE Institute Grenoble, IONIAN University Corfu and STEIM Amsterdam. He also has won a multitude of grants and stipends such as the composition-stipends by the cultural affair department of the Lower Saxony and the European Culture Program.
Recent projects of Damian include large-scale stage performances, in which he combines acoustic instruments with electronics and visuals. Recently he collaborated with such renowned musicians as David Krakauer, Frank Bungarten, Szymanowski String Quartet, Marina Baranova and many others. Besides from writing concert music as well as music for theatre, film and dance he toured all over Europe and USA, having played his own music at many different music festivals and alternative DJ clubs. He has performed worldwide including Berliner Philharmonie • Beethovenfest Bonn • Music Triennial Cologne • BOZAR – Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels • “Re:New” Digital Art Festival Copenhagen • Philharmonic Hall Essen • Berghain Club in Berlin • die Glocke – Bremen • KunstFestSpiele Hannover as well as many others. His multimedia works were presented at many different galleries and museums of modern art including Kestnergesellschaft • Sprengel Museum Hanover • ArtCenter Berlin • Diapason Sound Art Gallery in NYC • DAVID vzw Gallery in Ghent • Lortzing ART Gallery in Hanover and others.
Drawn upon his long term fascination for radical fringes of music making, Damian feels most comfortable when blurring lines between musical genres. Combining his concert music roots with sound-design skills and years-long experience as an electronic music producer, he throws away conventional music clichés in order to develop original music language and explore new sonic landscapes.
ABOUT CROSSING BOUNDARIES
Now in its second year, CROSSING BOUNDARIES is a performance series devoted to creating unforgettable live art experiences that dissolve boundaries between performers and audiences, traditional and new music, and the local and the global, bringing people together and promoting the awareness that we each possess a limitless creativity inside us.
CRS has from its inception in 2004 attracted many people from abroad, and has become known for presenting healing, arts, and cultural programs from around the world and from Asia in particular. This season, which is supported by a grant from the LMCC, is curated by four outstanding artists of Asian descent: gamin, Jen Shyu, JunYi Chow, and Lâle Sayoko. There is a long tradition of interdisciplinarity in Asian arts, where ritual practices have always involved elements of dance, theatre, improvised music, and storytelling, and this season will build on that tradition.
The 2019 season of CROSSING BOUNDARIES is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by LMCC. LMCC empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support, to create vibrant, sustainable communities in Manhattan and beyond.

Four Seasons in New York — Gems of Japanese Music Vol. 15
2019-08-10 16:00 - 17:15
CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) invites you to discover traditional Japanese music by the acclaimed koto and shamisen player Yoko Reikano Kimura offered together with an exclusive taste of beautiful Japanese seasonal confectionary prepared by mochi Rin. This will be Vol. 15 and the final concert of the 2018-19 season of Four Seasons in New York — Gems of Japanese Music, which is supported by Mar Creations, Inc.
The summer concert will be held on Saturday, Aug 10, 2019 at 4 pm in the award-winning White Room at CRS. Tickets are $30 and include wagashi (Japanese confectionary). Seating is limited and advanced purchased (online, by phone 212-677-8621, or in person at CRS) is strongly encouraged.
The Summer Program:
– Kagerou no Odori – Mirage Dance – (composed by Kin’ichi Nakanoshima)
– Uya no Tsuki – The Moon on a Rainy Night – (composed by Shosei Nakanoshima) with Ukiyo-e prints
“…Yoko Reikano Kimura, playing the shamisen and singing, is superb….” — New York Times
“…Kimura’s voice was rich and full-bodied ….” — KCMETROPLIS
“…Under Kimura’s practiced hand, there were also occasional dramatic and explosive passages. – Koto Concerto: Genji” — The NEWS GAZZETE
About “Four Seasons in New York – Gems of Japanese Music“
New York’s music scene reflects the diverse and vibrant culture of the city. Kimura, together with CRS (Center for Remembering and Sharing) and Mar Creation, Inc., started this concert series in the fall of 2015. As a Japanese instrumentalist, Kimura hopes to introduce the brilliance of traditional Japanese music, which is still being passed on to the new generations after many centuries. Over 30 works from the classical repertoire have so far been performed in the concert series, and from this season, the series will feature contemporary pieces as well. Come and experience the sounds of koto and shamisen and enjoy the taste of the four seasons here in New York!
Past performances: https://www.yokoreikanokimura.com/projects/fourseasons/
YOKO REIKANO KIMURA is a distinguished virtuoso of Japanese koto, shamisen performer and singer in both traditional and contemporary music. Kimura has concertized in about 20 countries around the world based in New York and Japan. Following her studies at the Tokyo University of the Arts and the NHK School of Traditional Japanese Music, she studied at Institute of Traditional Japanese Music, an affiliate of Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Japan. Kimura was awarded a scholarship from the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan. Her teachers include Kono Kameyama, Akiko Nishigata and Senko Yamabiko, a Living National Treasure. Awards include the First prize at the prestigious 10th Kenjun Memorial National Koto Competition and the First prize at the 4th Great Wall International Music Competition. Kimura performed at the Kabuki-za in Tokyo, accompanying Danjuro Ichikawa XII. Her performances have been broadcasted on NHK-FM’s Hogaku no Hitotoki, NPR’s Performance Today and WQXR. As a koto soloist, Kimura has performed Daron Hagen’s Koto Concerto: Genji with the Euclid Quartet, Ciompi Quartet, Freimann String Quartet and the Wintergreen Music Festival Orchestra. As a shamisen soloist, she performed Kin’ichi Nakanoshima’s Shamisen Concerto at the National Olympic Memorial Youth Center, and performed with American Symphony Orchestra in Pietro Mascagni’s Iris. Kimura is a founder of Duo YUMENO, with cellist Hikaru Tamaki. The duo received the Kyoto Aoyama Barock Saal Award in 2015, and featured at Chamber Music America’s 2016 National Conference, and performed at the John F. Kennedy Center in 2017. In 2019, the duo will have its ten-year anniversary recital at Carnegie Hall.
Website: yokoreikanokimura.com | duoyumeno.com
mochi Rin creates bite-sized mochi desserts made with organic bean paste, seasonal fruits and flowers produced in NY. She presents a new type of mochi that doesn’t quite exist in Japan by infusing New York’s locally-produced ingredients with Japan’s popular traditional desserts —the stuffed mochi rounds, such as daifuku and sakura-mochi — and mixing in rin, the element of restrained grace.
Website: rin-nyc.com | https://www.instagram.com/rin_nyc
photo courtesy mochi Rin

Miracles in Manhattan with Dr. Jon Mundy: Patience ~ Faithfulness ~ Open-Mindedness
2019-08-11 13:30 - 16:00
CRS presents Miracles in Manhattan, lectures on the teachings of A Course in Miracles (ACIM) and related texts and topics by Jon Mundy, Ph.D. and occasional guest lecturers, hosted by CRS Founder Yasuko Kasaki (hosted in August by CRS co-founder Christopher Pelham).
The August lecture will continue the talk on the 10 Characteristics of Teachers of God from the ACIM Manual for Teachers with the qualities of patience, faithfulness, and open mindedness.
~ $25 per person with advanced purchase online, by phone (212-677-8621) or at CRS until the day before the lecture~
~ $30 per person at the door ~
As long as space is available, “No one is ever turned away who cannot pay.” Contribute what you can.
The lectures are held on the 2nd Sunday of the month (but 1st Sunday in May).
Although we would, of course, prefer to share with you in class, Miracles in Manhattan classes are now also being offered via life-streaming (technology allowing) for those who cannot attend the class in-person. The day of the class, go to our YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwxH3nWSMFDGA1SiR9kAbeg
and choose the live-streaming button. If it’s not there, it means there are technical difficulties, but it should still be posted here about a week later.
Dr. Jon Mundy is an author, lecturer, the publisher of Miracles magazine, and the Executive Director of All Faiths Seminary International in New York City. He met Dr. Helen Schucman, the scribe for A Course in Miracles, in 1973. Helen introduced Jon to the Course and served as his mentor and guide till she became ill in 1980. He is the author of Living A Course in Miracles, which is now available in eight languages. After Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, it is currently the best-selling book based on the teaching of A Course in Miracles. He taught courses in Philosophy and Religion from 1967 to 2008 at the New School University and the State University of New York with a specialization in The History of Mysticism. He is the author of 12 books, his most recent being A Course in Mysticism and Miracles published by Red Wheel Weiser. drjonmundy.com www.miraclesmagazine.org
Miracles in Manhattan host Yasuko Kasaki is an internationally beloved spiritual writer, counselor, healer, lecturer and translator from Tokyo, Japan. The founder of CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing), the first and only spiritual center devoted to the teaching and practice of A Course in Miracles (ACIM) in New York City, she is widely recognized as the person most responsible for the spread of ACIM throughout Japan. She has taught and worked with thousands of people from around the world to help resolve their mental and physical issues and witness miracles. She is the author of 16 books in Japanese about ACIM, as well as numerous novels, short stories, essays and collections of photographs. Her translations of the ACIM Workbook and books by ACIM writers Jon Mundy, Gabrielle Bernstein and David Hoffmeister and others have also been published in Japan. Meditation and communication with Holy Spirit form the foundation of her classes. yasukokasaki.com

CRS Healing Circle: Meditation + Whirling Prayer
2019-08-15 19:15 - 21:00
Join us Thur, 8/15 @ 7:15 pm for our monthly Healing Circle + Whirling (Sufi Dance) Prayer!
Led by CRS co-founder Christopher Pelham (Lale Sayoko and Yasuko Kasaki will be in Japan this month), we create a safe space in which to let go of our small selves and recognize the divinity in one another and within ourselves. When we do so, we can trust ourselves to fully experience our feelings with the awareness that they cannot hurt us, or overwhelm us, or change us at all, because we are still as Love created us.
After we’ll enjoy social time with tea and snacks.
The participation fee is $20 with advanced registration and $25 at the door. Direct registration link:
https://bit.ly/2Lcbtws
Through whirling, we learn to trust ourselves to go off balance, to be dizzy, to surrender control as we give ourselves over to prayer and connect with a greater power, the still center within, around which we turn, that we may share our divine strength and bear witness to the divinity in others.
If you are quiet and in a state of prayer when you Turn, offering everything of yourself to God, then when your body is spinning, there is a completely still point in the center… The heavens respond; and all the invisible kingdoms join in the dance. But the world does not understand. They think we Turn in order to go into some sort of trance. It is true that sometimes we do go into that state you call ecstasy, but that is only when we know and experience at the same time. We do not Turn for ourselves. We turn around in the way we do so that the Light of God may descend upon the earth. As you act as a conduit in the Turn, the light comes through the right hand, and the left hand brings it into this world… We turn for God and for the world, and it is the most beautiful thing you can imagine. — Mevlevi Shaikh Suleyman Hyatt Dede
Sufi Dance Instructor Lale Sayoko lives to embody and transmit the voice of spirit through music and dance. As CRS resident Sufi Dance instructor, choreographer, performing artist, and musical curator, she loves to welcome people into this holy practice to explore and share their own divinity. After a long professional dance career, she retired to support her young daughter through a life-threatening medical crisis. Several years later she discovered that she could whirl as a form of prayer to support her daughter and began studying Sufi Dance with Paris-based Sufi Artist Rana Gorgani. In April 2018 Gorgani awarded her the International Sufi Dance Certification Of Cid UNESCO, granting her authority to teach Gorgani’s method of Sufi Dance training. She currently teaches Sufi Dance classes at CRS every first Thursday of the month from 7 – 8:30 pm and leads the CRS Healing Circles + Whirling Prayer that take place every third Thursday of the month from 7:15 – 9 pm.
https://www.facebook.com/lale.sayoko
Christopher Pelham is a spiritual healer/counselor/teacher/artist who draws on practices from ACIM, Non-Violent Communication, improvisational theater, Sufism, and contemporary shamanism to help people remember who they really are. He is the Director and co-founder of CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing). He has also taught and/or offered healing in London, in Japan, at the 2018 Awakening to the One Mind Retreat, and at the 2017 Enlight Festival of A Course in Miracles in Ibiza, Spain.
http://www.chrispelham.com

Chakra Balancing Meditation
2019-08-21 19:00 - 20:00
As a group, we tone the sacred sounds of each chakra 7 times, creating an energetic flow that loosens and removes blockages and releases negative energy stored within. The sound of the toning creates a vibrational reaction within the body, which causes stillness and relaxation. We begin with a breathing exercise, followed by toning, and ending with an open circle to share the experience and/or ask questions. This is a meditation, and a self-healing practice. Chakra balancing meditation is excellent for the beginner and the experienced.
We all have seven main chakras that sit along the center of the spinal column. The body is a vehicle of consciousness, and the chakras are where consciousness and matter (the physical body) meet. Together the seven chakras form a profound formula for wholeness that integrates mind, body and spirit. Making sure they are balanced is essential to our daily and long term lives. They house the consciousness around our survival and safety, emotions, sexulaity, creativity, self-esteem, imagination, our knowingness, our ability to love and be loved. Emotions such as fear, stress, shame, guilt, grief, lies and the ego all block the chakras creating an imbalanced system. Having an imbalanced chakra system can result in physical symptoms in their corresponding body parts and organs.
RSVP by email
Joshua Dorfman is a metaphysical teacher and healer who uses his clairvoyant and empathic abilities to support others looking for more balance and deep spiritual healing. Born extrasensory, he always had a gift enabling him to know things beyond the physical, like feeling the energy of a person, or situation, knowing people’s true intentions and when something bad was going to happen. As he grew, he came across various mentors who passed onto him, great spiritual wisdom. For many years, Joshua has been self taught, guided by an “inner voice” toward books and information around the subject of energy healing, psychic ability and the power of sound, to name a few. READ MORE >>

Meditation & Spiritual Reading Practice Based on ACIM
2019-09-04 18:00 - 19:00
Let’s practice dropping our thoughts, opening to love’s presence, and allowing ourselves to melt into one another, being present with what is. In this eternity we can experience love’s presence in new forms, giving us new inspiration and direction.
It is OK to attend without having studied A Course in Miracles, but we highly encourage you to begin reading the Text and, especially, to begin the workbook lessons if you feel called to do so! Receiving guidance occurs when you cultivate willingness to believe in it and receive it and lay aside resistance. The purpose of ACIM is to help you train your mind to do just that.
Still, even without training, anyone can potentially benefit from meditation practices. At the very least, you might calm down and have a good time, and students of all experience levels and backgrounds are welcome!
Instructor Christopher Pelham is the Director and co-founder of CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing). He teaches A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, offer Spiritual Healing and counseling, and organizes Sufi events and Healing Circles with Sufi Dance Artist Lâle Sayoko. While ACIM is the foundation of his work, he also draws on his rich experiences with improvisational theater and contemporary shamanism to help people remember who they really are: perfect and limitless expressions of love.

Sufi Dance Class with Paola Garcia
2019-09-05 19:00 - 20:30
Learn the ancient practice of meditative whirling known as Sufi dance or Sema (Sama in Iranian). You will learn the techniques of whirling, but Sema is not about reproducing a certain form or aesthetic. Rather, the technique serves as a vehicle for inner journeying. Sema means spiritual listening. Together we’ll create a sacred space in which we can safely listen to and share our true selves and experience oneness with the Divine.
Each class consists of some explanation of the theory and technique, exercises, practice whirling, and sharing and discussion of what you experienced and felt.
Please wear comfortable clothing like yoga pants or leggings and T shirts ( no tube top or short pants/skirts) and solid colors are recommended, avoiding prints and shiny material which might distract the eye while whirling, and wear socks or soft soled shoes. If you have a whirling skirt, please feel free to bring it.
Avoid eating a large meal for two hours prior to class.
Whirling commonly induces dizziness or nausea. Over time, through whirling, we learn to trust ourselves to go off balance, to be dizzy, to surrender control. We empty our minds of all thoughts of the individual self as we give ourselves over to prayer and connect with a greater power, the still center within, around which we turn. Into this emptiness floods a divine fullness, which sometimes gives rise to a state known as “mystical intoxication,” a reflection of knowing and experiencing that you and I and the Divine are One.
Classes are $25 ($20 with advanced registration).
About Sufi Dance Instructor Paola García
Sufi Dance artist Rana Gorgani awarded Paola the International Sufi Dance Certification Of Cid UNESCO, granting her authority to teach Gorgani’s method of Sufi dance training. Paola holds a Master’s Degree in Islamic Studies from Columbia University. She is a writer, Middle Eastern Studies researcher, translator and student of Sufism.

Native American Drum Making Workshop
2019-09-07 13:00 - 17:00
We are delighted to announce that ONACNY is offering a Native American Drum Making Workshop to our community in September 2019. We are honored to invite Squamish native elder Tsawaysia Spukwus (aka. Alice Guss) from British Columbia, Canada to lead the workshop.
About Native American Drum-Making & Birthing:
“Making your own drum begins a journey – as you will transform Mother Nature’s Gift into a musical instrument.”
“Drums have been used for thousands of years and by many cultures. The drum beat works as a conduit connecting the resonance sound of the human heartbeat and the rhythm of the heartbeat of Mother Earth. When the drum dries, we keep the heartbeat alive by beating the drum. Our culture teaches us that the more drums played, the more harmony, connection, and understanding we have of one mind, one body and one spirit.” ~ Tsawaysia Spukwas
Workshop Outline:
First Day ~ Making the Sacred Drum:

Sacred Circle Introduction
Ceremonial Welcoming Song
Passing of the Eagle Feather
Materials & Instruction
Native Songs & Storytelling, Legends, Teachings of making a drum prior to European contact

Deadline for Registration & Payment: August 20th, 2019. To register or for any questions, please reply to this invitation, email: onacny@gmail.com. Further details are below.
Second Day ~ Birthing the Sacred Drum by the water:

Birthing your Drum & Closing Ceremony with Native American medicine songs

About the instructor:
Tsawaysia Spukwus (aka. Alice Guss) is a Squamish Nation member. Her father, Pekultn was a Hereditary Chief from North Vancouver. Her mother Gwen Harry is 88 years old and still very active in her community. Her family is strong, committed and active in the preservation of their culture and heritage. With over 20 years working with First Nation’s communities as a Director of Education and 15 years delivering Sacred Drum Making workshops, Tsawaysia is masterful at bringing innovative learning opportunities to all people through workshops, drumming, singing, dancing and storytelling. She is an avid participant in healing Tribal Journeys and more recently co-produced a number of documentaries including ‘Squamish Nation: Stories from the Heart’, ‘Tribal Journeys’, and ‘Riding with the First Nation’s Snowboard Team’.

The Oklevueha Native American Church of New York (ONACNY) community welcomes you with open arms and heart on your path to experiencing and exploring your inner Universe and feeling abundantly empowered through your choices to living a thriving, vibrant, loving, and soul satisfying life. We are a community dedicated to sharing urban shamanic ways with earth-based medicine ceremonies and workshops to connect, evolve, and transform into who we are becoming. Let us support your journey to unfold the gifts of who you are which are waiting for you.
TIMES & LOCATIONS:
Drum Making Workshop
September 7th, 2019 (Saturday), 1pm to 5pm (please arrive on time!)
location:
Center for Remembering & Sharing (CRS)
123 4th Avenue, 2nd floor, New York, NY 10003
Drum Birthing Circle
September 8th, 2019 (Sunday), 2pm to 4pm
Drum Birthing Circle outdoor location:
Robert F Wagner Jr. Park ~ 20 Battery Place, New York, NY 10280
The park is located at the southern tip of Battery Park City Greenway, between the ‘Museum of Jewish Heritage’ and ‘Gigno’ restaurant, downtown Manhattan. We will meet at the open lawn on the water front.
*P.S. in case of rain or weather conditions, we will move our gathering indoors. Location to be determined & announced.
Workshop fees (Drum materials included):
14” Drums – $245
16” Drums – $265
18” Drums – $285
Drum Raw Materials include:  14, 16,or 18 inch round (type) drum hoop made of cedar wood, single raw hide drum head (options of deer or elk hide), lacing, and drum stick.
Payment methods:

Paypal (we will send you a link for payment)
Credit Card **
Personal Check **
Bank Transfer **

** We will provide details to registering participants **
Deadline for Registration & Payment: August 20th, 2019
To register or for any questions, please reply to this invitation, email: onacny@gmail.com
Registration is First come, First serve!! We have limited seating for this workshop. Please register as early as possible to secure your spot.
Cancellation & Media Policy:
Workshop fee is Non-Refundable unless class canceled.
Individual/Group Photos are published on our website with your permission. Photos are taken randomly during the event. If you would like to exempt yourself, please inform the facilitators. Please refrain from using cell phones, video recording, taking photos while class is in session.
Mitakuye Oyasin (All Are Related), 🙏

Miracles in Manhattan with Dr. Jon Mundy: Special Relationships
2019-09-08 13:30 - 16:00
CRS presents Miracles in Manhattan, lectures on the teachings of A Course in Miracles (ACIM) and related texts and topics by Jon Mundy, Ph.D. and occasional guest lecturers, hosted by CRS Founder Yasuko Kasaki.
The September lecture will cover Special Relationships, a concept to which ACIM devotes considerable pages.
T-15.V.3. You cannot love parts of reality and understand what love means. 2 If you would love unlike to God, Who knows no special love, how can you understand it? 3 To believe that special relationships, with special love, can offer you salvation is the belief that separation is salvation. 4 For it is the complete equality of the Atonement in which salvation lies. 5 How can you decide that special aspects of the Sonship can give you more than others? 6 The past has taught you this. 7 Yet the holy instant teaches you it is not so.
T-15.V.4. Because of guilt, all special relationships have elements of fear in them. 2 This is why they shift and change so frequently. 3 They are not based on changeless love alone. 4 And love, where fear has entered, cannot be depended on because it is not perfect. 5 In His function as Interpreter of what you made, the Holy Spirit uses special relationships, which you have chosen to support the ego, as learning experiences that point to truth. 6 Under His teaching, every relationship becomes a lesson in love.
T-15.V.5. The Holy Spirit knows no one is special. 2 Yet He also perceives that you have made special relationships, which He would purify and not let you destroy. 3 However unholy the reason you made them may be, He can translate them into holiness by removing as much fear as you will let Him. 4 You can place any relationship under His care and be sure that it will not result in pain, if you offer Him your willingness to have it serve no need but His. 5 All the guilt in it arises from your use of it. 6 All the love from His. 7 Do not, then, be afraid to let go your imagined needs, which would destroy the relationship. 8 Your only need is His.
~ $25 per person with advanced purchase online, by phone (212-677-8621) or at CRS until the day before the lecture~
~ $30 per person at the door ~
As long as space is available, “No one is ever turned away who cannot pay.” Contribute what you can.
The lectures are held on the 2nd Sunday of the month (but 1st Sunday in May).
Although we would, of course, prefer to share with you in class, Miracles in Manhattan classes are now also being offered via life-streaming (technology allowing) for those who cannot attend the class in-person. The day of the class, go to our YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwxH3nWSMFDGA1SiR9kAbeg
and choose the live-streaming button. If it’s not there, it means there are technical difficulties, but it should still be posted here about a week later.
Dr. Jon Mundy is an author, lecturer, the publisher of Miracles magazine, and the Executive Director of All Faiths Seminary International in New York City. He met Dr. Helen Schucman, the scribe for A Course in Miracles, in 1973. Helen introduced Jon to the Course and served as his mentor and guide till she became ill in 1980. He is the author of Living A Course in Miracles, which is now available in eight languages. After Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, it is currently the best-selling book based on the teaching of A Course in Miracles. He taught courses in Philosophy and Religion from 1967 to 2008 at the New School University and the State University of New York with a specialization in The History of Mysticism. He is the author of 12 books, his most recent being A Course in Mysticism and Miracles published by Red Wheel Weiser. drjonmundy.com www.miraclesmagazine.org
Miracles in Manhattan host Yasuko Kasaki is an internationally beloved spiritual writer, counselor, healer, lecturer and translator from Tokyo, Japan. The founder of CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing), the first and only spiritual center devoted to the teaching and practice of A Course in Miracles (ACIM) in New York City, she is widely recognized as the person most responsible for the spread of ACIM throughout Japan. She has taught and worked with thousands of people from around the world to help resolve their mental and physical issues and witness miracles. She is the author of 16 books in Japanese about ACIM, as well as numerous novels, short stories, essays and collections of photographs. Her translations of the ACIM Workbook and books by ACIM writers Jon Mundy, Gabrielle Bernstein and David Hoffmeister and others have also been published in Japan. Meditation and communication with Holy Spirit form the foundation of her classes. yasukokasaki.com

Crossing Boundaries Concert Series Vol. 8: MOLDING
2019-09-13 20:00 - 21:30
CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) presents CROSSING BOUNDARIES Concert Series Vol. 8: MOLDING, curated by gamin. Conceived and performed by Leah Ogawa, MOLDING is an object movement puppetry piece about shedding one’s skin and confronting one’s memories. The character illustrates the liminal space she embodies by using her own physical body and her molded body parts to explore the feeling of in-between-ness and the process of accepting herself. It is her journey to face society’s expectations and to recognize and assimilate her true identity.
curator: gamin
lead artist: Leah Ogawa (performance & puppetry, Japan)
music: John Chao (Taiwan)
This is the fifth of eight concerts in the series during 2019 and will take place on September 13, 2019 at 8 pm at CRS.
Tickets are $25 in advance $30 at the door. Students and seniors with valid ID can purchase tickets for $20 at the door. Tickets are available online, by phone (212-677-8621), and at CRS.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
LEAH OGAWA is a puppeteer, actor, choreographer, and model based in New York City. Born in Hachioji and raised in Yamanashi, Japan, her puppetry training began at Sarah Lawrence with Dan Hurlin and Tom Lee. Leah has worked with incredible artists such as Chinese Theatre Works, Tom Lee, Loco 7, Phantom Limb, Hamid Rahmanian, Nami Yamamoto, Hua Hua Zhang, and many more. She has performed as a puppeteer around the U.S., China, and France. Leah is a recipient of the Queens Council on the Arts’ New Work Grant for her original piece MOLDING.
leahogawa.com
JOHN CHAO is a producer, songwriter, and instrumentalist based in New York City. He has a background in classical music, electronic, and experimental. John is part of the experimental pop collective Misha, signed to Tomlab Records. John’s music has appeared in advertisements, theatre, and art pieces.
ABOUT CROSSING BOUNDARIES
Now in its second year, CROSSING BOUNDARIES is a performance series devoted to creating unforgettable live art experiences that dissolve boundaries between performers and audiences, traditional and new music, and the local and the global, bringing people together and promoting the awareness that we each possess a limitless creativity inside us.
CRS has from its inception in 2004 attracted many people from abroad, and has become known for presenting healing, arts, and cultural programs from around the world and from Asia in particular. This season, which is supported by a grant from the LMCC, is curated by four outstanding artists of Asian descent: gamin, Jen Shyu, JunYi Chow, and Lâle Sayoko. There is a long tradition of interdisciplinarity in Asian arts, where ritual practices have always involved elements of dance, theatre, improvised music, and storytelling, and this season will build on that tradition.
Learn about the 2019 Season Curators
View the 2019 Season Announcement
The 2019 season of CROSSING BOUNDARIES is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by LMCC. LMCC empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support, to create vibrant, sustainable communities in Manhattan and beyond.

Film Screening & Talk: "Bees, The Earth & Me" with Apiarist Yasuki Funahashi
2019-09-14 16:00 - 18:00
CRS invites you to a screening of Japanese documentary “Bees, the Earth, and Me” (dir. by Yasuko Iwasaki, 2018, 30′ in Japanese with English subtitles) and talk by its central figure, environmental researcher, beekeeper and TedxAnjo presenter Yasuki Funahashi, who launched a remarkable campaign to save the bees and, maybe, humanity as well. Masae Fujimoto will serve as interpreter for the talk.
Tickets are $20 and are available online, by phone (212-677-8621), and at CRS.
It’s said that we owe 70% of the food we eat to pollination by bees. A bee visits up to 3000 flowers in a single day and makes only one teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. Bees play an important role in sustaining forests and marine life becomes more abundant due to the bountiful forests. Now, bee colonies are collapsing all over the world. If bees become extinct, the food chain will collapse and humans may not be able to produce enough food survive. By caring for the bees, we can care for everyone.
Cast: Yasuki Funahashi, Masanao Funahashi, Tatsutaka Yamamoto, Gilles Djeraouane Shigeatsu Hatakeyama, Tadashi Inamoto, Keiko Nakamura, and others
Producer : E・E Project
Yasuki Funahashi, an apiarist, used to be president of a research institute for environmental issues. He gave lots of lectures, but he could not see any real progress in safeguarding the environment. People’s minds are away from Nature and have become exhausted by stress. One day he encountered the honey bee colony collapse issue. He felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He realized that if bees can happily live on the earth, then that is also a place humans can peacefully live. He founded Honey Farm. He demonstrated bee education by raising honey bees at Higashiyama Botanical Garden and Zoo (Nagoya) and during Aichi Expo 2005. His honey was prized as the most delicious honey in the world by a French honey specialist. Since then he has been vigorously trying to solve the world food crisis by preventing honey bee extinction, establishing partnerships with the Paris Opera House, and with beekeepers and artists around the world.
Director Yasuko Iwasaki is the president of Heart of Miracle, incorporated non-profit organization; a coaching facilitator; and a film producer. She established the E･E project with Mr. Takahiro Ono to create documentary films for empowering people. She met Ms. Fumiko Irie and helped her to create a film “Miracle of The Gifted　Quarter – Life’s Truth Revealed”. Over 120 thousand people watched the film by the end of 2011. The film has been shown by volunteers in non-profit screenings, and it is further extending through out the world. In 2008 she directed and completed a film “The Universal Principle – How Everything is Created with Love”. In order to distribute those films, she established an incorporated non-profit organization, Heart of Miracle. In addition to film distribution, she wishes to create opportunities for people to communicate mutually through films.

An Afternoon with Non-Duality Lecturer & Author Naho Owada
2019-09-15 12:00 - 15:00
CRS welcomes back Paris and Japan-based Non-Duality lecturer Naho Owada, author of the newly published book Between the Lines, for a meditation, talk and Q&A. The event will be emceed by CRS co-founder and A Course in Miracles teacher/healer Christopher Pelham.
Our purpose is to share the joy that is present when we drop our stories and experience life impersonally as it truly is, as limitless unconditional love.
As long as thoughts continue returning, pulling us back into our stories, we will attempt to re-purpose them to point back to what lies beyond the words and concepts. In this way, Naho will share the story of her seeming experience of struggling and awakening and how she lives with it now, and she will answer your questions.
We’ll also explore how Naho’s approach to Non-Duality compares with A Course in Miracles and what they might have to offer one another.
Tickets are $30 in advance and $40 on the event of the event ($20 for students and seniors with valid ID at the door).
About Naho Owada
It was before the age of one when Naho sensed that humanity, this world, was not a comfortable place. Her mother told her that she first noticed Naho’s experience of the world while she was in her baby seat. Naho appeared to be in shock. She said that often her eyes would be wide and moving from left to right, as if she were seeing evil or in terror. Naho was very tense.
Somewhere around the age of three, there was a natural sense that saw clearly the loneliness or suffering underneath all humans. Naho could see in the faces that there was something hiding, an unease underneath the smile. Naho was always feeling uncomfortable.
By the time Naho turned five, she asked her mother why she had to continue to live.
It was in her teen years that Naho began her deep search in finding the cause of the uncomfortableness, of which she never found. Around the age of 20, Naho realized she would not find the answer where she was looking. She didn’t experience any tragedies in her life and therefore knew that it was not the story of the life that was causing her suffering.
At the age of 25, she met a man who had had an experience of this. He told her that the cause of suffering was the phantom self. She began to see that wherever she went, there she would be. It seemed to be following her; this ‘I’. She couldn’t escape the self that seemed to be having such uncomfortableness. It was from there that she knew she found the answer she was searching for.
It became evident that everyone is born with a sense of lack that comes from apparent separation–but this has nothing to do with the story of their apparent life. People try to find the answer in their storyline and that is because they think if they change the story, it will bring them happiness. That isn’t true. That will only bring relief for a short period of time. It began to be obvious that the person we believe our ‘self’ to be, is a complete illusion.
Soon thereafter, there came an apparent moment (while on her way to the organic supermarket) that the illusion completely vanished. What was left is everything, without a center.
What’s Happening Now
Many people have been asking about Naho’s whereabouts. For the past two years, Naho has been very busy sharing her message in Japan. Most of Naho’s invitations have been with the world’s most renowned and important buddhist monks asking her to come and share her message in their temples which are the treasure of Japan. While in Japan, Naho wrote and published three books on her own, all of which are doing very well.
This message being the closest to her heart is now going to be available in other countries, as Naho is residing in both France and Japan and is now travelling with her message all over the globe.
https://www.nahoowada.com
About Christopher Pelham
Christopher is the co-founder and Director of CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) where he studies and teaches A Course in Miracles. He also offer spiritual healing and counseling, guides meditations, organizes Sufi events and Healing Circles with Sufi Dance Artist Lale Sayoko, and produces a wide variety of arts and healing programming. While deeply rooted in A Course in Miracles, his approach to teaching also draws on his experiences with improvisational theatre and contemporary shamanism.

CRS Healing Circle: Meditation + Whirling Prayer
2019-09-19 19:15 - 21:00
Join us Thur, 9/19 @ 7:15 pm for our monthly Healing Circle + Whirling (Sufi Dance) Prayer!
Led by Sufi Dance Artist Lâle Sayoko and CRS Healer Christopher Pelham, we create a safe space in which to let go of our small selves and recognize the divinity in one another and within ourselves. When we do so, we can trust ourselves to fully experience our feelings with the awareness that they cannot hurt us, or overwhelm us, or change us at all, because we are still as Love created us.
After we’ll enjoy social time with tea and snacks.
The participation fee is $20 with advanced registration and $25 at the door. Direct registration link:
https://bit.ly/2Lcbtws
Through whirling, we learn to trust ourselves to go off balance, to be dizzy, to surrender control as we give ourselves over to prayer and connect with a greater power, the still center within, around which we turn, that we may share our divine strength and bear witness to the divinity in others.
If you are quiet and in a state of prayer when you Turn, offering everything of yourself to God, then when your body is spinning, there is a completely still point in the center… The heavens respond; and all the invisible kingdoms join in the dance. But the world does not understand. They think we Turn in order to go into some sort of trance. It is true that sometimes we do go into that state you call ecstasy, but that is only when we know and experience at the same time. We do not Turn for ourselves. We turn around in the way we do so that the Light of God may descend upon the earth. As you act as a conduit in the Turn, the light comes through the right hand, and the left hand brings it into this world… We turn for God and for the world, and it is the most beautiful thing you can imagine. — Mevlevi Shaikh Suleyman Hyatt Dede
Sufi Dance Instructor Lâle Sayoko lives to embody and transmit the voice of spirit through music and dance. As CRS resident Sufi Dance instructor, choreographer, performing artist, and musical curator, she loves to welcome people into this holy practice to explore and share their own divinity. After a long professional dance career, she retired to support her young daughter through a life-threatening medical crisis. Several years later she discovered that she could whirl as a form of prayer to support her daughter and began studying Sufi Dance with Paris-based Sufi Artist Rana Gorgani. In April 2018 Gorgani awarded her the International Sufi Dance Certification Of Cid UNESCO, granting her authority to teach Gorgani’s method of Sufi Dance training. She currently teaches Sufi Dance classes at CRS every first Thursday of the month from 7 – 8:30 pm and leads the CRS Healing Circles + Whirling Prayer that take place every third Thursday of the month from 7:15 – 9 pm.
https://www.facebook.com/lale.sayoko
Christopher Pelham is a spiritual healer/counselor/teacher/artist who draws on practices from ACIM, Non-Violent Communication, improvisational theater, Sufism, and contemporary shamanism to help people remember who they really are. He is the Director and co-founder of CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing). He has also taught and/or offered healing in London, in Japan, at the 2018 Awakening to the One Mind Retreat, and at the 2017 Enlight Festival of A Course in Miracles in Ibiza, Spain.
http://www.chrispelham.com

Persian Daf (Sufi drum) classes
2019-09-22 13:00 - 15:45
Dear friends, we are excited to have Kamyar Arsani‘s Persian daf lessons at CRS on a monthly or near monthly basis! This is a wonderful opportunity to learn to play a magical instrument from a master who learned from masters in Iran. Kamyar has been playing and singing for decades and recently for our Sufi Dance events at CRS when he is in town and taking us ever deeper into the heart.
Daf is a big frame drum with lots of rings inside that you can shake when you play for added effect. It is an integral part of Sufi and Persian music because of the variety of sounds it can produce and its ability to induce trance.
Let’s learn the basic techniques together so we can play for one another at our Sufi events including hopefully at our next public Sufi night on September 28!
1:00 – 2:15 pm Beginners Daf Class
2:30 – 3:45 pm Intermediate Daf Class
1 class $50
both classes $70
Bring your own Daf or frame drum, a pen & a 3–line or 5–line blank musical staff notebook (or paper, which you can find templates of online to print).
Some extra Dafs are available to rent ($5 cash) for the class, but you must RSVP because they are limited and you will want to get your own so you can practice!
While many different Dafs are available for purchase online, one such as this one —which has a synthetic head, is reasonably priced at $119, has good tone and construction, is not too heavy, and can be delivered in a few days by DHL — would be a great choice for learning on:
https://salamuzik.com/products/professional-daf-rad-404
About Instructor Kamyar Arsani
“Kamyar Arsani is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter born and raised in Tehran, Iran. With his focus on Daf (Persian frame drum), through years he expanded circle of his instruments to Drums, Percussions, Guitar, Ukulele and Melodica. He currently resides in Washington D.C, teaching and performing around DMV area and working with individuals with Autism.
Kamyar began Daf lessons with Master Bijan Kamkar. Kamyar has spent over a decade performing and researching the Daf and its roots. His second choice of instrument was the kamancheh (Persian string bow instrument) and he studied it with Masters Ardeshir Kamkar and Sohrab Pournazeri. Ten years ago, Kamyar and his family migrated to the United States around the same time that Iran’s Green Revolution was occurring. Kamyar’s songs and performances are very much inspired by the people of Iran and their history of struggle and protest.

At the time he started working as Autism classroom Teacher Assistant in Virginia and Washington DC public schools, and the science of Behaviorism and creating motivation for students with Autism became his passion. But he did not put music behind, Kamyar produced his first solo album in 2015, entitled “No Freedom.” It was written on Guitar and Ukulele. The album was dedicated to those oppressed by Iranian Government.
https://kamyararsani.bandcamp.com/releases
Aside from his solo work, Kamyar also plays in other collaborations and has performed series of concerts at Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Georgetown University, UMD, WVU and VOA.
Kamyar is also the poet and singer of “Time is Fire (TiF).” Their music has been described by Washington Post as “Music from a country that does not exist.”
https://youtu.be/2rn3u92MAR8 (Kennedy Center Performance)
Kamyar takes on a different character performing with Time is Fire, wearing his sikke (a Sufi hat representing the “tombstone of Ego”) and singing poems of resistance and freedom in English and Farsi. Within the four member band’s worldly, funky, post-punky, afro-infected music, the sikke and poems make perfect sense. Their sound has been evolving since the group first came together in 2015. Washington City Paper: “Time Is Fire could have limitless places to go.” Time is Fire recently released an EP that can be found here:
https://electriccowbellrecords.bandcamp.com/album/stories-untold
With the new wave of hatred portrayed among our nation, Kamyar could not sit quiet and wrote four songs inspired by Rumi and Hafez and Ferdowsi poems on his Daf,inviting people to believe in a new spring together. He collaborated with Benjamin Schurr of Blight Records and produced an electronic backed Daf album called “Voices in the Dark” , which can be found on Blight Records Bandcamp (Production of DC,2018)
https://music.blightrecords.org/album/voices-in-the-dark
For more information you can contact Kamyar at:
Kamyararsani31@gmail.com
Instagram: @kamyararsani
FB: Kamyar Arsani

Eckhart Tolle Now Video and Meditation Evening
2019-09-27 18:30 - 20:15
Our next meeting – Eckhart Tolle Video
We begin meet and greet at 6:35 pm.
• Meet and greet /Q &A***
• Meditation
• Video
• Closing
THERE IS NO ADMISSION AFTER 7 PM (by group consensus)
Coffee and conversation, for those who wish follows at: “Think Coffee “downstairs or a nearby diner.

Whirling (Sufi Dance) Practice with Live Music by Tomchess
2019-09-28 17:30 - 18:30
We invite you to join our Sufi Dance community for an hour of meditative whirling known as Samâ (spiritual listening), hosted by Sufi Dance Artist Lâle Sayoko with live music by Tomchess (ney, oud) of American Sufi Project. Together, we create a sacred space for you to free your mind, transcend your limits, and share your light. By receiving the divinely inspired vibration of the music and developing our control of the body while surrendering the mind’s worries, let’s share the ecstasy that arises with repeated whirling.
This is not a class (i.e. there is no instruction) but an open space where we can come together to practice and is open to people of all backgrounds who whirl and follow the path of oneness. You must already know the basics of how to whirl. If you have not already learned whirling from a Sufi teacher — for example, from our teachers Rana Gorgani, Lâle Sayoko, or Paola Garcia or from a Sufi lodge or community — please first attend one of our Sufi Dance classes with Lâle Sayoko, which takes places the first Thursday of each month from 7:30 – 9 pm at CRS, to learn the basics. Sayoko is also available for private instruction weekdays and weekends by appointment.
Please remember that whirling commonly induces dizziness or nausea. Avoid eating a large meal for two hours prior to class. Over time, through whirling, we learn to trust ourselves to go off balance, to be dizzy, to surrender control, allowing us to whirl for longer periods. You do not have to whirl for the entire hour, but you are encouraged to explore whether your perceived limits are immutable or only self-imposed.
Please wear comfortable clothing (white, gray or black color is preferable, avoiding prints and shiny material which might distract the eye while whirling) safe for dancing in (for women your tops should have straps or cover your shoulders and you should not wear short skirts) and wear socks or soft soled shoes. If you have a whirling skirt, please feel free to bring it.
$20 with advance registration, $25 at the door
About Sufi Dance Artist Lâle Sayoko
Lâle Sayoko lives to embody and transmit the voice of spirit through music and dance. As CRS resident Sufi Dance instructor, choreographer, performing artist, and musical curator, she loves to welcome people into this holy practice to explore and share their own divinity. After a long professional dance career, she retired to support her young daughter through a life-threatening medical crisis. Several years later she discovered that she could whirl as a form of prayer to support her daughter and began studying Sufi Dance with Paris-based Sufi Artist Rana Gorgani. In April 2018 Gorgani awarded her the International Sufi Dance Certification Of Cid UNESCO, granting her authority to teach Gorgani’s method of Sufi Dance training. She currently teaches Sufi Dance classes at CRS every first Thursday of the month from 7 – 8:30 pm and leads the CRS Healing Circles + Whirling Prayer that take place every third Thursday of the month from 7:15 – 9 pm.
Lâle was one of the founding members of Japan’s famous Samanyolu professional bellydance group and since developed her own solo career touring with UK’s Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers on a 44 city tour of the UK, to Turkey’s Baba Zula, and around the world many times with New York’s Bella Gaia multimedia Earth from Space concert.
https://www.facebook.com/lale.sayoko
About Musician Tomchess
Tomchess (oud, ney, morsing) is a New York City–based multi-instrumentalist, improviser, and composer who has played and recorded with some of the most esteemed players in the improvisational scene (Dewey Redman, Butch Morris, Pharoah Sanders, Drew Gress, Ronald Shannon Jackson) as well as Moroccan sintarist Hassan Hakmoun. He has performed around the world and at New York City venues like Lincoln Center, the Turkish and Pakistani embassies, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the United Nations He has played on Grammy-nominated recordings and was awarded grants from the Turkish American Society and the Maryland Council for the Arts. In 2012 he was nominated for an Independent Music Award.
https://tomchess.bandcamp.com/

Crossing Boundaries Vol. 9: Musicians Tomchess & Dan Kurfirst & CRS Sufi Dance Community Showcase
2019-09-28 19:00 - 21:00
We invite you into our sacred circle to commune with the divine through the ecstatic music, dance, and poetry of Sufism with musicians Tomchess (ney, oud) and Dan Kurfirst (daf) of the American Sufi Project and our Sufi Dance student community. This concert, curated and directed by Sufi Dance Artist Lâle Sayoko, is CROSSING BOUNDARIES Concert Series Vol. 9, and will take place on September 28, 2019 at 7 pm at CRS. Light refreshments will be served following the performance.
O Lover of God, when you start whirling you leave the two worlds.
This world of whirling is out of the two worlds.
— Rumi
Tickets are $25 in advance $30 at the door. Students and seniors can purchase tickets for $20. Tickets are available online at crsny.org, by phone (212-677-8621), and at CRS.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The music draws from the Mevlevi Whirling Dervish music of Anatolia and Istanbul, which in turn was influenced by Byzantine and Near Eastern musics in general. The Mevlevi Whirling Dervishes originated with Jalaludin Rumi, and the original two instruments played were Daf and Ney. It’s an ecstatic music characterized by deep rhythms, soulful melodies and soaring solos designed to function as a support for whirling, a vehicle to bring one closer to experiencing the divine which surrounds us at every moment, yet is not recognized or experienced because of mundane focus and distraction.
The whirling dance meditation of the Sufis is known as Sema or Sama and actually means “divine listening.” It is the mystical approach of practicing “listening” in order to achieve remembrance (Dhikr) of the divine spark in our heart of hearts. We empty our minds of all thoughts of the individual self as we give ourselves over to prayer and connect with a greater power, the still center within, around which we turn. Into this emptiness floods a divine fullness, which sometimes gives rise to a state known as “mystical intoxication,” a reflection of knowing and experiencing that you and I and the Divine are One. Together we can take courage and inspiration from one another and strengthen our practice.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Tomchess (oud, ney, morsing) is a New York City–based multi-instrumentalist, improviser, and composer who has played and recorded with some of the most esteemed players in the improvisational scene (Dewey Redman, Butch Morris, Pharoah Sanders, Drew Gress, Ronald Shannon Jackson) as well as Moroccan sintarist Hassan Hakmoun. He has performed around the world and at New York City venues like Lincoln Center, the Turkish and Pakistani embassies, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the United Nations He has played on Grammy-nominated recordings and was awarded grants from the Turkish American Society and the Maryland Council for the Arts. In 2012 he was nominated for an Independent Music Award.
https://tomchess.bandcamp.com/
Dan Kurfirst is an NYC based percussionist, composer and improviser. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, his music is a product of his good fortune to have been brought up amongst people of all different cultures and master practitioners of varying musical styles. He has formally studied the Drumset with Nasheet Waits, Tariq Snare and Gregg Bendian. He has studied percussion under the tutelage of Shane Shanahan and Hakan Kaya. He has performed extensively in the New York City world music and improvised music scenes for years and has performed with various groups throughout Europe, India and the Middle East. Over the years Dan has been blessed to work alongside a who’s who of global, creative, improvising musicians, including Matt Darriau, Tomchess, Hamid Drake, Adam Rudolph, Oruc Guvenc, Daniel Carter, Cheick Hamala Diabate, Brad Shepik, Gabriel Marin, William Parker, Daro Behroozi, Brandon Terzic, Kane Mathis and Ras Moshe – to name just a few. Dan leads Spheric Sound Unit, a group dedicated to exploring cultural syncretism through music. He also co-leads Ensemble Fanaa, a trio which explores the intersection between African American, North African and Middle Eastern musical traditions. He recently worked as Musical Director for the Childrens Museum of Manhattan’s America To Zanzibar exhibit, helping to develop a touchscreen application for the Children to explore music of the Islamic world from India to Egypt to Indonesia.
http://dankurfirstmusic.com
Curator and Sufi Dance Artist Lâle Sayoko lives to embody and transmit the voice of spirit through music and dance. As CRS resident Sufi Dance instructor, choreographer, performing artist, and musical curator, she loves to welcome people into this holy practice to explore and share their own divinity. After a long professional dance career, she retired to support her young daughter through a life-threatening medical crisis. Several years later she discovered that she could whirl as a form of prayer to support her daughter and began studying Sufi Dance with Paris-based Sufi Artist Rana Gorgani. In April 2018 Gorgani awarded her the International Sufi Dance Certification Of Cid UNESCO, granting her authority to teach Gorgani’s method of Sufi Dance training. She currently teaches Sufi Dance classes at CRS every first Thursday of the month from 7 – 8:30 pm and, with CRS co-founder Christopher Pelham, leads the CRS Healing Circles + Whirling Prayer that take place every third Thursday of the month from 7:15 – 9 pm.
https://www.facebook.com/lale.sayoko
ABOUT CROSSING BOUNDARIES
Now in its second year, CROSSING BOUNDARIES is a performance series devoted to creating unforgettable live art experiences that dissolve boundaries between performers and audiences, traditional and new music, and the local and the global, bringing people together and promoting the awareness that we each possess a limitless creativity inside us.
CRS has from its inception in 2004 attracted many people from abroad, and has become known for presenting healing, arts, and cultural programs from around the world and from Asia in particular. This season, which is supported by a grant from the LMCC, is curated by three outstanding artists of Asian descent: gamin, Jen Shyu, and JunYi Chow. There is a long tradition of interdisciplinarity in Asian arts, where ritual practices have always involved elements of dance, theatre, improvised music, and storytelling, and this season will build on that tradition.
Learn about the 2019 Season Curators
View the 2019 Season Announcement
The 2019 season of CROSSING BOUNDARIES is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by LMCC. LMCC empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support, to create vibrant, sustainable communities in Manhattan and beyond.

Veil Magic - release your thoughts, free your heart and body!
2019-09-29 17:00 - 18:30
Imagine you have big wings on your back and fly freely with them!
In the class, you will have a veil which is silky 3 yard fabric as your wings and dance with it.
Freedom comes from your heart.
When you free your heart, you start feeling and accepting yourself as you are.
Then you start feeling like moving your body as your heart feels.
Such a precious moment.
Dancing with a veil helps to release your thoughts to free your heart and body and to express yourself as you feel.
No experience necessary.
Everyone is welcome.
10/20 (Sun) 17:00-18:30 $40
11/24 (Sun) 11:30-13:45 $60
11:30-13:00 Veil Magic
13:05-13:45 Crystal Bowl Sound Bath by Naoe Moriya + Mini Performance by Naoe and Nahoko
or Crystal Bowl Sound Bath by Naoe Moriya + Mini Performance only (without the preceding veil class) $25
※ veil rental available
※ wear anything comfortable to move
Registration/inquiry: nahokodance@gmail.com

Sufi Dance Class with Paola Garcia
2019-10-03 19:00 - 20:30
Learn the ancient practice of meditative whirling known as Sufi dance or Sema (Sama in Iranian). You will learn the techniques of whirling, but Sema is not about reproducing a certain form or aesthetic. Rather, the technique serves as a vehicle for inner journeying. Sema means spiritual listening. Together we’ll create a sacred space in which we can safely listen to and share our true selves and experience oneness with the Divine.
Each class consists of some explanation of the theory and technique, exercises, practice whirling, and sharing and discussion of what you experienced and felt.
Please wear comfortable clothing like yoga pants or leggings and T shirts ( no tube top or short pants) and solid colors are recommended, avoiding prints and shiny material which might distract the eye while whirling, and wear socks or soft soled shoes. If you have a whirling skirt, please feel free to bring it.
Avoid eating a large meal for two hours prior to class.
Whirling commonly induces dizziness or nausea. Over time, through whirling, we learn to trust ourselves to go off balance, to be dizzy, to surrender control. We empty our minds of all thoughts of the individual self as we give ourselves over to prayer and connect with a greater power, the still center within, around which we turn. Into this emptiness floods a divine fullness, which sometimes gives rise to a state known as “mystical intoxication,” a reflection of knowing and experiencing that you and I and the Divine are One.
Classes are $25 ($20 with advanced registration).
About Sufi Dance Instructor Paola García
Sufi Dance artist Rana Gorgani awarded Paola the International Sufi Dance Certification Of Cid UNESCO, granting her authority to teach Gorgani’s method of Sufi dance training. Paola holds a Master’s Degree in Islamic Studies from Columbia University. She is a writer, Middle Eastern Studies researcher, translator and student of Sufism.

Exhibition: Electricity — Works by Fanny Pérez Gutiérrez
2019-10-04
CRS presents an exhibition of recent works by artist and dancer Fanny Pérez Gutiérrez inspired by her personal,experiences and visions that have come to her revealing the light connecting all of creation.
The exhibition will be on view from October 4 – November 25, 2019. An opening reception with live performance by the artist will take place on Saturday, October 12, 2019 from 6:30 – 8 pm.
CONCEPT
“The day when we shall know exactly what “electricity” is, will chronicle an event probably greater, more important than any other recorded in the history of the human race.” — N. Tesla
On my 25th birthday I attended a ceremony where I was taught a lesson about love. I was shown a line of women: a mom and her daughter, then my grandmother, then my mom, I could feel something building up inside me, and then the dog that lived with us since I was 15 appeared. Her eyes like a well staring back at me, a love so giving that expected nothing in return, pure. I exploded. Out of me came thousands, millions of rays of light until I saw myself as a star, sitting in space. I understood that that’s where I am and always will be, and that from there, I could go wherever, whenever because every single point in space and time is connected, by the light.
In mysticism, as in modern physics, light is a recurrent theme, but it wasn’t until I had a direct experience that I began noticing. What you see in this series are depictions of my learning. Each one is a tribute to honor the knowledge that has manifested.
— Fanny
ARTIST STATEMENT
One of the definitions of art is that it is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination. I like it because it puts so much of what I think art is simply into one sentence. Art is so much more that whatever we put on an empty canvas and it’s important to recognize its multidimensionality. By doing so, not only do we highlight the existence of art outside of what/where we normally consider it to be, but we are reminded of the transient nature of the state of things.
It’s difficult to name one’s identity with a single noun, or by what one does at a specific moment; exclusion by naming is dire. I consider art to be part of our humanity, one that develops best when in harmony with our environment. It is our birthright to have room to express ourselves, and with that, push forward new ideas that change the shape of things. I become an artist to bring what I experience in other planes to this plane.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Fanny Pérez Gutiérrez was born in Mexico City in December 1989 to Fanny and Beto. She grew up dancing and arrived in NYC at 18. After school, she became involved in the non-profit art world, then for a couple of years taught art and dance to kids. For the last year has been dedicated to aligning herself with her passions, which are dancing & impulsing the demystification of important aspects of life that we’ve been conditioned to undermine.

Carry the Flame Concert with Kristin Hoffmann
2019-10-05 19:30 - 21:00
CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) presents CARRY THE FLAME CONCERT on Saturday, October 5, 2019 from 7:30 – 9 pm. Dive into a deep ethereal musical journey of life, growth and spirit with renowned vocalist, pianist, and song-weaver Kristin Hoffmann, acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Premik Russell Tubbs, and special guests.
Tickets are $20 and are available by phone (212-677-8621), at CRS, and online. There will be a complimentary wine, juice and snacks reception immediately following the concert.
We each carry a unique flame through this life…and together we light a larger co-creative fire of existence! However, it is easy to get lost in the complexities of daily life and forget the importance of feeding, dreaming and nurturing your flame.
CARRY THE FLAME CONCERT will help to “re-spark your light!” Feel your visions begin to soar once again, re-fueling both personal and collective flames! It is Kristin’s Birthday Concert, and she would love nothing more than to see each and every person remember their light!
Kristin is the current bearer of The Torch of Peace that was run around the Earth in 1986 in The First Earth Run, touching the hands and lives of millions of people! The Torch of Peace will be at the concert and is a true talisman of Light, Love and Peace on this planet. If desired, you are invited to spend a moment with the Torch of Peace following the music, and feel into how your personal flame connects to the planetary fire. It is a powerful feeling indeed to hold this deeply symbolic and legendary torch!
Hoffmann’s music has been heard on major record labels, film and television. A strong advocate for peace and ocean conservation, she has appeared internationally at environmental concerts and conventions, TEDx San Francisco, The Emoto Peace Project concert in Tokyo, and with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. In August, 2016, the symphonic version of her “Song for the Ocean” was performed at Sydney Opera House by a choir of 800 Australian children. In 2011 she became the singer for Bella Gaia, a multimedia theater experience created in conjunction with NASA.
Hoffmann’s music is “art-rock with elegant, baroque-tinged melodies, precisely nuanced piano, hypnotic rhythms and out-of-this-world gorgeous, dynamic vocals,” — New York Music Daily
ABOUT PREMIK RUSSELL TUBBS
Premik, a composer, arranger, producer and an accomplished multi-instrumentalist performs on various flutes, soprano, alto and tenor saxophones, wind synthesizers, and lap steel guitar.
Premik has worked with everyone from Carlos Santana, Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Ravi Shankar, Narada Michael Walden, Clarence Clemons, Ornette Coleman, Jackson Browne, Jean-Luc Ponty, Lonnie Liston-Smith, Scarlet Riveria, James Taylor, Sting and Lady Gaga just to name a few. He is equally adept in pop, R&B, jazz, world and experimental genres. premik.com
MORE ABOUT KRISTIN HOFFMANN
“My goal is to spread love, light, peace and truth into the world through the vehicles of music and energetic frequency.” – Kristin

Starting at the age of 4, ethereal renaissance songstress, and Juilliard trained multi-instrumentalist, Kristin Hoffmann began building a prolific career in music. She studied opera with acclaimed teachers Lorraine Nubar and Zehava Gal and composition with Rob Mathes and Behzad Ranjbaran. With a particular interest in French art songs, Kristin spent a summer honing the craft at Académie Internationale d’été de Nice. In addition to stints at major record labels, Capitol and Interscope Records, and song placements on hit TV shows like Dawson’s Creek and Palmetto Pointe, she has shared stages with The Wallflowers, Feist, Brandi Carlile, Richie Havens and many other musical luminaries. With a strong sense of artistic altruism, she is most passionate about projects that explore music’s healing power and allow listeners to tap into their higher potentials.
Having studied with French Sound Healing pioneer Fabian Maman, Hoffmann not only made music to accompany acupuncture sessions but also composed 170 songs for health-challenged children as a writer/producer at non-profit organization Songs of Love. A spokesperson for ocean conservation, she has performed her Song for the Ocean at environmental awareness conventions and concerts around the world, including TEDxSF, Bioneers, Hermanus Whale Festival (South Africa) and with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. Song for the Ocean will next be performed at The Sydney Opera House in August 2016. In 2011 she became the singer for Bella Gaia, a multimedia immersive theater experience created in conjunction with NASA. Over the past 2 years she has continued to expand her worldly voice, guest blogging for many well-respected magazines, from Elephant Journal to The Ecologist, and performing at The Conscious Life Expo (LA), the signing of The Fuji Declaration (Mt. Fuji) and The Emoto Peace Project concert in Tokyo. In 2014, Kristin was invited to become the youngest member on the board of FIONS (Friends of Institute of Noetic Sciences). In early 2016, she was voted onto the board of Gandhi Global Center for Peace and was also a new inductee into the acclaimed group Evolutionary Leaders. Her most recent work includes a self-produced album entitled The Human Compass, a symphonic collaboration with composer Marco Missinato called Unfolding Secrets: A Symphony of the Heart, and the brand new release of the meditational film, “Amazing Space,” for which Kristin composed and produced the soundtrack. In October 2015, Kristin began a new monthly musical blog with Gandhi’s BE Magazine, called “BE~Cause: Music with a Message,” and has been creating a new song every month focused around important worldly issues and themes. kristinhoffmann.com

Find & Feel Your Acupoints
2019-10-06 13:00 - 14:30
Ms. Mayumi Yanamoto from Tokyo (Director of Mejioro Acupucnture Clinic http://mejiroacu.com/en/info.html ) will share knowledge and technique of finding and feeling acupoints to maintain and enhance beauty and health.
It is a rare opportunity to learn from Ms. Yanamoto, so please join us!
Seats are limited. ( Lectured in Japanese and English as needed)

YOU WILL….

*Learn how to sharpen your sense of fingertips

* Feel changes in your body changes with acupoints

*Learn acupoints on the neck

*Learn acupoints for neck distortion

*Learn acupoints for eye strain

* Learn how to find the famous acupoints as gynecological all-purpose acupuncture points.

* Learn to use face and head acupuncture points to relax your eyes and head and relax your face.

NOTE

* As the acupoints below the knee are used, please wear clothes that allow the knee and the instep and toes to come out smoothly.

* Please bring a mirror as you will perform treatment while looking at the mirror.

* As you use your feet, face and head, please bring a wet tissue if you like.

About Mayumi Yanamoto
Born in Hiroshima Prefecture
Doshisha University graduation
Tokyo hygiene school graduation Acupuncture Anma massage acupressure national qualification
Perform acupuncture massage Shiatsu business in Tokyo Denenchofu
MLAJ medical manipulative lymph drainage therapist (senior)
Training in Hokkaido Toho acupuncture, learn Masako Yoshikawa teacher of Yin and Yang acupuncture
Served as lymph drainage lecturer, also performs lymphedema clinical
Tokyo hygiene Gakuen clinical Graduate School of part-time lecturer
NSD All Japan Taijiquan Federation ten style tai chi instructor

Introductory Noh workshop for beginners
2019-10-06 13:30 - 15:00
Experience a moment of stillness from your busy life in NYC, and let the energy flow with Noh dance Shimai, which is called “a moving Zen meditation”. Center your body and expand your imagination with Noh chanting Utai, which requires deep breath.
Noh is a Japanese traditional form of art consisting of music, dance, and drama originated in the 14thcentury. It’s commonly considered that Noh is a performance to see in modern days, but Noh was a performance “to perform” in old days. In medieval in Japan Noh was practiced for a physical training as well as mindfulness for being aware of the moment to survive and live out in a turbulent period.
In this workshop you will experience a short segment of Noh chanting Utaiand Noh dance Shimaiafter a lecture on the history and the time and space of Noh.
Date: October 6th 1:30PM~3:00PM (In English)
Location: CRS ＠White room
Attend fee: Free
What you need: Socks or Tabi Socks (Japanese traditional socks)
For more info: gekyouman@gmail.com
Instructor: Mayo Miwa
Started Noh at the age of 14. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, majored in Noh theater. Trained at Kanze School of Noh under the tutelage of their leading actor in Tokyo. Since moving to NY in 2004, collaborating with artists from different media to develop the art of Noh in contemporary forms. Now a member of the Noh Society US, facilitating educational programs for Japanese traditional performing arts by actors from Japan.
