Dance your Big Heart Out

June 10, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Michelle Janzen

For the past eight years, Big Heart Dance Camp has been celebrating something magical in the Pine River Valley, and this year is no exception.

This year’s event is taking place from June 21 – June 26.

This multi-faceted, inter-generational get-together was founded by Ayrlie MacEachern, and was modeled after Dance New England, which MacEachern first travelled to in her late 20s.

MacEachern was stuck by the openness and creativity she saw at the 30-year-old institution, which draws hundreds every summer.

Big Heart Dance Camp takes place on the Unicamp property located in Mulmur Township, and boasts 50 beautiful, peaceful acres of meadows, coniferous and deciduous forests, marshes, streams, caves and two beaches on a 2.5-acre spring-fed pond that is always safe for swimming.

This is a magical place to relax, explore, meet new people and reconnect with self, community and nature.

Guests can come for one day or all five, with an incredible line up of facilitators, showcasing a wide array of dance, yoga, music and other healing arts, shared through play shops and evening events. You will find all manners of body movement are available each day.

“The vibe is about everyone creating their own unique experiences,” MacEachern explains. “You might get into a good conversation at breakfast, and still be sitting at the table come lunch time.”

With breakfast and lunch for the entire five days being catered by a vegetarian chef and friend of MacEachern’s, the food is an attraction itself.

See yourself … dancing on the grass

Hear yourself … singing around the campfire

Feel yourself … sharing a meal of nourishing food and rich conversation

Delight yourself… watching children dance, while you sit and chat with an elder

Express yourself … finding new and juicy ways to move, create, play and be

Give yourself… the gift of living in creative, conscious community

Be Yourself… at Big Heart Dance Camp!

“I am looking forward to another special celebration of creative conscious community!” MacEachern tells us.

If you have never been to Big Heart, their Facebook page has some great photos from previous camps to help you get a sense of the vibe they co-create. Take a look at www.facebook.com/BigHeartDanceCamp.

For more information about Big Heart Dance Camp, visit www.arlie.ca, email bigheartdancecamp@gmail.com or call 705-444-0550.