Workshops are coming back! (Patreon)

Hello, my strange and wonderful patrons – Something slightly different (and completely un-Barbette-related) (gasp!) than you usually get from me here today:

The TL;DNR (too long; did not read): 

• I'm starting up my monthly flexibility workshops! If you're interested in jumping in on any upcoming flexibility or art mentorship workshops, consider adding your e-mail to my little list: this is where I send out the links when I open up sign-ups
  
• Discount code for upcoming/returning workshops is at the bottom of this post! 

And here's the longer version:
One of the goals I quietly made for myself well after New Years came and went was to commit to consistently running the flexibility workshops I made a couple years ago: I loved making them, I loved running them, and people seemed to love taking them! 

But when I landed Motherland: Fort Salem a couple years ago, I didn't feel like I had the mental space to continue organizing and running online teaching stuff AND not completely faceplant on my first real big acting job. I quietly closed them down.   

Now that show is done, and my life and work has new rhythms to it: the Barbette project is finally shifting into a stage of creation that is less physically all-consuming, allowing for small slivers of my mental focus and energy to be turned to other things here and there. It feels like the right time to push myself to come back to these workshops I worked hard to make, and enjoyed sharing.

I'm starting it all off with my middle splits workshop! I've picked two days this month to tip my toes back into workshop waters: 

• Friday February 17th at 7pm EST
  (that's 4pm for West-coasters, or NZ/AUS humans [if that's you, then it works out to be 12pm/11am Saturday for you!]); and 
• Saturday February 18th at 12pm
  (to give any folks in Europe a crack at things, too)

About the workshop:

• Space is limited! I only accept 6 students per workshop.It lets me focus on each student and adjust to whatever level each person is at (if you are reading this and REALLY WANT A SPOT before I send things out to my mailing list, send me a message and we'll figure something out 😉 patrons first, always!)
• Open to all levels: something to learn for everyone in here!
• it's a 90-minute workshop that's divided into two sections: 30-45 minutes of classroom theory and discussion, and 45-60 minutes of physical movement where we get into drills and stretches to put what we just learned into practice
• the curriculum for this workshop was reviewed and approved by everyone's favourite flexibility and injury-prevention genius, Dr Jen Crane, AKA @cirque_physio – folks in her MyFlex program will recognize some of the physical drills we look at, along with what I've learned from my years studying Mongolian contortion and working as a professional contortionist
• NEW! [and exciting!]: 10% of all student fees from these workshops is going into a new financial subsidy for folks who need assistance accessing the sliding-scale top surgery virtual consults that Jen does with the trans community – I'll be writing more about this in the email going out to the workshop mailing list :) 

If this sounds up your alley, make sure that you add your email here on my lil' list so that you're included in the coaching & workshop-specific emails I send out (that's how you'll sign up and grab a spot).

As my patrons, I also wanted to give you all a cheeky little discount code to use if any of your ears perked up while reading the above: please use PATREON10 for a 10% discount when you're signing up for any workshops!

((( It used to be called the "Middle Splits Magic" workshop, but it's been about a year and a half since I first ran it and I discovered yesterday that a rather prominent online flexibility coach uses 'Middle Splits Magic' for one of her courses now SOOOO I've changed it to "Maximum Wingspan" because I'm a nerd who feels like a jumbo jet or an albatross when I have a good middle split day 😆 )))

I'll be starting to announce these on social media next week, and will be sending out a sign-up email to my workshop mailing list (that's the one you can add yours to in the highlighted text above) on Friday February 10th at 12pm EST. 

If you can't make this one, don't worry! I'll be offering the middle splits workshop, AND my upper back flexibility workshop next month, in March. 

Artistic mentorship ones to help with communicating your vision to collaborators or for grants and residencies will be flying out into the ether soon, too.

Stay strange & wonderful – your next costume update is coming in a few days!

Ess