We start with an Opening Ceremony on Tuesday at around 12 pm. This is a chance to come together and be reminded of the pleasures to come in the week and the ways we can all make life sweeter for each other.
We finish with a Closing Ceremony around 12pm on Sunday. Wear your white clothes, bring your open hearts and tired limbs and come together for one last time before you travel home. We create the space and something luscious always happens, though we don’t know always know what it will be until it does!
Many workshops present music, rhythm and movement that have their origins in ceremony and ritual rather than performance.
The Summer School provides a unique opportunity to learn, fuse roots and cross boundaries. To respect the forces, both hidden and seen, that enable us to bring this event to you, we also hold some Ceremonies of our own at the start and end of the Doris event.
This year, under our new Shamanic Wing, we welcome Itzcoatl Papalotzin, known as Agustin, a Mexican shaman following the Toltec Path of the Heart. He will be leading rituals, running workshops, teaching early morning Intensi, the ‘magical passes’ inspired by his work with Carlos Casteneda, and giving Aura readings in the Body and Soul Area.
There will be Sufi Whirling workshops with Sheikh Ahmad Dede and his dervishes, accompanied, as ever, by sublime and uplifting live music.
We are having a return visit from Moroccan Gnawa musicians Jil Gnawa who will be leading a ‘Lila’, a healing trance ceremony, as well as connecting with the shared roots of Brazilian Candomble and Cuban Santeria and creating new musical collaborations on the field.
In 2007 we had Yoruba ritual with Ayo Dusan, taking as our theme the bicentenary of the Abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. We wove together strands from these rituals with music, songs and dance from Ghana, Brazil and Cuba. We also had UK artist Shirley Jones offering us the chance to create clay figures and offerings within this theme.
In previous years we have had ritual dancer Parmin Ras from Java sharing shamanic practices learnt from his grandfather, Red Earth Australian aborigines sharing their sacred dances, First Nation traditions with Cherokee singer Rose Moore, Aztec Indians and traditional sand mandalas with Tibetan Buddhist monk Jamyang Ketyup.
At Doris we try to offer the opportunity to learn from the source and to connect directly with ancient and modern traditions from worldwide.
To respect the forces, hidden and seen, that enable us to bring this event to you, we also hold some Ceremonies of our own at the start and end of the Doris event. We never know exactly what the Ceremonies will entail but each year the ingredients are revealed just before the event and mixed into a surprise for all.
