Join in a process-based workshop in which participants (‘of the people’) will co-create a simple non-religious spiritual practice using mindfulness, symbolism, and movement (‘of the body’). The resultant form offers participants a personal and/or communal practice in which to engage for personal or group ‘prayer’/mindful offerings pertinent to our current life situations. This workshop draws from practices in yoga, qigong, and native spirituality (with permission).

Somatic Liturgy

March 2023

A common effect of pandemic stress and isolation is a fragmentation of relationships with others and within ourselves. Through breathwork, movement and partnering, participants in this 2-hour workshop will discover new practical skills to ‘re-member’ self, and nurture relationships. 
Janet will lead the group through a warm-up to assist with relating to one’s presence via breath, and relationship to gravity and space. This is followed by vocal sounding in various planes of movement to assist with developing resonance. These are then applied to your personal exploration of sensing your own cellular presence and resonance through self touch and sounding, and then in dyads with clear safe protocols in touch. We will end the session in a group unifying movement.

Cellular Presence, Cellular Resonance: a pathway to post-COVID peace

June 2023

While developmental movement may be thought to relate only to infants within the first year of life, it extends well beyond that. Adult movement is the product, not only of our current physical training, sports, and work habits, but also the culmination of early experiences within the womb, through birth, relationships withing our family of origin, and environments in which we find ourselves. Movement is our primary language as expressed through our bodies, and is critical in establishing neural/brain connections. 
Co-produced by Janet Kwantes, the Moving Child film is a beautiful sensitive exploration of the critical role of movement in physical, emotional, mental and social health of the child…who later becomes an adult. Leading experts in Dance/Movement Therapy, Body-Mind Centering ®, Attachment Psychology, NeuroPhysiology, and more demonstrate how movement awareness supports healthy development. Along with the film screening, Janet will discuss her interest in infant developmental movement, how it informs her perception of movement in adults at a deep level, and how she integrates this on a daily educational basis.	For movers of any age: come curious and with questions regarding your own movement story.

the Moving Child film: supporting early development through movement

5:45-6:45 am Wednesdays Sept-December 2023

Stillness in movement; movement in stillness. This series explores the very beginnings of our being-ness: from conception….to morula…to the trilaminar embryoblast (you, me). Inherent in our development in utero is a lot of dynamic movement, yet often sensed as quietude. Janet will guide you through various yoga sequences, assisting you in perceiving your inner rhythms of movement within the stillness of an asana, and maintain your inner calm while in movement. 

Sunrise Somatic Yoga

Join Janet in a celebration of the Winter Soul-Stance….to ‘stand still’…to observe the heavenly bodies of the quarter moon and Ursid meteors…and to pause…and remember the Light of the World. Janet will lead you through both stillness and gentle movement to reflect on the past year and to consider the future.
Please meet in the parking lot and then we will walk to the lookout (10 minute walk). No fee, just glee.

Solstice Celebration at Sandy Cross Conservation

6-7 am Tuesdays September-December 2023

Pull up a chair and cook up some flexibility and strength in your kitchen. Janet will guide you into building your body awareness through breath, imagery, and movement. This online class is an introduction in using your kitchen chair as a support and a challenge in developing your strength and flexibility. Janet will teach this from a somatic basis, drawing upon Body-Mind Centering® and Laban Movement Analysis. Start your day ‘right’ with a breakfast of breath and movement!

Mess Hall Movement 

7-8:15 pm Tuesdays September-December 2023

Stillness in movement; movement in stillness. This series explores the very beginnings of our being-ness: from conception….to morula…to the trilaminar embryoblast (you, me). Inherent in our development in utero is a lot of dynamic movement, yet often sensed as quietude. Janet will guide you through various yoga sequences, assisting you in perceiving your inner rhythms of movement within the stillness of an asana, and maintain your inner calm while in movement. 

Sunset Somatic Yoga

6-7 am Tuesdays January-March 2024

Is your Pilates chair collecting dust…or becoming a clothes-horse? Join Janet for an early morning Wunda Chair class and re-discover the versatility of Joseph’s equipment gem. Janet will safely lead and challenge you to explore the creative edges of your movement potential. This online class is open to anyone who has a Wunda chair in their personal ‘gym’. 

[Additional (and optional) props: 2 weighted balls, rotating disk, foam ‘marshmallow’, Pilates ring]

Wonderful Wunda Chair

10-11 am Wednesdays January-March 2024

A good home has a solid foundation, as well as sound structural support. The same is true of our movement:  our bony skeletons and the relationships therein provide foundational support and clarity in our movement. Janet will lead you in discovering your lower body foundation and the relationships from your toes -> pelvis -> head so that you can find ease and grace in your movement. Through images, self-touch, key BMC® principles, and movement, Janet will guide you in life-affirming sequences. This 8 week online session requires a solid kitchen chair and a light-medium strength theraband.

Structural Support in Movement

7-8:15 pm Tuesdays January-March 2024
5:45-6:45 am Wednesdays January-March 2024

Stillness and movement are mutually constitutive. How? In this online 8-week session, we ‘re-member’ our 3 embryological central axes (and a possible fourth!) and how the embodiment of these axes supports both our easeful transitions in vinyasa flows as well as assists in centering and ‘grounding’ us in stillness. This session is open to anyone interested in a somatic approach to yoga. No previous experience necessary; a beginner’s mind is essential!

[Helpful props: yoga mat, 2 weighted balls, rolled up towel, yoga strap, 2 yoga blocks.]

Sunset & Sunrise Somatic Yoga

As avid hikers, we are keen to Reach the destination. While this is admirable, if we don’t support ourselves on a whole body level, we can become overly fatigued, less able to absorb the goodness of our physical exertion and the beauty around us. Join Janet as she offers a somatic approach to hiking Nihahi Ridge. Yielding to gravity and sensing the support of the earth is fundamental to relaxing your way into a hike.  It is out of yielding that we can find an easeful Push with each step on the trail; soon you will Reach the ridge comfortably. This hike is one of a series of Exertion-Recuperation themes that Janet will offer in the Kananaskis-Blue Rock-Sheep River regions.

Meet at Water’s Edge Café in Priddis		9 am

Donations welcome (all proceeds go to Bragg Creek Wild)

Reaching Nihahi Ridge: a Somatic Hike

6-9 pm

Join Janet in slooww ing do w w n  to nurture your soul while the sun appears to ‘stand still’. This solstice is extra special as we will be under the light of the Full Strawberry moon! Traditionally the Strawberry moon is the time of ripening berries, and of birthing of animal babies. In keeping with the focus of the Strawberry moon we will be indulging in our senses: finding pleasure in the warm sun, the cool breeze, the smell of wildflowers, the song of birds and chicks. This will also be a time of focusing our energy toward ripening our intentions…and a 3-5 km walk.

Meet in Sandy Cross Conservation parking lot at 5:45 pm

Donations welcome (all proceeds go to Bragg Creek Wild)

Summer Solstice/Soul-Stance at Sandy Cross Conservation

6-7 am Tuesday   9 April - 25 June 2024

Join Janet for an early morning Wunda Chair class and indulge in Joseph’s genius use of his invention. Janet will safely lead and challenge you to explore the creative edges of your movement potential. This 12 week online class is open to anyone who has a Wunda chair in their personal ‘gym’.

Wily Joe’s Wunda Chair

Sunset 7-8:15 pm Tuesday     9 April-25 June 2024

Sunrise 5:45-6:45 am Wednesday 10 April-26 June 2024

Fluid-Bones
In this 12-week online session we will be exploring 3 themes: (a) asanas (literally, ‘comfortable seat’) through the clarity of our skeletal alignment, (b) supporting our poses thru invertebrate (fluid) patterns, and (c) listening to our body-mind. In nurturing these three aspects, we emerge more wholly ourselves. This session is open to anyone interested in a somatic approach to yoga. Staying in the ‘unknown’ allows the ‘known’ to grow profoundly.
     
[Helpful props: yoga mat, 2 weighted balls, rolled up towel, yoga strap, 2 yoga blocks.]    

Somatic Yoga (2 options)

6-7 am Thursday, 11 April - 27 June 2024

Enduring architecture has solid foundations, as well as sound structural support. The same is true of our movement:  our bony skeletons and the relationships therein provide foundational support and clarity in our movement. In this 12-week online session, Janet will lead you in discovering your lower body foundation and the relationships from your toes  pelvis  head so that you can find ease and grace in your movement. Through images, self-touch, key BMC® principles, and movement, Janet will guide you into easeful strength and fluid transitions.

[Helpful props:  mat, theraband, 2 weighted balls/weights, rolled up towel, 2 yoga blocks.]    

Mat: Moving in Relationship

Join Janet in the Bluerock Wildland for a moderate 6 km hike (300 m elevation gain). In keeping with this month’s blog post of fascia, flies…we likely will experience both…and more wildlife. Janet will guide you in finding support thru your specialized connective tissue of ligaments and joint capsules as we explore waterfalls, streams and glorious views. We will look for wildlife of all sizes, including our pollinator friends. Bring water as part of the trail is exposed (thus offering spacious views).

Meet at Water’s Edge Café in Priddis		9 am

Donations welcome (all proceeds go to Bragg Creek Wild)

Hoffman Humps

Things are not always as they seem: a volcano in Alberta? Well, no, but repeated freeze-thaw cycles create the illusion that this might have been one! Join Janet on this moderate 13 km (510 m elevation gain) loop where we will have fabulous vistas and a few stories about Mr Ware, a cowboy like none other! We can share our own tales of illusional (or delusional?) events that were not exactly as they appeared. As always, Janet will ensure a balanced exertion-recuperation cycle in our hiking.

Meet at Water’s Edge Café in Priddis		8 am	(please note time!)

Donations welcome (all proceeds go to Bragg Creek Wild)

South Volcano Ridge Loop

Are you seeking purity, truth, and enlightenment? These qualities are symbolized in the white Buddha. While the photo is from a retreat center in Brazil, we will be hiking just outside Bragg Creek. Perhaps this Labour Day vigorous hike (3.1 km) will clarify your current inner space as you seek to surmount the 283 m elevation. Let’s hold to the 70% ‘rule’: exert 70% effort to attain your goal and all will be well.

Meet at Cinnamon Spoon café in Bragg Creek		9 am

Donations welcome (all proceeds go to Bragg Creek Wild)

White Buddha Loop

Traditionally October 4 is earmarked as a day to celebrate Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals. It is also a time to bless the animals (companion and agricultural). In this 14 km (455 m elevation) loop, we hopefully can encounter various wild animals…and bless…and be grateful for…and ask for protection for them as we enter into the changes that fall and winter bring.

Meet at Cinnamon Spoon café in Bragg Creek		9 am

Donations welcome (all proceeds go to Bragg Creek Wild)


Powderface Creek Trail-Prairie Creek Trail

6-7 am Tuesday   17 Sept-26 Nov 2024


Part of Janet’s Regenerative Movement series, this early morning class will revive you from your slumber as we explore moving in all three Planes. We will use small props on the mat, as well as in conjunction with the Wunda Chair as we bring to consciousness the subtleties in our movement.  Janet will safely guide and challenge you in this 10 week online session. Open to anyone who has a Wunda chair in their personal ‘gym’. 

[Additional props: theraband, 2 weighted balls, rotating disk, foam ‘marshmallow’, Pilates ring]

Wunda Chair	Revival

Sunset; 7:00pm-8:15pm Tuesdays, 17 Sept-26 Nov 2024
Sunrise; 5:45am-6:45am Wednesdays, 18 Sept-27 Nov 2024

This yoga class explores asanas from the perspective of the past, present, and future. Just as each of our cells, tissues, organs…our selves exist within the context of time, so too do asanas. We will explore transitions into, out of and within each asana. Feeling the resonances of the previous pose, while being fully present in the current pose, allows a smoother transition to the upcoming asana.  	   This 10 week online session is part of Janet’s Regenerative Movement series and is open to anyone interested in a somatic approach to yoga. 

[Helpful props: yoga mat, 2 weighted balls, rolled up towel, yoga strap, 2 yoga blocks.] 

Sunrise & Sunset Yoga in Time

7-8 am Wednesdays, 18 Sept-27 Nov 2024


Join Janet in this unique virtual class, designed to release your movement potential as you release holding patterns in your tissues. Going beyond the cliché of “use it or lose it”, Janet will support you personally in guiding deep tissue release through movement, and with the use of therabands as well as small- and medium-sized firm balls. As a group we will support each other by moving and exploring together while each participant receives specific recommendations for their particular concerns.  

Essential props: 5 or 6 foot length of medium resistance theraband, medium sized myofascial release ball (ask Janet for recommendations), 2 tennis balls.    

Regenerative Movement

6-7 am Thursdays, 19 Sept - 28 Nov 2024


Embodying clear bony relationships between heart—hands, head—arms, arms—tail, hands—ribs, to name just a few, is essential before regenerating our upper bodies. This 10 week online session will involve clarifying movement pathways and force transmission in our upper bodies as we renew our strength and enhance length. Janet will offer images, self-touch, and BMC® principles as she guides you thru 10 weeks online in regenerative movement. 

[Helpful props:  mat, theraband, 2 weighted balls/weights, rolled up towel, 2 yoga blocks.]

Mat: Renewing Your Upper Body Vitality

5 – 6 pm on December 26, 27 and 30, 2024

Are you searching for vitality, power, and ease? Janet will guide you on three brief (1-hour) journeys as we head into the New Year:                                                                              Thursday 26 December: Satisfying Stretch (Prop needed: None),                                                Friday 27 December: Fascial Flow ( Prop: Theraband),                                                         Monday 30 December: Mindful Medicine Ball (Prop: a weighted ball between 2-10 lbs) 

3 Wise Moments

7 – 7:30 am on December 26, 27, 30 and 31, 2024

Ward off the holiday blues with vitamin-M(ovement)! Join Janet for a dozen (or so) movements during the holiday season. We will explore 4 different sessions which include:  a beginning invigorating breathing practice, 24 minutes of rejuvenating movement, and a finishing calming breathing practice. You and your mat are all that is needed. 

Holi-Daily Dozen

7-8:15 pm Tuesday     7 Jan - 4 Mar 2025

Density and Sparsity. Earth and Space. Body and Breath. Sthira and Sukha. This yoga session explores vital relationships of complimentary qualities: in yielding to gravity, we feel the support of space; in breathing fully, we can move with more clearly; in finding stability, we discover more ease. The practice of yoga offers a micro-exploration of finding fundamental relationships and balance in ourselves that can be applied to life. This 9 week online session is open to anyone interested in a somatic approach to yoga. 
Cost: $ 180 + gst (bonus private personalized session for anyone enrolled in additional classes)       [Helpful props: yoga mat, 2 weighted balls, rolled up towel, yoga strap, 2 yoga blocks.]    

Yoga in Dynamic Relation

6-7 am Tuesday   7 Jan - 4 Mar 2025

Have you recently purchased a Wunda Chair? Or have you resolved to dust off one of Joe’s simplest yet very effective apparatus? Janet will guide you in this early morning class, incorporating small props in addition to Planar movements on the Wunda Chair. This 9-week on-line session will focus on the theme of “support precedes movement”.  Open to anyone who has a Wunda chair in their personal ‘gym’. 
Cost: $ 198 + gst (bonus private personal session for anyone enrolled in additional classes)           
[Additional props: theraband, 2 weighted balls, rotating disk, foam ‘marshmallow’, Pilates ring]

Wunda Chair	Wisdom

6-6:45 am Wednesday 8 Jan – 5 Mar 2025	

What’s CORE got to do with it? Are you struggling with back issues? Still wondering if you are supporting your spine? Knowing how to embody your ‘core support’ without falling into a ‘lock-n-load’ trap is essential to moving freely, in preventing injury, in recovering from surgery, and more. In this 9 week online class we will explore the fundamentals of ‘core support’ and spinal stability through basic anatomy and movements in a variety of relationships to gravity: supine, prone, side-lying, all-4s, ½ kneeling, kneeling, seated, and standing. Janet will specifically address each participant’s needs and concerns to enhance confidence in your ability to support yourself, no matter the activity. 

Centered and Stabilized

7-8 am Wednesday 8 Jan - 5 Mar 2025

Continue with Janet in releasing holding patterns in your body.  Incorporating various props, Janet will design classes specifically to meet each person’s needs and concerns. Over this virtual  9 week session, we will support each other as a group as we explore (and benefit from) Janet’s guidance in myofascial release and movement sequences.   
Cost: $ 216 + gst (bonus private personalized session for anyone enrolled in additional classes)
Essential props: 5 or 6 foot length of medium resistance theraband, medium sized myofascial release ball (ask Janet for recommendations), 2 tennis balls, yoga strap.     

Regenerative Release

5-6 pm Wednesday 8 Jan – 5 Mar 2025
Join the ancient Greek fitness craze: move with a medicine ball! In this 9 week virtual class, Janet will guide you to move with the ‘med ball’ in mindful ways so that you can enjoy your workouts safely. Learn how to lift, throw, catch, twist, absorb, explode, and balance with your med ball in ways that challenge but not deplete you. Janet will emphasize clear alignment, core support and controlled movement as prerequisites before engaging in explosivity. 
Cost: $ 180 + gst (bonus personalized session for anyone enrolled in additional classes)
Essential prop: med ball (ask Janet for recommendations)

Mindful Medicine Ball

6-7 am Thursday 9 Jan - 6 Mar 2025

Start your new year with Rock n ROLL…and have a BALL…on the mat. Join Janet as we explore, develop, and challenge our movement finesse with two additional props: the foam roller and stability ball.  Both props can be effective supports as well as provide important biofeedback about our current balance/imbalance in movement. In using them as an ‘unstable ground’ we learn more deeply how to support ourselves before moving. Janet guides via gentle steps to help you gain confidence in your movement. This 9 week online session will also occasionally incorporate smaller props to assist in developing long and strong muscles.
Cost: $ 180 + gst (bonus private personalized session for anyone enrolled in additional classes) 
Essential props:  mat, appropriately sized stability ball (ask Janet if you have questions), foam roller, theraband, 2 weighted balls/weights, rolled up towel, 2 yoga blocks.

Having a Ball…on the Mat

Contact Janet to book in-person or online private or semi-private sessions. These sessions are a collaboration between you and Janet and are designed to meet your specific physical, psychophysical, developmental, and healing needs/goals. Any number of the following somatic modalities may be used: movement, imagery, sounding, embodied safe touch, witnessing and being witnessed.


Private or Semi-Private Somatic Movement Education and/or Therapy sessions

Please see Janet’s listing of workshops on this website…. . In addition to these, Janet can customize a workshop to meet your group / studio needs. These workshops may be for a specialized ‘audience’, or for teacher training, or general public enrichment. Contact Janet with your request.

Events

Browse Events

Upcoming Events