retreat / unretreat

Oaxaca, Mexico Feb. 21 – 28, 2024 [SOLD OUT]

I love Mexico. I’m so excited to create something there that you might like to experience. Villa Ocho Venado (8 deer) is a family home and has so many inviting living spaces plus spaciousness, warmth, a pool, and time. Oaxaca is a real place; magical and warm-hearted. I have traveled and taught in Mexico many times, and when I went to Oaxaca I knew I had to return. While we are not really retreating from anything, but moving forward, there will be plenty of time to do personal practice, napping, reading, writing and dipping in the pool.

What’s Included and What’s Not

Included (activities always optional):

• 2 yoga classes/day
• 3 day trips
• tortilla-making class
• 7 nights, 6 dinners 
• continental breakfast

Not Included:

• airfare
• transportation to/from airport (we can share taxis)
• lunch (there will be plenty of food at the house for you to make your own if you wish)
• tips
• dinner in Oaxaca

Investment

The cost of the retreat depends on the room – what’s available and as folx sign up, these options will narrow, of course. Note: Options with strikethrough are no longer available. [ALL OPTIONS SOLD OUT]

• 1 single room, with a king bed:
  $2200 or $1800 per person, if you’re bringing someone.
• 1 shared room, with 2 king beds:
  $1950 per person.
• 1 shared room with 1 king bed, 1 single bed:
  $1900/king, $1800/single bed.
• 1 shared room with 1 king bed, 1 double bed, 1 sofa bed:
  $1900/king, $1900/double, $1700/sofa bed.
• 1 shared room with 1 king bed, 1 sofabed:
  $1900/king, $1700/sofa bed

What to Bring

• passport – make sure it’s up to date
• whatever you want
• practice clothes
• swimming attire
• good walking shoes

Itinerary

• early morning and late afternoon or early evening yoga
• 3 day trips: 
  • Monte Alban – ruinas near Oaxaca
  • Casa Viviane – Grandmother Dona Viviana Alavez’s candle-making operation
  • Museo Textile and other sites in Oaxaca Centro; mezcal tasting, dinner out  

Payment Methods and Due Dates

• Any credit card, or check or cash
• $500 deposit (refundable until Dec. 21st, non-refundable after) 
• Balance due date:  Jan. 15th, 2024

Please contact us to reserve your spot, or to answer any questions you might have!

About Sondra Loring: I am a movement artist, educator and steward of Feathertail Farm, a small botanical, bird, and fox sanctuary near Hudson, NY. I am drawn to the mystical, the poetic, to dirt, to rewilding, and to the daily rigorous investigation of somatic embodiment. I look forward to making dances and performances, to embracing failure, to sharing stories and to overturning stones to see what is underneath.

I danced with many companies in NYC (Laura Dean, Neil Greenberg, Donna Uchizono, David Rousseve…) and was honored to be awarded a Bessie (NY Dance Award) for my work as a dancer, writer, and improviser. I co-founded the Improvisation Festival/NY, bringing dancers, musicians, spoken word, visual and theater artists together for two-weeks each year for seven years. My choreography has been presented by BAM, Danspace Project, DIA, PS122 and in Canada, Mexico and Venezuela. I received the prestigious Meet the Composer award, working with a choreographer, composer and dancers from Mexico, along with at-risk teens and dancers from NYC. I co-created JUICE, an underground journal, with writing by dance artists.

While dancing I fell in love with yoga, traveled to India several times, and opened Satya in Rhinebeck and Sadhana in Hudson, which turned 20 this past April! Committed to decolonizing wellness, I founded MovingPotential.org and educate yoga instructors to bring yoga into local prisons, jails, and recovery centers, as well as teach women in recovery to be yoga teachers. I have partnered with Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood, where I teach yoga to children with an incarcerated parent.

Aerin Dunford is a writer, upcycling artist, urban gardener and yoga instructor. She is a process consultant at Coquixa Consultores using El Arte del Liderazgo Participativo (Art of Hosting) and other participatory approaches as a basis for her work with organizations and groups of all kinds. Aerin believes that meaningful connection and relationship-building is possible across distance and difference.