Intercultural Roots is super pleased to provide an update on recent developments hoping that it’ll encourage you to have a sense of ownership for this flexible and amazing resource. If you need a not-for-profit charity to help apply for and help administer funding related to embodied practice / research please get in touch with Executive Director - Dr Alex Boyd:
1/ Health & WELLth partnership programme and festival
Intercultural Roots is leading on this London based project that has so far received almost £60K across six organisations (£10K each from the UK National Lottery):
Intercultural Roots for Traditional Embodied Arts
Intercultural Roots for Public Health
Youth Media Group
Third Sector Renewables
The MOSAIC Federation
Pop Up Tai Chi
Although applications from each organisation have a slightly different focus, they are all focussed on delivering community based embodied practice workshops (108 sessions covering dance, yoga, taiji, circus skills, martial arts, pilates etc) and to bring people together 3 - 5 April 2020 for a festival. The Health & WELLth festival will include free public workshops, discussions and performances with a focus on the question ‘What Matters To You?’ (rather than ‘What’s the matter with you?’..) It will also include master class workshops from renowned international practitioners and opportunities for collaborative labs. For information about how you could be involved please contact.
Started in September, the project has already delivered (free of charge):
13 workshop sessions for the public in Islington and Southwark
4 weeks of Creative Labs for practitioners at Siobhan Davies Dance
Certified Mental Health First Aid training for 24 practitioners (valued at £350 per person)
A fringe performance evening with drinks and networking opportunities at East 55
Contracted with freelance practitioners to deliver 12 community based workshops between now and the April 2020 festival (£100 per session plus £40 venue hire)
We are beginning to promote opportunities for practitioners to deliver 15 ‘Get Active Online!’ sessions in London for people with learning difficulties and disabilities to access, with online video tutorials as an outcome for people who have reduced mobility / access (£200 per session / video). Please contact to get involved. We will soon be updating our existing www.interculturalroots.org and new www.healthwellth.org websites and adding videos to our YouTube channel.
To support event coordination and management, promotion and visibility we are currently writing a job description to create a paid PR short term engagement. Reviews and evaluations from the current projects will help build our portfolio so that our funding team can springboard to larger, longer term projects that cover a wider, possibly international geography. Any ideas you have for taking Health & WELLth to other locations or referrals for the PR post please contact.
2/ California & Nevada - October 2019
Intercultural Roots has been successfully delivering embodied practice workshops and practitioner research & collaborative labs in Santa Cruz, Davis, Oakland, Nevada City and Sierraville. Feedback has been wonderful and many new connections formed. The visit will conclude with 2 days of movement and food as medicine workshops at the UC Davis Confucius Institute on Nov 1-2. The event is fully subscribed and closed to registrations with over 120 people booked to attend! Link: https://tinyurl.com/y6rkbpvt
3/ ‘Alchemy of Practice’ - Ireland 5-10 July 2020 (a pre-IFTR Galway 2020 event)
The week before the 2020 IFTR Conference and Embodied Research Working Group meetings in Galway, Intercultural Roots is planning a five-day subsidised ‘Alchemy of Practice’ residency. We have been asked by practitioners from various countries to offer master-practitioner workshops that provide deeper understandings of inner embodied workings and practices that help develop body-mind-spirit. So in the mornings we are considering immersive workshops led by acclaimed experts in this area and in the afternoons intensive practitioner collaborative & creative labs (with an ecology focus) leading to a public performance. We are currently working to secure studio space in Galway, Limmerick or Cork and will then secure accommodation before promoting this through our new PR post as an open call. If you are interested in being involved or would like to suggest ideas please contact as soon as possible while plans are fluid.
