Embodied Movement Retreat

with Deborah Lewin and Anaïs Tamen

24 - 27 April 2025 ~ ALJEZUR, Portugal

Leaning into Open Floor Movement Practice, our natural environment, and our inherent somatic intelligence.

As a result of our lived experience, different perspectives and lenses contribute towards a sense of wholeness within us, as individuals, and as a group. By bringing this work, we wish to nurture this sense of wholeness and congruency, in togetherness. We warmly invite you to join us in this exploration.

Our vision and deep wish is to create a safe and brave vessel for each of us to embrace what wants to be felt and acknowledged, what is revealed organically in the present moment, held by nature, nature sounds, silence, and music.

This workshop will take place at Essencia Nature Retreat, Aljezur, PORTUGAL - see below for information.

'What is Congruency Retreat about?' by Anaïs Tamen

"Congruency is part of the new research that Deborah has brought to her teachings, that incorporates attachment theory, the wheel of consent, and constellation work onto the dance floor. Through the practice of Open Floor, Deborah provides a brave space for deep explorations of our patterns in relation to others and to ourselves.

I had the opportunity to assist Deborah last year in Newcastle (UK) for one of her Congruency workshops. Her workshop met me right where I was in my inner and outer struggles with my attachment patterns, my “people-pleasing-give-the-other-cheek” attitude, and the tenderness of my grieving heart. That’s why I am inviting her work to SW Portugal. I feel we can all benefits from this self-enquiry, especially combined with the support of the land, the trees, and the ocean.

I am grateful to contribute and weave my own research into Deborah’s work. I love how our friendship is evolving into an active collaboration, transitioning from her teaching me, to me supporting her, to us co-creating together. I bring with me 8 years of experience in movement facilitation, a lifelong passion for dance, research and creativity, and 20 years of supporting my clients as a bodyworker, holding their hands, feet, shoulders, heads, and hearts, and, since 2017 listening to their souls stories and bringing ease as a shamanic practitioner. 

Deborah is a senior teacher and mentor, so there are many lifelong dancers and movement teachers in her spaces. There are also professionals who come to expand their practice as Open Floor content is open source, which means that Open Floor International, as a conscious non-profit association, encourages the incorporation of its pearls of teachings in other realms."

What’s included

• An immersion into nature to dive into self-inquiry through movement, within a group of heartful conscious dancers.

• An enriching journey focused on nurturing our emotional intelligence through embodiment, infused by consent work and systemic constellation work'.

• Dedicated time to learn to listen to and trust our impulses, and to relate with authenticity to ourselves and our surroundings.

What you will learn

• We all develop patterns of movement that suit us; our natural tempo, how much space we take up, how boldly or tentatively we occupy the dance floor. These patterns become habits and before we know it there’s how we move and how we don’t - we get stuck and our expression gets limited.

• The goal is a body that moves with it all and tells the tale and to include creativity & loving connections in the dance.

• Allowing us to move in ways that may have been forgotten, excluded, or abandoned.

Who the workshop is for

• This retreat is open to all adults regardless of their gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and age. We strive to co-create an environment that is inclusive, curious and expansive, and honours the experiences of each dancer. Due to the environment of the venue, and our intention to move both inside and outside in nature, a certain degree of physical mobility is required.

• To participate you need some experience with conscious dance forms such as Open Floor, 5Rhythms, Movement Medicine, Biodanza, Open Hearts Dance with Anaïs, etc. This to ensure a base that allows you to deepen your experience.

Meet Deborah

Professionally, Deborah has been working in the field of movement and embodiment for 30+ years. She qualified as a Sesame Movement and Drama Therapist in her early 20s, soon broadening into the field of conscious movement and teaching 5Rhythms® for over 25 years.

In 2014, she was one of a group of 15 Founding Teachers of Open Floor International (OFI) and in 2016 attended OFI’s Therapy in Motion training with Andrea Juhan and Irit Ziv-Ron. In 2023 & 2024, she completed both the Foundation & Applied Training with The Centre for Systemic Constellations.

She has a blended professional life, working online and in-person, with large groups, small groups, and one-to-one. Her respect for the wisdom of the creative body is incisive and contagious.

“I am committed to personal development, and nurturing individual and collective transformation….. I hold the teaching space with deep attentiveness, clear instruction, and an absolute delight and love of movement.”

Meet Anaïs

Anaïs (all pronouns) is a movement teacher, trained in Open Floor, living in Alentejo, South Portugal. She has crafted safe and brave dance spaces dedicated to personal blossoming and community well-being since 2017. 

Interwoven in synergy with nature, silence and the invisible, her offerings aimed are at cultivating presence, connection and acceptance, rooted in the heart.

Anaïs defines herself as a devotee of wilderness, deep listening and raw untamed expression. Her work revolves around dancing with our paradoxes and polarities, diving into the luminous cracks of our fertile darkness, and building community, within ourselves and among each others. 

She is known for her eclectic and surprising soundscapes that stir up our life-force-fire and support tapping into devotional alternate states of consciousness.

Anaïs has ancestral roots in France and the Bamileke tribe of Cameroon, and heart-roots in the LGTBQI+ community. 

She’s a Butoh and CI lover, who also offers soul and body-work, and expresses her (he)art through writing, photography and performative arts. She recently started training in Systemic Constellations and consent work, and makes sure her spaces are as trauma-informed and as inclusive as possible.

More about Anaïs : anaistamen.com / soundcloud.com/anais_openhearts