IBIZA INTENSIVES 2025

“Butoh Based Somatics; Confluences & Contradictions”

 10th – 17th October in the North of Ibiza with Gemma Mallol

This intensive aims to introduce, unpack and share some of my Dance Master’s research, expanding upon my existing work in the fields of yoga, somatics and contemplative movement with nature into the realm of Butoh dance.

Within this trajectory, I aim to explore with you and articulate an introduction to the intersections of butoh dance and somatics, where they converge and diverge within their movement principles, techniques, aesthetics and philosophies.

This intensive, situated in Ibiza, (my ancestral lands), cultivates attention to landscape looking at how we are affected by and affect place, space and one another through movement as an ecological embodied process.

Subtly and sensitively, I would like to explore with you how the inner landscape of the body (in dialogue and resonance with place and space) can take shape through physical expression and become performative?

How does bringing this hidden inner world into visibility open doorways into the field of movement artistry? By making the unseen, felt, expressed and witnessed, can we be curious about how inner states become powerful forms of creative expression opening spaces for deeper transformation?

Although the content sounds very “academic’ and on some level it is, this is an embodied process exploring a diverse range of movement possibilities together. I hope it will be both engaging and stimulating on many levels, and as always, however serious, a sense of humour, humility and an open beginner’s mind help to keep receptive to fresh possibilities.

This is always a group collaboration, Butoh dance often references the collective body, and I feel this to be a very interesting concept. What might be the ripple effects of a collective moving intercultural body in dialogue with place? 

Your participation in this intensive contributes to a body of ongoing embodied research that aims to build a creative movement-based practice community. I hope that you are interested in becoming part of this, some of you already are and have been for some time, and I deeply value reconnecting with you again and both following and hearing how your practices are evolving and how our practices as a community interweave and support one another.

We warmly welcome all bodies, brain types, ages, ethnicities and genders. Places are limited to 12 and accommodation books up in Ibiza so please book well in advance

Schedule:

5.5 days of practice, approx 4 hrs day of teaching per day, space in timetable given for beach, swimming, walking, and enjoying the beauty and other things Ibiza has to offer.

Arrivals day in Ibiza on Fri 10th October

The intensive will start at 2.30 pm on Sat 11th October

The intensive will finish at 6pm on Thursday 17th October

Departures day Fri 17th October

If you can spare the time / money, it is recommended to stay for the weekend post intensive for deeper rest, reflections, and integration time.

Intensive Locations: Sessions will take place inside a dome (in the north of the island) on a land project and outdoors in some different locations (site specific)

Accommodation: These are non-residential intensives. We have a list of suitable places in the North of the island that we can recommend and it is up to you to arrange your own accommodation. If you book with ample time, then it is much easier to put participants together to share twin rooms, an apartment or small house (3 or 4 sharing) and then costs are low - approx 30 / 45 GBP per person per night.

Food: We recommend that participants have a light breakfast before morning practice. The options for lunch are to bring a packed lunch or to have a Spanish menu of the day in town, we have some local recommendations. Included in the price are 3 dinners that will take place at Gemma’s place.

Cost: Non- Residential 375 / 475 GBP (sliding scale) includes teaching and 3 dinners, doesn’t include flights, transfers and insurance.

Bookings & Info:

To book your space, please pay 50% of cost deposit to either the bank details or PayPal below. Once paid, please email confirmation of payment to Gemma on stillflowing@hotmail.co.uk. The balance must be paid in full a minimum of 1 month before start date.

Please email Gemma on stillflowing@hotmail.co.uk or Whats App 00 44 7745300237

Places are limited to 12 so please book in advance to ensure your access to accommodation

Payment Details:

Gemma Mallol, Nat West PLC, Sort Code: 521003, Acc No: 68665598

PayPal:

gemmamallol@hotmail.com

Cancellation Policy:

If you cancel 90 – 60 days before start date you lose a cancellation fee of 100 GBP

If you cancel 60 – 30 days before start dates you lose 50% (your deposit)

If you cancel 30 days or less you lose 100% of the total cost of the training

For cancellations as a result of Covid-19, please get in touch with Gemma on stillflowing@hotmail.co.uk

Once the programme has started NO refunds for intensives, trainings or retreats will be issued.

In the case of unexpected illness, participants must recourse to their medical insurers for refunds for the cost of retreat, workshop, training and/or flights.

In the case of compassionate grounds, if there is adequate space, participants may transfer to another programme, however this will be at the discretion of the Director Gemma Mallol.

Any one of the teaching / organisational team (it will be a team consensus) reserve the right to ask any participant to leave the retreats, intensive or training without refund at any time should they be causing themselves or the group, harm, harassment, or disturbance, not following the code of conduct or in a fragile or unsafe state of body/mind (in which case they will be adequately supported to leave and get home safely)

‘Unmasking the Body, Sculpting the Mask: Back to the Water”

October 2025, Dates TBC

with Gemma Mallol & Joanna Hruby

A five-day adults arts intensive exploring somatic movement, puppet-making and ritual in nature. October 2025, on Ibiza.

Since time immemorial, humans have crafted puppets, masks and ritual objects in order to harness a deeper relationship with the landscapes around them. Through sculpting a material and imbuing it with a thought or intention, these shapes can become spells and prayers, offered back to the land which first birthed them.

During this five-day, multi-disciplinary arts intensive, somatic movement practitioner Gemma Mallol’s morning explorations in the elemental body, within the raw, rugged terrain of Ibiza, will cultivate an embodied field of creativity which will be developed further in the afternoons with artist, puppet-maker and storyteller Joanna Hruby.

Through their ongoing encounters with the Ibicenco landscapes, participants will give physical form to a puppet-mask being – through cardboard sculpture and papier-mâché, via crafting and adorning with natural materials and pigments. Following this process, we will find a lost language that enables us to rebuild bridges of connection with the earth upon which we stand. On the final day, our embodied creations will lead us back into the heart of the landscapes from which they were born; through an exploratory closing ritual, we will listen to the message these beings offer us.

This five-day intensive fuses somatic process, movement, craft, art, sculpture and ritual, whilst also forging an exploration of story, myth, culture, folklore and ecology. Many of our outdoor sessions will take place beside Ibiza’s ancient wells, and we will interrogate water as a container of both personal, and collective ancestral memory, and a metaphor for our inner and outer ecologies.

Schedule: TBC

Outdoor Elemental Movement from 10.00 - 1pm

Afternoon Mask Making from 4.30 - 7.30pm

Facilitator Biographies: Joanna Hruby is an artist, puppeteer, performer and storyteller originating from the South West England. On settling on Ibiza eight years ago she formed “Theatre of Ancients” whose highly-visual and ritualistic puppet and mask performances bring to life the history, myths, folklore and traditional culture of Ibiza. All of the facets of Joanna’s work strive to create a dialogue and communion with the wild, ancient landscapes of Ibiza which have been silenced by mass tourism and globalisation. https://www.theatreoftheancients.com

Gemma Mallol half from Ibiza is currently an embodied dance and movement researcher (Master’s at Plymouth University), a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Senior Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher Trainer (23 years teaching) and works with somatic movement, nature and creativity in the resolution of trauma. She is currently researching where Butoh Dance, Somatics and Buddhist meditative movement forms such as walking meet.

https://instagram.com/ancestral_body

Testimonial Sharings:
(These are fragments of an account written by one of the participants of our 2023 intensive)

“Physically touching, smoothing, tucking sticking, smearing in the final phases of the mask making connected me to its embodiment into a being… dancing my own ritual… spontaneously collecting artefacts that became sacred charged objects seemed like an important precursor/ rehearsal for the real ritual, though I didn’t realise it at the time. I was performing a permission seeking ritual to nature.

I did not know that my sculpture would embody as the Widow of Mother Nature until Thursday evening. When the name came, everything that I felt in the morning practices… then had a reason, which I’d not been able to articulate during the morning sharing sessions.

During the final act in the water, letting the Widow go was more reverential as an individual moment. Felt very intensely aware of the presence & intimacy with her. Felt responsible & wanted to reassure the Widow that her journey was inevitable and she’d fulfilled her purpose because she was inside me now…

Walking barefoot through brambles to the water hurt, but was a necessary precursor to the final act. I felt if I was suffering it would alleviate the puppet’s suffering. It also was symbolic to experience physical pain before the letting go. Like I was offering my physical suffering in exchange for the Widow & her wisdom embodying with me.

Thank you, thank you, Thank you.”