Authenticity in Relationship

A BraveSpace Embodiment Laboratory and Ecstatic Contact Dance Jam

Coming to Eugene, OR on January 11th, 2026→

BraveSpace is a heart-centered somatic movement paradigm built to help you trust your body’s discernment.

In the container of BraveSpace we'll attune you to how authenticity arises through you in a present-centered discovery of your body.  We will use contact improvisation dance and somatic movement practices to playfully engage our bodies in community, meeting with others moment-to-moment while staying true to ourselves.  This trauma-informed space will challenge you to become more authentic, more skilled at navigating consent and boundaries, and more joyfully empowered through the process.  You will never be pushed to do anything you aren’t a full ‘yes’ to, and taking breaks to come back to yourself will be encouraged.  No previous somatic movement or dance experience is required, and more advanced practitioners will also be given opportunities for their full expression.

The format:

This workshop will take place in two parts—a two hour investigative lab, followed by a two hour jam session, with a break in between. 

The lab will be more instructional, developing the skills in consent, boundaries, and attunement that make embodying greater authenticity possible.

The jam will be a place to apply what you’ve explored and let yourself go, following a format between that of an ecstatic dance and a contact improvisation jam.  There will be music--diverse and generally downtempo--interspersed with silence and collective sounding. 

 

You may come to one half of the workshop without the other, but some experience with contact improvisation is required if you’re only coming to the jam.

Details:

January 11th, 2026 at

The Eugene Garden Club

1645 High St., Eugene, OR

12:00pm-2:00 pm Authenticity in Relationship Laboratory

2:30-4:00pm Ecstatic Contact Improvisation Dance Jam

Pricing is $25 for one part or $40 for the whole thing paid in advance. $30/$45 at the door.

About Matthew

Matthew Nelson is a somatic teacher, healer, and dancer who has spent 30 years immersed in the mystery of movement.  Matthew has helped thousands in awakening their vitality, not as something to fix or force, but as a natural emergence of life moving through the body. Coming from a broad base of education including an MFA in Modern Dance, certifications in Laban Movement Analysis, Pilates, and Massage--Matthew’s work honors the intelligence of sensation, the power of presence, and the unnamable current that underlies all true aliveness. In a world often disconnected from the body, Matthew invites a return—to feeling, to flow, and to the sacredness of being fully here.

I am here to help people feel the life source moving through them,

to awaken their sensual intelligence,

and to trust their bodies.

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