Dancing into Empowered Relationship

As a Somatic Permissionary, Wren teaches partner dance internationally as a practice for mindful, authentic living, enlivening communities with his signature modality, Cocréa. Dancing since 1999 around when the Fusion social partner dance movement began, Wren brings a deep curiosity to Fusion as an emergent folk dance based in the spontaneous co-creation of new aesthetics. By integrating strong relational focus into his facilitation, Wren is setting the bar for folks to use dance as a tool not only for developing as proficient movers, but also as more masterful in the area of relationship.

Graduating from the University of Washington with a BA in Drama and Dance Wren’s curiosity revolved around studying the expression and resolution of human conflict through theater and the ways emotion moves through the body. Wren's mission is to vitalize and inspire the world using social partner dance as a vehicle for connection, personal growth and spiritual alignment with right livelihood that places us in right relationship with the Earth. He is a Danyasa trained facilitator, former Awake at Work program facilitator, certified Attunement Therapy practitioner, a celebrated TEDx speaker, featured author in "ReInhabiting the Village", and ardent proponent of pioneering a new renaissance through co-created movement, authentic connection and consensual touch. He has been called "the next voice in conscious dance" by Soul Motion core faculty member, Aletia Alvarez.

CO-FACILITATORS

Usha Rose
Usha is a Somatic Sex, Intimacy, and Relationship Coach, Workshop Facilitator, Dance and Yoga Teacher, and Licensed Massage Therapist. She is trained in the Somatica™ Method of Sex and Relationship Coaching and is a graduate of the International School of Temple Arts Practitioner Training. She also spent three years studying closely with Sonika Tinker and Christian Pederson in the LoveWorks Relationship Training Mastery Program, including two years in the Assistant and Leadership Program.

She is the co-founder of Foothills Fusion Dance, a weekly, social dance in Grass Valley, CA and co-founder of Convergence, an annual Ecstatic and Fusion dance mini-festival in Northern California. She is also the Production Manager and Facilitator for Cocréa, a mindful partner dance company that produces transformational dance retreats and workshops around the globe.

Usha discovered the conscious dance community in 2010 when she started attending Ecstatic Dance Oakland. Since then she has studied SoulMotion™ with Vinn Marti and Zuza Engler, completed the JourneyDance™ Teacher Training with Toni Bergins and continues to be inspired by the many teachings of Contact Improv and 5Rhythms™.

She took her first partner dance class (Salsa) in 2005, although she was first introduced to partner dancing as a young child in her living room with her grandmother who was an avid Lindy Hop dancer. It was around 2010 when Usha discovered Blues dancing, and soon thereafter fell in love with Fusion dancing. She has studied several other partner dance forms including Salsa, Tango, Swing and Zouk, to name a few. In addition to teaching locally, she has taught dance at several events around the country including Enchanted Forest Gathering, Jumpsuit Family Gathering and Northern California Dance Camp.

Chrissy Mehnert

Chrissy’s first dance company saw her through many early professional opportunities, and her love of choreography took her to organize Pulse Dance Project, NYU’s first student-produced dance performance group. She trained in the summer of 2009 with Yoga to The People, dove right into teaching 10+ classes a week and until 2013 was a prominent teacher for YTTP. At her first night of Fusion Dance in 2015, Chrissy committed to a new dance form. Partner dance intimidated, allured and in time deeply transformed Chrissy’s being. No other practice has contributed so much to her unfolding as mindful partner dance. Now, her offerings are weaving through the overlapping layers of yoga and dance, inspiring each of her teachings with the other.