About the experience
Kirtan Heart-Jam Circle is an opportunity to build skills to draw upon for your at-home devotional chanting practice and/or confidence for the possibility of eventual sharing of music and mantra with others. It is also a space for those who already carry musical confidence to do more of what they love and support the up-and-comers.
Instrumental to Centre of You's schedule of offerings are regular Kirtan events. Over time the intention is to build a bank of musicians that arise from within the Heart-Jam Circle community and deliver opportunities to play within the devotional live bands of COY.
What to expect
Kirtan Heart-Jam Circle will in part resemble the vibe of a workshop and in part a jam or rehearsal. Stop, start, feedback, discussion, etc. While there will be call and response elements, this is not a Kirtan event, rather it's best viewed as a learning environment.
We will drop-in with warm-up exercises before flowing through a semi-structured heart-jam. Chords/words will be provided. You may have an opportunity to lead if you choose with the aid of amplification of your voice and/or instrument. Hearing your voice and/or instrument amplified from the delivery vantage point of facing responders is a practice in accumulating confidence for the possibility of eventual kirtan leadership.
We will bring into our common language the acknowledgment of arising energies such as nervousness, changes to breathing patterns and narratives of the inner-self when exploring the action of sharing our self and/or our voice. Herin will lie an opportunity for self-regulation practices and being energetically held by community support.
What to bring?
Firstly, your voice! If that is all you have know that is perfect and more than enough. If you do have a relevant instrument such as a harmonium, guitar, ukelele, tabla, sitar, tambourine, djembe, etc bring it along. There are plenty of percussion-type instruments available for you to use at Centre of You such as sticks, drums and shakers.
A note on timing
The energy and environment of a Kirtan Heart-Jam Circle can mystically warp time and make it pass by super fast. Sometimes we don't feel complete after the ninety minutes set-aside for this gathering. We will make a collective decision should this happen to wrap things up or continue for an additional time to allow the container to arrive at a natural close. Know that you have the freedom to leave whenever you need to/wish to.
About your faciltator: Grace Elizabeth
You will be guided through this experience by founder and director of Centre of You, Grace Elizabeth. Sharing song was instrumental to Grace's identity in her high school days as captain of her school choir, Stacella, an acappela choir centred around tribal, world and devotional music. During Shamanic Breathwork training in 2019, Grace found immediate resonance with the practice of shamanic/medicine drumming and chanting. Drum chants led her into mantra chanting where she fell in deep resonance with kirtan (devotional call and response singing) which led her into singing heartsongs. Grace is continuing her journey towards reclaiming and regaining trust, acceptance and love for her voice predominantly through the devotional route of kirtan after shutting it down for two decades. Upon this personal journey she has come to the realisation that the desire to befriend one's voice, spoken or sung, is a collectively shared one.
Things to note:
Centre of You has plenty of bolsters, blankets, and cushions for you to get cosy with. A journal is recommended as are any familiar personal items that will aid you in feeling grounded (crystal, teddy, scarf, etc).
Personal responsibility: Please make an assessment on whether you are feeling stable and resourced enough to explore the practices on offer in this event.
Arrival: Endeavour to arrive between 6:15pm - 6:30pm. To preserve the experience for all involved, doors will close at 6:45pm. Truly, it breaks our heart to have to turn latecomers away yet the disruption to the whole group experience by virtue of lateness does require management. We ask that you find understanding and consideration for the timebound nature of the container and make every effort to arrive on time.
Driving: Know Centre of You is on Chapel St and ample time to find a car spot is best to be factored into your plans. Park direct on Chapel St (spots unmetered after 5pm) or in Anchor Place, the open-air parking lot in the side street that runs opposite Centre of You (unmetered after 4pm).
Public transport - tram: Both the number 6 tram & 78 tram stop on the corner of High St/Chapel St. This is stop 31 on the number 6 tram (Moreland/Glen Iris) & stop 45 on the number 78 tram (North Richmond/Balaclava).
Public transport - train: Both Prahran & Windsor stations along the Sandringham Line will get you walking distance to Centre of You.
Finding Centre of You: Centre of You is nestled within the arcade that Chapel St Bazaar is in (217 Chapel St). It is up a flight of stairs with a wide landing at the half-way-point. Unfortunately, this current version of Centre of You does not have a wheelchair accessible lift. If you could use support in getting up the stairs or would like to discuss ways to make your experience at Centre of You more comfortable, please reach out via grace@centreofyou.com.au or via DM over on Centre of You Instagram.
Accessibility: At COY we aim to ensure our community and events are inclusive and accessible while alongside upholding the needs and responsibilities of our business and the businesses of our collaborating facilitators. Should you be in a time of financial challenge and unable to pay the full ticket price comfortably, please reach out to grace@centreofyou.com.au
Ticketing T&Cs: We get it, life happens, therefore we will gladly refund you up until 24hrs before the event start time. After that, we have a strict no refund/no transfer to future events policy. We kindly ask that you respect our policy.
If you are no longer able to attend and wish to pay forward your ticket to someone within the community, be in touch via grace@centreofyou.com.au or via DM over on Centre of You Instagram.
Questions? Email grace@centreofyou.com.au or reach out via Instagram DM.
Tickets: $25.00