Created by Gabrielle Roth and practiced by tens of thousands worldwide, 5Rhythms® is a dynamic movement practice rooted in the principle that if you put the psyche in motion it will heal itself. Movement is both the medicine and the metaphor, reaching across all languages, cultures and age groups to transform suffering into art, art into awareness, and awareness into action. Wherever the 5Rhythms® are practiced, a community is born to dance, to sweat, to change, to support, and to provide a safe space for each of us to shatter the ego’s hold and awaken the creative part of ourselves that yearns to be free. Creativity. Connection. Community.
Jake is a Certified 5Rhythms teacher and member of the 5RTA. Class and workshop hours count towards 5Rhythms teacher training requirements.
I have been dancing with the San Diego community since 2015 and started teaching in 2024. Looking back over the years since I have included this practice into my life, I can see the transformation and impact it had on the quality of my life. What to know about me? I am an adoring husband and father. I am an Engineer, which is significant only as far as it helps to explain the inordinate amount of time I spend up in my head and on my butt in front of a computer. I was a reluctant dancer, it took years for me to step out on the dance floor. “I do NOT dance!”. I really can’t, still can’t. The moment someone starts describing moves and steps I am end up on the ground. What finally did it for me was the people. Showing up each and every time in their most authentic version of themselves. Working on themselves, for themselves, by themselves. What beauty, what freedom! My left-brain noted down ‘by themselves’, check.
I can show up, dance like the middle-aged father/husband/geek that I am, get a real cardio workout and leave feeling somehow better/lighter/decompressed, all in the company of this community. I was hooked. At the Waves™ level we focus on embodiment. Traditional ‘Meditation’ never really worked for me. For me the thought-train runs 24/7. The idea of ‘stopping’ it seems preposterous. However, this is merely a derailment. Focus my mind on my body. Here. Now. For me. Most of our waking day is spent fulfilling roles we have long ago determined. But here the goal is a better understanding of me. Without all the baggage of the past and pressure of tomorrow, where am I right now in this moment?
For me, growing up emotional expression was socially discouraged. Five years of military service didn’t increase my vocabulary. Our emotions get tangled up in our bodies. Becoming more embodied provided another avenue through which I could explore my emotional self.This is space I now wish to hold for the San Diego community. A place where you can come and move whatever needs to move in whatever way your body decides it needs to move.
Please bring
Your authentic self
Water bottle
Stretchy clothes
Please Leave
Cameras
Conversations (Welcome in the hallway)
Flowing : Gently checkin and connect with your body in a soft nurturing way. Move body parts in a circular/spiraling easeful motion. Graceful.
Staccato: Express, Clear, Sharp, Intent
Chaos: Let it OUT, Let it GO. Uncontrolled, but not out-of-control.
Lyrical: Having checked in, expressing and letting it go, there is a spaciousness. What do you want to fill it with?
Stillness: Integration back to self. Realizations/A-Ha moments!