The Witch’s Dance: A Ritual Movement Workshop Series
Special Guest Ritual Facilitator: Lilith Dorsey
Join us for a special edition of The Witch’s Dance, a ritual movement workshop series facilitated by Jacquelyn Marie Shannon, featuring guest teacher Lilith Dorsey from New Orleans.
For this workshop, Lilith will share her unique expertise at the crossroads of dance, ritual, and Afro-Diasporan Pagan religions, drawing on movement practices informed by the African diaspora.
About Lilith:
"My personal spiritual journey includes numerous initiations in Haitian Vodou, New Orleans Voodoo, and Santeria. In 1995 I became editor and publisher of the Oshun newsletter, providing accurate and respectful information about Afro-Diasporan Pagan religions. I hold an undergraduate degree in anthropology and my graduate degree comes from a inter-disciplinary program in cinema/television studies and anthropology. Training is vital in any discipline, but takes on special significance in a spiritual context. Voodoo, Vodou, Santeria, Candomble, Ifa, Obeah, Hoodoo, and for that matter any other African based religion survives on it’s lineage, history, and training of it’s devotees.
My first initiation came from Mambo Bonnie Devlin, more widely known for her phenomenal drumming and musicianship. Her music is available on iTunes, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in connecting with spirit. I then went on to join Priestess Miriam Chamani at the Voodoo Spiritual Temple in New Orleans. The temple does an immense amount of good works and is located at 1428 N. Rampart Street across from Congo Square, both locales a must see for anyone visiting New Orleans. While my Santeria house is led by Ochun Olukari Al’aye and based in Florida. I am continually amazed and inspired by my spiritual family there, who most recently gave me the opportunity to watch a ritual drum being crafted with a chainsaw.
My academic career focused most specifically on ritual dance and possession on film. Informed by phenomenal women like Maya Deren and Zora Neale Hurston who were filmmakers, ritualists and anthropologists, I went on to create an experimental documentary Bodies of Water, focusing on Voodoo identity and “tranceformation.” It has been shown everywhere from Harvard University to the living room of the Royal Street Courtyard bed and breakfast. My favorite compliment on the work, which was designed to be a synestetic foray into cinematic experience, came from a devoutly Catholic friend who said “Your film scares me; I feel like I am changing.”"