The Witch’s Dance
Winter Solstice Retreat
A 5-day immersion into the mysteries of embodied magic and ritual movement through the force of the witch
December 18th - 22nd 2026
Texas Hill Country
What is The Witch’s Dance?
In this retreat, you will be initiated into The Witch’s Dance as a mystery school of embodied magic—a ritual practice grounded in elemental movement and techniques of attention and sensation that summon, channel, and amplify the witch’s force into direct, transformative experience in and through the body.
Drawing from modern Western witchcraft, ritual dramaturgy, physical theatre, dance, and somatic practice—and informed by both academic and practice-based research—The Witch’s Dance is a deeply intentional, experiential method for accessing elemental and extraphysical currents, embodying and directing their power in magical work, and using the body itself as a magical tool for conjuration, attunement, and transformation.
Together we will move with the force of the witch through an elemental cartography of Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. Within each elemental threshold, we will create and discover the conditions for and means of access into deeper experiences of magic, enchantment and embodied power through guided journeys of intuitive and responsive elemental movement and collective ritual acts that engage deeply with the witch’s transformative force.
We’re gathering again, at the darkest time of the year…
Our summer solstice Witch’s Dance retreat was so extraordinarily and undeniably magical, we’ve decided to do it again for winter solstice.
When we gather together this winter by candlelight, at the darkest time of the year, we'll be bringing our Witch's Dance into an even more explicitly ghostly practice…
…exploring ritual techniques for conjuring otherwise-time, sending time and bending time, divination and divine timing, dancing through the elements with a particular embrace of their winter expressions, and lingering in the thresholds between darkness and light…
…we’ll feed our dance with mirrors and masks, dress in perfumed velvets and lace, carve sigils with smoke, ink and ash, crush winter herbs between our teeth, grow extra limbs with evergreen boughs, cackle and howl and tear into pomegranate flesh with wild abandon around the fire…
…will you find yourself there?
This is for you if:
You are drawn to embodied practice, whether you are an experienced dancer or are at the beginning of your movement journey.
You are either a practitioner of magic, witchcraft, or ritual arts who wants to deepen your work through the body, or you are simply curious about exploring your relationship to magic and the witch experientially and somatically, beyond theory and metaphor.
You are an artist or practitioner seeking techniques for expanding your capacity to sense, feel, and do otherwise.
You long for a more intuitive, elemental, and body-based relationship to energy, perception, pleasure, and power. Perhaps a return or recommitment to connection with nature, the more-than-self and more-than-human.
You are interested in ritual performance, embodied magic, and witchcraft in/as creative practice.
(Experience or affinity with any of these subjects is not a requirement to participate. No previous experience in ritual, dance, theatre or performance is required either, only your curiosity and willingness to explore the body-mind as a site of magic, transformation, and personal agency.)
Please note, however, that this particular container is designed to hold women and femme-of-center non-binary people only.
Who will be guiding the experience?
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Jacquelyn Marie Shannon is a New York City-based theatre, dance, and ritual artist, educator, and public witch scholar-practitioner. Through her doctoral research and creative practice, she designs immersive ritual experiences inspired by The Witch’s Dance, using performance and movement techniques to help people access real experiences of magic, transformation, and enchantment.
She has performed, presented research, taught, and facilitated ritual experiences across the US and internationally. For over a decade, Jacquelyn has taught dance, theatre, and ritual performance at the university level and has led hundreds of ritual movement workshops, master classes, and intensives—drawing from nearly twenty years of training in Japanese butoh, expressionist dance, physical and psychodramatic theatre, ritual practice, and contemporary performance.
Jacquelyn carries that full lineage and depth forward through this retreat experience, with its ritual structure, ceremonial architecture, techniques, and practices shaped by years of both academic study and lived, embodied research into magic, witchcraft, Western esoteric traditions, and ritual engagements with the supernatural.
For more about Jacquelyn, click here.
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Chelsea Gay is an Austin-based experience architect, somatic embodiment guide, and artist of aliveness who weaves her background in professional event production with sound, breath, movement, and magick to create playful experiences that awaken the body and nourish the soul.
She believes the body is the portal, joy is the key, and laughter is the lube. Her work invites women to trust their bodies, remember their power, reclaim their aliveness, and have a little more fun along the way.
During The Witch's Dance, Chelsea will guide experiences that invite participants to feel more at home in their bodies, more free in their expression, and more alive in their own skin.
A castle in the Texas Hill Country
The retreat will be held at Castle Bend, a beautifully restored castle crafted from native locally sourced limestone in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, surrounded by a grove of mature live oak, the Castle stands watch over natural rock outcroppings which cascade downwards to the spring-fed Hickory Creek with a private 10-foot swimming hole.
The grounds also feature a flock of peacocks, a heated pool, hot-tub, sauna, outdoor limestone patio dance floor, and two fire pits for dancing under an endless starry sky.
Information
Dates: December 18th - 22nd, 2026
Location: Marble Falls, Texas (near Austin)
Only 8 spots remaining
What is included:
5 days / 4 nights lodging in a private Texas Hill Country castle
Choice of single or shared room
3 nourishing, on-site chef-prepared meals each day
Collective altar creation & intention setting
Daily somatic, ritual movement, & embodiment practices
Daily structured embodied spellwork & ritual ceremony
Post-ritual grounding & integration
Dancing around the fire, swimming under the stars, sauna
Archival photographs documenting your witch’s dance
Post-retreat integration session over Zoom
What is not included:
Travel and transport to venue
Travel and health insurance
Accommodations & Cost
$2,500-$2,900, all-inclusive
Single or shared room options available. Room placement is selected after acceptance, based on availability and preference, first come, first serve.
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Cancellation, Refund & Participation Policy
This retreat is offered through a selective application process in order to ensure a cohesive, intentional group experience. For this reason, our cancellation and refund policy exists to protect the integrity of the container and to fairly hold space for those who are fully ready to commit.
All payments made to Jacquelyn Shannon & Chelsea Gay for this retreat are non-refundable, non-transferable, and may not be applied to any future offering. This includes withdrawals due to personal circumstances such as illness, emergencies, travel issues, or unforeseen conflicts. Because participants are carefully selected through an application process, reserved spots may not be given, resold, or transferred to another person.
Please complete your registration with full awareness of this commitment. Both payment and the required waiver must be submitted within the acceptance window in order to secure your place in the retreat.
Health & Personal Responsibility
By registering, participants agree to notify the facilitators of any relevant medical conditions, injuries, or medications that may affect their participation. Each participant assumes full responsibility for their physical, emotional, and psychological well-being throughout the retreat experience. While we take great care to create a supportive and intentional environment, participation is voluntary and undertaken at one’s own risk.
Facilitator Cancellation
In the unlikely event that the retreat must be canceled by the facilitators due to circumstances beyond our control (including illness, severe weather, natural disaster, or other major disruptions), all payments will be refunded minus an administrative processing fee. We are unable to reimburse airfare, transportation, lodging outside the retreat package, or other travel-related expenses. For this reason, we strongly encourage all participants to purchase travel insurance to protect against unforeseen circumstances.
By submitting your payment, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to these terms.
Questions & Answers
{ Such a specific magic we will have found together when the time comes. Secrets shared among sisters…
It will be easy to know if you will have been there with us in the thoughts that find you just before sleep. You’ll find yourself dancing with witches, like a ghost, in a beautiful future memory waiting to be met. }
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Click the "Reserve my spot" button with your room preference.
This retreat is offered through a selective application process in order to ensure a cohesive, intentional group experience. Once you fill out the short application form, we will review it and get back to you as soon as possible. If you are accepted, you will be sent a link to your email for directions for how to submit payment.
Once you’ve submitted your application, you’ll receive an email from us within the week. If it hasn’t arrived after seven days, check your spam folder and if it’s still not there, please get in touch so we can confirm your application was received!
Spaces are very limited, so it is first come first served. Please contact Jacquelyn at Jacquelynmarieshannon@gmail.com or Chelsea at Chelc216@gmail.com directly for any other payment or registration questions.
Photographer from our Summer Solstice Witch’s Dance Retreat: Ash Marinaccio, Ph.D
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Full payment is due to secure your spot, however payment plans are available upon request. Spaces are limited, so it is first come first served.
