Achieving a balance between individuality and community, music and silence, movement and stillness can lead to greater awareness and freedom in the human experience.
The local woman-focused movement company The 360 Emergence has focused on cultivating and advancing this profound alchemy in Boulder for nearly three years.
During the company’s online “Ashes to Ashes” immersion on wellness and sensuality in early November, co-founders and company leaders Amber Ryan and Kate Shela broadcasted from YDM Meditation, an east Pearl Street meditation studio.
Amber and Kate founded the company with in-person labs and immersions to help women and men to navigate their lives in harmony with movement.
Moving intentionally through guided dance and meditation empowers the dancer and is a healthy outlet in expressing emotions and exploring the physical manifestation of one’s feelings. “This kind of dance brings together all facets of life,” Amber says.
Amber and Kate co-curate in-person and online labs for their students in Los Angeles, where Kate has lived for over a decade, and Boulder, where Amber teaches regularly at StarHouse in the foothills’ Sunshine Canyon and weekly at YDM Meditation, where Yashoda Devi Ma teaches Vedic meditation and Himalayan yogic practices.
“Our primary goal is to get people moving and understanding the instinctive, intuitive wisdom available to them in their bodies,” Amber says. During “Ashes to Ashes,” Amber and Kate asked participants to come with an intention, which they guided participants to reflect in their movements during the session.
Before holding their annual “Ashes to Ashes” immersion online over the last two years, Amber and Kate held one of the themed immersions in Joshua Tree’s desert with more than 100 women attendees. During the weekend-long experience, participants, guest teachers and therapists focus on manifesting the lives they want through yoga, sharing sessions and lots of dancing.
The immersion retreats are a key component of their services. They have upcoming events scheduled in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica to Boulder
Amber and Kate met in 2000 at an event similar to the ones they now lead through The 360 Emergence and became fast friends. Kate has a professional background in fashion and film, and experience with the Polish National Ballet, while Amber brought her experience from theater, dance and television.
Years later, Amber moved to Costa Rica, where Kate visited to offer retreats as the two began developing their movement business and holding workshops. They started using circular stages, a shape symbolizing matriarchy and womanhood, and a key part of the heart of The 360 Emergence.
Amber lived in Nosara, Costa Rica for 8 years, where she met several Colorado transplants. When she heard about Boulder and the StarHouse, in particular, she decided to visit.
Encountering StarHouse’s nature-immersive approach to devotion and spirituality, Amber knew she’d move to Colorado after her first trip and lived briefly on the StarHouse property before moving to Lyons.
Over the pandemic, Amber and Kate shifted to offering regular online classes and on-demand videos, instead of in-person labs in both Los Angeles and Boulder. Since May, Amber has taught smaller classes in-person at StarHouse.
Header photo credit: Sarah Prikryl
