Bring mindfulness to the music and rejuvenate your festival at Yogafort 2023 during Treefort Music Fest.
This year is extra special because it’s the 10th year of Yogafort! The very first Yogafort took place in 2013 on the somewhat sticky floor of El Korah Shrine, and since then it has blossomed into a beautiful community and sanctuary in the midst of the fest. In 2021 and 2022, Yogafort pared down its programming a bit, but for 2023 Yogafort is back in full force to celebrate 10 years of movement & music during Treefort Music Fest.
Yogafort 2023 will have 20+ experiences – including Nia, meditation, dance, yoga, breath work, sound baths, sensual embodiment yoga and much more – happening all five days of Treefort Music Fest (March 22-26, 2023). Dozens of yoga practitioners, guides and musicians will lead Yogafort experiences, including headliners Sheela Bringi, Clinton Patterson, East Forest, Marisa Radha Weppner, and Brent Kuecker.
Yogafort will take place in multiple venues, including Treefort Music Hall, LED, the Basque Center, and Julia Davis Park, and will have some crossover programming with other forts including Hackfort, Dragfort, and Kidfort.
Access to all Yogafort events is included with a five-day Festival Pass, Single Day Pass or a Yogafort Pass. Yogafort Passes are only $69 – that’s like a 20 class pass for the price of a typical drop-in yoga class – and allow priority access to all events. There’s only 100 Yogafort Passes available (can be combined with festival passes).
Thank you to Yogafort’s partners Studio Lotus, Zen Riot, Pure Barre Boise, YogaSix, Hollywood Market Yoga, and Source for supporting the festival!
YOGAFORT 2023 HEADLINERS
Sheela Bringi
Indian American musician Sheela Bringi has been exploring the connections between her ancestral and actual homelands her entire life. The singer and instrumentalist plays the harp, harmonium and bansuri (Indian classical bamboo flute). As a young woman, Bringi was influenced by M.I.A. and Dead Can Dance, studied with Cecil Taylor and Meredith Monk, while at the same time deepened her studies with Indian classical masters like Pandit G.S. Sachdev and Ustaad Aashish Khan. She has released two albums as a solo artist (“Shakti Sutra” and “Incantations”), and her work to bridge the musical worlds of India and America has been profiled by NBC News, NPR, Public Radio International, Yoga Journal, and others. Bringi currently studies Hindustani voice with Sri Subhashish Mukhopadyay (a topmost exponent of the Kotali Gharana). She is based in Boulder, CO where she teaches Indian Devotional & Raga Singing at Naropa University, and around the world.
Clinton Patterson
Clinton Patterson is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose music has strong roots in blues, soul, and hip hop, but stretches out to include vibes and rhythms from music traditions from around the world. Hailing from SW Atlanta (SWATS) Clinton has been based in Los Angeles since 2005 and has been a featured soloist on projects for ESPN, Rockstar Entertainment, Disney, and The RZA. This year’s Yogafort 2023 Treefort Music Fest performance will be a special collaboration with mantra musician Sheela Bringi.
East Forest
East Forest is a multidisciplinary artist, producer, and ceremony guide. His work explores living authentically within a modern context through an introspective methodology that weaves together elements of electro-acoustic live music, nature, technology, brain science, and guided meditation. His “ceremony-concerts” utilize a skilled instrumental repertoire to create space for an emotive inner journey. His ever-evolving career includes over 25 albums, including 2019’s album-length collaboration with spiritual pioneer Ram Dass, the five-hour-long psilocybin soundtrack “Music For Mushrooms: A Soundtrack For the Psychedelic Practitioner“, and collaborations with artists Jon Hopkins, Typhoon, Laraaji, Dead Prez, Nick Mulvey, Peter Broderick, DJ ANNA and more. As a trailblazer in the global wellness movement, he offers guided meditations, retreats, a weekly podcast (Ten Laws w/ East Forest), and talks that guide students through a brain-body approach aimed towards non-religious and grounded spirituality; he is a faculty member at the Esalen Institute and has worked with Google and Johns Hopkins neuroaesthetics project, UCSF, Wavepaths, Consciousness Hacking, TED, Field Trip Health, is the co-founder of JourneySpace.com, and more.
Marisa Radha Weppner
Radha is driven by a desire to understand what it means to be human, what is the nature of reality and what is God. Her classes aim to create a state of union within oneself for a felt sense of the ineffable. She will help you turn knowledge to wisdom by cultivating a connection to Self and a tangible sense of the deepest Truths of existence.
Brent Kuecker
For nearly two decades, Brent Kuecker has helped people to feel at home in their bodies through teaching the practices of yoga. He is not only a yoga and meditation teacher, but also a professional musician, videographer, and photographer. He teaches with a humanistic vision and compassionately shares what he has learned through his life and teaching work. Brent is indeed a polymath in the field of yoga, with expertise in anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, meditation, metaphysics, cosmology, tantra, mantra, kirtan, and sutras. Brent lives in Boulder, CO with his beloved partner, Sheela Bringi. Together they have toured the world playing music and have developed a method of yoga practice called the Sound Soma Method – a deeply nourishing yoga of sound and movement class. This practice seamlessly weaves together yoga āsana, functional & therapeutic movement, sonic meditation, and guided Indian singing and chanting.
2023 YOGAFORT EXPERIENCES
Mx Puja Singh
Mx Puja Singh aka Puja Singh Titchkosky (they/them) is a queer, non-binary trans, Indian-Canadian, singer, songwriter, producer, drag artist, and yoga/meditation/music teacher based in Los Angeles, California (born in Vancouver, BC). Their work focuses on helping people tune into the power of the Universe, slow down, practice presence and find their unique voice in order to more fully and joyfully express themselves in any and all areas of their life.
Coming from an Indian background (Punjabi Sikh) and being deeply in love with India from a young age, Puja is constantly learning more about their own lineage and the practices and traditions that come from this beautiful land and culture. Puja practices/teaches kirtan (Indian devotional singing) and studies Indian Classical Music with Subhashish Mukhopadyay (a topmost exponent of the Kotali Gharana). Puja’s work is informed by and shared through a lens of decolonization and the dismantling of oppressive systems of power (white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, etc).
Empower Hour Vinyasa Flow with Robyn Brinkerhoff
An invigorating and fun-flowing vinyasa class! Turn the heat up from within connecting mind, body, and soul – through breath and consistent movement! This is an all levels class offering options for students to explore their physical practice, in a safe and supported space.
Rooted Vibration Sound Bath with Brian Louderbough
Sound is Medicine. For thousands of years, ancient cultures from around the world have used sound as a tool for healing and spiritual advancement. Using a wide variety of unique instruments from around the world such as Tibetin singing bowls, gongs, flutes and handpans, Brian weaves a lifetime of musical study with many years of spiritual practice to create a unique and deeply moving soundscape experience that both quiets the mind and mystifies the senses. A native of Boise, Brian is multi instrumentalist and seasoned sonic explorer with a passion for building community, and sharing the re-emerging art of Sound Healing.
Functional Flow Yoga with Sami Ruggles
This fun, exploratory movement based class is focused on the concepts of mobility, proprioception, and balance. This is not a typical Yoga class and mixes disciplines such as primal movements, Functional Movement, and vinyasa to help stoke inspiration as you flow and breathe. Let go of your preconceived notions, and get curious about your bodies movement potential.
Nia: Somatic Exercise for Mind Body Wellness with Em Rome
Nia is a sensory-based movement practice that draws from elements of modern dance, ecstatic dance, yoga, martial arts, and somatic awareness. It empowers people of all shapes and sizes by connecting the body, mind, emotions, and spirit. Classes are taken barefoot to soul-stirring music from funk to tribal, swing to reggae. Participants are encouraged to be playful to be aware, and love their bodies. Come condition, release tension, express yourself, and get in the groove at Nia!
Ignite your Fire Element Yoga with Christina Braun
This is a 60min active vinyasa flow practice. We will be invoking the element of fire to not just burn away the old, but to spark a flame for inspiration. Expect strengthening poses and twists to balance the ego and empower the spirit!
Sound Sabbath Sound Healing with Nikki Caballero
Sound Sabbath is a space for individuals who would like to attend a secular gathering that will provide each person the space to dive into their own ritual journey and discover the altar within. The event will include tools for maintaining your energetic hygiene and self-care, grounding, energetic clearing, and an immersive sound journey experience.
The Yoga of 12 Step Recovery with White Flag Yoga
Y12SR is a holistic model to address the physical, mental and spiritual dis-ease of addiction. Informed by the latest research in neuroscience and trauma healing, Y12SR “connects the dots” by combining the somatic approach of yoga with the cognitive approach of the 12-step recovery model. This class is OPEN TO ALL PEOPLE. We are all touched by addiction either personally or by someone we know and can benefit from this potent experience. Modeled from the meetings of 12-step programs, the Yoga of 12-Step Recovery is a group-sharing circle followed by an intentional, themed yoga class.
Daily Rapture & Inner Peace Practice (DRIPP) with Kayla Keller
DRIPP is an acronym that stands for Daily Rapture & Inner Peace Practice
Rapture = the feeling of intense pleasure or joy
Peace = freedom from suffering/chaos/shame/guilt
Pleasure = delighting in our five senses and human experience
Put those together and you get a practice that centers around the pursuit of our pleasure & joy that will guide our ability to heal & soften and liberate ourselves from suffering. In DRIPP classes or workshops, we create safe spaces to learn and practice the skills and tools to develop and build our own personal practices. We explore the lightning pathway to healing and personal power through embracing our sexuality and sensuality. This personal practice then becomes a mindset and lifestyle. A way you see the world and move about it.
This class is all levels! Modifications and suggestions will always be offered for everyone participating. We start with a juicy breathwork practice followed by guided self massage. We move a bit, getting into our bodies and practice consensual self touch throughout. In the end, we relax deeply into a guided meditation. When you leave you will feel lighter, more relaxed and delicious!
Sensual Embodiment Yoga & Erotic Meditation with Sherika Tenaya
This workshop will be an immersion in exploring one’s erotic body/mind. We will begin with a libido pumping breathwork and move into a sensually charged yoga flow where each practitioner maintains their personal space while experiencing the pleasure inherent in the sensual movement of their own body. Sherika will then guide us into a relaxation meditation in the style of Yoga Nidra and, using erotic imagery and sensory imagination, will invite arousal into the erotic body/mind of each practitioner with the intention of simply observing what the sexual self does and doesn’t respond to, and feeling the mounting of sexual energy in the body without having to do anything with it.
Unearthed Lotus Yoga with Emily & Erika
Through their unique blend of mindful meditation, flowing asanas (yoga postures) and sound frequency, Emily and Erika symbiotically weave together a beautiful experience for all who attend to come back to center and embody their most authentic expression of self.
The Dance Commander Experience with Celeste & Deeveaux
This dance experience is born out of my mission to facilitate dance as a movement practice accessible to everyone. Dancing reminds us it is OK to have fun and our bodies have a natural rhythm just begging to sweat for joy on a dance floor! Repeated choreography is crafted to high-energy music and broken down in an easy-to-follow format. The idea is you learn the steps and then stop thinking about them—as in, get out of your head and into your body. Part of the class may also be unchoreographed movement that flows organically with the feeling of the class. Deeveaux guides the musical playground and make a space that is open to all levels of movers and shakers!
KegFit with Dirk Manley
KegFit Live is a “go at your own pace” circuit training workout…but here is the kicker. You’re in the back of a brewery with a live DJ doing three, 10-minute rounds using empty Woodland Empire kegs for a bit of weight – if so desired.
The final round is a Woodland Empire “recovery beer” or your favorite non-alcoholic beverage. You can go at your own pace, push yourself, chat with new/old friends, take a nap, it’s all up to you to decide what you want out of the workout. KegFit is designed for all levels of fitness by Dirk Manley and music by DJ Alpine Made. All you need is your workout clothes, including your fav sneaks. Our Yogafort 2023 theme is Music Mashup – all your favorite hits, mashed together like a cuddle puddle with all your favorite peeps.
Rock n’ Roll Flow Yoga with Haley Yo
Taking the yogic practices from the East and the flavor of rock and roll from the West, come connect with your body in a down-to-earth blend of vinyasa, hatha, and dance to find the magic when moving to the synchronicity of music. Haley will guide you to a state of sacred play and prayer.
Fire + Ice Yoga with Susanna Cagle
Activate your fire through breathwork. As we build intensity, balance movement and powerful holding in a Vinyasa flow. Cool down with relaxing meditation.
Wakes
Ada Ketchie and Nathan Getzin are the co-founders of Wakes, where they help people cultivate greater mindfulness, healing, and self-actualization through the ineffable power of music. They are the creators of the Wakes Method and Wakes App, a home for their unique sound bath sessions for sleep, meditation, and emotional health. Their studio albums include the immersive sound healing album Journey through the Chakras, and meditative Christmas Album, Winter Solstice. As popular teachers on the Insight Timer meditation app, Ada and Nathan serve thousands of people through recorded meditations and regular live events (affectionately called ‘Wakesday’ by fans). They have toured extensively throughout the West Coast USA, as well as to Costa Rica, Ireland, and the UK, and have Wakes community members in over 25 countries around the world. Whether connecting through sound healing, intimate concerts, retreats, soul-centered coaching, or their online resources and support, Ada and Nathan live out their mission to help people heal what hurts, grow thriving relationships, and awaken to true and lasting presence, purpose, and resilience. Learn more about their music and work at https://wakes.life
Miles Shrewsbery
Miles Shrewsbery is a tabla artist and percussionist based in Southern CA. Miles has received his ongoing classical training from Pandit Abhiman Kaushal and Pandit Nandkumar Bhatlouande of Hyderabad, India. He has performed all over the world with top Indian classical musicians, jazz artists and pop stars such as Shujaat Khan, Deepak Ram, Googoosh, Cheap Trick, and Yusef Lateef. He earned a B.A. in ethnomusicology from UCLA in 2004 and a masters from UC Riverside in 2009. Currently, Miles is on faculty at UCLA as co-director of the Indian music ensemble teaching tabla, as well as an Artist-teacher in Residence for the Center for World Music in San Diego, while managing his own school, San Diego Tabla Academy.
