Sheilagh and I’s first JourneyDance of Manifestation and Vision Board Workshop took place in 2018, and it has returned every January since! On Sunday the 15th, fourteen women danced and collaged at The Pink Studio, sparking engagement with goals, wishes, and desires for 2024. According to tradition, Sheilagh led the movement component first, and I followed with the vision board experience. I loved the studio’s energy that afternoon: lively and playful yet grounded in reflective expression.
For this year’s workshop, I tweaked an element of my facilitation. As the last song of Sheilagh’s set mantled peace over the people stretched out on the floor, I placed piles of images in six different spots by the dancers instead of concentrating them in one big pile.
After the music stopped and Sheilagh prompted participants to sit up in their own time, I introduced the vision board activity and stressed the importance of following instinct when choosing images. I also encouraged folks to expand the hunt for materials to all six piles if the closest one didn’t provide the right Yes! moments. Although not anticipating conflict, I added, “Two people rarely reach for the same image at the same time, but if that happens we can resolve the issue with a dance battle!” This got a laugh, and Sheilagh declared, “I want to see this dance battle!”
Once the art-making got underway, I was happy to observe how the smaller piles strewn across the room gave rise to organic groups of three or four who encircled the supplies like campers round a fire. Soon the community sank more deeply into the work, and it was lovely to hear people chatter, laugh, and be silly as they chose their pictures and experimented with ideas. As for me, I enjoyed proffering backings, glue sticks, scissors, and stickers as I walked around checking if everyone had what they needed.
When the session’s end drew near, all were invited to present their vision boards to the entire group. It was exciting and uplifting to witness multiple narratives threaded into the artwork, and many beautiful details have stayed with me. The following memory snapshots contain only a taste of the experience, for rich meaning infused every piece:
Considering cat adoption, one person placed images of cats in a corner of her board. After scissors released the felines from an illustration, she fashioned fancy cat-hats styled with plumes and bows from a 1970’s book of paper dolls.
Another woman affixed an old library-book pocket and its attendant card to her piece. The last date stamped on the card was from 1992, a year which held personal meaning for the maker. Thanks to her vision and preparation, the library pocket received new contents: strips of paper printed with poems that she had brought especially for the workshop.
Also playing with hidden elements, a different participant put stickers on her backing and covered them with a paper showcasing kaleidoscope patterns in pink and blue (gluing down only one edge). She lifted the flap of the patterned paper to reveal the stickers, which contained words naming emotions connected to entering a new stage of life.
Another attendee spoke of how strongly she resonated with a quotation from the Women Artists Diary that she pasted to her vision board: “Not fragile like a flower. Fragile like a bomb!”
Acting on the wish to embrace creativity, another participant traced her hand over a vintage dressmaking guide, cut it out, and glued it in place as a reminder to use her hands to make more art. Later, the negative space from the paper she left behind inspired the completion of “Dancing Hands, You Are Beautiful!” (2024) pictured below.
Finally, one woman’s vision board featured Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi’s words about the wisdom that passes from soul to soul. This verse had spoken to her from a calendar page, destined for her collage. As she read the poem aloud, silence filled our workshop gathering, itself a soulful manifestation of movement, connection, imagination, and hope.
