Interdependence LabApply to the Lab
Two people playing with contact improvisation in a sunlit studio: one is draped over the other's back, looking at the camera, while three others watch and smile.

Interdependence Lab

June 1–24, 2027Earthdance, Plainfield, MA

Apply to the Lab
Two people in a tight hug, one wrapped in a striped woven blanket.

For young adults longing tofree the heart,

People resting against trees and a boulder in a forest, some with eyes closed.

come home to the body,

A smiling person with palms pressed together, surrounded by laughing friends.

and build beloved community.

A circle of young people sitting close together, laughing, with hands resting on the shoulders of the man at the center.

About the program

At the close of a meditation retreat, someone asks the question: How do I live the dharma — not just on the cushion, but in relationship, in conflict, in the mess of daily life? How do I act in service to the world from this place?

Interdependence Lab is an experiment to live into these questions — nearly a month living in sangha to deepen and expand in three concentric circles of practice: within ourselves, interpersonally, and communally, with the wider world.

The month begins with remembering how to rest and receive, moves into a silent Insight meditation retreat centered on embodiment, then opens to mindful living in community; mornings of silent practice, afternoons of workshops featuring an array of relational practice and creative expression modalities, and evenings of emergence, connection, dance, play. Throughout, the sangha practices ethical, cooperative living with each other and the earth: cooking, cleaning, and tending the land.

Three circles of practice

Communally,with the wider worldInterpersonallyWithinourselves

The Lab at a glance

  1. A person with eyes closed and a hand on their chest and belly, standing beneath a tall evergreen against a blue sky.
    Phase 01 · June 1–5

    Rest and receive

    Arriving, settling, connecting, resting. With dharma teacher Kaira Jewel Lingo.

  2. A room of people seated in meditation on dark cushions, eyes closed, with string lights and a woven wall hanging behind them.
    Phase 02 · June 6–12

    Silent retreat

    A week-long, Insight meditation retreat centering somatic awareness with dharma teacher Chas DiCapua.

  3. Overhead view of a group gently holding up a laughing person lying across their arms.
    Phase 03 · June 13–24

    Living in community

    We transition from retreat into vibrant community living, supported by Buddhist ethical trainings: meditative mornings, afternoons of relational and creative workshops, evenings of dance, play, song and sauna, and shared service to each other and the land.

Retreat teachers

The month

What the month includes

  1. Insight meditation

    The program opens with learning how to rest and receive, then enters a week-long silent Insight meditation retreat. After the retreat we continue with daily morning meditation practice, taught by experienced and beloved Insight teachers.

  2. Relational practice

    Embodied authentic relating, group process and shadow-work practices led by experienced facilitators help us feel and listen deeply, speak our truth, and nurture intimate, vulnurable connection. Supported conflict transformation to grow our capacity to meet our edge in relational tension and expand.

  3. Creative expression

    Ecstatic dance, contact improv, music jams, poetry — however you connect to creative aliveness, you will find others to play and share with.

  4. Cooperative living and working

    We work together collaboratively to care for each other, the space and the earth: cooking, cleaning, and tending the land.

  5. Play on the land

    Jump in cold water at the quarry, steam in the sauna, go on a hike. So many ways to play at Earthdance.

The month in depth

The three phases, up close

  1. A person with a dandelion in their hair waters a small potted plant beside a low altar of photographs, books, beads and flowers on a blue cloth.
    Phase 01 · June 1–5

    Rest and receive

    Many of us arrive exhausted and dispersed from the pace of the year. So we begin by landing: settling onto the land at Earthdance, meeting one another, sleeping well, eating well and letting our nervous systems slow down. With dharma teacher Kaira Jewel Lingo, we practice rest, play and presence as forms of practice, so that we enter retreat resourced and connected instead of running on empty.

    Portrait of Kaira Jewel LingoDharma teacherKaira Jewel Lingo

  2. Two people sit quietly side by side on a fallen log in the woods.
    Phase 02 · June 6–12

    Silent retreat

    For a week we enter noble silence, without devices or conversation. Guided by Insight teacher Chas DiCapua, we practice sitting and walking meditation centered on somatic awareness: feeling the body from the inside, meeting sensation and emotion with intimacy and care. Chas offers daily dharma talks on embodying the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths and Eight-fold Path in service of an awakened life.

    Portrait of Chas DiCapuaDharma teacherChas DiCapua

  3. Four people at a kitchen counter, smiling as they strip fresh thyme and herbs together.
    Phase 03 · June 13–24

    Living in community

    After retreat, we carry our practice into vibrant community life. Mornings begin in silent meditation with experienced Insight teachers. Afternoons hold relational and creative workshops, and evenings open into dance, play, song and sauna. Participants who need to can choose to do remote work in designated tech areas and call rooms during the morning and afternoon sessions of this phase. Throughout, we cook, clean and tend the land together, held by the Five Mindfulness Trainings.

    Living intimately together, our shadows surface: old patterns, defenses and reactivity. In group process we support each other to meet them with honesty and care, so they begin to heal and integrate, uncovering our gold. We bring what we’ve learned in our bodies home to our families, communities, movements and workplaces, more spacious, open-hearted and alive.

Apply to the Lab

Young people sit on cushions in pairs, talking and listening. In front, a smiling young man with a dandelion behind his ear faces a friend, and flower crowns and dandelions decorate the people around them.

A laboratory to embody the world we want to live in

We're living through an era of crisis, loneliness and exhaustion. The Lab is for those of us who long to keep our hearts open, come out of the trance of separation, and keep serving from love, instead of hardening, numbing or burning out. We start from the understanding that healing and transformation are not things we do as isolated individuals; they happen in relationship, in communities of practice. At the Lab we learn and practice how we be together — through presence, joy, vulnerability, pain and generative conflict — to embody a fractal of the world our hearts know is possible.

Tuition

Tuition covers your room, board and programming for all 24 days. It supports our teachers, staff, and Earthdance, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit retreat center that hosts us.

  1. Apply and deposit by Jan 1Super Early Bird$3,200
  2. Apply and deposit by March 15Early Bird$3,500
  3. After March 15Full Tuition$3,970
$5,600

Benefactor. Directly supports scholarship for a participant who cannot afford it.

Limited scholarship available — mark in your application if you would need scholarship to attend the program and we will send you a separate application. You can also apply for the Sangha Service Fellowship and receive tuition reduction.

About Earthdance

Earthdance is a nonprofit arts organization and retreat center on 175 acres in the Berkshire hills of Plainfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1986 by a group of Boston dancers and artists, it has grown into a home for contact improvisation, somatic practice and interdisciplinary arts, rooted in sustainable living and community building. For three weeks, its studios, gardens, woods, sauna and quarry become our home.

Sunbeams fall through tall trees onto a mossy, rocky stream bed in the woods.
Rows of young vegetables in the Earthdance garden, with the green-roofed main buildings and trees behind.
The Earthdance studio: a large wood-floored room with timber beams and tall windows looking out on snowy woods.
A black-and-white photo of two people laughing as they gaze upward: one shades their eyes with a hand, while the other hugs them from behind and looks up too.

Lab Lore

Interdependence Lab grew out of the Contemplative Semester (est. 2023). We hope to offer the same core medicine of practicing dharma in beloved community, but in a more accessible, spacious and zesty container, without the baggage of an academic context. Maya Park and Shea Riester, two co-creators of the Contemplative Semester, are planting this new garden, and surprise guest CS staff alums are sure to make an appearance.