2026 Series Curated by Anna M. Maynard
Facilitated by Anna M. Maynard, em liptow + Tommy Noonan
PRACTIC FORWARD
Culture Mill started Practice Forward in 2026 as a way to bring the advanced technologies of artistic and somatic play into the practice of strengthening community. Culture Mill continues to advocate for the importance of playfully practicing how to feel and think collectively in and through our bodies.
This year’s Practice Forward series will be led by artist and facilitator Anna Maynard in collaboration with Emily Liptow and Tommy Noonan and will feature community practices, workshops and performative gatherings whose purpose is to strengthen the vital community muscle of creative process and play.
Practice Forward is hosted by The Haw River Ballroom.
All events are free and open to all ages, abilities, and movement experience.
GROUP SHAKE
OCTOBER 8
Group Shake is a collective, solo durational practice.
We come together to tend to our own bodies, in community. It offers a space for those interested in movement without touch or interaction with others. We shake and move to music over an extended period, focusing on shaking and rocking, allowing the body to move naturally—free from concerns about appearance, skill, or rhythm.
While it may resemble dancing, the true intention is to release tension and energy. This practice promotes circulation, supports the nervous system, enhances overall health, and fosters a sense of community.
In the Durham/Chapel Hill area, we (Anna Maynard and emily liptow) have been organizing regular Group Shake events since Fall 2024. Group Shake is a sober space to move, dance, shake, rock, and stim in a room with others. In this container the social pressure to engage or dance with others is removed from the culture of the practice, even discouraged. Shake is often done to a 1-2 hour curated playlist, with an orientation by one of the facilitators and supported by a vibey set of portable lights.
There is an opening circle that sets the tone and offers suggestions for how to go about your shake practice. We offer an optional closing circle where there is space for reflection, grounding, and community announcements.
Group Shake is rooted in postmodern movement research and shaped by curiosity and togetherness and continues to live as an evolving practice derived from queer club dance and somatic investigation, inviting people to gather, move through duration, and return to the intelligence of the body. What happens when the rhythmic durational dancing found in queer club spaces is brought into an intentional and sober container? Inspired by the ways bodies move for extended periods in club environments, the practice centers repetitive shaking and rocking as pathways toward release, regulation, and embodied awareness. Participants move within their own sensory experience while remaining gently aware of the collective presence, allowing a shared atmosphere to emerge without the need for social exchange.
Facilitated by Anna M. Maynard, emily liptow
We shake with joy, we shake with grief. What a time they have, these two housed as they are in the same body.
From Evidence (Beacon, 2009). -Mary OliverEXPLROATIONS IN MUTUALITY
NOVEMBER 10
Explorations in Mutuality is an evening of movement research exploring attention, relationality, and collective improvisation. Through movement, witnessing, somatic and relational practices, we will cultivate exquisite attention to what is already here, sensing ourselves, one another, and the space between.
We will work with sensation, impulse, tone, tension, ease, uncertainty, connection, and distance as material for movement and inquiry. From this more inhabited sense of self, we can become curious about how we move toward and away from one another, how attention travels through a group, and how individual choices gather into larger patterns.
Practices draw from Emergent Improvisation, Authentic Relating, Focusing, Somatic Stress Release, the Wheel of Consent, Contact Improvisation, and other somatic and improvisational research. We will explore what forms of responsiveness, connection, and mutuality become possible when we listen closely to ourselves, each other, and the collective space we are making.
Facilitated by Anna M. Maynard, emily liptow and Tommy Noonan
THE ORACLE
NOVEMBER 10 + DECEMBER 9
What is The Oracle?
The Oracle is a collective improvisational performance practice that uses voice, movement, witnessing, and attention to explore what is present in a group.
Participants move between speaking, moving, listening, and witnessing. Multiple voices can exist at once. The structure creates space for personal expression, collective themes, unexpected relationships, and emergent performance to arise.
The Oracle asks us to listen closely enough for something to emerge.
Where does The Oracle come from?
The Oracle was created by Queralt Jorba (Lina) and Dr. Daniel J. Hayes (DeeJay) as a group process for collective exploration through movement and voice.
The practice draws inspiration from Family Constellations, Authentic Movement, Theater of the Oppressed, and Zegg Forum, while developing its own distinct structure.
The Oracle is used as a space for collective witnessing, expression, inquiry, and performance. Participants may speak or move from their own experience, embody a particular voice or perspective, or respond to something they sense moving through the larger group.
Through timed rounds, witnesses, and shared attention, a temporary collective composition emerges.
THE ORACLE
REHURSAL
NOVEMBER 10
Calling all artists, performers, musicians, improvisors, and community members interested in participating in an emergent performance process.
You do not need previous experience with The Oracle. Curiosity, attention, and a willingness to listen and participate are enough.
The Oracle Rehearsal is a two hour container for learning the structure, entering the practice, and experiencing The Oracle together.
We will learn the basic form and roles, then move into practicing The Oracle itself. This is time to become familiar with the structure while developing the quality of attention and listening that allows the performance to emerge.
Come expecting to listen, absorb, witness, experiment, and practice.
For those interested in participating in the performance, the rehearsal is a space to begin build a shared language and collective field together.
THE ORACLE
PERFORMANCE
DECEMBER 9
The Evening of The Oracle is an open gathering for community practice, performance, witnessing, and play.
The evening brings the practices developed throughout Practice Forward into a live, emergent performance. There are two ways to participate.
Participate as a Performer
Those entering The Oracle as performers must attend the Oracle Rehearsal, and are encouraged to participate in the full Practice Forward series.
Throughout the series, we will build practices of attunement, listening, collective awareness, and improvisation. Familiarity with The Oracle structure is necessary to enter the performance so that we can move together with a shared language and attention.
We will enter the structure together and listen for what emerges.
Come as an Audience Member
You are also invited simply to come, gather, and witness.
Watch friends, artists, and local community members enter an emergent performance structure in real time. Witness creative play, movement, voice, uncertainty, and collective listening as the group responds to what is arising in the room.
As an audience member, you are part of the field too. Come curious. Listen for what resonates with you, what feels present in the room, and what messages might be moving through the community at large.
Come to perform. Come to witness. Come to gather around what emerges.
FACILITATORS
-
![]()
Anna M. Maynard
Sereis Curator, Organizer, Facilitaor
Bio
-
![]()
emily liptow
Facilitator
Bio
-
![]()
Tommy Noonan
Organizer, Facilitator
Bio
