Karen Ritscher 5 Rhythms® - Karen Ritscher | The Art of Viola, 5Rhythms and Grief Workshops

There is no way out but through the body, no way up unless we all go together, no way down unless we follow the beat, no way in unless we embrace the dark.

Gabrielle Roth

5Rhythms Movement Practice has transformed my life and I am thrilled and honored to share it with diverse communities, including patients in hospitals, caregivers, people with Alzheimer’s, artists’ collectives and musicians.

Practicing 5Rhythms, often described as a conscious dance meditation practice, catalyzes deeply personal explorations, moving us beyond what we already know into new realms of possibility of creativity and connection, where nothing is chronicled, tabulated or pinned down. The body-spirit-soul is a process, not only a structure and we are capable of deep healing and growth. 5Rhythms has taught me about getting out of my own way, so true creativity can flow.

Anyone of any physical ability can participate and there are no steps or choreography to follow, no technique to learn, other than listening to the guidance of our bodies. 5Rhyhms, both a practice and a philosophy, was developed by Gabrielle Roth, born from her observation and mapping of how energy moves around us and through us: in life cycles, nature, seasons and our relationships with others and ourselves.

Energy moves in waves. Waves move in patterns. Patterns move in rhythms. A human being is all of those: energy, waves, patterns, rhythms. We are the dance.

Gabrielle Roth

5Rhythms® Class Every Sunday at 11am in NYC

Come dance your heart out!

We practice being in our animal bodies, finding our most real expression!

For more info and to purchase your class $25

A 5Rhythms® workshop on grief and healing in NYC, May 13-15, 2022

Led by Karen Ritscher and Peter Selwyn.

Prerequisites: A minimum of three 5Rhythms classes or one 5Rhythms workshop. In person or online.

For all information and to purchase your ticket

Banner photos by Blair Hayes blairhayesphotography.com

My Journey with 5Rhythms®

I took my first workshop with Gabrielle in 1998, and I wanted to run away as quickly as I could! I spent the entire weekend in my head, evaluating and judging, in ecstatic terror, while at the same time deeply longing for the freedom and joy that I could feel around me on the floor. My early path with the 5Rhythms® was not the “I’ve finally found my home” feeling that so many others describe, but rather a slow process of learning to tolerate the truth and intimacy I was finding on the dance floor. Now, after my first ten years of “in-and-out” practice, and another ten of completely committed practice, I can share that I am overwhelmingly grateful to Gabrielle, Jonathan and the whole world tribe for my life itself! Finding my breath, and my feet in the beat, time and time again, has revealed possibilities that I never before believed could happen.

Because I had been trained as a classical violist, I was used to trying to get it right and was, in fact, a slave to my perfectionism in both my performing and the rest of my life. 5Rhythms® has opened up a field of true creativity, and it is delicious! Now my worlds of 5Rhythms® and music overlap and feed each other. I am grateful for my “teachers” in the Alzheimer’s Group at the Stein Center, who show me over and over again what true presence is. I teach my weekly class Rhythm Body and I also love the 5RRO work I get to do with the Grief Loss Workshops and cancer groups at Montefiore Hospital.

In 2014 I was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer (multiple myeloma) with amyloidosis. At that time I was told that it was unusual that I was still alive, since I had been having undiagnosed symptoms for three years, and I really should have died. My healing has been a very interesting process, and I can say that I am now on the other side of this illness. I truly believe that this dancing path has helped me heal. Learning to be fluid with what is, knowing my heart’s callings, and learning to surf the chaos of the diagnosis and this confusing world we live in have all grown out of my practice.

Near the beginning of my diagnosis, soon after Gabrielle had transitioned, she appeared to me in the dance and said, ”It’s not your time yet!”

So often I hear her voice saying, “the only way out is through!”

Here is the link to the 5Rhyhthms® official website.