Ellen Watson, world-renown movement teacher and global change catalyst, developed the Movement Arts Program at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where she teaches a range of ecstatic dance, massage, yoga and moving meditation practice. Now though her nonprofit MovingVentures School (MVS), Ellen offers training and retreats at inspiring locations around the world, with a focus on community service. In Bali she puts her students to work treating Balinese with disabilities, and provides free training to local people living in poverty, empowering them to earn a sustainable living.

Ellen writes:
One of the things I'm most grateful for is the opportunity to be of service in the world.

During a difficult decade in Indonesia that has seen bombings, devastating tsunami, SARS and record unemployment, MVS established a unique scholarship program that trains local people to earn a sustainable living by providing massage to tourists. One of these scholarship students, a traditional Balinese healer now incorporating Esalen® Massage into her work, was featured in the recent bestseller, "Eat, Pray, Love," by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Our classes include Hindus, Muslims, Shintos, Buddhists, Agnostics, Christians, Jews, and New Agers. We create community that transcends fundamentalism, learning each others chants, songs and prayers, and dancing together. One recent group included three young Indonesian women who work for a U.S. sponsored nonprofit, Bumi Sehat, or "Gentle Birthing". The death rate for mothers during childbirth in Indonesia is among the highest in the world. These young women aid the mothers of rural Bali in surviving childbirth, working particularly in Aceh, the epicenter of the earthquake/tsunami, where most people still live under tarps in very difficult circumstances. This year, I was honored to participate in the first annual Bali Spirit Festival, which raised $18,000 US for the Bumi Sehat Foundation.

The minimum wage in Indonesia is less than $2 USD a day and many people live on much less. The need is great, and MVS is deepening our commitment to serve by collaborating with Kubca Samakta, a vocational school for hearing and speech impaired youth in West Java to fund and build a facility where students may learn and practice massage, allowing them to earn a livelihood. Each year, several studens from Kubca Samakta complete our annual Esalen® Massage Certification Training in Bali. The language of Touch, coming from the heart through the hands, requires Presence. We are all moved as we learned to communicate with each other through translation, sign language and dance. These young people, born without hearing, are inspirational dancers, moving to the vibration they sense.

Our Karma Camp is a project of love that reaches out to the community while providing our students opportunity to apply newly-learned skills. We take our students to Senang Hati, a community center for disabled Balinese, where we practiced the "laying on of hands" that is such an integral part of Esalen® Massage. In Bali, being disabled is thought of as being cursed by the Gods, so many of the people at Senang Hati have never before experienced loving, healing touch.

We are proud of the work we are doing in Indonesia, and believe the service we offer to those in need is integral to our trainings. Our seventh annual Esalen(R) Massage Certification Training in Bali takes place April 12 - May 10, 2009.

For more on Ellen Watson and her MovingVentures School, please visit:
http://www.movingventures.org.

Don't miss the inspiring profile of Ellen in the July/August 2008 issue of Massage & Bodywork Magazine!

MovingVentures, Inc. is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, educational institution.