Testimonials
“Valerie provide[s] the most sacred and safest of spaces for me to be all of myself: a Black woman with African-American, Chinese, and Eastern European Jewish ancestry. It is like [she is] a guide and a guardian. I can let go of any fear and need to perform that white spaces activate in me. When I move, I am able to release my trauma and feel all ranges of emotions and sensations: heaviness, groundedness, flow, surrender. Because Movement Liberation is a BIPOC space, I’m never nervous about who my partner is going to be, what kind of shields I may need to put up. These workshops are a true gift.”
“It felt really nourishing and important in these times to meet as persons of color to move together. Valerie brings a beautiful ethic, an inspiring soundscape, and inspiring invitations for us to rest, reclaim our dignity and ancestry, and own our power as agents of change. While many of us are waking up to the pain of oppression, Valerie is one of the few that connects this oppression to patterns of movement in our bodies, offering up new pathways for understanding and tending to trauma in our body, and the group field. I felt as a group we found a deep embodied feeling of safety, a connection with our own resilience, and a joy that we are in this together, and we can do it.”
“I LOVE somatic experiences that allow us to anchor healing from the mental/emotional realm, into the body to be transformed. We need more somatic in our otherwise isolating technology-heavy lives. The BIPOC workshop was a unique and truly enriching experience to step into an expanded state of my BEING, where I felt seen, accepted, and supported in the fullness of who I AM.
Valerie is a gifted, loving and authentic facilitator, who created a safe and sacred space, allowing us to get in touch with our inner spirit, each other, and our interconnectivity, with intimacy and depth.
The result was a felt experience of LIBERATION and JOY
So grateful to have access to this work and community!
Now, the challenge will be to carry this spirit and energy with us wherever we go.”
“Conscious movement and dance is a soul revival experience and a life saver. That is what I experience when I dance under Valerie’s direction. Her gentle yet powerful spirit is a guiding force of liberation. I witness my spirit coming alive and the bodies around me releasing limitations as Valerie Chafograck guides us to embody all that we are in our physical qualities and spiritual existence. If you desire to be the change you want to see in the world come and dance with VALERIE! ”
“Valerie’s BIPOC workshop was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced through conscious dance. Being able to witness and be witnessed by folks of color was a validation and celebration of our existence. Our bodies moving rhythmically through a space together is extremely hard to describe into words but its resonance will always live deep within my spirit. I imagined our ancestors watching proudly as we centered our joy and healing.
Throughout the day, I noticed a simultaneous feeling of grounding and soaring that allowed me to envision a world where we truly knew our magic, beauty and brilliance. Thank you for these sweet moments of LIBERATION in a time where we are inundated with hatred, violence, and disregard for our lives! I reclaimed some power back into my heart and fell even deeper in love with my black queer femme self. I’m soooo looking forward to the next workshop. So much gratitude for Valerie’s vision for thriving and loving communities. ”
“As a black woman, I have longed wondered what it would be like to be in an conscious dance space where I didn’t feel the need to craft a safety bubble around myself to shield myself from the exotification, hyper sexualizing, projections, and micro-aggressions that occur so frequently in eurocentric dance spaces. I have been curious about what would emerge in my dancing when I could put down
that metaphorical weight and be completely free.
Valerie’s We Are Our Ancestor’s Wildest Dreams Workshops have been the answer to that longing and it is so much more than what I had imagined. It turns out it is not just the absence of oppressive dynamics that is magical, in fact it is the presence of so much POC alchemical genius medicine that makes the space so rich and nurturing. Being in a space where POC cultural values permeate ever aspect of the design of the workshop, where my ways of being in the world are seen as full of wisdom, a space where the ancestors and the elders are respected, a space that honors blackness and indigenous folks, a space where the music reflects my heritage, and the other bodies move in a shared rhythm, I do my best dancing in this space and I become my best self here. I truly become my ancestor’s wildest dream. ”
“Spaces in my life where I truly feel free are rare. This is why I traveled over an hour away to attend Valerie’s workshop for BIPOC, because my soul longed for freedom and to simply be SEEN. I smile as I remember how I was given space at the workshop to just “be.” There’s so much freedom in being able to drop the masks, drop the personas, drop the roles that we play... and to “just be.” I felt what it was like to expand my body and to take up space as opposed to my norm of contracting and shrinking, something that I have been conditioned to do in a world that does not value me... in a world that does not see me. Being prompted to stand tall shook away the insecurity that I walked in with and for the first time in I don’t know how long... I felt proud to be me.. in this skin... and in this body. Shame drained from my body and with my feet grounded, I felt strong, worthy and free. I moved in this space where I saw my own beauty reflected back at me in the eyes of other beautifulIy brilliant brown souls. I felt seen and I was able to communicate what words simply can not express. The energy from the dance floor was intoxicating and I walked away feeling alive and free. I wholeheartedly thank Valerie for holding space for BIPOC.”
“Personally, this project holds a deep significance for me. Having been a participant in Valerie’s event, We Are Our Ancestors Wildest Dreams, a conscious dance workshop for BIPOC, I experienced a spaciousness in movement expression and a solid ground in relations that left me with feelings of deep dignity, even as I moved out from the event and into the everyday.”
“That day, I experienced the most amount of joy, freedom, and delight I have in a while. BIPOC communities are in need of a safe space to play, connect, explore, support, laugh with (and even bark at) each other. There were so many moments that stood out to me, from Tatsuno gently cradling me as I rested, to the indelible memory of having four sets of warm hands supporting me in Eugenia’s somatic offering, to a fellow dancer yelling with delight “WE DESERVE IT!” as Whitney Houston’s “Higher Love” played in the background. None of it would have been possible without Valerie’s grace and skill as our leader and guide. She believed in each of us to find our sense of dignity and connection, encouraging us to move and rest as needed. That dance floor was the definition of centering POC communities to uplift each other with love and care. We learned to move as an embodied, liberated collective. That day injected me with the courage to continue my journey in reclaiming my pleasure and freedom.
Thank you Valerie, from the bottom of my heart, for providing such a beautiful and
empowering space to witness each other and move together.”
“The first daylong Conscious Dance Workshop for People of Color was a stunning success—and from the collective reaction, an answer to a deep longing that had harbored in all our hearts. The trajectory from beginning to end was pretty much seamless: Valerie facilitated with a light but expert touch that invited everyone’s full expression of their ancestral identities. She created a soulful, safe container—inviting us all to relax and trust and feel free to animate what is too often suppressed in other contexts. Many meaningful patterns of powerful self-expression and connection emerged from this sweet guidance! I felt enveloped by a great, archetypal wisdom emanating from the participants, an emergence of profound gifts that were deeply nourishing to the heart, body and mind—a kind of mutual healing.”