Dancing with Peter Pan

Aaargh and shiver me timbers! It’s been a whole summer since I’ve written to you! And during this season you can see that I had a powerful encounter with Captain Hook! As you may remember, it is part of my family tradition to create video productions with my grandnieces/nephews during our summer stay in Michigan together. This year brought forth the story of Peter Pan! What an amazing adventure to enter this story with 7 of my family little ones from 3-13 years old. Not only that, but seven of our adults also jumped in as pirates, plus a brother as videographer and sister as co-director. Woohoo! 

The gift of Peter Pan as the emblem of the child within us who remains forever young is such a beautiful image. Creating with my kids is an amazing opportunity to allow the child in me to come out in full creative force! And to tell you the truth, that creative spark is what guides me in all my dancing adventures … and leads me deep into prayer as well as into playful and joyous community. 

I hope you, too, have had a chance to enter some revelry in the sweet gifts of summer! I’ll save a few stories for future newsletters … but for now, please take a look at some of the adventures I have planned for the coming year … it would be so good to share some dancing time with you! 

For a treat, I invite you to enter into the adventures of Peter Pan. The whole production is 45 minutes … but if you’d just like to see a few high-points, here is your list:

5:00 Tink & Peter Pan 

12:20 Kids Flying 

16:00 Pirates Entrance 

24:30 I Won’t Grow Up 

29:30 Capture of Kids 

34:28 Captain Hook’s Song! 

SpiritPlay Class in Seattle!

SpiritPlay has become a staple of Seattle’s InterPlay offerings! Now in our 23rd year, we have developed a wonderful community of faith and foolishness. This monthly LIVE series is for those grounded in Christianity who so long for the spontaneity of InterPlay to help us navigate the wild and whacky, sometimes rocky, humble and holy journey of our lives. We’ll be diving into the lectionary, exploring sacred stories, dancing through the cycle of seasons, singing our souls and improvising in prayer.  Calling all angels – let’s dance, play and pray!
 
8 Sessions meeting the second Tuesday (mostly) of every month – 9:30 – 11:45 am. 
Begins October 10th!
 

Email me for imformation
details and registration

The Love of Thousands: Book, Album and Prayer Cycle Launch

October 16th, 10-11am PST

Exciting news! Here at Abbey of the Arts we have a new Book, CD and Prayer Cycle to celebrate! It is always such a rich process to commission and assemble songs to help enflesh the material in Christine Paintner’s publications! The themes of Angels, Saints and Ancestors are also quite poignant and potent as we move into the fall. As producer, I am overseeing the finishing touches on the audio files and CD artwork right now! I am so jazzed to share this new album of 21 songs by 17 different artists! Come join Christine and a number of our artists to celebrate our newest release!

Also, stay tuned for the Birthing the Holy DVD premiering in December! Can’t wait to share some of my latest prayer dances that honor Mary and the Sacred Feminine with you!

Details and registration

Awakening the Creative Spirit Returns!

April 21-26th, 2024
St. Andrew’s Retreat House, Pacific Northwest
with Kayce Hughlett & Betsey Beckman


This LIVE experiential retreat is one of our signature courses at Abbey of the Arts! Do you have a calling to explore and deepen the skills to bring the arts to your soul-care ministry? This program gives you an immersion in various art-forms that build upon one another to help you explore and integrate the arts in your life and profession.

It is such an honor to lead this program with my friend and colleague, Kayce Hughlett. We love to support you in diving in, laughing, crying, exploring, releasing, growing and witnessing. We love to coach, coax, teach, and help you discover and listen to the creative spirit in you!

Details and registration

New book by InterPlay co-founder, 
Cynthia Winton-Henry!

One of my most treasured teachers in the world of dance, art, and soul is Cynthia Winton-Henry! I have spent decades dancing with her in InterPlay settings and being guided by her genius of bodywisdom. Just as Cynthia was getting ready to launch this book, I ended up offering my proof-reading/editing skills to support her in this awesome publication and work of art!

Peruse or order a copy of the book

Celebrating InterPlay Seattle 30 years!

Speaking of InterPlay, it’s now been 30 years since we’ve been building creative community through InterPlay in Seattle. What an amazing and luscious time it’s been! Our home community in this region has fostered so much joy in my life, and so we wanted to celebrate with a slide show honoring the gifts of these 30 years. I was able to bring my video editing skills to this project … here’s a retrospective to give you a taste of this love! I send you off with a dash of play, and a bit of pixie dust to help you learn to breathe, dance, and sing in ways that make your heart soar!

Love and blessings,

Betsey

Posted: September 11, 2023 by

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Embodying Easter!

Happy Easter! I hope you are finding signs of new life sprouting in your soul’s garden! I must say that the journey to this Easter has been a bit challenging for our St. Patrick’s community after undergoing a death of sorts to leave our own church behind. And yet, new seeds of beauty are coming to life in our St. Joseph community. I had the joy of collaborating with a wonderful artist and new friend at St. Joe’s (Eloisa Cardona) to proclaim the Genesis reading at Easter Vigil. Because I was so used to having a dozen or so St. Pat’s members dance this reading with me, I devised a surprise way to include them in our new St. Joe’s version of the story, which was such a delight! 

Below I’m including three videos to share the Triduum journey of Good Friday (which I spent at Edmonds Lutheran Church), Easter Vigil, and Easter morning with my sweet little ones. You can catch a glimpse of any of them that are calling to you!

One of the results of my full schedule these past few months is that my hip is very cranky … so I need to rest up a bit to recoup! (Didn’t Jacob walk with a limp after his encounter with an angel?) In any case, if you are in Seattle, consider joining us for our Mary Magdalene evening in the spirit of Resurrection! Just no “Hippity Hopping” for me! Send some good prayers for gentle healing grace!

Embodying Easter! Praying with Mary Magdalene

Thursday, April 27th | 7-8:30 pm at St. Joseph Parish Center, Arrupe Room, Seattle, WA

Mary Magdalene is one of Jesus’ most beloved companions, who walked closely with him – in life, through death, and into resurrection. Through Visio Divina, come share an evening to witness her story (as beautifully filmed in Seattle), reflect on how she speaks to us today, and join in a guided movement meditation to imagine your own encounter with the Risen Christ. 

Let Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, guide us to the gift of embodying Easter!

Email me to register

Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry: Honoring Our History and Legacy

Closing Celebration June 2-3, 2023

We here in the Northwest are heart-broken that our School of Theology and Ministry which has educated and uplifted so many (including me!) in spiritual leadership, is closing its doors. I have been invited to be on the team to create an honoring ritual evening of stories and prayers on Friday, June 2nd.

If you are an alum or interested to partake, please reserve your spot here.

In Closing: Carnegie Adventures!

Well, dancing at Carnegie Hall was truly a highlight of my performing career! And here’s an amazing story … a few years after college, I had the opportunity to dance at Carnegie Recital Hall with the Greg Reynolds Dance Quintet. I got curious about the date of that show, so I went digging in my boxes … and I found the program for my first time at Carnegie … it was …

February 19th, 1983… 

exactly 40 years TO THE DATE of my return to the big stage on 

February 19th, 2023!! 

I am truly amazed at how Spirit guides our lives and surprises us with gifts beyond our imagining. I am so grateful for this beauty! Also, since there are no official videos from Carnegie, here is a small collage of images to enjoy! 

Love and blessings, dear friends. Keep dancing into Easter!

Betsey

Betsey Beckman, MM

Posted: April 18, 2023 by

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Dancing with the Black Madonna

New year blessings! Hope you had a joyous Christmas season and are opening your arms to the newness of 2023 unfolding. (For a sweet look back to dancing Christmas, you can scroll to the bottom of the email!) 

As we round the corner into February and the Feast of St. Brigid, we are also entering Black History Month. As I pondered how we might dance through this month, I suddenly realized this is the perfect invitation for me to share about my journey with the Black Madonna! 

I grew up with the quiet statue of Mary as a pretty big influence in my Catholic household, but it was only after I left behind her white-washed prim piety that I rediscovered Mary as a powerful, courageous, earthy presence in my life. And one of the ways she has become present to me is in the gift of the Black Madonna. Perhaps you have seen images and statues across Europe that depict Mary with dark skin and have attracted pilgrims throughout the ages? She is mysterious, deep, calling us into the presence of the earth-rich sacred feminine as an aspect of God’s wholeness. 

In our ongoing work at Abbey of the Arts and through the book – Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal, we have been exploring many different names and images of Mary. As I open to Mary’s archetypal presence in the form of the Black Madonna, I have discovered she has so many invitations for me to step out of my comfy corner of a white world and to collaborate with various black artists and friends. Not just step out, but dance out whole-heartedly indeed! 

So the first piece I’d like to share is a stirring new video we have come up with to celebrate the Black Madonna … a song and dance written and performed by my beloved sister-friend, Soyinka Rahim. (I actually call Soyinka my own personal Black Madonna!) As she and I collaborated on the project, I was inspired to invite our friends in Uganda at the Friends of Hope Cultural Centre in Tororo to collaborate in the video. With their joyous “yes!” and rehearsals over zoom, the result is such a moving cross-cultural dance calling on the Black Madonna to enliven us all! (See below.)

Also … I must say that in my own inner being, the big deal about February is that soon I will be at Carnegie Hall! My dear friend, Val Jansen invited me … and she is an amazing soul who dedicates much of her life to lifting up the voices of Black folk in spirit, story and song. In particular, the six songs she will offer at Carnegie are dedicated to the six Black Catholics who are currently on the journey to sainthood. (See her story of Thea Bowman below that has also called me to the dance!) 

And finally, at Abbey of the Arts, we are launching a new collaboration with the truly gifted singer, Melanie de More, who will be offering a workshop for us on February 13th. See details below! 

My friends, may your journey through this newsletter be an inspiration to join me in dancing with Mary into new places of connection. And may the Black Madonna bless and enliven you (and our world) with peace, love, joy, happiness, health, grace and ease!

Black Madonna

Carnegie Hall – Feb. 19th!

Woohoo -it’s time!  I am so blessed to be friends with talented, grace-filled musicians, who sometimes open doors to unexpected places! As I mentioned earlier, I’m so grateful to my friend, ValLimar Jansen (and the whole team) for inviting me to help animate the stage in one of New York’s most special places.

It would be so fun to share with you! There will be a 250 voice choir, and I will find any empty spots on stage to share my dancing light! Let me know if I will see you in the audience! 

Who says 65 is too old to dance? Whee! Click here to purchase tickets

Coming to NYC?

Join the dancing tribe on Feb 18th for some InterPlay fun! 3:30 – 5:30pm Abrons Art Center

The radiant Soyinka Rahim will be leading an InterPlay workshop with Libby Mislan. Get your dancing boots on! Click here to purchase tickets.

Sending You Light with Melanie DeMore

Monday, Feb. 13th | Online – 11 am Pacific

Join us at Abbey of the Arts for a soul-stirring mini-retreat with vocalist Melanie de More. Her Sending You Light song will be on our forthcoming CD … Register Here!

Sr. Thea Bowman with ValLimar Jansen

March 30, 7:00 p.m. | Viterbo University, La Crosse, WI

& Betsey Beckman as guest artist!

Sr. Thea Bowman was an amazing light in our world and is now on her journey to being canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church. ValLimar Jansen carries so much of Sr. Thea’s spirit! 

Val just called this week to ask me to help bring this musical on the life of Sr. Thea to life. I’m hoping this works in my schedule, so wanted to give you a heads up!

Seattle University School of Theology & Ministry

Honoring Our History and Legacy Closing Celebration 

June 2-3, 2023

We here in the Northwest are heart-broken that our School of Theology and Ministry which has educated and uplifted so many (including me!) in spiritual leadership, is closing its doors. I have been invited to be on the team to create an honoring ritual evening of stories and prayers on Friday, June 2nd. 

If you are an alum or interested to partake, please reserve your spot here.

Shrines of Spain Pilgrimage!

Black Madonna of Montserrat

June 12 – 23, 2023

As we emerge from our COVID cocoons, do you feel the Black Madonna calling you? I will be co-leading this pilgrimage to Spain with my dear friend, Fr. Michael Sparough, SJ,who got me started in arts ministry 45 years ago! I have been deeply nourished by the Jesuit charisms of praying with the imagination, and we will be following in the footsteps of St. Ignatius Loyola from Burgos to Barcelona, from Madrid to Montserrat, where Loyola surrendured his sword to the Black Madonna. I personally am so excited to visit Montserrat again … such a powerful presence of the Black Madonna there! Only 7 spots left! 

To download a flyer, click here. To register, click here.

In Closing

Nativity Blessings! 

Before we leave Christmas behind, I wanted to share this joyous video of my first Christmas at St. Joseph parish, reflecting how much fun I had working with 12 kids to proclaim the Nativity Gospel! 

May the gift of Mary, Black Madonna, Bearer of Life, Seat of Wisdom bless you abundantly! (And please send a prayer that I can dance gracefully & passionately across the stage of Carnegie Hall!)

Betsey

Betsey Beckman, MM

Posted: February 7, 2023 by

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Dancing with Mary Into New Birth

Blessings of this holy season of Advent! I hope you were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with some of your beloveds. Seems like we are called to find ways to creatively adapt as we emerge from our COVID cocoons! 

I have been in adapting mode as I learn to bridge communities in my new parish at St. Joseph Church. I have begun working with the children, and their hearts are so dear! Movement is already a natural language for them, so it’s great fun to help channel that innate connection into new expressions of American Sign Language and Gospel dramas for the Advent and Christmas Season. 

I also had the opportunity to offer a beautiful dance at liturgy during the season of honoring saints and ancestors in November. I worked with one of the homilists to help illustrate the experience of those who are on the other side of the veil … who are so close to us when we open our hearts to feel the connection. I’d love to share our dance, which includes the beautiful turkey-feather wings created by Soaring Eagle Woman. My very close friend, Lorraine Bayes, who is of Cherokee and Irish descent often dances prayers with these wings … but since she was sick in November, she blessed me with the opportunity to be the wing-bearer. Please enjoy this prayer for you and your loved ones! 

In this season of Advent, I am dancing closely with Mary, as we have been preparing much beautiful material for our Abbey of the Arts Advent Retreat: Birthing the Holy. It’s not too late to jump in, if you feel called! Below you will find lots of upcoming opportunities to dance and pray through the season of Advent, live or online. May you walk in beauty towards the light of Christmas!

Celebrating Advent

Next week I will have two events in Seattle where I have the honor of sharing my dance of Mary and the Annunciation. I have danced this piece for so many years, and each time, it opens my heart in joy!

December 6th, 7:00 pm | Advent Evening of Prayer s sponsored by the Ignatian Spirituality Center &  First Baptist Church. 

More info and livestream here. 

December 8th, 7:00 pm | Feast of the Immaculate Conception at St. Joseph Church.  Come for Mass and reflection & social afterwards in the Arrupe Room. 

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Do you have some Christmas shopping to do? Check out our bandcamp store for awesome offerings!

Birthing the Holy Advent Retreat 2022

Facilitated by Christine & John Valters Paintner  Polly Paton-Brown, Jill Geoffrion, and Betsey Beckman

It’s not too late to jump into our beautiful online Advent Retreat at Abbey of the Arts! I’ve been working hard on filming a whole new set of dances to honor Mary and her many names, as explored in Christine’s book and our new CD. 🙂 Join us in celebrating Mary and the sacred feminine during the season of Advent and holy birthing. Register here!

Christmas is Coming!

Christmas is Coming! We are hoping to have a special dramatic Gospel offering at the 4:00 pm Mass at St. Joseph Church for Christmas Eve Mass!  Stay tuned with Calendar – Click Here.

Carnegie Hall!

February 19, 2023 8:00pm

Guess what? I’ve been invited to dance at Carnegie Hall! Hang out with the right musicians, and sometimes, the doors open in unexpected places! I’m very grateful to my friend, ValLimar Jansen for inviting me to help animate the stage in one of New York’s most special places. 

More info on tickets will be forthcoming in the new year. Woohoo! Who says 65 is too old to dance? Whee! View the flyer here.

Shrines of Spain Pilgrimage!

June 12-23rd, 2023

As the seasons turn, do you feel the call to adventure stirring in your being once again? I will be co-leading this pilgrimage to Spain with my dear friend, Fr. Michael Sparough, SJ, who got me started in arts ministry 45 years ago! I have been deeply nourished by the Jesuit charisms of praying with the imagination, and we will be visiting the sacred spots of St. Ignatius Loyola from Madrid to the Black Madonna of Montserrat, from Burgos to Barcelona. Would be so wonderful to share with you! 

To download a flyer, click here. To register, click here.

In Closing

As we close 2022, I wanted to share an honoring of my summer adventures with our whole Beckman-Leverone clan. This year marked 100 years of our family spending time at our special Michigan home, a tradition that began with my “Mimi and Papa” in 1922. In August, we had an amazing family reunion, complete with storytelling, dance and song! I took the opportunity to create a special version of the tune “The Family Madrigal” (From Disney’s Encanto) and to re-record it as “The Family Beckman-Lev.” You’ll see me dancing with some of my favorite grandnieces and nephews … bringing my heart great joy! 

May the joy of love through the generations light your way through the Christmas Season. And may we all be called, as Mary was, to bring God to birththrough the gift of our loving. 

Advent to Christmas Blessings!

Betsey

Betsey Beckman, MM

Posted: December 6, 2022 by

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Dancing at the Threshold

It is indeed a time of threshold. With the turning of the seasons, on August 28th, we held our last Mass at our beloved St. Patrick Church in Seattle. Such beauty and depth we have shared through for 105 years, and now our doors have come to a close. In the midst of heartbreak, we are in awe of the heart-felt and conscientious process we have been through to honor our history and dance into new birthings.

We are so grateful that much grace is attending us as we are welcomed into our new home at St. Joseph Church, a Jesuit Parish up the hill. As you probably remember, I have had such a long journey with the Jesuits, including two Jesuit priest uncles, my young theatre experience at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, my years with Fr. Michael Sparough, SJ in the Fountain Square Fools, and my degrees from Georgetown University and Seattle University. That’s a lot of history! – and gives hope for new Jesuit collaborations! 

Now it’s time to look to the future, and below, I share a number of opportunities for you to dance along with me in some upcoming adventures for the Fall and the year ahead. In the meantime, if you’d like to witness our Pilgrimage from St. Pat’s to St. Joe’s, here is a sweet video of our own journey with the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus. Stay tuned for new installments to come!

Pilgrimage from St. Pat’s to St. Joe’s | August 21st, 2022

Celebrating Hildegard of Bingen

Saturday, September 17th

At Abbey of the Arts, we are offering a monthly series of Zoom retreats on the mystics entitled The Mystical Heart: Love as a Creative Force.

Our first retreat of the season will honor Hildegard of Bingen, and will be held on her feast day! Christine Valters Paintner and I have led several pilgrimages to Hildegard’s hometown in Germany, and we will be imparting our love for Hildegard as our patron saint of the arts. Would be lovely to spend the morning with you! Hope you can join us. 

Click here for more info!

SpiritPlay

SpiritPlay has become a staple of Seattle’s InterPlay offerings! Now in our 22nd year, we have developed a wonderful community of faith and foolishness. This monthly series is for those grounded in Christianity who long for the spontaneity of InterPlay to help us navigate these crazy times! We’ll be diving into the lectionary, exploring sacred stories, dancing through the cycle of seasons, loosening our tongues, singing our souls, and improvising in prayer. After 2.5 years on Zoom … we are returning to our live meetings, for our sanity & sanctity – whee! Calling all angels– let’s dance, play and pray!

Click here fore more information.

She Is Remembered

One of the pieces of completion with St. Pat’s that I helped to foster was a gorgeous CD of songs written by my close friend and colleague, Laura Ash who was our St. Patrick’s Music Director. I was able to produce this CD for Laura as a parting gift to our community. You can listen to this awesome CD here – She is Remembered.

I am so proud of Laura! The other piece of good news is that since the St. Joseph Music Director was retiring this summer, Laura is now the new Music Director at St. Joe’s and this will be such a wonderful bridge going forward!

Birthing the Holy: Singing with Mary and the Sacred Feminine

And now, a celebration of another CD release – our newest from Abbey of the Arts! I spent many hours midwifing such amazing songs for this new album! Each song explores a different title for Mary, and her embodiment of the sacred feminine. Besides assembling the album, the songs I helped to produce include:

Black Madonna (Soyinka Rahim) 

O Viridissima Virga (Laura Ash) 

Stella Maris (Gina Salá) 

Mary, Queen of Angels (Lorraine Bayes) 

Please check out this beautiful collection here!

Also, consider our Birthing the Holy Advent retreat, which will include many of these songs with new dance films being developed as we speak!

Spain Pilgrimage Next Year!

After rescheduling our Spain pilgrimage, I am super excited to walk (and dance!) in the footsteps of St. Ignatius!  Our new dates are:

June 12 -23rd, 2023! 

Added to our leader team is my good friend & spirited musician Bob McAffery-Lent (recently retired from being St. Joe’s Music Director.) More assurance for good prayer and good times on pilgrimage! 

Pdf flyer here.

Register & more info here.

In Closing

Irish poet, John O’Donohue writes “At any time, you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter? Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up.”

For our final Mass at St. Pat’s, our hearts were truly woken up! With this stirring, our movement ministry danced a beautiful rendition of St. Patrick’s Breastplate entitled The Deer’s Cry. Since we have a large deaf community, we often incorporate American Sign Language into our movement ministry. Please pray with us this final prayer, a proclamation of faith, and the assurance that the Spirit of Christ dances with us into new places. As the Irish Blessing reminds us – “Until we meet again.” 

Blessings on your thresholds, my friends!

Betsey

Betsey Beckman, MM

Posted: September 12, 2022 by

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Dancing into New Life

Greetings!

Happy Easter! New life seems to be springing up all over! I am so grateful that we got to be back in church celebrating the season in full style at our dear St. Patrick’s Parish. All the joy that you see pictured in our Easter photo is also bittersweet, as it is almost certain that this is our last Easter together at St. Pat’s, and our parish is scheduled to be closed in the next few months. We are heartbroken that the Archdiocese is (so far) not willing to consider creative options in how a parish is run as the numbers of priests are diminishing. Sigh! Our parish is so dedicated to the creative vision of Vatican II, but the church takes a LONG time to live into emergent visions! 

Meanwhile, I wanted to share that St. Pat’s has been invited to merge with our neighboring Jesuit parish, St. Joseph Church. In the midst of our grief is the fact that a new pastor has been named at St. Joe’s, Fr. Chris Cartwright, and he happens to be an old friend of mine from our days of being in the Fountain Square Fools liturgical story theatre company 42 years ago. The Spirit is full of surprises! This Lent, I got to embody the story of Lazarus with the help of Fr. Chris at St. Joe’s. May new life abound! I will keep you posted on our church journey.

Because this is likely the last time we get to celebrate Easter Vigil at our beloved St. Patrick Catholic Church in Seattle, I wanted to post a link to our Easter Vigil service where we interpret five of the readings in movement! Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah (Come to the Water), Ezekiel and the Gospel come to life with American Sign Language, music, dance, drama, incense, angels, kites and more. The video is cued up to our Genesis story, which is full of color and beauty! Feel free to scroll through our offerings to catch glimpses of Easter beauty.

Blessings of the dancing Christ to you, my friends! 

With love,

Betsey

Betsey Beckman, MM

Posted: April 23, 2022 by

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