Interdependence LabApply to the Lab
Two people playing with contact improvisation in a sunlit studio: one is draped over the other's back, looking at the camera, while three others watch and smile.

Interdependence Lab

June 1–24, 2027Earthdance, Plainfield, MA

Apply to the Lab
Two people in a tight hug, one wrapped in a striped woven blanket.

For young adults longing tofree the heart,

People resting against trees and a boulder in a forest, some with eyes closed.

come home to the body,

A smiling person with palms pressed together, surrounded by laughing friends.

and build beloved community.

A circle of young people sitting close together, laughing, with hands resting on the shoulders of the man at the center.

About the program

At the close of a meditation retreat, someone asks the question: How do I live the dharma — not just on the cushion, but in relationship, in conflict, in the mess of daily life? How do I act in service to the world from this place?

Interdependence Lab is an experiment to live into these questions — nearly a month living in sangha to deepen our practice on three levels: within ourselves, interpersonally, and communally, with the wider world.

The month begins with remembering how to rest and receive, moves into a silent Insight meditation retreat centered on embodiment, then opens to mindful living in community; mornings of silent practice, afternoons of workshops featuring an array of relational practice and creative expression modalities, and evenings of emergence, connection, dance, play. Throughout, the sangha practices ethical, cooperative living with each other and the earth: cooking, cleaning, and tending the land.

The Lab at a glance

  1. A person with eyes closed and a hand on their chest and belly, standing beneath a tall evergreen against a blue sky.
    Phase 01 · June 1–4

    Rest and receive

    Arriving, settling, connecting, resting. With dharma teacher Kaira Jewel Lingo.

  2. A room of people seated in meditation on dark cushions, eyes closed, with string lights and a woven wall hanging behind them.
    Phase 02 · June 4–11

    Silent retreat

    A week-long, Insight meditation retreat centering somatic awareness with dharma teacher Chas DiCapua.

  3. Overhead view of a group gently holding up a laughing person lying across their arms.
    Phase 03 · June 12–24

    Living in community

    We transition from retreat into vibrant community living, supported by Buddhist ethical trainings: meditative mornings, afternoons of relational and creative workshops, evenings of dance, play, song and sauna, and shared service to each other and the land.

Retreat teachers

The month

What the month includes

  1. Insight meditation

    The program opens with learning how to rest and receive, then enters a week-long silent Insight meditation retreat. After the retreat we continue with daily morning meditation practice, taught by experienced and beloved Insight teachers.

  2. Relational practice

    Embodied authentic relating, group process and shadow-work practices led by experienced facilitators help us feel and listen deeply, speak our truth, and nurture intimate, vulnurable connection. Supported conflict transformation to grow our capacity to meet our edge in relational tension and expand.

  3. Creative expression

    Ecstatic dance, contact improv, music jams, poetry — however you connect to creative aliveness, you will find others to play and share with.

  4. Cooperative living and working

    We work together collaboratively to care for each other, the space and the earth: cooking, cleaning, and tending the land.

  5. Play on the land

    Jump in cold water at the quarry, steam in the sauna, go on a hike. So many ways to play at Earthdance.

Young people sit on cushions in pairs, talking and listening. In front, a smiling young man with a dandelion behind his ear faces a friend, and flower crowns and dandelions decorate the people around them.

A laboratory to embody the world we want to live in

We're living through an era of crisis, loneliness and exhaustion. The Lab is for those of us who long to keep our hearts open, come out of the trance of separation, and keep serving from love, instead of hardening, numbing or burning out. We start from the understanding that healing and transformation are not things we do as isolated individuals; they happen in relationship, in communities of practice. At the Lab we learn and practice how we be together — through presence, joy, vulnerability, pain and generative conflict — to embody a fractal of the world our hearts know is possible.

In the third phase of the program, we support each other to turn toward our shadows: the old patterns and places that keep us stuck, our protective defenses, shame and reactivity that can hurt us and the people around us. We practice shining light on our shadows with honesty and care, so they begin to heal and integrate, uncovering our gold. We bring what we've learned in our bodies back into our families, communities, movements and workplaces, more spacious, awake and alive, more powerful in our purpose, and less likely to cause harm.