Teachers

Evangelos Diavolitsis

Evangelos Diavolitsis is a certified 5Rhythms facilitator & meditation teacher who trained directly with founder of the 5Rhythms Gabrielle Roth. He has been continuously studying with meditation masters Achariya Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei since 2002. He creates an atmosphere that is adventurous and safe, weaving a delicate chemistry of humour & analytical self-exploration. The healing modalities he is trained in create a space where individuals acknowledge, move through and release conditioned patterns from the past.

He has taught across Canada, Japan, Europe and the U.S.  Based in Calgary but serving innovative movers everywhere, he has a passion for integrating expressive dance and the path of self-actualization with meditation and the arts. His workshops and classes empower participants to seek ways to allow their passion to be expressed, their curiosity to be fulfilled and their gifts to be shared in a way that manifests optimal personal potential, abundance and joyful play.

Evangelos’ compassionate and investigative nature encourages participants to dance through each of the five rhythms (Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical and Stillness) by cultivating pristine awareness through body-based investigation. Evangelos also teaches meditation at the Dharma Hub Calgary.

When we make the effortless effort to dance through unfamiliar waves and vibrations, we begin to embrace the sounds and rhythms we believe are not us.  Movement allows a whole world of creativity to open up. It releases the stories that are deeply embedded in the body.  We come together to dance, to learn from each other and sweat our prayers.  A 5Rhythms workshop encourages us to view fear and confusion as an opportunity for growth and transformation.

— Evangelos Diavolitsis

Maya Lewandowsky

Maya Lewandowsky manifests as a Dharma dancing dakini. She grew up in Israel where she studied contemporary dance, ballet, ritual theatre, voice technique and Dharma. She has been exploring the nature of consciousness since her teens and has been a professional performer since the early age of seven.

Maya is the founder of La Caravan Dance Theatre, producing and choreographing innovative and cutting edge dance performance in Canada.  La Caravan Dance Theatre aims to inspire ordinary people to experience dance and dancers to create extraordinary theatrical dance and physical art works through provocative, multidisciplinary, co-creative processes.  Read more about La Caravan Dance Theatre.

Maya is also a talented voice teacher.  She teaches people to explore and transform their voice through her Free Your Natural Voice private and group trainings.  Read more about Free your Natural Voice vocal training.

Nowadays I rarely train people to dance. I train people to be the dance. Why worry about how we look when we dance? Why turn the medicine of dance into another neurosis we battle with? Where did our self-critical dance voice originate? How does one simply be with whatever arises?

Dancing was originally intended as a vehicle towards infinite space. My deepest movement explorations have revealed that all the identity associated with being a dancer, an actress or a woman is simply illusory; a construct of mind. I invite you to explore your illusions in a creative way. My approach to teaching movement and voice seeks to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, darkness into hope, uncertainty into vision, greed into generosity, hatred into love and confusion into wisdom through a contemporary and accessible interpretation of ancient conscious dance teachings.

— Maya Lewandowsky

Ruth Levin

Ruth Naomi Levin’s central passion is deepening our connection to health, learning and wonder through experiencing our bodies in motion. She is a movement facilitator, embodiment coach and professional dancer. She has been a kinesthetic (body-based) learner all her life, and a teacher within this world for nearly a decade. She believes that the body is the ultimate canvas for the study of our human experience and for accessing greater integration, healing and growth in our lives.

She is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s Professional Training Program and holds an MFA in Choreography from York University. Ruth has further deepened her understanding of humanity in motion through extensive practice in 5Rhythms, Kinetic Awareness, & Yoga. She is a  Certified Yoga Teacher.

Ruth has the honour of being a member of renowned and gifted dancer, Margie Gillis’ Legacy Project. This project has included opportunities to study and perform alongside Margie, as well as to assist in the transformative dance workshop ‘Dancing From the Inside Out’ that Ms. Gillis teaches at Hollyhock Retreat Centre. She is also thrilled to be working professionally as a dancer, performer and teacher with Calgary’s La Caravan Dance Theatre. La Caravan is led by the talented and visionary Maya Lewandowsky and is one of Canada’s leading interdisciplinary performance troupes.

Alongside her practice of dance, Ruth has also cultivated a steady spiritual practice, working with a community, and lineage for over ten years. Her guides in this work are Doug Duncan Sensei and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei of Planet Dharma and the enlivened community that make up the Clear Sky Sangha.

She is delighted and grateful for the opportunity to be a guest teacher and program assistant with Evangelos and Meditation Moves.