German Kula Website

German Kula

AcroYoga ConFerence

20. - 23.7.2023

at the Windberg community in the center of germany

NOW

SAVE THE DATE

13. - 16.7.2023

A magical 4-day gathering, co-creating a playground filled with trust, love & fun!

Our exciting International line-up offers AcroYoga, acrobatics, handstand, bodywork, singing circles, ecstatic dance, meditation, community building and more!

Join us and become part of our beautiful family!

Save your spot and register today!

(limited number of participants)

NOW

The registration to the event itself is for FREE* for members!

*This is a free event for members of the Peace Circle Society. You have to become a member (from 100€/year, ends automatically, available at the check in desk or online) latest on the day of arrival in order to attend for free. Booking food and accommodation with the venue is mandatory (from 157,35€). Please calculate these costs in your budget.

Guest tickets for non-members (120.-€*):

For those who prefer to join our conference as guests and don´t want to support the Peace Circle Society with a membership, we now have a limited amount of guest tickets available!

*Additional, the booking for food and accommodation with the venue is mandatory (from 157,35€). Please calculate these costs in your budget.

NOW

POST CONFERENCE

24.-25.7.2023

(same location, after the main conference)

THAI YOGA - ENERGY LABORATORY

with Tobias Frank and Winfried Ruhs

With the lens of a scientist, we look deep into the energetic ingredients of thai yoga massage, to make your touch even more full, healing and magical! Tobias Frank and Winfried Ruhs, who both have been individually developing their unique and deep energetic approach towards Thai Yoga, will merge their knowledge and experience for this 2-day Intensive.

All level welcome, from beginners to experienced bodyworkers!

Thai Massage. a Woman from Thailand Gives a Massage to a Female Tourist.

NOW

also great for recovery!

Line Up

Fons Bennink

Partner Acrobatic Teacher : “Fons from Holland”

Fons is teaching Partner Acrobatics ( Not acro-yoga ) in Nijmegen for more than 35 years. He is giving weekend workshops or weeks in whole Europe. (Germany, Belgium, Scotland, England, Denmark, Spain, France, Estonia, Austria etc.) He started with acrobatics, when he was 36 years old. He performs for about 10 Years, but he prefers to teach and now he is only teaching.

His own education:

He trained 5 till 6 Years with the Dutch Acrobatic Teachers: The Como Brothers. (Two old circus artists ) and 3 till 4 years with the Osmani’s ( two Dutch women who worked all over the world in many different circuses.)

Teaching: All kinds of training skills for beginners till advanced acrobats:

H2h, F2H ( in L-base en S-base),

Duo or trio Balancing.

Skills for Potechka moves or pitching etc.

Skills for Icarian etc.

Jaqui Wan

Jaqui is a London based teacher and found AcroYoga in 2006. She is one of OG’s who was on the first AcroYoga Teacher Training with Jason Nemer and Jenny Sauer-Kline of AcroYoga International. She is an Old School AcroYoga teacher and has played her part in sharing AcroYoga and organising acrobatics gatherings in London and the UK.

She has a challenging yet playful style and does not take herself too seriously and actively encourages others to shine: to her, it’s about lifting the capacity and potential of the room.

Jaqui is also the founder of Bodhitrix’s L Basing Compendium a series of acro cards with the objective to inspire creativity and encourage collaborative play.

www.jaquiwan.com

www.bodhitrix.net

Niko Douwes

& Monika Kolb

Moni:

Niko:

www.monikakolb.de

Niko & Monika travel the world with their son Ruben and share circus and partner acrobatic skills. Both are teachers, performers, and movement therapists. In class they focus on skill progression, sustainability of practice, and inspire their students to push boundaries in a safe and fun environment. Together they have grown in partnership, communication, love, and acro. Niko and Monika have a passion for good food, especially dessert. Niko prefers coconut ice cream and Monika just loves chocolate.

As a team they organise the Pre-convention to the Dutch Acro www.pre-convention.com, the Bangkok Acro Convention www.bangkok-acro-convention.com and teach Workshops around the world.

Simultaneously Niko teaches for Pitch Catch Circus, LEAP and works with many other international Acrobatic/ Circus projects, as a coach with over 30 years of experience he has the right expertise to take acrobats to the next level.

Monika teaches and performs hula hoop, fire and aerial, as a soloist and in collaboration. She runs circus projects for adults and children www.monikakolb.de, Co organizes the Swiss Acro Fest www.acrofest.eu and handcrafts Hula Hoops.

Ales & Tanja

About Ales and Tanja

Co-Create the magic, that one can not create alone: That is, what they are doing. If one has ever heard of “the slovenian acro couple” it’s most probably them: Tanja and Alès. 2013 they fell in love with each other and the practice of Acroyoga and Partneracrobatics, which they are teaching in classes, workshops and retreats worldwide in the most authentic, knowledge-based and humurous way – just how they are.

We could stop here, but there’s something more to tell about these two unique and special souls.

All along Tanja Urankar has been very much into sportive activities and all aspects of health, the human body and bodywork. With her background of Medical highschool for nurses and her sudies of sanitary engineering she later learned Therapeutic back massage, which she still offers to her clients. Her energy led her to dance, where she loves to spread her lust for life in Hiphop, Salsa, Kizomba and Bachata.

Alès Hren is the man, who makes other people fly: in Acroyoga but also in his second passion and part-time-job as a windunnel instructor. For a long time he has been searching for the deeper sense of life and the question how to combine energetic healing with bodywork moved him on this way. Aikido, Judo and Material Arts, where he has ten years of experience, were stations on this way, that later also led to dance and Kizomba.

The Slovenian Acro-Couple: Who would believe, that the “slovenian Acro-couple”, who are one of the first to build up the Acro-scene in their homecountry and are known for the craziest and most challenging tricks, met on the dancefloor? But it’s true: Their passion for Kizomba brought these two together. And very soon they (co-)created their very own passion: Acro. Still today for Alès it is one of the most beautiful things about Acroyoga, that even two people without any experience can create this magic place, where things are allowed to grow. And that’s what they did together. 2013 they started practicing Acroyoga without any experience but lot’s of fun and passion. “We transferred our connection from Kizomba into Acro and built up trust, verbal and non-verbal communication together”, sais Alès. 2015 they were already so advanced in their practice that they joined the Partner-Acrobatic-Teacher-Training. By learning from known teachers like Fons Bennink, Niko Douwes, Emily Baxter and Martin Kvist their practice reached another level again.

Tobias Frank

thaiyoga.de

Mitbegründer der German Kula

Ich bin Bodyworker, Buchautor und Seminarleiter seit über 15 Jahren. Nach zwölf Jahren Thai Yoga Ausbildung umfasst meine Community derzeit über 1.000 Ausbildungsteilnehmende.

Thai Yoga hat mein Leben auf vielfache Weise bereichert: Ich habe gelernt, dass ich der Welt umso mehr zu geben habe, je mehr ich mir die Erlaubnis gebe, Pause zu machen, für mich zu sorgen und meine eigene Energie hoch zu halten.

Workshops auf der German Kula:

in love with gravity - introduction to flying bodywork

enlightened touch - dream to awake (Thai Yoga)

unleash your inner tiger - mindful movement practice

Pascal de Lacaze

Pascal de Lacaze from Berlin plays music at events around the globe. His focus on rhythm and dance has made him friends in many communities: Ecstatic Dancers dig how his innovative DJ style connects with his energetic, modern drumming. Musicians & audiences appreciate his steady, rocking world percussion and transcendental grooves.

Since 2010 Pascal organizes Ecstatic Dances in Berlin. He is the resident DJ, accompanies his DJ sets with live percussion and co-creates live music dance journeys. In workshops and at festivals

Pascal facilitates Body Bhajan – a fun and easy combination of chanting and body percussion.

Pascal has been on a long musical journey, spanning from drumming on techno raves in the 90ies to being a drum-set player in a jazz big band, conga drummer at club partys and percussionist for

acclaimed sacred music artists like Peia, Kevin James Carroll, Dave Stringer, Janin Devi, Lulu & Mischka, and many more. In 2015 Pascal started touring extensively as a DJ and played at festivals and dances in more than 20 countries.

www.pascaldelacaze.life

He holds a masters degree in Cultural Sciences and has worked as a copywriter, editor and social media manager. He is a certified Yoga & AcroYoga teacher and has a deep understanding of how to support nourishing group experiences. Pascal is the co-director of the Reunion Ecstatic Dance Festival Guatemala, Goa Ecstatic Dance Festival, the Ecstatic Dance Festival Portugal and the Ecstatic Dance Festival Germany.

Winfried Ruhs

www.winfriedruhs.com

Winni is leading the organizing team for the German Kula - AcroYoga Conference. As a peace activist and visionary, he began his journey into spirituality, yoga, healing arts and community building in 2006.

His passion for a self-determined life and a healed earth, brought him to many wonderful teachers. With whom he did a lot of inner work on himself, and collected and developed valuable tools, that he now shares with a lot of passion.

In 2008 he discovered AcroYoga as a holistic tool to find connection within himself and others. He dived deep into the practice, studied with basically every European AcroYoga teacher that was available, and did his Teacher Training with Jason Nemer and Jenny Sauer-Klein in 2011.

Together with his wife (now ex-wife) he founded the FLYING YOGIS. He became an AcroYoga pioneer, by traveling to many different cities to introduce AcroYoga to new communities. Later he also started giving AcroYoga Teacher Trainings.

Around this time, he also started diving deep into the art of Thai Yoga Massage and began teaching this healing art in workshops and trainings.

Whatever he teaches, he loves to focus on community building, implement singing circles and always opens up a heart-centered, safe space. Where a wide spectrum of qualities are held, including calming, meditative, playful, deep diving, uplifting and empowering.

After his divorce in 2022, he started together with his new partner Avianna McKee to dive deeper into the topics of Tantra and Sex, Love and Relationship coaching. He added these new tools to his repertoire, and became together with Avianna a teaching couple again!

Avianna McKee

Avianna McKee is co-organizer of the 2023 German Kula - AcroYoga Conference. Excited to pour her heart into this project, inspired by the sweet community she has met the last couple years, Avianna is all about fun, ease and high vibes in any gathering or celebration she creates.

Born in Anchorage Alaska, Avianna is a dancer at heart. She began performing professionally at the age of 14, with the Alaska Dance Theater Company. Becoming a Soloist with age 16. With 19 years of age Avianna moved from Alaska to Germany. Founding a successful skatepark building company with her (then) husband. Adding modeling to her repertoire, Avianna traveled extensively and enjoyed the adventures of modeling. Avianna continued to work as a freelance dancer, as well as for the Bayerisches Staats Opern Ballet, and the Augsburg Staatstheater Ballet.

In 2017 her first child was born. Soon after, in 2018 her second child followed. With the birth of her children, Avianna faced a 180degree shift in her way of life, a profound healing journey began... Avianna dedicated herself for the next 5 years to being a mother and housewife. Modeling occasionally and offering holistic dance classes.

germankula.de/aviannamckee

Searching for a new skill to bring healing and wellbeing into the world, Avianna attended Winfried Ruhs' course to learn Thai Yoga Heilungsrituale in 2021. They quickly felt something magical between them, and have woven thier lives intricately together since then.

Avianna discovered a deep, dormant passion for Tantra...always knowing that there were higher potentials to experiencing life.... Following another hearts passion, diving into learning skills like Sacred Sexuality, Radical Self Love, Sex Magic, the intricacies of Relationship, Empowerment of Women and Men, Healing relationship between Women and Men and more....Avianna is excited to have begun a two year long, rigorous training, to become a VITA Method Certified Coach.

Mark Negyesi

A Philosopher and mover at heart, Mark strives to grow into a fully integrated human being.

Acroyoga to him is like a mirror for a well lived life, where we grow physically, psychologically and socially. He loves that through this beautiful practice we can learn a balance of responsibility and trust, sensitivity and resilience, awareness and communication, as well as being brave and careful. Amazingly we do all of this while joyfully creating a moving work of art, TOGETHER. The community, movement and learning and the playful excitement make Acroyoga so fulfilling to him.

www.marknegyesi.de

Sabine Winkler

www.acroyoga-nuernberg.de

You could say, she was an Acroyogi before Acroyoga even was known. Long before the connection of Acrobatics and Yoga became famous as Acroyoga, Sabine was practicing both passionately in her daily life besides her former work as theatre and event-engineer. Since seven years now she is passing on her experiences in a fulltime job. Sabines acro-crush has held up for 24 years now, a long time to learn many moves and tricks. That's why she has so many little details up her sleeve for every trick. Handstands are her favourites, but of course there is a lot more she loves to pass on to her students. In spite of her size, she loves basing and samesize acro and of course – always and a lot – H2H, wether as a flyer or base. Based in Nürnberg she is teaching Yoga, Handstands and Acroyoga, organizing her own events and retreats and co-organizes the Acro-Sense-Festival. Her teaching skills include one secret: Sabine never stopped being a student herself. After her Yoga education and Acro Yoga International teacher training, she is building up her knowledge about movement and alignment in many further educations like sound-therapy, meditation, thaimassage or Acroyoga for social inclusion, just to name a few. And if she is not teaching or learning, you may see her playing around – Acro of course – or dragonstaff, which she also loves to put on fire.

Michael Zirnstein

more infos soon...

Katharina Bauer

Katharinas first contact with Acroyoga was 12 years ago, since then her body changed. Her view on life changed. She found a way to heal herself outside and inside, feeling capable of doing so much more, than ever expected. Accepting her body and her strength and transform her aledged weakness into strength. This passion she wants to share with contagious enthusiasm and a smile. She is a dedicated mover focussing on including everyone. Her mission became to let everyone experience the feeling of lightness, movement and community. She is also cofounder of FEM Movement (female empowerment through movement) and Acroyoga4all creating workshop all over europe community and inclusion focused.

Learn more:

www.katharinabauer.net/

Susanne Fabel

Her movement journey started 15 years ago with Ashtanga Yoga and sports climbing. When she discovered Acroyoga in 2012, she felt immediately in love with the practice, especially with the playful aspect of Acroyoga, that makes it easy to build connection and trust and brings a smile on everyone’s face.

Susanne is certified from Acroyoga International (2015) and Acroyoga Montreal (2022). She is a Yoga and Movement Flow teacher, Embodiment coach, an experienced bodyworker and Thai Massage practitioner.

Her personal movement practice and thinking is shaped by the integration of different disciplines (like Yoga, Budokon, Acroyoga, climbing, calisthenics, floorwork, Thai Massage, Natural Movement...) and the idea to keep on learning and to integrate new movement experiences to expand body awareness.

Her passion is to explore and to share movement with the people around her. Based in Osnabrück, she put her energy and heart into building the community there, organizing Jams and teaching workshops, but she also loves to travel and to share her experience at festivals, retreats, workshops and other events all over Germany and internationally.

Aline Yogabats

Aline praktiziert seit der Jugend Yoga und seit 2013 intensiv Acroyoga. Sie ist bei Yoga-Vidya ausgebildete Hatha-Yogalehrerin in der Tradition von Swami Shivananda und Partneracrobatics-Teacher. Als Traveling Yogini ist sie mit Ihren Workshops europaweit auf Festivals, Retreats und in Yoga-Studios unterwegs. Sie arbeitet in der Humanitären Hilfe als Notfalllogistikerin. Zwischen den Einsätzen reist sie durch die Welt und unterrichtet und praktiziert Acroyoga an den unterschiedlichsten Orten um ihre Batterien wieder aufzuladen.

In ihrer Heimat Schweiz engagiert sie sich als Vorstand im Acroyoga Verein Bern.

Ihr Motto ist : If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

Frieda Mühle

Frieda is an acro teacher based in Cologne, Germany, where she teaches weekly classes and loves to

see the local community grow and flourish. She discovered acroyoga through one of her yoga

teachers in 2014 and was immediately hooked: „It was like finally finding a home and a family I didn’t

even know I was missing before.“

Developing her practice throughout the years, she equally shares a passion for the playful flowyness

of acroyoga as for the more technique focused skills of standing partner acrobatics. This balance is

also reflected in her style of teaching where she focuses on solid foundations as the basis for

creativity and flow. „I love how the right technique and the right connection can make hard things

seem effortless.“

She first started giving workshops by the request of friends whom she wanted to share her passion

with and thus soon discovered her love for teaching acro. (And it turned out to be the perfect

complement to the academic world of musicology she is currently dedicating the other half of her life

to.) She became a Partner Acrobatics certified teacher in 2021. Next to her own classes and

workshops she likes to facilitate workshops and exchange with different guest teachers for the local

community.

Stefan Pulsaris

Singing-Circles, Sacred Space, etc... more infos soon

Gallery

Impressions of the German Kula 2015

Impressions of the German Kula 2013

Pictures from the last years:

Thanks to our photographers:

Nate Northey

Sponsoren

Become our sponsor!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is the German Kula suitable for beginners or people without any experience in AcroYoga?

Yes, the German Kula is very community oriented. You are also very welcome, as an absolute beginner! In every time slot, there will be at least one workshop that is especially for beginners, beginner-friendly or open level. There will always be some experienced students, assistants, or teachers that can support you.

Does it make sense to participate as a single person?

Yes, definitely! You are very welcome as a single participant! The practice of AcroYoga supports coming in contact, and you will easily make new contacts. Many participants will come alone and have the same situation. We will do our best to create a safe space where we cultivate qualities like mutual support, connection, respect, mindfulness and taking care of each other.

Can I participate with physical restrictions?

Generally yes, but it depends on your expectations. A big part of AcroYoga is being together as a community. Even if you can't participate physically, you will still be part of the community. Nobody will be excluded because of physical restrictions. There are also offers, that are physically more gentle, like Thai Yoga Massage, Singing Circles, etc.

Why did you change the name from "German Kula Celebration" into "German Kula - AcroYoga Conference"?

This was a difficult decision, since we love the aspect of celebration a lot. And just because it is called a conference, that doesn’t mean it’s less celebratory! However, since the organizer of the event is now a "Verein", we have the opportunity to use the legal privileges that come along with that. One of those privileges is, that we don’t have to pay taxes for any activities that are aligned with our statutes. If the event were called a "Festival" or "Celebration", that would imply that the focus is on socializing, instead of sharing skills and knowledge. In that case we would lose these privileges, pay taxes, and we would have to charge higher ticket prices.

Why is this a "Vereins-Event"? Can I participate without becoming a member?

Yes, you can also participate without becoming a member by purchasing a guest-ticket, but we would highly recommend choosing the option with the membership. This way we are much more independent of legal restrictions (f.e. like new arbitrary corona-rules like in the past, where only members were allowed to meet). It also reflects better our community based approach. There are also some tax-privileges that allow us to keep the costs for everyone as low as possible.

If you don't complete your membership online beforehand, there will be a last chance to do this at the check in desk at your arrival. We invite you to look at any of our other wonderful offers, in order to maximize your membership!

Is the membership fee basically the ticket price?

No, only non-members have to pay a guest-ticket. With your membership fee you are supporting the projects and activities from the Peace Circle Society. Only through our strong community of supporter members, we have the possibility to make projects, have impact and also pay the costs related to the German Kula (location rent, teachers costs, logistics, marketing etc.). So, this fee is not a "ticket price", but we definitly need your supporter membership to make this event and other amazing projects happen!

Do I get another confirmation mail after I have transferred the money?

No, we are only writing you if - for any reason - the money has not arrived after a few days.

Can I get an invoice that I can use for my tax return?

You can get an invoice that you can potentially use for your tax return only for your food & accommodation booking, but NOT for your supporter membership fee (that would be anyhow useless for your tax return). If you tell us in the registration form your invoice address, you will automatically get an invoice by end of July for your food and accommodation. To keep our accounting efficient, we would like to do it all at once right after the event and not for every single one extra before. Thank you for your patience!

How do I know if there are still rooms available?

This information you can find directly in the registration form. We are posting a "fully booked" , or delete the option immediately when a room category is full. If we are not fast enough to delete the fully booked options, we will inform you within the next days and change your booking according to the remaining options and your wishes.

Are day-passes available?

No. Every participant has to book food and accommodation for the whole time. So unfortunately this year we can not give tickets out for single days or only for the weekend.

Is it possible to not order the food and self-cater instead?

No, the venue requires, that every participant orders their food with them. That is also much easier for our logistics. The food is served as an organic, vegetarian buffet, and there will be for sure something on the table that speaks to you!

Do I need to bring a Yogamat?

Yes, please bring a yogamat (+ optional blanket)

Can I change my booking?

- yes, you can. If you would like to change your accommodation option or transfer your booking to another person, this is possible. Since this is extra work for us, we ask for 15€ per person per change.

Can I get a refund, in case of a cancellation?

Cancellations will be handled like booking changes (we charge a 15€ fee per person). If you cancel earlier than 14 days prior to the event, we refund you your costs for food & accommodation. Please note, that your supporter membership fee is not refundable, even if the whole event gets cancelled. But of course we are doing everything in our power that our celebration is happening!

Can I stay together with my friends in one room?

If you all booked together or right behind each other - yes, you can stay in one room. Please mention that in your registration. If you only registered yourself and your friends registered one week later, we can not guarantee, that you stay in a group. The nice thing is: in this community it is so much FUN to meet new friends ;) For sure we divide in male and female rooms.

ARRIVAL

When and where is the Check-In?

Arrival is possible from Thursday, 20th of july, 3 pm. To find the Check-In please follow the signs. :) Please do the Check-in as the first thing after your arrival. You will get there a bracelet, that gives you access to the dining hall and the workshop spaces.

Do I have to bring bedsheets and/or towels?

That depends on your accommodation category:

- for single- and double bedrooms, sheets and covers are included

- for 4-bedrooms, please bring your own sheets and covers

- for 6/8-bedroom or dormatory, there are only matressed! You have to bring your own sleepingbag / blankets and pillow.

The standard size for the sheets is 90/100 x 200. If you stay in your tent or camper, please bring your own sleeping equipment.

rental prices:

- sheets and covers 7€

- towel 2€

Can I drink alcoholic beverages and/or get high during my stay at the Windberg Community?

No! Please refrain from alcohol or any recreational drug use during your stay!

Can I buy coffee there?

Yes! Coffee is not just tolerated, it is even supported by the Windberg Community! They are extra running a little coffee shop that is open around breakfast time and also after lunch to make sure nobody has to suffer from coffee withdrawal. Even newcomers are welcome to start their new coffee habits there!

Location