We’re excited to share something that’s been quietly unfolding behind the scenes… 🌿
Our movement space—the one where you’ve danced, stretched, grounded, released, and reclaimed—has a new name: Spiral Studio. This isn’t just a rebrand. It’s a reflection of what this space has become: a bold, welcoming home for joyful, healing movement. Spiral Studio is where we begin—with the body, with breath, with presence. It's where movement becomes medicine, and where community meets you exactly as you are. But rest assured, the Spiral Goddess Collective isn’t going anywhere. It remains our deep root system—the values-driven foundation that nurtures everything we do. Spiral Goddess Collective is the heartbeat behind our mission: to center healing justice, radical embodiment, and social change. In simple terms: ✨ Spiral Studio is the doorway. Movement-based, accessible, and energizing. 🔥 Spiral Goddess Collective is the foundation. Visionary, value-driven, and transformational. This shift lets us grow more clearly and sustainably—while keeping our vision intact. You’ll start to see the Spiral Studio name on class schedules, updates, and our website but everything you love remains: the heart-led classes, inclusive practices, and commitment to radical care. This is a slow unfolding and a rejuvenated vision for our space and community. Thanks for being part of this spiral with us. We can't wait to move into this next chapter with you. With gratitude and excitement, Sarah Founder, Spiral Goddess Collective Instructor and Facilitator at Spiral Studio
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In my book, Demystifying American Yoga: Embodied Movement for Individual and Collective Transformation, I explore what it means to practice Queer Yoga—powerful, heart-led movement and breath rooted in visibility, healing, and resistance.
One of my greatest influences is Jacoby Ballard, author of A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation. Ballard writes, “Society is constantly telling queer and trans people that we shouldn’t exist, through overt and subversive forms of oppression.” That messaging doesn’t just live in the headlines—it settles into our bodies. Even here in Bangor, where we’re held by a supportive community, we’re not untouched by the cultural forces that attempt to shrink or silence queer and trans expression. Queer Yoga offers something radically different: a space to come home to your body, your truth, and your joy. What Is Queer Yoga, Really? There’s no single definition--and that’s the point. Queer Yoga, as I teach it, is infused with my own lived experience: my identity, the symbols and stories that resonate with me, the femme power that grounds my movement. Every Queer Yoga teacher brings their own fire, but at its heart, Queer Yoga is:
Why Trauma-Informed Yoga Matters Ballard reminds us, “Trauma lives in the body, and through embodiment practices those stories can be unlocked.” Queer, trans, and non-binary folks often carry layers of trauma—from rejection, from systemic harm, from the daily micro-injuries of living in a world that wasn't built for us. We don’t just need affirming ideas—we need embodied practices that help us shake loose what’s been held too long. Movement is how we transmute pain into power. It’s how we break cycles of harm, not just in society, but within our own nervous systems. Activism, art, and education are essential. But if we’re not healing the body? We’re leaving part of ourselves behind. The Power of Queer Embodiment As Ballard puts it, yoga connects us to “our growth, pain, and resilience.” It’s a spiral inward and outward—a path that helps us release shame, soften our shields, and reconnect with our human capacity to thrive. Queer Yoga isn’t a performance. It’s a reclamation. Of gender. Of community. Of pleasure, rage, softness, strength. Of the full spectrum of who we are. That’s what we practice at Spiral Studio. Why Femme? Why Now? My class weaves Ballard’s wisdom with a deep celebration of the femme side of the queer spectrum—because that’s where I’ve found my deepest healing. Through the work of building the Spiral Goddess Collective, I’ve learned to honor my softness, my fluidity, my intuitive knowing. This practice is rooted in what author Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore calls “the radical potential to choose one’s gender and one’s sexual and social identities... to create a culture on our terms.” That’s the culture we’re creating at Spiral Studio. A space for authenticity. For courage. For coming home to yourself. Pride at Spiral Studio Join us in celebration, in movement, in community. This Pride season, we’re holding space for all the layers of what it means to be queer—grief and joy, rage and softness, pride and power. 🌀 Queer Yoga — May 22, 7:00–8:15 PM A healing and affirming space for movement, stillness, expression, and connection. 🌀 Generations of Pride Dance & Fundraiser for Bangor Pride — May 31, 7:00–9:00 PM Dance, release, and raise funds for queer joy and community power. 🌀 Bangor Pride Festival — June 29 Visit us at our Spiral Studio table or come to our studio space on the 4th floor of 16 State Street for a quiet, welcoming refuge. Come as you are. Move as you need. Be held, seen, and celebrated. This is Queer Yoga. This is Spiral Studio. This is liberation in motion. 5/5/2025 1 Comment Walking Toward the World We Most Want to Inhabit: A Journey for Peace, Friendship, and Collective MovementBy Sen Wilde, Spiral Goddess Collective Community Engagement Coordinator“When we move our bodies together, we have the potential to change more than just our bodies, and more than our lives. We change our culture. Movement means transformation… a promise of a better future. A different way to be.” —Sarah Hentges, Demystifying American Yoga: Embodied Movement for Individual and Collective Transformation This quote has been echoing in my heart as I reflect on the past eight days—days filled with movement, meaning, and deep connection. On Earth Day, I joined more than 300 people in a collective Journey for Peace and Friendship, walking a total of 83 miles from the Penobscot Nation on Indian Island to the Maine State Capitol in Augusta. With each step, we moved in loving solidarity with our friends, neighbors, and all beings—toward a future rooted in justice, healing, and hope.
The Journey of Peace and Friendship was not just a walk: it was a bold act of community visioning. Organized by the Land Peace Foundation, a nonprofit based in Monroe that focuses on preserving Indigenous Lifeways and strengthening Wabanaki kinship and ally networks, the journey invited participants from all walks of life to come together to actively embody our deepest held social values and spiritual aspirations—values like kindness, mutual care, collaboration, compassion, and acceptance. We walked through blistering sun and pouring rain. We traversed small towns, cities, and steep, hilly countrysides. We walked through laughter and silence, grief and gratitude. And along the way, we witnessed the beauty of what becomes possible when perfect strangers come together with a commitment to co-create a world that reflects love over fear, unity over division, and peace over violence. We learned that friendship isn’t merely a bond between individuals—it’s a sacred commitment to move together, even (and especially) when the road ahead is long. For me, it felt like an extension of everything we strive for here at the Spiral Goddess Collective. At the SGC, we believe that movement is medicine. We know that healing happens in community. Our classes and community offerings—from yoga and dance to meditation and sound healing—are designed not just to move our bodies, but to move energy, shift consciousness, and bring us closer to ourselves and one another. We come together to practice being human in the most wholehearted, embodied way we can. This Journey of Peace and Friendship was a living expression of those same values. It was a reminder that the most profound movements don’t happen in isolation; they happen together. Whether we gather on the road, in a circle, or in a studio, moving together allows us to regulate, reconnect, and remember that we belong. Our daily work for a kinder, more compassionate world is in the ground we’re walking on and in the air we breathe. When we walk, dance, stretch, or breathe in unison, we co-create a rhythm of care that is deeply transformative. We remember that we are not alone, and that even small, intentional actions—taken together—can ripple outward to create real and lasting transformation. Though this walk has come to an end, my journey has just begun. I carry the lessons, connections, and strength gathered along the path with me. I carry the stories. The songs. The footsteps of those who came before and those who will come after. I carry the wisdom that peace isn’t a place we arrive—it’s a practice we walk every day. It’s in every word we speak and every action we take. It’s in the sacred reimagining of the world we want to co-create. I’m deeply grateful to Sherri Mitchell Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset, Reverend Sara Hayman, and all of the leaders, organizers, and walkers who made this Journey possible. And I’m deeply honored to continue moving alongside each and every curator, instructor, participant, and community partner at the Spiral Goddess Collective. May we all continue moving toward the world we most want to inhabit. Embodying that vision, together. By Sen Wilde, |
CategoriesAll Academia American Fitness Art Business Care Work Careworkers Creativity Cultural Politics Embodiment Fitness Guest Blogs Healing Language Meditation Mind/body Self Care Self-care Social Justice Space Transformation Trauma Women And Fitness Yoga Archives
March 2025
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