We are saddened by the loss of Gabrielle Roth, a longtime and much-loved teacher at Omega, who passed away in October 2012.
Noted artist, philosopher, and dancer Gabrielle Roth had devoted her life to honoring and communicating the language of primal movement and experimental theater. Since the mid-1960s, Roth had taken thousands of people on a journey from physical and emotional inertia to the freedom of ecstasy, from the tyranny of the chattering ego-mind to the blessed emptiness of stillness.
Gabrielle Roth’s workshops and retreats had an electric intensity that merged contemporary currents of rock music, modern theater, and poetry to the ancient pulse of shamanism. Author of Maps to Ecstasy, Connections, and Sweat Your Prayers, Gabrielle Roth was artistic director of her dance/theater/music company, The Mirrors, and had been a member of the Actor’s Studio. Her award-winning musical and video recordings were on the cutting-edge of shamanic trance and dance music.
Roth was best known as creator of The 5Rhythms™, a poetic and practical practice that directly addresses the divorce of body from heart, and heart from mind, that has plagued our culture. She taught The 5Rhythms at The Moving Center® NYC. The Moving Center was the vision and vehicle of Roth’s body of work. She also taught experimental theater in New York based on The 5Rhythms and training others to use shamanic methods within artistic, education, and healing contexts.
She was often joined in her classes and workshops by her son, Jonathan Horan, who continues to teach at Omega Institute, The Moving Center NYC, and other venues worldwide.