Back on July 16th 2022, our team was approached by Bloom — a hub that helps individuals, enterprises, and accelerators boost their impact and growth through tools and programs that make people come alive — and were asked to design and facilitate a “Training Day” for teams of their accelerator programs, addressing team dynamics, personal growth, tangibility and connection through a synergetic and memorable experience. With this mission in mind, our team crafted a proposal that included a day’s worth of workshops around the theme of (re)imagining. This Yaraqa curated program involved a combination of workshops through dance, movement, writing, reflection, embodiment and audiovisual exercises, to engage each and every participant in creative & imaginative exercises and experiences.

The day began with a mindfulness meditation calling each participant to notice their body and thoughts, areas of tension, discomfort, guided by Lisa Chehade. After completing the exercise, everyone headed towards a printed image of a body, and were asked to push pins in the areas where they felt a strong energy, whether it be positive or negative. After this gentle warm-up, participants were divided into groups and each group was paired with a dance facilitator specializing in a specific dance style (hiphop, folkloric, contemporary, contact improvisation). Every group got the chance to practice with 4 facilitators (Melissa El-Chaar, Nivine Kallas, Lisa Chehade and Caroline Hatem)  and explored 4 new dance and movement techniques.

This phase was designed to get the participants in their bodies, engaging with each other from a common and neutral place, while having a fun moment. This was intentionally chosen as a moment of non-verbal communication and exploration, to really engage the participants creatively, allowing them to locate and anchor themselves - and each other - in the present moment.

Next, participants were redivided into groups again and guided by our dance facilitators. Through a series of exercises, they were invited to reflect, discuss and collectively write about the future and what they (re)imagine it to be: the future of Bloom, the future of their sector or industry, the future of their start-up or social enterprise, or the context of the future in general. This exercise allowed the participants to connect verbally, visualizing and discovering similarities and differences in perspectives, with the task of unifying their visions of the future into a singular voice.

“A beautiful experience with thoughtfulness, gentleness and creativity. Yaraqa brought a high level of energy, cohesiveness, and togetherness which I absolutely loved!”

- participant feedback

With the help of their facilitators, participants were then invited to embody their writings by taking from the variety of movements they learned that day. Through video documentation and very basic editing using their phones they brought themselves one step closer to making their visions of the future more of a reality, giving it shape, form and life. The underlying goal to all of this was to work as a team, take risks, showcase strengths, collaborate, and engage their creativity both as individuals and a group.