Basic Watsu

Prerequisite: None
Duration: 16 hours

Basic Watsu is a WABA core aquatic class, credit of 16 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 10

Class Materials: Workbook

This course focuses on the Basics of Watsu on how, as in Tai Chi, you can stay grounded in your stance while you float and stretch someone to the rhythm of your connected breath. 
You will be led through a simple but complete form. You can take this course to deepen your meditation, your relationship to water and your connection to others. There will be no pressure to 'learn' the form, but those who choose to can follow this with the Transition Flow that expands this Basic Flow to complete a Watsu 1. 
In each stage of our program, the form learned has its own organic unity and can be repeated over and over without losing its freshness or benefits for both giver and receiver. 

Watsu® I

Prerequisite: None
Duration: 50 hours

Watsu I is a WABA core aquatic class, credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 10

Class Materials: Workbook

In the first stage of Watsu 1, you learn Watsu's Tai Chi-like Basic Moves and positions and how, staying grounded and connected with the breath, you can let the water do the work. In its continual return to the Water Breath Dance, you find the stillness that is the grounding of presence. In the second stage you learn to connect these basic moves and positions with long gracefully flowing transitions into the Transition Flow. You learn to adapt this to people of all sizes, shapes and dispositions. You learn about your own body mechanics - how to support and move each person as effortlessly as possible in the water. On land you will be introduced to both Co-Centring and Tantsu and explore and share what being held means to you and others.

Watsu® II

Prerequisite: Successfully completion of Watsu I + students are encouraged to log 10 practice sessions.
Duration: 50 hours

Watsu II is a WABA core aquatic class credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 10

Class Materials: Workbook
Watsu 2 expands the Transition Flow taught in Watsu 1. You learn additional moves and bodywork in each position and how to incorporate them and other moves, as needed. You learn about the meridians and points in Watsu and explore following the client's tendency to move, and how to creatively explore your own movements. Practicing the point work, the lifts, the pushes and pulls introduced at this stage, helps develop the ability to explore and play with energy. Because you now have so much to work and play with, it is recommended you practice many sessions before going on to Watsu 3 or another form.

Watsu® III

Prerequisite: Watsu 2, completion of 20 practice sessions, and a recorded demonstration of mastery.

Duration: 50 hours

Watsu III is a WABA core aquatic class, credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 10

Class Materials: Workbook

Watsu 3 is for people who have given enough Watsu sessions to develop a comfortable intuitive awareness of how to be with another person in the water and who are ready to further adapt and explore outside the form of Watsu 2. Powerful stretches and advanced techniques including work at the pool wall and on the steps are introduced. Rolls that require a spontaneous adaptation to the new positions they lead you into are presented as a gateway into "Free Flow”. 

Watsu® I Adaptive - A Clinical Approach

Prerequisite: Prerequisites: Watsu I, 50 hours of Anatomy or by instructor permission, Jahara Basics is recommended.

Duration: 50 hours

Watsu I Adapted is a WABA elective aquatic class, and can credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 10
Class Materials: Notebook
Building on the material covered in Watsu® I or Jahara® Basics, this class focuses on providing the student with a background in precautions, contraindications and the tools to apply Watsu® techniques to their special-needs clients. Students learn the importance of a health history and to assess their client’s flexibility and range of motion using the Body Scan Principal. Emphasis is placed on sharpening the student’s awareness of any changes or needs of their client during a session, and to let this information be their guide as to the appropriate moves used.
In the hours on land we use anatomical visual aids that are color-coded to help the student learn the intention of the moves. Instruction on land also includes Therapeutic Dynamics and Practitioner to Client translation, Tai Chi mechanics, Contraindications, how Watsu® professionals can be utilized in a rehabilitation facility with insurance billing possibilities, designing a health history and a simple Zen Shiatsu sequence to help students learn pressure points and meridians. In addition to the clinical focus, this class emphasizes the importance of “being with” the client and the “Breath and Heart Connection.”

Watsu® III (Adaptive)

Prerequisite: Watsu 2, completion of 20 practice sessions, and a recorded demonstration of mastery.
Duration: 50 hours

Watsu III Adapted is a WABA elective aquatic class, and can credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 10

Class Materials: Workbook

The Adapted version of Watsu III focuses on the application of Watsu to those with specific conditions. 
Watsu 3 Adapted is for people who have given enough Watsu sessions to develop a comfortable intuitive awareness of how to be with another person in the water and who are ready to further adapt and explore outside the form of Watsu 2. Powerful stretches and advanced techniques including work at the pool wall and on the steps are introduced. Rolls that require a spontaneous adaptation to the new positions they lead you into are presented as a gateway into "Free Flow”. The Adapted version focuses on the application of Watsu to those with specific conditions. 

Waterdance I

Prerequisite: Watsu I or Watsu 100 

Duration: 50 hours

Waterdance I, is a WABA elective aquatic class, and can credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 8

Class Materials: Workbook 
Waterdance (or "Wassertanzen", the original German name) is a form of aquatic bodywork developed by Arjana Brunschwiler and Aman Schroter in 1987. Like Watsu, it begins with the client held in the practitioner's arms above the surface of the water, where the body is cradled, stretched, and relaxed. In Waterdance, the client is then given nose clips and gradually and gently taken entirely under the water. Once freed from the bounds of head support and gravity, the client's body can be moved, stretched, and worked in literally unlimited ways. Waterdance incorporates elements of massage, Aikido, dolphin and snake movements, rolls, somersaults, inversions, dance, and much more. The effects of this work include deep physical release and can induce deep states of relaxation, meditation, bliss, and even visions. A prerequisite for participating in Waterdance classes is that you have training in Watsu or other forms of above-surface aquatic bodywork, such as Jahara Technique.
In Waterdance 1 we explore the art of breath connection that enables you to establish a deep rapport with your clients, inspire their trust and offer the attentiveness that is necessary when bringing someone below the water's surface. You learn the Waterdance short form which includes learning to establish a rhythm that works with each client's breathing needs and to move all body types through the water with security, ease and graceful fluidity, giving the receiver a profound sense of freedom and joy. 

Waterdance II

Prerequisite: Waterdance I 

Duration: 50 hours

Waterdance I, is a WABA elective aquatic class, and can credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 8

Class Materials: Workbook 


In this class, you deepen and build on the skills you learned in Waterdance I. 
You expand the principles and material with a repertoire of underwater moves and techniques, and learn new moves and variations and how to link different moves into a graceful flow. By the end of this course, you will have learned enough material to give complete Waterdance sessions that are fun, healing and profound.

Waterdance III

Prerequisite: Waterdance II 

Duration: 50 hours

Waterdance I, is a WABA elective aquatic class, and can credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 8

Class Materials: Workbook , Instructor handouts


Waterdance 3 expands on the foundation built in Waterdance 1 and 2, and takes the student’s repertoire of moves into the realm of personal creativity. Students explore the poetry of spontaneity inspired by what presents itself in the moment. Students will be supported to create their own vocabulary of underwater moves, and learn to link them in endless new ways. The dance of a free flowing experience, back and forth between giver and receiver, is emphasized and discovery of the student’s own unique style is encouraged and affirmed.

Healing dance I

Prerequisite: Watsu I
Duration: 50 hours

Healing Dance I is a WABA elective aquatic class, and can credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 8

Class Materials: Workbook 


Healing Dance evokes the essence of water: fluidity and movement. It is a complementary technique to Watsu and Waterdance: powerful in its own right, combining the freedom, scope and three-dimensionality of Waterdance with the closeness and nurturing of Watsu. Although the entire session takes place above the surface of the water, Healing Dance elicits many of the same responses experienced in a Waterdance session. The giver enjoys the pleasure of her or his own dance, bringing the grace of movement to the receiver. The form follows the natural tendencies of the body moving in water through waves and spirals, with the legs free to experience the sensation of the water flowing past. Some moves combine the contrast of closeness and release while others offer creative stretches. Students learn to move in partnership with the receiver as if they were water itself. Healing Dance was developed by Alexander George, a former ballet dancer and teacher who began studying and teaching Watsu in 1990. Since then he has created, expanded and refined the Healing Dance, which continues to grow and evolve.

Healing dance II

Prerequisite: Healing Dance I
Duration: 50 hours

Healing Dance I is a WABA elective aquatic class, and can credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 8

Class Materials: Workbook 

Healing Dance II builds on the moves and a position already learned in Healing Dance I and adds in spirals, some effective bodywork techniques and new mini-sequences. These include Seaweed II for working the upper body, Come Here! For its strong stretches and flying circles, more releases, the Easy Eights, the nurturing Klimt and some creative step work. Also included in this class are exercises to help students adapt and improvise in their work. Ideas for sequencing a Healing Dance session are discussed, and the concept of channeling movement is explored. It delivers the fullness of Healing Dance's surface repertoire giving participants the tools and confidence to dance with their receivers. 

Healing Dance Above & Below

Prerequisite: Healing Dance I
Duration: 50 hours

Healing Dance II is a WABA elective aquatic class, and can credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 8

Class Materials: Workbook 


This course is designed to bring the principles of Healing Dance into the Water Dance experience. Students will learn to take Watsu and Healing Dance moves underwater, submerge from different positions and surface into a move or position. In a Healing Dance above and below session the receiver experiences nurturing moves of Healing Dance along with the freedom of the underwater experience. This class explores principles such as good body mechanics, moving by example, and using spatial mandalas to create movement shapes. Maintaining flow above and below the surface is an integral part of the class. This means the giver becomes the guide and there is little difference in the experience of the receiver between above and below the surface of the water. Healing Dance lends itself to WaterDance because the flow on top of the water has memories of the flow below. In this way a Healing Dance beginning to a WaterDance session brings the receiver into a natural evolution to go below. Taking the moves below the surface becomes a fluid dance, possibly bringing the receiver to a place where there is no need of breath and the giver to joy in movement and presence. This course offers the student a toolbox of positions and moves to allow more access to free flow.

Healing Dance Shape and Space

Prerequisite: Healing Dance I and WaterDance I 

Duration: 50 hours

Healing Dance II is a WABA elective aquatic class, and can credit of 50 hours toward Watsu Certification.

Number of student in a course is limited to 8

Class Materials: Workbook 
Shape and Space is the fourth Healing Dance level to come into existence after the Basic, Advanced and ‘Above and Below’ trainings. It consists mostly of material Alexander had developed as early as 1993 and first taught in the US and in Europe as an advanced level of Waterdance.  Shape and Space consists of a beautiful and exciting repertoire of moves and an exploration of free flowing improvisation. It is a collection of dives arranged in a viable order, one that could be used outside of class time practice in a real session. In their construction, the dives embody a language with its own grammar and syntax. The key idea in Shape and Space is learning how to create pure, generous movement shapes that convey the receiver across the length and breadth of the pool, speaking their embedded messages to the receiver. The movements of Shape and Space are rooted in human developmental movement; in the animal movement of dolphins, seals, sharks, manta rays, snakes and jellyfishes; in elemental movement patterns seen in flowing water, and in archetypal templates that mirror our relation to spirit. The principle of chaos is honored in movements of a dynamic, arrhythmic, angular quality and also appears in formless free flow. In addition, Shape and Space explores the art of adaptation and facilitation of the interactive receiver. Shape and Space is for those practitioners who believe in the healing power of movement and want to learn how to dance with their receivers in the water.