Climate Cafe: Dance Floor Edition model with example

Piloting a music and movement-based Climate Cafe

In the release notes for his song “Live and Let Live”, the final track on Peter Gabriel’s new album i/o, my favourite musician states, “Music can be like a box of mood pills that we can use to treat ourselves…” Gabriel’s analogy is not an attempt to discount other therapeutic modalities. Many of us, including me, get what he means from our own lived experience. Listening and dancing to the monthly releases of Peter Gabriel’s new music throughout 2023 was an important part of supporting my mental health in our age of polycrisis.

As a creative climate communicator and climate-aware facilitator, one of last year’s highlights for me was piloting a music and movement-based Climate Cafe in collaboration with Climate Coach Amy Castator. Our event took place virtually on November 30, 2023. Thank you to co-facilitator Amy and the participants, including a couple members of the Scarborough Poetry Club, for making this dream of mine a reality. While I get a lot out of dancing with myself, it’s more fun to ask you all to dance.

I’m excited to announce that my colleague Amy and I will be offering our second, virtual Climate Cafe: Dance Floor Edition event on Thursday, February 15 at 7pm EST! Our theme for this second event is “Love and Loss”. But before then, you can get a sense of what the experience is like by reading this blog, moving to a selection of 3 songs that evoke various climate emotions, and reflecting on your experience. Of course, I highly recommend experiencing this unique Climate Cafe format as part of a group. Feel free to use this blog as a resource for your own gathering, let me know what you think about this model, and please join Amy and me for our next event!

In this blog post I’m…

• continuing with my exploration of moving to music for engaging with and processing climate emotions
• referencing the Climate Emotions Wheel developed by the Climate Mental Health Network based on Panu Pihkala’s work on The Process of Eco-Anxiety and Ecological Grief model
• offering some general tips for planning a Climate Cafe: Dance Floor Edition event
• providing an example of working with a theme and a selection of three songs
• inviting you to try out moving to these 3 songs for yourself

General tips for planning a Climate Cafe: Dance Floor Edition event

• Consider co-facilitating so that you can discuss song selection and share the responsibilities of promoting and hosting the event, and supporting participants
• Offer free registration in the spirit of the Climate Cafe model
• Consider working with an overarching metaphor for your Climate Cafe event
• Consider working with a theme for your session
• Consider offering a simple, gesture-based Land Acknowledgement
• Consider working with an energetic arc when selecting song order
• Consider working with a narrative arc when selecting song order
• Consider offering options to reduce participation barriers
• Consider holding space for conversation about the experience

Offering a gesture-based Land Acknowledgment

We began our event with a verbal Land Acknowledgment and an invitation to embody a simple gesture symbolizing gathering what we need into a bowl. I referenced and demonstrated the “Hold the Dish” gesture from A Treaty Guide for Torontonians‘ Dish Dances Movement Education activity.

Example of working with a metaphor, theme, and 3 songs

The overarching metaphor for our first Climate Cafe: Dance Floor Edition was the idea of hosting a house party with the anticipation of arrivals, interactions, and departures. We also imagined that our emotions are like invited guests. We shared a selection of three songs that connected to the theme of “gathering” in some way, and then opened the floor for conversation and sharing about the experience.

In terms of working with an energetic arc, we took inspiration from group fitness and dance classes where participants experience a change in music tempo as the session progresses from a warmup to cardio to cooldown.

In terms of a narrative arc, we considered how the music, lyrics and mood of each of the songs aligned with the overarching metaphor of a house party and the feelings that were likely to be evoked as the gathering progressed through time. We wanted to take the participants on a climate emotions journey through music and movement.

Song 1: “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge (1974)

This first song, familiar to many, was our warmup and represented arrivals. We imagined greetings, smiles, and hugs as guests came through the door. We imagined small talk and some initial catching up as the party got started. We anticipated singing and dancing to a familiar and familial song.

The music is upbeat, the lyrics are celebratory and the mood is joyful, even exuberant. The music video is also fun to watch and dance along with as the musical sisters perform choreographed and free-style moves.

More specific themes in the song lyrics include togetherness, closeness, love, fun, hope, goals, faith and reaching out. Feelings of positivity, including gratitude, hope and empowerment, as visualized on the Climate Emotions Wheel, are most likely to be evoked by this lively song about finding support within our families of origin and our chosen families. On the other hand, hearing the song lyrics, with the optimism for the future, may evoke feelings of sadness, such as loss and loneliness, and/or feelings of anger, such as disappointment and betrayal, in our age of climate crisis. This song is from 1974, five years before the Carney Report‘s terms “global warming” and “climate change” replaced “inadvertent climate modification” to describe human impact on the climate. Today we are deep into the climate and ecological crises.

Song 2: “All of Us” by Sam Roberts Band (2020)

This song from my favourite Canadian band was our cardio and represented deeper and perhaps even intense interactions. We imagined breakout conversations in corners of the living room or in the kitchen where heavy emotions could show up as people talk about the news, worries about climate change or political polarization, etc. We imagined the interactions themselves might become fraught. We anticipated intense, energetic movements, perhaps some jumping and raising of fists, along with singing to the lyrics as they start appearing on screen during the second half of the video.

The music is energetic, at times even frantic. The lyrics and the visuals in the music video are complex. The video depicts aspects of our predicament, including sea level rise, record breaking temperatures, terrorism, war, racism, police brutality, COVID-19, homelessness, and more. There’s a refrain in the lyrics about shocks, “Bombs in the supermarket”, and about overwhelm/avoidance, “And we don’t want to talk about it”. This bridge in the song has an underlying strong beat, which is depicted in the video as a beating heart, representing distress. But the mood of the song alternates between the anxious verses and bridges and the reassuring chorus.

More specific themes in the song lyrics include flooding/sinking, demonstrations, losing hope, waiting for a miracle/holding onto hope, and the message that “No you’ll never be alone”. Besides the distressing images, the video depicts people engaged in demonstrations and marches, singing, fitness, dance, sports, and there’s a brief clip of Sam Roberts himself singing and dancing on stage as the band plays at night at an outdoor venue. Because of the complexity of the lyrics and especially the video, this song is likely to evoke various tones or shades of fear, anger, sadness and positivity as visualized on the Climate Emotions Wheel.

Song 3: “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode (1990)

This song was our cooldown and represented departures. I was inspired to include this song by one of two music themed episodes of the Climate Change and Happiness podcast where the hosts Thomas Doherty and Panu Pikhala discuss playlists. Co-facilitator Amy and I imagined the party winding down and things becoming quieter. We imagined farewells as people took their leave. Perhaps there would be imminent feelings about the ending of the gathering or lingering feelings about earlier interactions. We anticipated slower, flowing movements, and perhaps singing along, especially to the chorus of the song (Subtitles/closed captions is enabled for this video).

The music is relaxing, the lyrics are contemplative and the mood is calm. The lyrics and the visuals in the music video are relatively simple. The video depicts a king or prince, possibly The Little Prince (there are some hints with images of roses), walking long distances while carrying a simple folding beach chair. He visits a mountain top, a grassland with sparse trees, a tidal shoreline, and finally a snowy valley and mountain top and sits down to take in the vistas. Although the character as an adult white royal male represents the epitome of privilege, there’s something else going on in this video since he is not sitting on his throne in a palace overseeing his subjects, but rather sits on a beach chair by himself in quite contemplation, enjoying the silence.

More specific themes in the song lyrics include various references to the ways in which words can fail us: “They can only do harm”. The references to broken vows and “meaningless” words remind me of Greta Thunberg’s “blah blah blah” speech. However, the main message of the song is that everything we want and need is close to us (within us and with us and surrounding us). Natural landscapes feature prominently in this video, suggesting that we can still find safety and a sense of peace and contentment in this (re)connection and relationship with the more-than-human world as we work to protect our planet and all that we love.

Although the overall mood of “Enjoy the Silence” is calm, the song alternates between negativity in the verses and positivity in the chorus. The song is likely to evoke both feelings of sadness, such as loss and grief, and feelings of positivity, such as empathy and gratitude as visualized on the Climate Emotions Wheel. But the long, instrumental outro that includes trumpet sounds evokes a feeling of optimism and the song ends with the song’s title, an appeal to “Enjoy the silence”. Ultimately, this is a song about resilience as are the other two songs in this short playlist. With this last song we circle back to the theme of gathering what we need that was introduced during the Land Acknowledgement.

Offering options to reduce participation barriers

We recommend offering options to reduce participation barriers for a Climate Cafe: Dance Floor Edition event. In the description on our registration page, as well as in our social media posts, we state, “You are invited to come as you are, and participate according to your own preferences and abilities.” We recommend verbally stating this invitation during your event so that participants can feel free to dance seated or standing, with camera on or off, clap along or tap their feet to the beat, or choose to watch the videos or listen to the songs without necessarily engaging in movement. In all cases participants should be invited to connect with their emotions and feelings and each other.

Holding space for conversation

We recommend holding space for conversation about the experience toward the end of a Climate Cafe: Dance Floor Edition event. We invite participants to reflect and share about how it felt to participate in a music and movement-based Climate Cafe, and we model this ourselves. Some suggested questions include: How did you connected with the overall theme of the event and more specific themes in the songs? Did you experience mood changes? What thoughts, emotions and feelings came up for you? How did it feel to move to the music and/or watch the videos as part of a group?

Some reflections of my own

Collaborating with my colleague Amy Castator is an enriching experience for me. It is giving me an opportunity to deepen my learning about planning and co-facilitating climate spaces as we support each other in the practice of Active Hope in community. Engaging with Amy, the participants, and the music videos during the live virtual event has reaffirmed by beliefs and feelings about the value of collective embodied approaches to processing our climate emotions. Offering this imperfect blog post in the service of helping myself and others cope in our warming world is both humbling and gratifying. Thank you for reading!

Selection of climate music related resources

Note: most of the songs referenced in these resources are not explicitly about climate but nevertheless can evoke various climate emotions and other feelings related to justice, reconciliation, etc.

From Anna Nieminen (that’s me):

Sitting and Moving with Climate Emotions blog post

Shocked to life! Hidden Climate Story in Song: “Shock the Monkey” by Peter Gabriel

From the Climate Change and Happiness podcast:

Season 1, Episode 14: Climate Music Pt. 1: Panu’s Playlist

Season 1, Episode 15: Climate Music Pt. 2: Thomas’s Playlist

Other climate playlists:

How to Live in a Chaotic Climate playlist

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day playlist by Ecojustice

The Rally for Climate Sountrack playlist by Ecojustice

New music from Peter Gabriel:

https://petergabriel.com/release/i-o

https://petergabriel.com/release/road-to-joy

https://petergabriel.com/release/olive-tree

https://petergabriel.com/release/live-and-let-live

A resource for coping with climate anxiety

Thanks to all the Climate Psychology Alliance North America (CPA-NA) members who contributed to the below article that includes a lot of valuable, actionable advice about how to cope with overwhelming anxiety and move toward empowerment.

What to do when you’re completely overwhelmed by climate anxiety. How to act in service of the planet — and your values. By Allie Volpe for Vox.