Feldenkrais® Week | Ilana Nachoum

Are you flexible, strong and balanced? Do you experience little or no muscular or skeletal pain? Feldenkrais is an exhilarating method of optimizing performance through intelligent and gentle, yet challenging movements. Ilana helps us recognize the hidden potential in each of us, and discover new approaches to physical rehabilitation. Once disabled with severe sciatica and lower back pain, Ilana overcame her limitations and gained insight into the mechanisms of the body and the healing process. Private one-on-one sessions also are available with Donna Wood, a Feldenkrais practitioner from San Diego.

Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta | Visiting Teacher Denise Vivaldo

Denise Vivaldo has catered more than 10,000 parties and has cooked for such guests as George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Prince Charles, Bette Midler, Suzanne Somers, Merv Griffin, Cher, Aaron Spelling, Sly Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Maria Shriver. She began her culinary training at the Ritz Escoffier and La Varenne in Paris, and then graduated Chef de Cuisine from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. Denise spent numerous years as a professor at UCLA’s Culinary Program and at her alma mater, The California Culinary Academy.

In 1988, Denise founded Food Fanatics, a catering, recipe-development, and food-styling firm based in Los Angeles, California. Since that time, she has catered for such events as the Academy Awards Governor’s Ball, Sunset Magazine’s Taste of Sunset, and Hollywood wrap parties. She has also styled food for countless local and nationally syndicated television shows such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NapaStyle with Michael Chiarello, and Inside Dish with Rachel Ray.

Denise is the author of “How to Start a Home-Based Catering Business” and “How to Start a Home-Based Personal Chef Business.” She is also the author of “Do It For Less! Parties, Do It For Less! Weddings” (winner of a 2009 IACP Cookbook Award) and “The Entertaining Encyclopedia.” “The Food Styling Handbook,” a book based on her decades of food styling experience, will be available from Gibbs Smith in September 2010. She is currently working on a companion book to “The Entertaining Encyclopedia.”

Denise has been a featured guest on a variety of television networks and shows including Good Day L.A., ABC Morning News, the Japanese Drama Channel, The Food Network, Home & Garden Network, TV Guide Channel, SoapNet, Lifetime TV, and TV Land. She has helped many people with their cookbooks, including Mariel Hemmingway, Meredith Phillips, Suzanne Somers, Richard Simmons, Juan-Carlos Cruz, Dr. Tom Yarema, Jorge Cruise and Susan Powter.

Denise offers three hands-on culinary experiences, 3.5 hours each, during which you will enjoy preparing your own meal along with fellow cooks. These activities take place at La Cocina Que Canta. You also will have the opportunity to harvest produce you use from our organic garden, Tres Estrellas.

For more information and registration, please click here.

Do You Have a Book Inside You? | Dianne Jacob

About 80 percent of people believe they have a book in them, waiting to come out. If this sounds familiar, what would happen if you chose to write your book? Explore the writing and publishing world with writing coach and published writer Dianne Jacob. Dianne is a writing teacher, former magazine editor, and author of two non-fiction books and has edited manuscripts for individuals and publishers. Whether you’d like to write a children’s book, a novel, memoir, or a cookbook, find out how book publishing works and what you need to do to begin.

Join Dianne Jacob for the following 1-hour classes:

Can You be a Published Author? Absolutely! Learn what it takes to gain the interest of a publishing house or literary agent. Make a list of your most desirable qualities and qualifications. You’ll be surprised by how confident you’ll feel about pursuing your book project.

The Art of Story Telling. Through examples, we’ll examine a few well-written paragraphs and analyze what makes them so good. Dianne will point out the techniques writers use to hook readers, and you’ll try one in class.

Getting the Words Down on Paper. Just as Woody Allen said “80 percent of success is just showing up,” 80 percent of writing is just sitting down to write. Choose your own topic or receive an assignment for a half hour of writing, and experience the satisfaction of creating your own work.

What’s your book idea? Get your thoughts down on paper in a concise “elevator pitch,” so the next time someone asks you what your book is about, you’ll have a memorized, well-thought out reply.

Dianne Jacob has been an award-winning editor and writer for more than 30 years, for magazines, newspapers, websites, and books. Her particular passion is food. She is the author of Will Write for Food, and co-author of Grilled Pizza & Piadinas, with chef Craig Priebe. Dianne coaches writers in the US, Canada and Europe, and teaches classes on writing and book proposals in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has judged national book and journalism awards for many years.

On the Web: www.diannej.com

Folklore and Stories: A Window to the Soul | Rabbi Michael R. Zedek

Scholars suggest there are only a certain number of plots -- all else is elaboration. Rabbi Zedek explores how and why different cultures and groups tell the "same" story, and how the ways that such stories are told reveal the values and dreams of different communities. You'll learn why such stories fascinate us, cause us to remember and help us grow. In additional presentations, Rabbi Zedek will delve into "Miracles of the Ordinary" -- how to discover the key to the fullest expression of life: finding the miraculous in routine yet exceptional moments of heightened consciousness -- such as a time with nature or the birth of a child. Then, in "Stories for Leaders," Rabbi Zedek looks into common advice on management strategies, and why change can be so difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

In July of 2004, Rabbi Michael R. Zedek began service as the Senior Rabbi of Emanuel Congregation of Chicago. He also served as CEO of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, and for 26 years was spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Jehudah in Kansas City, Missouri, where he holds the title of Rabbi Emeritus. At the time of his installation in 1976, he was the youngest rabbi in the United States to head a “giant” congregation. Rabbi Zedek was the recipient of the Danforth Graduate Fellowship for outstanding teaching, a Fulbright-Hays Grant for advanced study in the United Kingdom, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. He speaks internationally on spirituality and folklore, and is a regular presenter at Rancho La Puerta.

Concerts | Suzanne Ciani

Suzanne Ciani will perform original compositions from her 15-album repertoire, including her signature composition, “The Velocity of Love,” which appears in numerous anthologies of romantic music, and many other of her favorite compositions. Suzanne Ciani’s music communicates the special intimacy, passion, and sensitivity that have become her trademark and has prompted fans to buy over a million of her albums. She has toured throughout the United States, Italy, Spain and Asia. Her newest release, "Silver Ship", won last year’s Indie Award for Best New Age Album.

Suzanne Ciani is a composer, recording artist, and pioneer in the field of electronic music. She is best loved for her fifteen albums of original music that feature her performances in a broad array of expressions: pure electronic, solo piano, piano with orchestra, and piano with jazz ensemble. She has toured throughout the United States, Italy, Spain, and Asia. Her many recognitions include five Grammy nominations for Best New Age Album, two Indie nominations and one Indie Award for Best New Age Album, numerous Clios, a Golden Globe, and Keyboard Magazine’s “New Age Keyboardist of the Year.” In the eighties and early nineties, Ciani’s New York-based commercial production company, Ciani-Musica, Inc., was the leader in the field of sound design and TV spot scoring, creating award-winning music for a host of high profile Fortune 500 clients, including Coca-Cola, Merrill Lynch, AT&T, and General Electric. Additionally, Ciani has scored the Lily Tomlin feature The Incredible Shrinking Woman; the award-winning feature documentary, Mother Teresa; the feature documentary, Mother Teresa: The Legacy; as well as scoring for the TV daytime serial One Life to Live. In the early nineties Ciani relocated to northern California to concentrate on her artistic career. In 1995, she established her own record label, Seventh Wave. In addition to her fifteen solo albums, Ciani has published three books of original piano music through the Hal Leonard Corporation: Suzanne Ciani: New Age Piano, Suzanne Ciani: Dream Songs, and Suzanne Ciani: Turning. On the Web: www.suzanneciani.com.

Dream On: Exploring Your Dream World | Veronica Tonay, Ph.D.

We all dream several times per night, and we remember even more dreams when we travel. Are dreams just meaningless, or do they hold some value? What gifts can they bring? In this program, you'll discover how listening to your dreams can help you to solve problems, develop your creativity, improve your relationships, meet your own wisdom, and visualize new goals.

Veronica Tonay, Ph.D., was one of several experts interviewed for a Discovery Channel series, "Dream Decoders" and has been interviewed as an expert on dream interpretation by major television networks. She earned her doctoral degree in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1993. She is a licensed psychologist and practices psychotherapy in Santa Cruz, California. Veronica specializes in helping those experiencing depression, separation, loss, relationship issues, the effects of sexual abuse, life transitions and/or creative blocks. She also performs psychological testing and evaluations. Veronica has written articles about the hidden meanings of dreams for Redbook, Psychology Today, McCall's and Reader’s Digest. She is the author of “Every Dream Interpreted,” “The Creative Dreamer’s Journal,” and “The Creative Dreamer: Using Your Dreams to Unlock Your Creativity.”

On the Web: www.veronicatonay.com.