'Alchemy of Power: A Mask and Power Dynamics Laboratory' is an immersive exploration of how individuals navigate and transform dynamics of personal and relational power through conscious 📝play with identity and 📝presence. This gathering is co-facilitated by 📝Elisa 'Wowza' Lodge, an acclaimed actor, transformational coach, and energy healer with six decades of leadership in the human potential movement, alongside 📝Brian Swichkow. Wowza’s background spans television, film, and stage—including appearances in Batman, Bewitched, and Mission: Impossible—and she is a pioneer of 📝Expressive Arts Therapy and innovative bodywork at the 📝Esalen Institute. Her work introduces a “quantum body language” and emphasizes liberating authentic expression. Drawing on these foundations, Alchemy of Power invites participants to investigate the roles and “masks” they wear—protector, disruptor, peacemaker, visionary—and to experiment with shifting these roles through guided movement, role-play, and reflective practice. The approach views masking as both an art and a tool for deepening connection, cultivating sovereignty, and fostering relational intelligence.
Working with Wowza has been a potent catalyst for my own understanding of masks, power, and authentic presence. Her decades of living, teaching, and playing at the edges of performance and transformation have opened up possibilities in me that I didn’t know existed. There’s a certain electricity in her presence—a playful invitation to set aside pretense and step into something real, wild, and free. I feel genuinely excited to share this space with her, knowing that what emerges will be shaped as much by her wisdom as by the curiosity and courage of those who join us. My hope is that together we’ll not only experiment with the masks we wear, but also discover a deeper freedom in how we choose to show up for ourselves and each other.