Yoga |Defend | Dance
Empowering half-day Retreat
May 17th 2025 | 2pm - 7pm| Minneapolis
NEW & Revised Schedule ~ now with sliding scale 🧡
Join us
for an epic day
grounding + centering
moving + breathing
defending + protecting
relaxing + connecting
Join us for this epic half-day retreat experience
Yoga | Meditation | Self Defense Workshop|Dancing on the Party Bus
Sometimes this world feels hard to bear and heavy to carry. It is easy to get stuck and lost in sad throught loops. This day retreat idea was born from feeling disconnected, lonely, and disempowered.
Was wondering what to do to feel excited and strong again. Dreamed up an adventure that could be strengthening and fun.
This was born of wanting to remember - and remind us - that we are strong. That we can live joyfully in our bodies, invite a sense of safety, build strength and confidence. We can befriend and delight in our minds. We can bask in kindness and compassion. That we can have fun, dance, and go out into the night to eat and be merry as we wish.
And to remember, deeply, what celebrated poet Mary Oliver said,
“Joy is not to be made to be a crumb.”
Let’s gather together for half a day to shake it off and lift it up.
Enjoy potent, empowering, rejuvenating, and silly activities (like dancing on a hot pink party bus). Practice strengthening intuition + body awareness with breath-centered yoga asana at the Aster House ~ gorgeous historic building by the Mississippi River. … Learn + enhance our self-defense skills with a renowned, local Sensei.
Sounds like a damn fine, fun, freeing, and satisfying day to be alive. Can’t wait to share it with you!
About our epic, empowering Saturday
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So excited for this day with you! Please note that this schedule is subject to slight changes in time.
2pm Gather at Aster House 25 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414
2:15 Yoga / intention setting
3:30 Party Bus Pick up at Aster House … dance across town
Drop at Five Elements Martial Arts + Healing Center
4pm Five Fingers of Self Defense Workshop with Sensei Kore
6pm Party Bus Pick up ~ Dance across town with your fave songs on the playlist
A few optional drop locations (Eat Street? Art-a-Whirl?)
6:45 land back at Aster House / Saint Anthony Main
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Yoga + meditation practice at Aster House with Mary
Five Fingers of Self Defense Workshop with Sensei Koré Grate At Five Elements
Transportation from Aster House to Five Elements + back via Party Bus
Refreshments on the party bus after the workshop including Heti (Low dose THC wellness drinks), bubbly + sparkly water
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Not included
Transportation to/from retreat
Lodging
Parking fees
Dinner
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Mary Bue is a songwriter, international retreat guide, and yoga teacher based out of Minneapolis, often roaming this beautiful world. Named Best Songwriter of 2020 by City Pages, her music touches upon archetypal themes of the human condition: love, loss, survival, dreams, and the natural world. A longtime student of yoga and psychology, Mary weaves sacred subject matter into her songs, seeking of deeper levels of consciousness, and concern for the environment mixed into oft-crass, real-world hue. Mary released her 9th album The Wildness of Living & Dying in February 2025.
A registered yoga teacher (e-RYT 500) in the Viniyoga tradition, Mary received her certification at Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, WA from Tracy Weber, (student of Gary Kraftsow, student of T.K.V. Desikachar) and her 300 hour from Yoga Center Retreat (formerly Yoga Center of Minneapolis). In 2020, Mary received an additional 200-hour Nada Yoga (the Yoga of Sound) certificate from Nada Yoga School in Rishikesh India, and in 2024 co-founded a Registered Yoga School (RYS) with her master teacher Tara Cindy Sherman, launching Yojita Yoga Teacher Training.
We’ll begin our adventure at Aster House ~ St. Anthony Main ~ a gorgeous new restaurant, music + wedding venue next to the Mississippi River.
Welcome! At 2pm we will gather, share Introductions, intention setting, and a low intensity yoga asana practice in the upper loft/balcony, followed by a brief grounding & protection meditation. Our party bus will arrive after yoga and we’ll dance across town to Five Elements Martial Arts & Healing Center for our self defense training.
Aster House is so beautiful! "With a vibe that hearkens back to the chic Northern Getaways of old, Aster House combines the Jazz Age and the Jet Set, right here on the prettiest street in Minneapolis.”
Hop on the Pink Party Bus
From here, we’ll hop on the Pink Party Bus and head across the city. Dancing (optional yet encouraged!) to your favorite songs to warm up for our self defense workshop.
After the workshop, a selection of beverages will be available for the party bus back to Saint Anthony Main, including bubbly, sparkle water and Heti ~ low dose THC drinks created to give you a sense of place by celebrating the plants around us. Heti means "Home" in the Dakota language.
Next up: Self Defense Workshop with Shifu/Sensei Koré Grate
The benefits of enhancing your self defense skills are paramount always — and especially in times like these. Strengthening intuition, setting and maintaining personal boundaries (as well as mental boundaries), posture, awareness, vigilance, and building confidence are skills that ripple out far beyond the streets. We are honored and thrilled to learn from Shifu/Sensei Koré Grate (she/her/we/us) for a two hour private workshop at Five Element Martial Arts & Healing Center.
FEMA's Five Fingers of Self Defense & Empowerment Training
Sensei Koré teaches the FIVE FINGERS of Self Defense:
Using your MIND
Using your VOICE
How to ESCAPE
How to FIGHT back
How to TELL your story for descriptions and healing
We’ll arrive to our workshop hopefully warmed up after dancing across town on the party bus!
Please note: If this Day Retreat is not in your budget or doesn’t fit into your schedule at this time, Kore offers this self defense training for Women, Transgender/Non-Binary, and girls 13 and over four times a year for $50 ($20 discount or free options via inquiry). These skills are so important and encouraged - please go even if you can’t make this party! The next training is July 28th 2025 - info here
About Shifu/Sensei Koré Grate
Koré is a lifetime member, board of directors, supporter of AWMAI ~ the Association of Women Martial Arts Instructors, PAWMA ~ the Pacific Association of Women Martial Artists, and NWMAF ~ the National Women's Martial Arts Federation. She is a Professional Spiritual Tattoo Artist at Tatu's By Koré "~ “Soul-Surfacing Skin Designs in a Safe and Sacred Space,” Calligrapher, Artist and studies movement in all aspects including Golf, horseback riding, water skiing, and more.
Koré Grate is Head Instructor & Executive Director of F.E.M.A. since 1989, 8th Degree Black Belt in Wu Chien Pai:(Judo, Jujitsu, Kung Fu, Taiji, Qigong, Meditation), 2nd Degree Black Belt in Soshoryu Iaido (Japanese Sword), 2nd Degree Black Belt in Aikitoho Iaido (Japanese Sword), NWMAF Certified Self Defense Instructor. She has been training for over 50 years & teaching for over 40 years.
Learn more about Sensei Koré and Five Elements Martial Arts + Healing Center here
Koré's mantras are:
"ULTIMATE POSITIVITY"
“LOOK at it, LEARN from it, and LET it go"
A personal message from Mary about the new & revised schedule + pricing
May 17th’s epic day retreat is now offers a sliding scale payment option ~ $33/$55/$108 (suggested)
Registration still ends this Wednesday, April 30th so we can make sure I have enough people to run the training with Kore!
Hi friends! I’ve been shouting about this epic day retreat from the rooftops for many months - it is a huge dream that popped in and it seemed like so many people were excited about it! Unfortunately, it is VERY expensive to run and would have needed 15 people signed up to break even. And it wasn’t close registration deadline looming THAT SAID ~ I’ve revised it to the following to a sliding scale / suggested donation of $108. Now the event will go from 2pm to approx 6:45/7pm with yoga, meditation, self-defense workshop, and dancing on the party bus with sparkly bevs.
We also could fit in a few party bus stops/drop offs so people could go to other events like Jessa Walter’s Capricorn Moon Medicine astrology workshop at Yess Yoga, or maybe hear the new project Glass by Annie+ Kari with Favourite Girl supporting Katy Tessman’s album release at Icehouse or we could drop you in Northeast to catch that evening’s Art-a-Whirl shennanigans! Choose your own adventure! Then you could take a Lyft back to your car near Aster House when your evening concludes …
OR arrive back at St. Anthony Main w/ us. It’s such a lovely neighborhood to explore ~ you could get a delicious taco dinner on your own at Jefe Urban Cocina, or hopefully it’ll be a beautiful evening and you’ll choose to eat at the Aster Cafe patio. You could even go book your own time at Watershed Spa as they’ll open it back up to the public (let me know and I can try and get you in ASAP)!
It’s been a bummer to let this day retreat dream go in its entirety… However, by shortening it, you can still catch some great happenings around the city that evening AND refresh your self-defense skills while meeting some fun people. I mostly wanted to share this self defense training with my community and thought this whole day would be FANTASTIC … Here is a way to do that less expensive, and still have a really fun party around it!!!!
Registration ends this Wednesday, April 30th. If we meet the minimum to run Kore’s workshop by Wednesday night, I’ll keep registration open longer! Big love and can’t wait to be with you May 17th!
❤️ Warmly, Mary Bue
Are you ready to Yoga | Defend | Dance with us?
This half-day retreat experience takes place Saturday, May 17th from 2pm to 6:45pm in Minneapolis.
Yoga | Meditation | Self Defense Workshop | Dancing on the Party Bus
Deadline to register is April 30th
Minimum of 10 participants required for this party to fly 🦋 Pay what you can in the donation box below and give Mary your info in the registration form below so she can contact you with details before our event on May 17th! Thank you so much and can’t wait to be with you!
Parking & Lodging Info
Retreat begins at Aster House ~ 25 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414)
Closest Hotels to Aster House
