Spiral Time is a week-long dance retreat situated at the beautiful Lockhart State Park in Lockhart, Texas. The retreat includes full days of dance taught by Caroline Caswell, intentional seasonally-sourced chef meals, atmospheric live music by Terri Mashburn, and bodywork by Lance Weihmuller. This year we celebrate our 4th annual retreat!
Spiral time is about dropping in – into ourselves, into each other, and into the universe.
** Applications open on January 9th for the 2026 season**
JUNE 16 -21 , 2026 at Lockhart State Park
$700-$775 sliding scale
The cost of this workshop includes chef-made lunches and dinners each day. Payment plans are available. We will coordinate all payment plans once admitted. We ask that those with a higher income slide up on the scale.
All classes and lunches will take place at the historic Recreation Hall at Lockhart State Park (pictured above). The park features native Texas wildflowers, live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, limestone picnic tables, and a limestone dance patio. You may even spot an armadillo, a red-tailed hawk, or a horny toad lizard. Caroline will take us on an educative plant walk to get to know the local native plants and providing herbal medicines to enhance our somatic experience.
LODGING
The cost of lodging is not included in the retreat price. That being said, we will help you find a place to stay! There are an array of options in Lockhart ranging from very affordable to deluxe. Lodging accommodations include booking one of the historic Airbnb’s in Lockhart and camping at Lockhart State Park. Dancers must be present for all four days of the retreat. We recommend arriving in the Austin area on Monday/Tuesday at the latest to get situated before our inaugural dinner on Tuesday evening. We will coordinate all lodging with students once they are admitted.
Caroline Caswell is the host & lead teacher of Spiral Time. She utilizes modes of post-modern and modern dance technique, performance art, somatics, and plant relations to enhance presence and connection. She has been dancing since the age of seven and has tried to abandon all traditional forms of dance but the body remembers. Now she engages with dancing & responding to the universe as a daily practice. She can barely wait to enter the vortex that we will surely craft together at Spiral Time.
Terri is a composer and multi-instrumentalist living and working in Central Texas. Their history with music is rooted in the christian upbringing that is typical of our place and time, and though the church no longer factors in their life, a reverence for voice and sound are lasting legacies from childhood. A recording artist since 2006, Terri has maintained an ever widening songwriting practice, while also reaching into the musics of other cultures in order to evolve as a vocalist. Terri is also an avid practitioner of yoga and the cultivation of the witness mentality that yoga encourages. With this workshop, participants will have the unique experience of moving to the sounds that Terri creates, while they allow their movements to shape Terri’s sounds. We’re so excited to have them back for year three!
Listen to Terri’s sounds here!
Lance is a giver, and during Spiral Time, they will be serving as our resident massage therapist/camp counselor extraordinaire. Lance approaches massage therapy as a moving meditation, a dance. Having been certified in Esalen® massage by the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, they are steeped in the movements of water, play, curiosity, and improvisation. In 2020 they opened their private practice, Touch Ceremony, in Austin, with the mission of giving back significance to rituals of touch and felt experience. In a violent, or sometimes even boring, world, their practice is about creating the awareness to feel better, to feel more. What a gift it is to have Lance helping us integrate our somatic experiences!
Learn more about Lance’s bodywork practice here.
Jinni J. is a photographer and filmmaker moved by the essence of people. Her work moves with a gentle curiosity – leaning into the quiet, unguarded moments where something real comes through. Working across portraiture, editorial, and brand imagery, she approaches each project with intuition and care, often blending film, digital, and instant mediums to create imagery that feels tactile and alive. Whether documenting intimate portraits or collaborative creative worlds, Jinni’s perspective is rooted in a deep love for people – their tenderness, their humor, their many layers. Her images cradle the subtle and the sublime, playfulness and depth—holding space for people to be seen and celebrated in their most natural expression. Jinni is the official Spiral Time documentarian and has a beautiful way of weaving through the dance to capture our essence!
View Jinny’s photography portfolio here.
During Spiral Time we…
Dance
Pray
Dream
Experiment
Nourish
Drop in
Pause
Engage in somatic inquiry
Practice performance
Taste the plants
See time as infinite
See space as full
Notice
See everything as material.
(the email box below is to sign-up for my newsletter and does not take you to the application)
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