Brotherflow workshop series #4

Kunstinstituut Melly & Brotherflow is proud to present a free workshop series in October & November for men and male-identifying individuals. This Laboratory for New Masculinities is a 4-part somatic workshop series exploring how masculinity can transform when we soften, feel, and listen. Each session is led by a different practitioner with a distinct lens on embodiment, playfulness and connection with masculine energy.

The program:

October 26th - Session #1
November 16th - Session #2
November 23rd - Session #3
November 30th - Session #4

About this session:

This workshop arises from the need to question masculinity beyond traditional models. Rather than offering therapy, this space functions as a playground or laboratory, that offers support and community where participants can explore, question, and play with different expressions of masculinity. Through movement and dialogue, we aim to generate shared reflections that allow expansion, freedom and empowerment.

Block 1: Subconscious movement

An interdisciplinary experience blending dance, psychology, and vocal exploration to access the subconscious through the body and release hidden energetic blockages. This workshop offers somatic tools inspired by Carl Jung’s Red Book, neurobiology, and art as medicine. The goal is to unlock trapped emotional memories, release vital flow, and activate the body as a living temple of authentic expression.

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Block 2: Moving the Pelvis – Reconnecting with Creative Energy

Guided by Brazilian movement artist Diego Oliveira, founder of OM FLOW, this workshop invites participants to explore the power and wisdom of the pelvis through joyful, rhythmic movement. By blending ancestral rhythm, somatic awareness, and intuitive flow, participants will learn to release tension, awaken creative energy, and reconnect with their body’s natural groove. Many people—especially men—often disconnect from the fluidity and expression of their hips. This session creates a safe, grounded space to move past restriction and rediscover the spiritual and creative force that lives in the body. Through breath, rhythm, and presence, we’ll move not just to dance, but to remember.

About Brotherflow:

Brotherflow is a laboratory for new masculinities. It is a place of co-creation where dance, ritual, somatics, and emotional truth come together to unlearn, heal, and experiment.

Brotherflow as a collective is a brotherhood and healing movement responding to the crisis of masculinity. While society increasingly recognizes the harm of toxic and patriarchal masculinities, there are still very few spaces where men and those socialized as men can explore new, healthy expressions of masculine energy in a holistic and embodied way. This is our calling as artists, facilitators, and people with lived experience. We use art to create the spaces we wish we had: spaces of softness, honesty, and transformation.

We are not here to define the perfect man. We invite multiplicity. We explore masculinities that flow, shift, and evolve, that honor feminine energy, and that are rooted in care instead of control.

Our collective is grounded in three core values: strength in softness, playful explorations and loving accountability. We play to unlock joy and loosen shame. We hold each other accountable with compassion, not punishment. We create space to express grief, anger, and frustration, while offering softness for sadness, loneliness, and disconnection. We are a wolf pack of loyalty and care, protecting the wounded until they are ready to rise again. Then we keep exploring, with curiosity and wonder.

The facilitators:

Lester David:

Lester David is a multi-award winner artist (choreography, theatre), music producer, artistic and creative director, coming from Caracas, Venezuela. He graduated from UNEARTE (National Experimental University of Arts), in Caracas, and from SNDO (School for New Dance Development) in Amsterdam. His work explores how art can serve as a healing medium and a space for expanding collective consciousness.

David has been nominated for the BNG Bank Theaterprijs 2019, the largest theatre award held in The Netherlands and won the Nieuwe Makers Regeling 2019, a mayor development grant by Fonds Podiumkunsten that supports young artists' in Holland. He’s won four prestigious awards as theatre maker in Germany, Belgium and Holland: Publikumpreis (Audience Award) at Radikal Jung Festival 2019 in Münich at the Münchner Volsktheater, Operadagen Festival Rotterdam 2018 (as young maker with significant contribution to the world of music theatre), Theater Aan Zee Festival 2017 in Oostende (as original young maker, play and song writer), and the Audience Award at the Moving Forward Festival 2016 in Amsterdam.

He has taught at the SNDO and ECD (Extended Contemporary Dance) at the Academie voor Theater en Dans (AHK) as a guest teacher, and also in prestigious institutions like the Icelandic Dance Company, National Venezuelan Dance company, TSEKH: Contemporary Dance Centre in Moscow, Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp, and Studio 303 in Montreal.

Diego Oliveira:

Diego Oliveira is a Brazilian movement artist and the founder of OM FLOW. He helps individuals and creative teams reconnect with their intuitive bodies to access authentic expression, creativity, and clarity of mind. OM Flow is a unique method that blends ancestral rhythm, martial arts, and somatic intelligence. Through breathwork, ancestral movement, and introspection, the practice cultivates embodied intelligence—guiding people to navigate life not only through logic but through deep, bodily awareness.

With decades of experience dancing, teaching, and guiding others in both Brazil and the Netherlands, Diego has worked with people of all ages and backgrounds—from children to elders. His mission is to make movement accessible to everyone, grounded in the belief that every human being deserves to experience the transformative power that movement can unlock.