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Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is a natural builder’s paradise! Experienced builder Alis (Kyle) Yoder, one of Dancing Rabbit’s leading natural building artists, will lead these hands-on workshops focusing on techniques for creatively building with a wide variety of natural materials.
During the workshops you’ll stack strawbale walls, mold earthen cob by hand, and apply natural plasters. You’ll get direct experience understanding how fibers, binders, and aggregate work together in a wide variety of diverse applications. In addition to technical skills, you’ll also creatively stretch your artistic side by playing with patterns and designs with organic shapes, colored bottles, and mosaic tiles. You’ll take away natural building knowledge and experience that can be applied anywhere, including an existing home.
All this amidst one of the largest assemblages of natural buildings in North America. You’ll take a tour of homes at Dancing Rabbit– home to some 40-odd structures that each demonstrate a unique piece of natural or green construction.
You’ll gain insight into your projects back at home, better understand how foundation, walls, and roof come together as part of a larger whole, and learn how to select materials appropriate for different parts of construction. And you’ll do it all while helping to create artful, affordable, and environmentally-sustainable spaces at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, a place committed to learning, living, and sharing ways to live more lightly on the earth!
Worried you don’t have any skills? Stop that. Show up and learn! That’s the whole point. We want to see people from all walks of life learning together. Women? LGBTQ+? Yes. We want you here.
Building homes and other structures that are healthy for humans and for the planet is an essential part of sustainability. At Dancing Rabbit we strive towards these ideals as we try to build homes that are functional, aesthetically pleasing, and long-lived. Join us for a life changing hands-on weekend of learning and building. You’ll take away natural building knowledge and experience that can be applied anywhere, including an existing home.
Have you ever wanted to build your own oven, using natural materials? Join us for a weekend of fun experiential learning! You’ll go home with the knowledge and skills to get cooking in your backyard. We’ll be getting messy, creating structural cob with our hands and feet, all while making new friends!
If you want to have fun while getting messy, making new friends, and learning how to create sustainable, non-industrial, low-impact buildings, we invite you to register now, since this workshop is likely to sell out quickly. You’ll come away knowing how you can contribute to a healthier world with your new natural building skills.
Alis Yoder grew up making mud puddles and tree forts, and thinks that conventional building often fails to remember that construction is ultimately about finding joy and connection with our surroundings. He fell in love with natural building when he realized the possibilities of directly interacting with the materials we can find at our fingertips. He is particularly curious in creating spaces that accentuate “where the indoors and the outdoors meet” and facilitate positive interactions between the inhabitants and their neighbors (human or otherwise). From cob, to strawbale, to timberframing, to natural finishes, Alis delights in finding ways to incorporate elements from our natural surroundings into configurations that are warm for the heart as well as the body.
Mae Ferber: During the 12 years I have lived at Dancing Rabbit, I have found it necessary to build all manner of infrastructure and have also found this work to be enormously satisfying. To me, being a builder started as another way of seizing the means of production and taking responsibility for the essentials of my own life. The experience of building my own home, barns, kitchens, etc. created an appreciation for infrastructure and a deeper understanding of the world. To me building is practical. Structures must be durable, or designed for their own eventual disassembly/repurposing. The right materials and tools vary depending on the job, but can be simple, inexpensive, and local.
Natural Building Workshop (May 30 – June 2, 2025)
Adult: $597
Child: $397
Cob Oven Workshop (August 15 – 17, 2025)
Adult: $497
Child: $397
The all-inclusive fee covers: instruction, materials, meals, camping platform (bring your own gear), showers, bathrooms, WiFi, and community building access.
Food: Enjoy 3 meals a day, packed with as much nourishing, local food as possible. We can work with a range of dietary needs – let us know your particulars when you fill out the registration form. Please note that we do our best to accommodate different dietary needs but cannot guarantee that we will be able to.
Camping: Camp in Dancing Rabbit’s wooded campground. Platforms for tents are provided, along with a composting toilet and access to showers in the Dancing Rabbit Community Building.
Indoor accommodations are available to rent during the course for an additional fee. We have several options: rooms in cabins, private homes, and the bed & breakfast. Email us after you register to see what’s still available.
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, nestled in the rolling hills of Northeast Missouri, is one of the most well-known and successful ecovillages in the United States, and one of the few in the Midwest. Founded in 1997, DR is home to many excellent examples of sustainable and eco-living. Plus the stars at night are amazing. You can check out the rest of our website to learn more about our ecovillage.
© 2024 Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. 1 Dancing Rabbit Ln, Rutledge, Missouri, USA 63563. All rights reserved. For more information check out our Annual Report and Privacy Policy.
