W E L L N E S S
BALANCING
ACT
A CREATIVE COUPLE FINDS NEW WAYS TO COMBINE THEIR PASSIONS FOR NATURAL HEALING PRACTICES BY MORGAN CARTIER WESTON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CORNELL WATSON
G
arth Robertson and Liz Robertson met through
mutual friends close to a decade ago. “We connected one night and realized right away we’d be lifelong best friends,” Liz says. But like many creative entrepreneurs, Garth, a musician and ceremonial healer, and Liz, a circus performer and embodied movement instructor, had to put “business as usual” on hold this year. “We’ve always collaborated on some of our offerings,” Garth says. “Our first
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CHATHAM MAGAZINE
DECEMBER / JANUARY 2021
joint effort was actually writing a song for a friend’s birthday.” In March 2015, the Robertsons produced “Light Pours In,” a 90-minute album timed to a circus performance. “Each component of the music was paired with a different act we choreographed,” Liz says. Liz traveled and taught with Imagine Circus, going by her stage name, Liz Bliss, before the pandemic struck. Her specialties include aerial arts, acrobatics, fire dancing and stilt walking, and she also teaches aerial dance to burgeoning performers of all ages. However, the studio remains closed for the time being. “Performance instruction is very hands-on, with lots of shared equipment, silks and things like that,” Liz explains. “I want to be sure it’s fully safe before we reopen.” Prior to the shutdowns in March, Garth frequently performed music at bars and restaurants, and had begun conducting sacred sound ceremonies from the couple’s 20-sided round home in Pittsboro. “When the circus stopped for Liz and I stopped playing shows, I was thankfully already working with sacred sounds to help people gain deeper access to themselves,” Garth says. The concept behind sound therapy is similar to other sensory therapies like massage or acupuncture. The treatments involve experiencing auditory vibrations, such as those made by gongs, chimes, Tibetan singing bowls and didgeridoos, over a period of time to help ease anxiety and relax the mind. “We have an aerial hammock that is an ideal place to experience healing through sound, because the body is totally suspended and can be fully immersed in the vibrations,” Garth explains. “When you’re lying there with no expectations and letting the sound wash over you, it offers innate, meditative
