Listening below language
There are things we know before we know that we know them. Sometimes the body gets there first.
- · yoga
- · Feldenkrais
- · conscious movement
- · voice
- · sound
- · breath
THENNOWSOMEDAY
21–23 August 2026 · Hostačov, Czech Highlands
Echoes Through Time
A late-summer weekend at the edge of festival and retreat, in a château seventy minutes from Prague.
The full residency runs from Wednesday 19 August for anyone who wants the longer version.
Saturday only, from 1,000 Kč · weekend from 1,500 Kč
Vision
A gathering that holds contemplative, philosophical, embodied and musical threads together without belonging to any one of them.
Three dance floors across three days. Salons and workshops running several at once. Long tables in the courtyard, fires that go late, and one evening when the château slips its usual order.
Alive enough to be genuinely playful, grounded enough that a child or a grandparent is equally at home. Serious about its questions and unserious about itself, in roughly equal measure.
Most people come for the weekend. A smaller circle arrives on Wednesday and stays the whole way through, and that version is quieter, slower and mostly in English. Both doors are open.
It is going to be very good company.
The dance
Three floors
The dance is not an interlude between the sessions. It is one of the three things the weekend is built around, and for some people it will be the reason to come.
Friday
18:30–21:30
Opening the weekend
Hynek Opolecký & Marie Smékalová
Saturday
19:00–22:00
Straight after the crossing
Sunday
11:00–14:00
The closing floor, in daylight
Ecstatic dance as it is normally held. Sober floor, no talking, no steps to learn, no experience needed. Barefoot if you like. Come as you are, or on Saturday, as whoever you have decided to be.
a room that remembers every celebration it has held
Programme
Four threads
The gathering is made of what people bring. These are the threads it runs in, and the people carrying them.
Questions at the table
Questions becoming conversations becoming friendship becoming more questions.
- · salons
- · dialogues
- · short provocations
- · long arguments after midnight
Music, rhythm, dance
Places where thought loosens a little and people remember they are not alone.
- · ecstatic dance
- · live music
- · voice
- · rhythm
- · fire
Stepping into other shapes
True knowledge comes through experience. Making, playing, failing, discovering together.
- · participatory theatre
- · circling
- · inquiry
- · ritual
- · the crossing
The circle is still forming. If your work belongs in one of these streams, or someone you know does, read the contributor call.
Contributor call→Sessions
What's on
Twelve sessions across the weekend, most of them on Saturday, several running at once. Sessions are in Czech or English and marked accordingly.
Schedule
The shape of the weekend
Most people arrive Friday afternoon. Saturday is the fullest day, with four things happening at once from morning until late afternoon, and then the evening opens. Sunday is slower and smaller on purpose.
Times are as accurate as we can make them three weeks out. Some will move.
Four things run at once in each block. In every block there is at least one session in Czech, at least one that mostly involves talking, and at least one that mostly does not.
07:30🫧 Morning yoga, outdoors if dry · Anna Hablová
08:30Breakfast. Saturday arrivals from 09:00.
10:00Short welcome for people who have just arrived
10:30 – 12:00
Věda a spiritualita
Kamila Němečková
CZ
Conscious movement
Zuzana Dobešová
Feldenkrais
Anna Hablová
the reSound of the Circle
Marie Örnesved
ENruns to 13:30 · 12 places
12:00Lunch in the courtyard
13:30 – 15:00
The Futures We Imagine
Harriet Farlow
ENlimited places
The Past Is Yet to Come
František Drahota
EN
Markéta Černoušková
CZ
Voice and sound
Soňa Dřevěná
15:30 – 17:00
Broken Social Contracts
Dmitri Romanovski
EN
Psychologie a spiritualita
Kamila Němečková
CZ
Circling
Finn Clancy
ENlimited places
The future of value
Nina Bressler
CZ/EN
17:00The wardrobe opens. Swim, walk, rest, food.
18:45✨ The crossing
19:00🥁 Ecstatic dance
22:00Late dinner at long tables, then fire
Friday's film and Saturday's talk are the same argument from opposite ends. You can take either without the other.
Fixed points: the Friday opening, the three dances, and the crossing on Saturday evening. Everything else fills in from what people bring.
Saturday — the day out of time
For one evening, the château slips its usual order.
At five the wardrobe opens. For the rest of the night you can step into anyone or anything, from any time. A figure you carry. A self you might become. A century not your own. As much or as little as you like, and a single object with a hint of manner is enough to be in it.
At quarter to seven we cross over together, so nobody has to be the first. Then the doors open onto the floor and the dance runs until ten, and after that there is a long table and a fire and everybody comes back to themselves.
The older reference is the carnival, the old fair. A licensed night when ordinary roles loosen, with a clear way in and a clear way out.
Nobody has to dress up. Plenty of people will not, and the evening works either way.
Coming
Tickets
One price covers your stay, all meals, and the whole programme. Nothing is bought or sold once you are here.
Saturday
Day ticket
all sessions, lunch, dinner, the evening
1,000 – 1,600 Kč
Evening only
the crossing, the dance, late dinner
500 – 800 Kč
WeekendFriday afternoon to Sunday
Camping
your own tent
1,500 – 2,400 Kč
Glamping
tent provided
1,800 – 2,800 Kč
Bed indoors
shared room, ensuite
2,400 – 3,600 Kč
Full stayWednesday to Sunday
Camping
your own tent
2,500 – 3,800 Kč
Glamping
tent provided
3,000 – 4,600 Kč
Bed indoors
shared room, ensuite
3,900 – 5,800 Kč
Supporterfrom 8,000 Kč
Covers your own place and helps carry someone else's. Available at any tier.
About the ranges. Pick anywhere in yours. The lower number is a real price, not a discount, and it covers your place. The higher number carries somebody for whom the lower number is still too much.
We do not ask which you chose and we do not want to know why. There is no form, no explanation, no case to make. Whatever you pick is the right amount and nobody will think about it again.
If even the lower end is what stops you, write to us. One sentence is enough.
Children: under three free, three and over at half a parent's rate.
The Place
Hostačov
Hostačov is a Renaissance château in the Czech Highlands, about seventy minutes from Prague. A courtyard, a library, a ballroom with a painted ceiling, grounds that run into woodland, a pond that holds the moon, fires that go late.
It has spent the past year as a quiet home for residencies and retreats. Echoes is the weekend it opens the doors.
Practicalities
What you need to know
- When
- Friday 21 to Sunday 23 August 2026. The full residency runs from Wednesday 19 August.
- Where
- Hostačov, Czech Highlands, about seventy minutes from Prague. Train to Golčův Jeníkov on the Prague to Brno line, and we will collect you from the station.
- How many
- Around eighty over the weekend. Fewer during the week.
- Who it's for
- People drawn to serious questions and real play in equal measure. No particular background or belief assumed. Intergenerational by design.
- What language
- Sessions run in Czech and in English, marked on the programme. Saturday carries Czech sessions in every block. The evenings need no language at all.
- Coming just for Saturday
- Yes. The day ticket includes every session, lunch, dinner and the evening dance. There is also an evening-only ticket if you just want the floor.
Who's holding this
A small circle
František Drahota
Initiator and lead host; steward of Hostačov.
Petr Loukota
Operations and kitchen; the reason the long tables are worth sitting at.
Tiphaine Joly
Music and movement; a French fairy who brings joy and presence into every room she enters.
Petr Novák
The dance thread; keeper of the three great floors.
Echoes is held by the Hostačov team with a working circle of contributors and friends.
FAQ
A few things people tend to ask
Contact
Write to us
- echoes@hostacov.com
- Where
- Hostačov, Czech Highlands.
- For contributor conversations
- Read the contributor call →