Introducing the league of extraordinary ladies who want to make Toronto women skilled in everything from bike maintenance to chiropractic care.

The Ladies Rhythm and Movement Club is an inclusive workshop series for women, by women. They may be heavy into retro imagery of coiffed ladies playing handball, doing archery and pointing rifles, but there’s no bra burning going on here. The LRMC takes action against gender oppression on a local level, but fun is a big part of the mission.

“Our purpose is to create a secure and productive space in which young women can barter for knowledge with knowledge,” explains co-founder Dayna Jones. Jones and her pal Laura Shaw started the group from a desire to learn handy life skills, but shelling out the cash for classes and workshops was less than ideal. They realized they already knew all their potential teachers – so why not convince them to share skills in exchange for something they knew?

“It started with a simple exchange – I taught Laura to roast a chicken, and she used her incredible powers of organization to helped me visually plot my thoughts for a project, schedule my time and meet my deadline. Now The LRMC community has a far enough reach that we can find a barter exchange for almost anything.”

From the initial chicken roasting launched a line-up of varied workshops given by local experts, DIY fanatics and self taught know-it all’s. The events attracted a community of inquisitive women who shared the desire for knowledge without the fee.

“Our flagship workshop on eyebrow care was held on the living room floor and lead by Creative Director and Makeup Artist Lisa Howard,” explains Dayna. “After we saw the all the attendees slowly groom their eyebrows to perfection, and then all their friends did it, and then their friends did it – we knew we were on to something”.

After “Totally Major Eyebrows” took place last summer, the LMRC have hosted workshops that include lessons in financial bartering from local financial guru Shannon Simmons, photography skills at the Lomography Store, and most recently, cooking enthusiast Shannon Culver imparted basic knife skills for kitchen mastery. They even hosted a debutante ball at Cafe Stella.

Reckon you’ve got something to offer your peers? Join this force of activists, writers, and thinkers on a mission to get seriously skilled. They’d love to have you. 

Future workshops include: 

Online Dating: It Works! with Ms.M
Saturday May 5, 2 – 4 pm.

LRMC Clothing Swap
Sunday June 3. Details TBA.

Chiropractic Care with Amanda Mei
June. Details TBA.

Photo credit Kim Magi