“Dance connects me to who I am, my ways of relating to others and how to be human together - if we can surrender our bodies to the beat and let the spirit in, our souls are made visible on and off the dance floor.”
MY ROOTS
I spent 16 years in theatre, first as a stage manager then as an actor. Using the tools of the actor, forum theatre and communication I helped communities and individuals practice change and the process of transformation. Theatre and movement tools are a powerful way to explore what it is to be human, with all our stories & our ways of relating to ourselves, each other and the world around us. This work was carried through various settings from Schools, Mental Health and the Corporate Floor in the UK to villages in rural and remote areas of Cambodia, and with NGO’s and Universities in Thailand.
FINDING THE RHYTHMS
I discovered 5Rhythms in 1994 when I read Gabrielle Roth’s Book "Maps to Ecstasy". During this time there were aspects of my life that were out of balance and deep down something inside me knew I had to change.
I resonated with her words… “Healing is a journey. It involves stepping out of our habitual roles, our conventional scripts, and improvising a dancing path. The dancing path leads us from the inertia of sleepwalking to the ecstasy of living the spirit of the moment”.
This led me into a journey of self healing that eventually led me back to dancing and studying the 5Rhythms for the last 18 years and I trained to teach in 2014 with Jonathan Horan, Gabrielle’s son.
I bring this journey and a light yet deep presence to my teaching, allowing space and inner permission for authentic alive presence in your dance, no matter how that is.
I work with older people, women’s groups and open classes and workshops for all. I have been a mentor to dancers on the path to becoming teachers and I have a strong desire in all my work to encourage people to explore together their creativity, their energy, their problems, their aims, their joys; their “human-beingness”. To explore through movement and dance how we can co-create together a world that feels more in balance.
BUILDING COMMUNITY
Inspired by the vision of Christian de Sousa a group of movement teachers, artists, educators, activists and dancers were moved by the work enough to come together to create a collective that eventually emerged into a community interest company called dancingTao CIC - which in 2021 renamed as Unbound Moving Arts.
Intentionally being collaborative we were coming together to support, contribute and bring presence and companionship to the work we were developing and delivering. Our mission statement “To deliver activities that benefit the community and in particular promote and facilitate good health and well being (both physical and mental), inclusion, diversity, creative expression, and positive change for individuals and communities, using dance, movement meditation practices and related modalities”.
Through the CIC we deliver a diverse program of activities ranging from weekly drop in classes to ongoing groups, workshops and 3-5 day immersions. Attempting to bring our work to a wide range of dancers from all ages, backgrounds and experiences. In 2018 we were awarded Erasmus funding to produce a project that explored movement practice and social inclusion, involving partners from London, Berlin, Rome and Budapest. A year long project culminating in Rhythm Village a 10 day long community festival of movement and creative celebration.
Being part of this CIC is a beautiful imperfect experiment in the ways we can come together to work and live in community with limited capacity and ample hearts.
“Bring movement to the situation.”
Photography by Mauricio Molizane De Souza molizanephotography.com