In December 2008, I heard about a local dance with “no alcohol, no drugs and bare feet”. Intrigued, I called the organiser. Would it be OK if my only recent dance experience was as an embarrassing uncle at a wedding? She replied “That’s perfect, you’ll love it!
Fortunately she was right! Lying soaking in my own sweat at the end of that first 5Rhythms wave, I felt like I’d come home. I realise now that the feeling was about coming home to my own body.
5Rhythms soon became an integral part of my life. It helped me to transform my personal relationships, improve my physical and emotional health, and allowed me to rediscover connection with a spirit that I’d somehow lost on the way. During those years I didn’t feel called to be a 5Rhythms teacher. The more I learned, the more I realised how little I knew.
I joined the teacher training more to go deeper into my personal practice than to teach. So, after completing the training in 2018 with Jonathan, I am more surprised than anyone to find myself offering classes in the North of England and really enjoying it!
I try to bring 5Rhythms to community spaces where people have been dancing and performing for generations, leaving echoes of that energy in the walls and floor. Dance spaces like these humble me and give me goosebumps whenever I enter the room to set up before class.
In England we’ll be able to start 5Rhythms in person again this month. I’ll begin a series of classes with a theme of COMMUNITY back in Manchester, my home town.
Next will be OCEAN OF POSSIBILITIES in Hebden Bridge. This workshop will provide tools to support dancers with the transition from global chaos into whatever remains.
If you can’t dance with us in person in the North of England but would like to join us, you can connect with us online from 28 May. We’ll stream a Friday series of OPENING UP classes from the Black-e, an iconic Liverpool dance space with soulful Liverpool dancers.
