Dance
Amida Harvey
My first experience of Dances of Universal Peace was profound. It was 1981 and the dance was Samual Lewis’s ‘Tis a Gift to be Simple’. At that point in time I was living a London life that was far from simple. I was busy, self-absorbed and felt disconnected from my truth. I found the sense of there being a ‘gift’ in simplicity deeply moving and as I let myself be taken by the dance, I experienced coming home into a form of spiritual connection that met a fundamental human longing in me
In 1983 my Sufi teacher Rabia Joyce Purcel handed me the large dance manual and instructed me to learn & lead these dances of peace. It was was very exciting and daunting and my initial training was trial and error as there where no teachers in the UK. I lead our local Sufi group for 2 years and in 1995 my good friend, Colin Harrison, invited me to lead the dances at the first Dance Camp Glastonbury. I remember my first public session on the Sunday evening. I led 150 people and at the end of the session I was swimming in bliss. People began to ask me if I would lead dance weekends in their town and this launched me into a full-time career teaching dance throughout the UK.
I have now been teaching the dances for 29 years. I acknowledge the ebb and flow of my interest and passion over those years, but have never felt anything less than a great honour and privilege to be part of the legacy that Samuel Lewis initiated. I am grateful for the richness of meeting and dancing with so many wonderful people and the opportunity to travel with the dances throughout our wonderful world.
In living the gift and grace that simplicity is, I am grateful to Rabia for seeing in me the potential to bring these dances to life in the UK. I hope, this is reflected in my role as dance director for the Sacred Arts Camp 2010.
Tansen Philip O’Donohoe
Philip is a master of spiritual dance and is a leading international exponent of the Dances of Universal Peace. As a Senior Mentor he has been involved in the training of dance leaders for many years. He has studied Sufism since 1989, is a teacher of this form of Middle Eastern Mysticism and has trained in various forms of meditation over the past 25 years. Philip lives in Dorset and travels extensively leading many workshops internationally. His style is relaxed, focussed, joyful, peaceful and yet powerful. A significant focus of his work is using the Dances as a spiritual tool to increase people’s capacity for living life fully and successfully.
Sophia Sylvia Murillo, Colombia, South America
I had the blessing to know the Dances in 1999 through Darvesha´s and Tara´s beautiful guidance. I was captivated by them when I danced the Kalama and knew this was what I wanted to do. I started leading and going to workshops where I had the opportunity of meeting different leaders. Each new meeting widened my horizons and deepened my commitment to this spiritual path. Then I was invited to go to different Spanish speaking countries to share the dances with the peoples of those lands. It has been an ongoing outreach program which continues to touch peoples hearts as I deepen in my own. Singing, dancing and praying … what a beautiful way to breath, walk and live.
Maite
Dances of Universal Peace came to me in 2003, with the voice and guitar of Sophia Sylvia Murillo… They immediately took root in my heart, I fell in love with the experience they brought me, with the Spirit that went through me and I couldn´t help but dance and dance… At that time, there were no leaders of dances in Spain and I had no choice but to follow her trail wherever I could: Colombia, France… I chose dance as a personal journey of connection with the Beloved, which completed the spiritual experience I´d had for years in other traditions: Andean-Amazonian Shamanism and Esoteric Christianity; and still I wanted to dance more regularly. Driven by my mentor, I had no choice but to lead dances… Or rather, learn to be guided by them… Also I took time to create spaces for meetings with many different spiritual paths. “Dances of Peace” came to me as a beautiful and simple tool, the magic words that made it possible to connect with the hearts of people with diverse religious sensibilities even just saying this unifying phrase. This was a huge gift for which I am immensely grateful to the Life.
During these years, I´ve danced in interfaith dialogue meetings, in churches, in schools, with groups of new consciousness, in squares, yoga centres and public parks in different locations throughout the whole of Spain. I feel privileged and honoured to share such Beauty… I also regularly invite Amida Harvey and Sylvia Murillo, my mentors, to come and share dances in my country. In August 2009, I organized the first camp of Art for Peace in Spain. I´m working with a wonderful team to organise the second event, in 2010.
My dream… “I wish the world danced, I wish that in every corner of our planet a circle of Dances of Universal Peace left it´s voice in the wind and brought the vibration and the certainty that all sentient beings (black, white, red, yellow or mixed races) belong to one family and have a single common home: the Mother Earth, beyond borders and languages”.
Voice
Ralph Nimmann
Ralph leads a Taizé harmony singing group in Cambridge and is a member of the Cambridge Georgian choir CHELA. He also led the Berlin Chanting Group for 6 years.
“Ralph is wonderfully patient and takes great care to make sure that everyone feels included. …Ralph could get even the most hardened non-singer to surprise themselves.” (feedback from a Cambridge Taizé singer).
His teaching style could be described as “Sacred Fun”. Ralph especially loves leading peace dances sung in harmonies. Read more: http://www.rainbow-cambridge.org.uk/dances/
Ralph will be leading Taizé singing sessions at the camp.
Habiba Willow
Habiba has been involved with Dances of Universal Peace for over 20 years and leading them for most of that time. She was in at the start of the Peace Through the Arts camp, which subsequently evolved into the Sacred Arts Camp. She has also had a long connection with Sufism and its various practices.
Particularly in the last 8 years or so, the ancient Sanskrit prayers and mantras have inspired her a lot and been a regular part of her practice. Two of Habiba’s primary inspirations are Haidakhan Babaji and Amma, the hugging saint – but she will pick up Bhajans wherever she will!
At the camp Habiba and Buddhenath will offer Bhajan singing, accompanying the sessions on the Indian harmonium. Bhajans are devotional mantras in the Sanskrit language and have a very uplifting effect!
Sarah Pennington
I have been singing since 1996 and teaching natural voice since 2001, with both small and large groups. I am a member of the Natural Voice Practitioners Network and co-founded Big Sing Dorset with Gilo.
My intention is always to create a safe space in which everyone can enjoy their voice and experience the magic of harmony singing and the sense of community that it can bring.
At the camp I will be leading some of the morning sessions, working with the Harmonic Temple, a body of harmonised chants written by Nickomo using mantras from various spiritual traditions for affirmation and healing – angelic sounds to summon up warmth and wonder.