What is Movement Medicine?

Movement Medicine is a practice which directs our awareness to our movement, thoughts and feelings, supporting us to get more in touch with who we really are. It is an active and embodied meditation practice, opening the way to deep internal reflection. Through the dance we are invited on a journey of personal empowerment, relationship with community and connection with the creative life force within and around us. Ya’Acov and Susannah Darling Khan, founded the School of Movement Medicine, integrating their experience with a lineage of practices such as 5Rhythms, Gestalt Psychotherapy, Family Constellations and shamanism.

What to expect?

A warm welcome to everyone – whatever your background, culture, age, gender or experience, or whether you think you can dance or not. Movement Medicine offers a safe and supportive space to dance freely, encouraging your true and unique expression. No steps to learn, no right or wrong.

An invitation to journey within an immersive environment held with captivating music and clear guidance. A space to creatively engage with whatever is present in your life through the wisdom of the moving body. Dancing with ourselves and at times with each other, within the safe container we create together. Collectively deepening our connection to Life.

Dancers in the class may have a range of experience – from first-timers to those with years of practice. Our difference is honoured. The invitation is to explore my suggestions through movement and at the same time to follow what is right for you, respecting your own guidance.

Each time we step onto the dance floor we are different and so each class offers new possibilities. Sessions may feel comfortable, transformative and enjoyable. Or it may bring up challenging feelings such as resistance or difficulty in getting out of our thoughts etc. Sometimes emotions can arise as we move and release what we are holding inside our bodies. This is a natural process. The invitation is to explore this creatively and expand our movement vocabularies. By staying present and connected through the awareness of breath and the physical sensation in the moving body, we can experience this energy in motion changing from moment to moment.

Participants may explore different qualities and ways of expression – ranging from dancing with a more inward focus to big and expressive movements. We practice respecting ourselves and each other. When we dance with others, the invitation is to stay connected to your own dance while being present to the shared experience. The more we give, the more we can receive.

At the end of the class there is space for us to enjoy a cup of tea together. Feel free to share and ask any questions you may have.

How does Movement become Medicine?

A creative dance practice like Movement Medicine, has a positive impact on one’s physiological and psychological wellbeing. Recent studies shows how dance helps develop and strengthen new neural connections, improving brain health. It increases levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin and improves balance, stability, flexibility and much more.

The dance opens the way for new and creative possibilities. Rather than becoming identified with a specific emotion or attaching to fixed beliefs or ways of being – we simply bring whatever energy is present in our life, into movement. The power of the dance and our awareness combined, can transform how we feel on the inside and how we relate to the world around us.

As we begin to access our own emotional and physical intelligence and connect to our inner guidance, we begin to trust, that what is needed, is already inside us. The more we connect to our power, the more we recognise that we have choice and this can be deeply liberating.

In the dance we can release that which is counterproductive in our lives and consciously invite that which nurtures and strengthens us. We can dance our dreams and gather momentum and courage to make our unique contribution to life.

Feelings of separateness from others, can also transform through the dance. As we work with the Movement Medicine practices, it brings us into a direct experience of community. It offers a safe space to explore the dance of giving and receiving and deepen our sense of connection, belonging and value.

Dancing with our awareness rooted inside the presence of the moving body, the practice becomes an embodied meditation connecting us to something bigger than ourselves. It supports us in restoring balance and cultivating a sense of peace within, between and around us. Moving with the awareness of the interconnected web of life, we can then dedicate this energy for the benefit of all.