20 years ago, being a teacher, a teacher of anything whatsoever, would have been at the very bottom of my list of professions. For me to stand in front of people was far from what I imagined or desired – too much fear of people, a fear of being in an exposed vulnerable position – and my tendency to be a misanthrope – so, no way!
However, as life goes … I stumbled into the 5Rhythms and I fell in love feet first. This happened at an intensive 10-day workshop with the Roma singer Ida Kelarova in Czech Republic who was inviting 5Rhythms teachers to co-teach with her. I would call her work “heartbeat with voice”.
I will never forget the impact of my dances at the very beginning when my body parts started to talk to me: my feet stamped in deep anger about not getting heard, my hips were crying out loudly and my hands were telling me stories of delight. The moment that I had read Gabrielle’s books I wanted to meet her to see if she could be my teacher. She was! I found myself in the arms of this magical, visionary, humorous and loving woman in August 2003 in California – and in the 5Rhythms teacher training the following year.
Gabrielle’s biggest gift to me is -“trust” – to listen and hear the body’s and heart’s voices, the instincts and intuition and to trust them beyond what makes sense, is expected, what my conditioning tells me or what is “politically correct” – to trust my body, to trust what I feel and sense in the moment, to find my own truth and be my own authority. What a Big Thing!
Now after many years of dancing and 15 years of teaching I have an idea of how it feels to relax into myself and how to find my own heart connection. For instance – I can sense now and differentiate not only parts of my personal past but also my family and ancestral history. Their traumas and fears are also rooted in my bones and shape the way I see the world. And thanks to the 5Rhythms I have tools to move through these stories without getting stuck, frozen or going into denial; I can stay in motion as a ‘feeling being’.
My deep gratitude for being able to dance my broken heart, my stories and my dramas and falling into ecstatic blissful moments of just being me and my dance has made me want to share and explore these wonderful 5Rhythms maps, especially the heartbeat one, with others. The moment your desire gets bigger than your fear, courage is getting born…
Well, here I am. I now love the challenge of being a teacher, there is no going back! I am thrilled each time I teach or – more precise – hold space and inspire others to become the most beautiful versions of what we all can be.
