About Sue Rickards

Sue is a book reading, dog loving, wild swimming, clay squashing, word smithing, human being, wool knitting, day dreaming, East Ender residing in North London.  Her passion for conscious dance began in 1990 after years of disco dancing and parties.

~ Trained as a Sesame Drama and Movement therapist in 1990

~ Trained by the late Gabrielle Roth to teach 5Rhythms® in 1994 and has been holding classes and workshops wholeheartedly since.

~ Studied humanistic counselling and psychotherapy, bringing a greater depth to her dance teaching.

~ Ongoingly touched and inspired by Movement of Being.

~ A Founding Member of Open Floor International 2014

~ A member of ICMTA

Sue in her own words..

“So I studied and danced and in 1994 trained with Gabrielle Roth. Later I trained further with her to work with emotions, which after all are on the dance floor all the time anyway. I’ve been teaching for 27 years or more and loving almost every moment. Whenever I’m holding the space I fall into a sense of being in love with us humans, and that’s a great feeling.

I loved disco dancing (I know - don’t laugh!) when I was young and partied pretty much every weekend, unless I was off on the road hitchhiking or camping with friends, or curled up on a sofa unable to tear myself away from an imaginary world. I love how reading lets me see and feel into so many nooks and crannies of life. How I discover things about myself by being told a good tale. Reading therapy! Reading recreation.

And I travelled a lot – saving money like crazy from a daytime job in offices, working in pubs in the evening – and as soon as I had enough (not much) I’d take off on a whim for as long as the money lasted. I travelled through Scandinavia in an old transit van with my first boyfriend and hitched around the perimeter of USA with 2 girlfriends that I’d met whilst working in the YMCA in New York. I worked on kibbutzim and volunteered in Bangladesh. I hitched round Europe with 3 girlfriends. I worked in Canada as a nanny with the most generous and kind family. I felt like I was dying of sickness in Cairo (but didn’t) and marveled at markets and miracles in Luxor. I slept on beaches and behind service stations, on people’s sofas and in huge sweaty trucks. I couldn’t see why anyone would ever want to live any other way…….

And yet at about 30 I noticed my attention turning inwards and homewards.  I studied childcare and loved that.  I trained as a Drama and Movement Therapist (Sesame Institute) and that nudged my life in a direction I had never even known existed.  I worked in hospitals and schools and charities and then began offering open Dance and Movement sessions. 

 

In 1991 I discovered 5Rhythms®, finding myself on a dance floor with Susannah and Ya’Acov Darling Khan and knew immediately that dancing with them was absolutely what I wanted to do. For the first time in my life I borrowed money – at the end of a weekend workshop I signed up for their first year long group. I had no idea how much it would come to mean to me.

So I studied and danced and in 1994 trained with Gabrielle Roth. And later trained further with her to work with emotions, which after all are on the dance floor all the time anyway. I’ve been teaching for 24 years or more and loving almost every moment. Whenever I’m holding the space I fall into a sense of being in love with us humans, and that’s a great feeling.

 

I keep learning (and forgetting) and I like challenging myself to be a new student.   So I’ve trained as a Humanistic counsellor (with the Centre for Personal and Professional Development), studied (but not trained in) psychotherapy at Spectrum, learnt about (but not trained in) Non Violent Communication from many teachers (mainly Gina Lawrie and Cath Burke).  I get to Helen Poynor’s  workshops when I can, which isn’t often enough.  Her work with moving with the land is so specific and nourishing.  She’s a phenomenal teacher.   I’m endlessly and slowly learning Spanish, muy poco a poco, and with my sister have walked El Camino de Santiago, which is a deep learning by foot. 

For the last 25 years or so I’ve been taught and nourished, challenged and nurtured by Fanny Behrens, Colin Harrison and Joanna Watters, and their teacher Adam Bradpiece has become my teacher. Their dedication to helping people wake up in a body in the fullest, richest, humanest way has subtlely andcompletely affected me. I am grateful every day for their love, care and intelligence in the widest wisest sense. It’s infused my life and work life so radically and simply that I can’t begin to explain it. However I think it comes through anyway, in the way I work.

From 2014 I was involved in co-creating Open Floor International.  That stretched me emotionally, mentally and relationally in ways I couldn’t have anticipated and together we brought out the best in one another to create a wonderful body of work, which I am proud of.  We all challenged and supported, made mistakes, learnt and tried again.   How we created it mattered as much to me as what we created and it heartens and encourages me that it is a rich vibrant responsive organisation, already in it's 10th year, with hundreds of teachers worldwide finding exciting new ways to offer what has love and meaning in the world.

And of course I learn from my dog, who effortlessly, endlessly, forgivingly lives in the moment and reminds me to too.”

 

TESTIMONIALS

Sue brings threads of wisdom from many years of experience and study of different practices, which she weaves together into something simple yet powerful. She has the courage to teach from a place of vulnerability, which inspires me to accept my own. And she teaches straight from the heart – although she is adept at coaxing us into relationship with our bodies, for me, ultimately her teachings are about love. Francesca Mitchell

Sue is the Eddie Izzard of 5Rhythms®! She is well loved by freaks and friends, shy dancers and shaggy dogs. She brings warmth and humour to her teaching and to everyday interactions with strangers. She opens the doors to love, looks truth in the eye, catches the perfect moment for intimacy and dares to disagree. She takes time to find the essence of the moment and follow it into the tender and outrageous. Alex Mackay