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I've been dancing the 5 Rhythms
since falling in love with the practice in 1990. I trained as a drama and movement therapist
with the Sesame Institute and it was straight after that that I discovered
the 5 Rhythms. Both experiences were
momentous, but I had no idea then the impact that they would have on the rest
of my life! However, after five
challenging and delicious years of dancing whenever I could with Susannah and
Ya'Acov Darling Khan and any other teachers I could find, I found myself
saying yes, I'd like to train to teach this. Which was a bit of a surprise! I trained with Gabrielle in 1995. I look back with continual gratitude and
forward with wonder..... |
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Funny how things keep turning out,
isn't it? I was born in 1956, with a
carpenter for a Dad and a dressmaker for a Mum, with a sister who came along
after me and loves to dance and a brother who loves to laugh. School was mostly ok - I read under the desk
for a lot of it, got some O levels and stepped into the working world without
a clue. I worked as a clerk for BP for
a while, which paid twice what my friends were earning and left on a whim and
intuition a year or so later. The
people I went to see in the lovely local employment agency asked if I'd like
to work for them and I did for a few very happy years until I decided I'd
rather be a bit of a gypsy (all that reading feeds the imagination). With my then boyfriend we bought an old
transit van, made it habitable and took off around Scandinavia and Europe.
Bliss. On return I worked as a temp
(an easy thing in those days, especially if you could type and do maths, and
miraculously, I could). Saved enough for the flight and took off to explore
the Kibbutzim that I'd read about. Freedom. Spent years travelling, coming home to my
patient, trusting and loving Mum and Dad when the money ran out (not that
they didn't worry, but they didn't tell me that they worried). I washed dishes, worked in bars all over the
world, hitchhiked around USA (with 2 girlfriends, one of whom is now a
parson!), hitchhiked around Australia and Europe, caught chickens and weeded
cotton, calculated wages and worked on an orphanage in Bangladesh, travelled
through some of Asia and China and Egypt. |
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Then I came home and the internal
travelling took on a new light. I
trained as an humanistic counsellor, movement therapist - and, well, that’s
where this biography began. And of
course, I bring all these experiences with me whenever I step onto the dance
floor. |
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The Five Rhythms, the practice of
them and all the people who have taught me have opened me to a deeper sense
of myself - though it hasn't always seemed like that! I have sunk into prayer and opened in
gratitude. I have played and been
spontaneous and found moments of simple precious wisdom. I've been bereft and ecstatic (sometimes at
the same time). I've found it easy and
found it difficult. I've been
absolutely sure and clogged with doubt. I'm glad of it all. |
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back to the main information about Sue Rickards |
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