Gulzar

Sharing the Dances and creating heart-centred community is one of the greatest joys in my life.
I lead Dance days and Retreats in the UK and abroad, also combining the Dances with the powerful practice of Heart IQ (Embodied Awakening) which I offer with my partner, Simon.

I am a Mentor for Dance Leaders and am delighted to be able to share the love of the Dances in this way.

I have been co-creating and teaching 2-year long international Dance Leader Training programmes for 6 years.

I am currently honoured to be serving as the Camp Advisor for our beautiful camp. Apart from my love of the Dances, I hope to bring to camp safely held spaces to practise deep listening where people feel included and accepted, especially deeper connection and understanding across the generations.

My passion is that camp can serve as a resource and inspiration for the world we want to create in our communities.

Jilani

I have been involved with the Dances of Universal Peace since 1997, as musician, dancer, leader, and now mentor and trainer of dance leaders (including co-leading two international Dance Leader Training Programmes with Gulzar).

I met the Dances through the camps, and Sacred Arts Camp has been an important part of my life since it first came into being. It’s the community where my children have been held as they grew from birth to adulthood, and where I have been held in my own growth and development over these many years.

I now lead Dances in many far-flung places, most recently having spent a month in Morocco supporting the Dances in new circles there, but it’s always such a joy to be back at SAC, and I look forward to dancing with you in the field.

Alina

I look forward to diving into the beauty, depth and sacredness of the Dances together with you at this years Sacred Arts Camp.

Being born into the world of Sufism and growing up with the Dances, they have always been my home. I started walking on my own spiritual path, turning inwards and working with my inner parts, healing and opening my heart to the universe at the age of 15. A few years later I have been called to start leading Dances and have since been leading at camps and retreats in New Zealand, India, Czech Republic, England and Scotland. Part of my journey has also included the exploration, study and healing through voice and breath work which I like to weave into my dance leading.

Matthew

This camp is special to me. I will be sharing dances and offering an immersive sound bath experience inviting you to come and lie down and absorb a live improvised musical journey intending to support us to be deeply relaxed and resourced.

I believe passionately in the power of dance and music to open hearts and support us in deepening into themselves. I run a monthly group in Bristol and offer mentorship in dance leading.

Apart from leading and creating dances, I am a musician, composer and teacher based in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

I'm most interested to support people with reweaving broken connections and remembering what's worth being alive for, through music and the space that is opened up when we allow it. I seek to support people in deepening their own relationship to music and sound. I work with music and dance as a way to connect with the bigger picture of life including the elements and also a sense of purpose including in the face of trauma.

I am interested to work in a way that welcomes those on the edges of life and I seek to hold intention for those most marginalised to feel whatever benefits emerge from these gathering spaces. Above all I am holding spaces for us to explore collectively how music and dance can heal, to allow the whispered and not completely forgotten ways it is speaking to us to be heard more clearly.

My website is https://matthewheysemoore.com/

"The camp leaders and loyal campers are amazing people, they run the camp like the most nurturing home with open arms to newcomers like me.  Many people came and

chatted or just smiled to me over the course of the week and by the end

of it I felt we had become part of an amazing family." - Emma