Workshop Leaders for 2025

Gulzar [DUP / Integration Practice in Community]

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 (Emergent Space) 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 8 years and we are launching a new programme starting April 2025. I have also been involved in Dance Leader trainings in other countries like India and Spain.

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.

Grace D Marie [DUP]

Grace D Marie is an international teacher and facilitator, teaching Dances of Universal Peace, voice, Harmonic Temple, 5 Rhythm Wave, Nia, Barre Fitness, and movement meditation that are interwoven to balance health for body, mind and spirit.

Grace is an initiator with the Sufi Ruhaniat International, and a Dances of Universal Peace Mentor. She has organized and co-facilitated Dance meetings, camps and leader trainings worldwide.

Grace co-facilitates and organizes group Dance journeys and pilgrimages worldwide, blending the group within the culture.

Working directly with many wisdom traditions worldwide, Grace has enriched the DUP repertoire, adapting traditional prayers into meaningful songs and accompanying them with original, insightful and inspiring Dances.

Her 4 albums, Kunda, One Love, All My Relations, and Life as a Garden, recorded in Peru and the US, are listened to worldwide.

Dakini [DUP]

Born in Estonia, Dakini started leading regular dance groups in Eastern Europe 30 years ago, initiated a dance camp in Estonia (2001), and following a move to Scotland in late 1990-s, began leading dance and sufi events worldwide, started a Sufi camp in Scotland (2012) and co-founded a Buddhist retreat centre in Findhorn, Scotland (2005).

Now based in the North West of England, she serves the international dance family as a senior mentor, a Sheikha (sufi teacher), as well as a newly appointed member of the DUP International Ethics Council.

Having worked professionally with children and teenagers all her life, she loves to spark the enthusiasm for the dances and Sufi path in younger people, and has supported and held teenagers at dance camps in UK and New Zealand for many years.

Tom [DUP]

I love the way the dances bring people together to open our hearts and creating a space where prayers can flow, for peace, and for healing of the earth.
I lead dances regularly in York where I live and sometimes with friends further afield around the North.
I love the morning dance session at Sacred Arts Camp, where the richness of our community’s dance leaders shines.
It will be my privilege to look after this session and I look forward to spending time in the field with friends old and new.

Karim Hadden [Bajans]

I have been leading Bhajan and Devotional singing groups for over 25 years. My first inspiration for Bhajan singing came from Louisa Willow who used to lead Bhajans at camp. I just fell in love with this way of singing and it has taught me so much over the years. Coming to camps and being part of other groups where we were encouraged to sing naturally in a non-judgemental space helped me to find my voice in an embodied way so I really like to encourage others to just sing from the heart and let everything else go as that is what worked for me. Essentially I feel that Bhajans are a practice of surrender to devotional feeling and I often say that the best experience is when the Bhajans sing us rather than us singing them.

Alan Withers [5 Rhythms]

I am a 5Rhythms teacher, and I trained with Gabrielle Roth in 2004/5

I have been teaching in Wales for 20 years, as well as The sacred Arts Camp and Dance Camp Wales.

I’m inspired by magic and love to work with whatever presents itself in the moment.

Dancing is a healing process for me, and I have found simple works best for me.

Chris Sylla [Community musician (leading daily drumming and facilitating firenight)]

Chris is a community musician specialising in West African percussion. She has a wide ranging portfolio stretching over 30 years and has mostly 'been there and done that'. Her teaching style is accessable and empowering and she is passionate about connecting people through rhythm. A 'camp veteran' she'll also be facilitating Firenight this year and playing for the Wave led by Alan, a musical/dance association going back many years now . As usual she intends to bring the joy of drumming and spread it around as much as possible between all ages.

Su [Voice]

Su has been a Natural Voice teacher since 2003 and believes that singing together is a natural activity for everyone totake part in and enjoy. Her teaching style is very relaxed and informal and shequickly gets you creating gorgeous harmony. She is on a mission to get everyone singing.

She leads weekly singing groups and community choirs, voice workshops at summer camps and singing holidays around the world, as well as working as a community music event organiser, songwriter and performer, singing and performing with a women’s acapella group for over 20 years.
She teaches a variety of songs, from her own compositions to old and newfound favourites, ranging in mood from calm and contemplative to high energy numbers with luscious harmonies.

Sarah [Voice]

Sarah has been leading natural voice workshops since 2001, working with both small and large groups of adults.

She is a member of the Natural Voice Network, she runs two singing groups in Devon, and she is co-founder (with Gilo) of Big Sing Dorset.

Her intention is always to create a safe space in which everyone can enjoy their voice and mingle it with others, to enable everyone to experience the magic of harmony singing, especially the sense of community that it can bring.

At the camp she will be leading songs which move us through emotional spaces, connecting with our hearts, with each other, and with our love for this incredible planet which gives us life.

Jess [Voice]

Jess loves nothing more than to sing; even more so when it is with other people and in harmony!

Whilst she is fairly new to camp, she has been teaching in choir settings for the last 17 years.

She believes that singing in groups and within communities can be one of life’s greatest joys and stabilisers, as it can connect and bring people together in powerful and emotive ways. Therefore, she always tries to make sure that people are comfortable and confident in what they are singing.

She has sung and been influenced by folk singing traditions from across the world, such as South Africa, Georgia, Europe, as well as the songs that form a part of the landscape here in the UK. You may also find some nature-themed songs in her teaching repertoire also.

Oisin [Voice]

Oisin is a long-time camper and lover of singing. Nothing excites him more than to discover new ways to use the voice & join it with others'; to learn new songs & styles - ideally from as many different traditions as possible.

When sharing songs himself, his desire is to provide a space where people feel held & free enough to explore their own voice, to feel their way into new sounds & harmonies, and to bask in the satisfaction & wonder at what we can create when we pool our voices together into one communal sound.

At camp, the songs he teaches will be drawn from many traditions ranging across Europe, Georgia, the US, South Africa, and our own little islands.

Chris [Qi Gong]

Chris teaches Taiji and Qigong in Ulverston, Cumbria. He began practising the Chinese arts in 2001 and has been teaching since 2005. He follows Patrick Kelly's Taiji system; the 'World Wide Way'.

Qigong with Chris
Qi (Energy) Gong (Work). Qigong means working our energy, generally by means of physical movement; breathing and stretching, or using intention; moving light around the body.
Qigong can range from quite strong physical exercises to pure meditation. The physical is used to anchor the mind into the sensations of the body, allowing the mind to deepen and inner work to begin.
 Physical energy: Energy purely associated with the healthy functioning of our body and fed by the Earth.
 Deep emotion energy: Energy associated with our true self, our soul.
 Spiritual energy: The part of us that is beyond comprehension while on Earth. The beyond.

I am delighted to be leading the Qigong morning practice this year at camp. Qigong is an excellent way to wake up, loosen and warm up our bodies and anchor our awareness in our heart minds.

No experience necessary.

Jackie Singer (5 Rhythms Music Co-ordinator)

I am a multi-disciplinary artist, celebrant and shamanic practitioner, currently working on an album of original chants and songs: Songhold. In all my work, improvisation and compassionate space-holding is key. I love to move into the not knowing, exploring the territory of ‘let’s see what happens’, and the practice of paying conscious attention to all that presents itself when we take away the script. In 2014 I was one of six performers taking part in Permission Improbable a two-week improvisation project with 6 public performances at Battersea Arts Centre, directed by Improbable Theatre’s Phelim McDermot and Lee Simpson. I look forward to holding space for the courageous musicians who step forward to improvise music for the Wave at this year’s SAC

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