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 (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.

Yelena Swarana [DUP]

Yelena Swarana is a dance mentor-in-training who encountered the Dances in 2006. Since then, she has been compelled to serve as an organizer for Dancing Heart camps and events, a role she has continued for the past 16 years. Her passion lies in traveling and sharing the Dances in various locations, including the Baltics, Poland, the UK, New Zealand, Turkey, and Israel and Sri Lanka. In collaboration with Vasudeva from Russia, they initiated the first Indian annual camp, attracting both international leaders and local dancers.

For a decade, Yelena has spent several months in India, visiting the holy mountain Arunachala, which she considers her home. Through the Dances and mantras, Yelena shares the joy and sweetness of the heart. In her professional life, she works as a freelance architect and serves on the board of directors of DUP International.

Looking back on her transformative experience, Yelena says, "The Sacred Arts camp in 2007 was the first international camp that changed my whole life. It is my sincere joy and a great honor to be here!"

Nathalie Blanc [DUP]

Nathalie fell in love with DUP in 2002 at the international camp in Lavaldieu.
Year after year she has found inspiration through wonderful teachers at the Sacred Arts and Unicorn camps, including Dakini, her Sufi guide, and Jilani, with whom she is a mentor in training.
For more than ten years she was part of the holding group and DUP team at the French summer camp, and now leads DUP weekends and events in Brittany, often with other teachers and musicians, including her husband, Robin Ireland. Nathalie is the mother of four grown-up children, has worked for 30 years as a trainer of school teachers and is passionate about literature and art. In Rennes, she is part of a choir singing East European and Yiddish music and she loves Circle Dance. She transmits the dynamic and uplifting energies of DUP as well as the deep and meditative.
As a Sufi, she respects the authenticity of each spiritual tradition, and is especially drawn to the Aramaic dances created by Saadi. Nathalie embodies enthusiasm, delight and simplicity in her teaching of the Dances, these living mandalas through which we can create unity. More than ever during our troubled times, the DUP are a way to practise peace and to strengthen our hearts and spirits, to bring together different cultures and generations and to encounter each other soulfully.

Glen Unmana [DUP]

Glen Unmana is originally from England, now living in Berlin. A student of the dances for twenty-five
years, he has given hundreds of workshops and longer retreats across many countries in Europe and
beyond.

Glen speaks of the Dances in this way: "Through the use of mantras, music and movement, these
Dances reconnect us to the flow of life, to our hearts and to our divine nature. Simple in appearance, on
a deeper level they are also a channel for the transmission of blessing."
Accompanied by his guitar, Glen's craft takes us into the depths of our being and transports us into a
state of pure joy and heart opening – the state of natural presence. May we dance, may we sing, may we
celebrate together our innate and underlying connectedness and unity!
www.dancingforjoy.weebly.com

Gaiatree Claire [DUP]

I first danced with Amida Harvey in a field in Glastonbury when the Dances first arrived in England. I enjoyed many years of dancing together and went to the first Peace through the Arts camp!
That was always my favorite thing to do, being in a field with people I love, making amazing music, singing, dancing, and cooking together! have been leading The dances of universal peace and Zikr since I came to America in 1992.
It was wonderful To be at Sacred Arts camp last year, dancing and singing on the land and I'm so happy to be returning.
My role this year will be different. Throughout the week I am holding space/facilitating the morning session for other dance leaders and emerging dance leaders who wish to share a dance.
I look forward to being with you all and creating a magical morning meeting where we travel together in Love, Harmony and Beauty with whatever we bring in the moment!

Sarah Priestley [Yoga/Yoga Nidra]

Details to follow

Katie Carr [Green Space]

Katie is a facilitator and guide, supporting people from all walks of life as they face into the reality, scale and urgency of the climate crisis. She offers mentoring to other facilitators who are growing their capabilities for working on this very challenging topic. Her work integrates internal family systems (IFS), somatic approaches, and deep listening/relating - supporting people to cultivate presence, emotional resilience, and the courage/capability to lovingly dismantle and heal where they have internalised the harmful structures and beliefs of patriarchal consumer capitalism. She also teaches counter-cultural leadership in the context of the climate crisis. And she’s a mentored leader of the Dances of Universal Peace!

Chris Sylla [Drumming/Firenight]

Chris Sylla is a community musician who has facilitated drumming and percussion workshops/events for over 20 years and is an 'old timer' at SAC.

A specialist in W African percussion she'll be leading djembe/doundoun workshops, and facilitating this years firenight. Using traditional rhythms with her own 'twist' and unique teaching style.

The workshops are open to all, experienced and novice alike. Enjoy the power of the drum and feeling connected through rhythm.

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.

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.

Grace [Voice]

Grace is an emerging song leader. The product of being a child grown up on camps such as Sacred Arts, drawn into song by the welcoming and inclusive atmosphere that she now wishes to provide for others, to join in the joy of singing together. Singing for speaking things into existence, for connection with our ancestors, and for the pleasure in the harmonies, to be enjoyed in the moment.

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.

Karim [Bajans]

have been leading Bhajan and Devotional singing groups for over 25 years. I just fell in love with this way of singing and it has taught me so much over the years including helping me to find my voice.. I learnt a lot from singing with Louisa Willow who used to lead Bhajans at camp.. I like to encourage others to just sing from the heart and let everything else go as that was the way it worked for me. Essentially I feel that Bhajans are a practice of surrender to devotional feeling and I often say that the Bhajans sing me rather than me 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.

"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

Click here to sign up to our newsletter

View our latest newsletter