Dance Connection
Interdependence & Interconnection through Embodied Movement
About Dance Connection
The Foundation Contributors
Julia Hope Brightwell
Director, Co-Founder, Teacher & Trainer
Julia says " We wanted to create a dance & movement system that was accessible to everyone because we know of the multiple benefits of dance, movement, connection & music for total wellbeing."
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Tracy Seed
Co-Founder
Tracy says: " The way we relate, move, and dance with each other influences the way we connect with our natural humanity in the world".
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email:
Anita Scorer
Founding Member
Anita has worked in the field of Performing Arts for over 30 years - as a performer, teacher, facilitator and at times a storyteller. Her work has been in educational and therapeutic settings.
Sue James
Founding Member
Sue has been teaching dance and movement for 9 years and specialises in voice work. Sue shares "My life has been one where music, movement, dance and meditation has been a huge part of this journey."
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email: suesings@gmail.com
Dance
Connection's
Beginnings
From 2020-2022 Dance Connection's foundations were put in place by the founding team.
Inspirational information from Julia Hope Brightwell and later Tracy Seed, was explored and added to by Anita Scorer and Sue James. Dancing via Zoom together the ideas were explored, honed, and rooted.
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Julia began to run classes, online, then in person, followed by workshops and weekends. From the ground Dance Connection had its own spirit and the dance pathway developed to have a certain initial dynamic and pattern.​​​​
Benefits of Dance
Connection
Importance of Embodiment
For Who?
Dance Connection supports the development and integration of the whole person. Physiological benefits of dance are well known - improving fitness, flexibility, physical resilience and stamina - improving overall health. What isn't very well known about dance is how it also can regulate, restore, balance and support the nervous system, through dances that are geared to decelerate, calm and relax.
The sense of community that builds during a course of classes or a year dance journey is incomparable - imagine the understanding we have from the silent language of dance shared. ​
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Embodiment is extremely important - it's about partnering your body and listening more deeply to its messages. Education in how to develop this body awareness and develop movement tools for expression is crucial for resilience, resourcefulness, adaptability and stability - not just physically, but emotionally and psychologically too.
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The mind, body, emotions, spirit, and soul are interconnected and one area affects the other areas. In the same way the systems of the body are interconnected too. By working with movement and music, we can move emotions through, develop physical agility and develop body language.
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Dancing and moving with others, creates a sense of our interdependence, there is no barrier to dance, anyone can move to music within their own physical, self-regulatory, capacity. Dance connection isn't a performance dance -there are no set steps to learn, or criteria that prevents anyone from accessing it...it is designed to be inclusive and adaptable to different settings and groups of people.
Dance Connection's Evolution
From those first beginnings Dance Connection continues to evolve - some dances and exercises dropped away because they no longer fitted with what the pathway design had become. Many new dances have been added, and thousands of music tracks are now in the music library for the form. Participants themselves influence the shaping of this form - it is clear as a teacher which dances and music land for the group.
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As new teachers join, and bring their creative ideas, Dance Connection benefits from collaboration and the enthusiasm brought, as it did in the beginning with the founding members.
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The vision is still the same -
to make dance accessible to as many people as possible.