Note: The schedule is subject to change.

Here is the outline of the programme. Please see below for the details about the presenters and their sessions. 

All times below in UK time zone. Please check your time zone. 

We made the choice to run the long sessions and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies quite late in the evening for the UK and Europe, to make these available to most time zones (early morning in AUS/NZ, morning/early afternoon in the US). 

The "Impulse  Sessions" and the "Peer Sharing" spaces are available to the UK/Europe time zones on both days, and are alternating for the AUS/NZ and US time zones. (Note: We made this choice because most of our members are in UK/Europe time zone, and all members of the organisation pod are in this zone as well. )

The recordings will be available to all registrants for 2 weeks to catch up. 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9 – OPENING

8:00 PM - 9:00 PM / Opening Ceremony held by Catherine Wright, Movement Medicine®, Scotland, UK

9:00 PM - 11:00 PM / Founders' Panel

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10 – INTEGRITY

We delve into personal and professional integrity as the base of our work. We will explore topics like embodied ethics, congruence, and how our diverse modalities can ensure our shared network remains a safe, vibrant, and inclusive container for all.

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM /  Peer Sharing held by Sonja Hellmann

4:00 PM - 4:45 PM /  Impulse Session: Alex Svoboda, freedomDANCE, UK

When Living with Integrity Means Saying No to Your Students

5:00 PM - 5:45 PM /  Impulse Session: David Mooney, Movement Medicine®, Ireland

Inner Ecology: Movement Medicine - Internal Family Systems - Polyvagal Nervous System

6:00 PM - 6:45 PM /  Impulse Session: Deborah Lewin, Open Floor, Scotland, UK

Embodied Ethics

7:00 PM - 7:45 PM /  Impulse Session: Kerry-Ann Stanton, Open Floor, New Zealand

Dance as a Doorway; Embodied Integrity as we Age

8:00 PM - 11:00 PM /  Long Session:  Daria Halprin, Life/Art Process, co-founder (with her mother Anna Halprin) of Tamalpa Institute, California, USA

Personal Mythology in Life, Art & Leadership

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11 – IMPACT 

We transition from integrity into action. We will focus on how to ground change, spark social impact, and expand our presence into our wider communities.

9:00 AM - 9:45 AM / Impulse Session: to be confirmed

10:00 AM - 10:45 AM /   Impulse Session: Christian De Sousa, 5Rhythms® and Movement Medicine®, Devon, UK

Shining the Light; Dancing in the Shadows

11:00 AM - 11:45 AM /   Impulse Session: Adi Argov, 5Rhythms®, Palestine/Israel

To Care. To Act.

5:00 PM - 7:45 PM / Peer Sharing  held by Sonja Hellmann

8:00 PM - 11:00 PM /  Long Session: Melissa Michaels, SomaSource, 5Rhythms®, Colorado, USA

Navigating the Edge from Center: Keeping our destiny dates amidst it all

11:15 PM - 12:00 AM / Closing Ceremony

Presenters and Details of the Sessions (in a chronological order of the programme)

Note: We add information as soon as we have them, please check back soon again.

SATURDAY

Sonja Hellmann

www.sonjahellmann.de

Germany

I’m an interdisciplinary artist, performer, and certified 5Rhythms® teacher based in Bonn, Germany, with diplomas in both Fine Art and Art Therapy. For over 25 years, I’ve been working across artistic disciplines - blending arts, ritual, rhythm, movement, and creative education in schools, museums, street performances, and sacred spaces.

Born into a family of dancers and artisans on Rose Monday — the peak of carnival season - my life began with art in motion. From jazz and showdance to Butoh and contact improvisation, curiosity and devotion led me to the 5Rhythms in 2003. Since completing the official teacher training in 2018, I’ve been adding this practice in my offerings as a pathway into presence, transformation, and connection.

I founded LichtschachT – art investigation in 2003 as a space for interdisciplinary exploration, and in 2021 created Art & Medicine of Rhythm (A&MoR) - an initiative dedicated to rhythm as a source of healing and community.

As a mother of two teenage sons (16 and 19), I bring both grounded presence and creative wildness into my work.

They say:
 “Full of loving madness and deep sensitivity, she holds a space with clarity and experience where trust comes easily.”

Peer Sharings

Saturday 9 AM UK, Sunday 5 PM UK

On both days, Sonja will hold space dedicated to sharing amongst peers. All participants are welcome to: discuss the workshops, bring topics they want to explore, be silent together, dance, laugh or simply witness.

This is the crucial part of the Gathering  where we can actually meet and be together, reflect on what is going on in the field, inspire and get inspired, share our challenges and successes, find collaboration and cross-pollinate our respective practices. During the in-person gatherings, this happens in the breaks, meal-times, in the evenings, in between sessions. Because we are meeting online, we will consciously facilitate these important encounters. 

Please join these spaces as much as possible.

Alex Svoboda

https://freedom-dance.com/team/alex-svoboda/
UK

Alex Svoboda, PhD, has trained with pioneering masters of conscious movement Gabrielle Roth and Anna Halprin.
In 2009, he created freedomDANCE, a school that makes dance meditation and conscious movement accessible to everyone, regardless of experience or fitness level. Since then, he has taught thousands of hours of classes and workshops.
From 2014, he has been training others to teach this work through the freedomDANCE Teacher Training.

Today, Alex divides his time between London and Petrovac. He works internationally and continues to develop freedomDANCE through teaching, research and teacher training.

When Living with Integrity Means Saying No to Your Students

Saturday, 4 PM UK

Conscious movement practices can help participants live with greater integrity by acting in alignment with their deepest values and needs. My research for Action-Oriented Mindfulness suggests that developing this capacity is one of the important long-term outcomes of regular freedomDANCE practice.

If our teaching supports this kind of integrity in our students' lives, how do we embody it ourselves when difficult professional decisions arise?

This interactive 45-minute workshop explores one of the most challenging expressions of integrity: saying "no" to a student.

That "no" can take many forms, for example:

• setting boundaries around contact or expectations;
• choosing not to continue a mentoring or teaching relationship;
• declining someone's application to a training;
• deciding not to certify or recommend a student;
• making other decisions that serve the integrity of the work while causing disappointment to someone we genuinely care about.

Drawing on interviews with experienced teachers, we will explore questions such as:

• What helps us recognise when integrity calls for a difficult decision?
• What values and considerations inform these choices?
• How can we communicate them with clarity and compassion?
• How do we remain at peace with our decisions and continue teaching with openness, creativity and joy?

Rather than offering definitive answers, the workshop aims to generate practical wisdom and contribute to a shared body of knowledge that supports ethical, compassionate and sustainable teaching.

David Mooney 

http://www.embodiment.ie/
Ireland
He/Him

I completed a long term deep apprenticeship with Ya'Acov and Susannah Darling Khan and the School of Movement Medicine for over 18 years, including one of the School faculty members and have been teaching the Movement Medicine Apprenticeship program for the past 6 years. This continues to be a deeply fascinating and life changing relationship with this dance practice. I have been teaching an embodiment conscious dance practice for the past 17 years and started teaching Movement Medicine in 2011. I am qualified in the full Movement Medicine CPD training path (Heart and Seer, Phoenix, Ritual, Initiation, Apprenticeship Leadership CPD’s). 

I teach Movement Medicine extensively throughout Europe and in the Americas, including weekends, residentials, Phoenix retreat,and together with my wife, Yasia, we teach Initiation and the Movement Medicine Apprenticeship program. 

I'm also a fully qualified and practicing Psychotherapist for over 16 years. I have professionally trained in psychodynamic, person centred psychotherapy. I also have 12 years experience in Somatic Psychotherapy. I have also trained in Internal Family Systems and weave this deeply effective and compassionate approach into all my teachings.

I have also trained in many modalities related to Nervous System regulation and trauma informed work such as the Polyvagal Theory and Practice with Deb Dana. This Nervous System understanding deeply informs my teaching. I integrate these skills and my passion for shamanic pathways into my work. I have been on a 7 year deep journey with the Redpath and my Lakota teachers in Sioux Valley, Canada.

I teach this dance because I love this practice, it has thoroughly changed my life and I love to share this work. I see it as a contemporary map to explore how to be present and engaged in life in these times we live in. I am fascinated by our capacity as human beings to heal and how we can transform our wounds into medicine  for growth and deepening self acceptance so we can be more fully ourselves and give all that we have to give in this lifetime for the benefit of all life.

Inner Ecology: Movement Medicine - Internal Family Systems - Polyvagal Nervous System

Saturday, 5 PM UK

Polyvagal is a clear map to understand our nervous system and is a deeply compassionate and insightful model for understanding our natural defensive / protective responses to our neurobiology. Internal Family Systems is a scientifically based, deeply compassionate, trauma informed and very clear approach to our inner world. IFS teaches that every person has an undamaged, compassionate soul core known as the "Self" with a dignifying perspective that all young parts have positive intentions, even when their behaviours are painful.

As a space holder we can visit strong places in our own nervous system and experience  younger protective and exiled parts within ourselves from the inherent vulnerability of being a teacher. Having a compassionate, clear map to frame our inner experiences while teaching can open space for landing in deeper congruence of the embodied present Self as a teacher. 

Deborah Lewin

https://www.vitalmoves.co.uk/
Scotland, UK

Deborah is a knowledgeable, experienced and trustworthy elder who will compassionately, and with great care, patience, skill and humour, guide you into a deeper, more intimate connection with yourself, bringing all of who you are into a world that needs YOU! Trained by Gabrielle Roth in 1994, Founding Member of ICMTA, OFI and currently Training Faculty for OFI, Bodyworker and Systemic Constellation practitioner, she weaves her skills into all she offers, working both one-to-one and with groups, online and in person. Her perspective is informed by 40 years of living and working in the Findhorn Spiritual Community and Ecovillage in North East Scotland. 

Embodied Ethics 

Saturday 6 PM UK

As an embodiment practitioner, what are the cues your body gives you when you know something in your core feels out of alignment with your values or in alignment? And what happens when your sense of what’s ‘right'.. from your lens… isn’t ‘right’ from a colleague’s or students perspective? What happens when the Code of Ethics your modality has developed isn’t the same as that of a different modality? How do you/we approach the topic of ethics and values in the face of difference? Surely this topic, engaged with transparently and kindly is our own offering of ‘World Work’? 
The session will include:
 A 15 minute overview of the theme with some embodied input to highlight the tension between attachment and belonging.
 Time in small groups in BO rooms to list ethical concerns you have as a teacher
Group time to report back, share and consider moving forwards with integrity.

Kerry-Ann Stanton

https://www.dancewithkerryann.com/
Aotearoa / New-Zealand

I am an Open Floor Dance Teacher with a lifetime of dance.
Dance is my personal practice, my way of being in the world, my re-creation.
Dance is my ‘Yes’ in life and I offer myself as a dance guide to share this with you. The exploration and practice of dance give us all the resources we need for life; physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Our dance, our way, in community for life.
I am blessed to live a full life as a dance guide, funeral celebrant and sacred space artist. I love to share the subversive nature of dance as a practice or daily ritual.

Dance as a Doorway; Embodied Integrity as we Age

Saturday, 7 PM UK

Open to any age, this 45 minute “Impulse” session will give you a taste of ... a peek at ... a murmur of ... a whiff or maybe a taste of ... what it is to age and move with integrity ... to open to the exploration of what integrity might be for you...

What is it to be in integrity with our aging self and how might we express this through dance and movement? i.e. embody our integrity.

To use dance as a doorway to understanding...

“The whole process of passing through doors is one of learning to know yourself”, Clare Ward.

Dance allows us to move with the distinctions of body, language and emotions and their intersection with what we may call Soul. A process of being and becoming.

What might this expression of integrity offer our peers, those younger than us, our dancers?

This tiny session will encourage you to take track yourself personally and to double track how you might do this as a teacher.

In essence, what is beyond ‘move it or lose it’!

“Offer your soul to the realm of unity and receive the gift of integrity”, Gabrielle Roth.

Daria Halprin

www.dariahalprin.org

California, USA

Daria Halprin is among the leading pioneers in the field of movement/dance, expressive arts education and therapy. With Anna Halprin she co-founded Tamalpa Institute, and was instrumental in the development of the Halprin Life/Art Process, as an innovative approach to psychology, artistic practice, and dance as a healing force. 
Bringing a life-long practice in the arts to her work, published writings include: Coming Alive (1989); The Expressive Body in Life, Art and Therapy (2003); contributing author for Expressive Arts Therapy: Principles and Practices (1999), Poesis: Essays On the Future of the Field; Dance,Somatics and Spirituality (2014); Body Enacted, Entranced and Ensouled. 
In addition to leading trainings in the Halprin work at Tamalpa Institute, Daria has served on faculty at the European Graduate School, JFKU, CIIS, Alanus, and Esalen Institute. She has presented at numerous conferences and universities worldwide.

See An Afternoon with Daria Halprin by Jens Wazel (note: Jens is one of the current members of the ICMTA Board).

Personal Mythology in Life, Art and Leadership

Sunday, 8 PM UK

As teachers we have answered a call to pass  on what we have learned, to guide others through what are the tender and turbulent waters of becoming. This takes  a unique set of skill, in-sight, humility and love. The path is meaningful and joyous beyond measure. At times it may feel like a beautiful duet between burden and blessing. Such is the dance and the art of life. 

Participants will be guided in the use of three interweaving art mediums, movement, drawing and poetic narration in an exploration of questions, themes, dialogues and enactments with the unrecognized or disowned parts of our identity and embodiment as teachers. 
 
This presentation will take place in 5  parts:

• 1st act: Setting the stage: The lineage, the work, the impact: Daria will share the history and approach of the Halprin Life/Art Process, an interdisciplinary approach to dance, theater and healing art practices 
• 2nd act: Dancing with the challenge
• 3rd act: The gift 
• 4th act: Witnessing
• 5th act: Closing the practice: Embodiment in daily practice

SUNDAY

Christian de Sousa

www.glimpsesoflight.art

UK

Facilitator, DJ and artist, Christian has held space for thousands of people to go on transformative journeys through dance. Creator of the legendary Sweaty Thursdays in a church in south London, he trained in 5Rhythms with Gabrielle Roth in 2004-05 and worked with Ya’Acov & Susannah Darling Khan since the before inception of Movement Medicine, becoming a MM Pathfinder & Faculty teacher. He also initiated and led the seminal dancingTao and Earthdreamers collectives.
He teaches internationally and online, weaving a diversity of modalities and medicines into the movement space, including influences from mentors Malidoma Somé, Suprapto Suryodarmo, Jean-Claude Audergon and Daniel Foor.
Born in Switzerland of mixed European ancestry, he grew up in England and developed his practice in London and other cities. He basically just really loves dancing! He now lives in the South Devon hills with his family, and learns about enlightenment from the cats.

Shining the Light; Dancing in the Shadows

Sunday, 10 AM UK

Shining the Light; Dancing in the Shadows 
An exploration of our impact as movement teachers

When we hold dance spaces we change people’s lives. The movement we facilitate enables people to create, to heal and to become more of who they really are. The music we play lifts people into ecstatic surrender and opens their hearts. Our dancefloors are the site of profound connections and community. People meet, make lasting relationships and often find a real sense of belonging. The work we do is a catalyst for incredible positive impact in so many different ways.

And sometimes it’s not. And we don’t. Sometimes we fail to hold the space in ways that people feel safe to lean into. We miss the reality of where people are at and what they really need; or we push our own agendas. We act from our insecurities and we unconsciously reinforce mainstream biases that exclude or even shame people with different identities or cultural roots to ours. With the best of intentions, our impact can be negative too. 

The role of conscious movement teacher is a powerful one. When we’re in the role, the volume is turned up on everything we say and do. We are forever dancing in a web of projections and transferential process. If we have a ground of awareness, humility and willingness to learn, it’s all part of the dance. Our job is to shine that light as bright as it comes - and to get to know those shadows as dancing partners so they can become allies helping us to grow.

I do believe that we are always held by something much much bigger than us in this process. An energy and a holding that comes through the dance, the teachings and the participants’ medicine themselves. We are part of something much bigger, and its important to see and experience our impact as that too

During this session we’ll touch into this topic of light and shadow in our impact as movement teachers, and we will explore ways to cultivate the conscious in ‘Conscious Dance’.

All welcome, whether veteran, fresh trainee or something in-between!

Adi Argov

https://www.5rhythmsadiargov.com/

Palestine/Israel

A perfectly imperfect fiery human being, a mother, a grandmother.
A veteran clinical psychologist specialised in trauma therapy,  a 5Rhythms certified teacher, Waves and Heartbeat levels.

Born and raised in bloodshed Israel Palestine,  while being a caring sensitive person by nature, shaped me as the human rights devoted activist I became as I enter my elder phase.

From bearing witness in vigils, protest, solidarity acts with Palestinians, I landed into storytelling of the cruelty in occupation through my Daily File website and Forcibly Involved project (documenting names of slaughtered children from all nations involved).
My passion is to tear down the veil of denial, to  bring humanity to places of dehumanisation, to speak truth to power. 

Together with my Soul friend Cecile i weaved a workshop called Belonging in Action - integrating the call for action with finding the tribe to do so. 

To Care. To Act. 

Sunday, 11 AM UK

When confronted with the chaos and violence in the world around us, we might feel a lot… Sometimes, it is too much to bear… We might shutdown, or freeze in powerlessness or become very angry and burn from the inside, feel guilt or shame, confusion, isolation… and ask ourselves the same question over and over again: what can I do?

This is time to raise up in our own diverse unique ways  to “take the dance out to the streets “ ( As Gabrielle Roth used to say), it is time to care and act, it is time to make a change.

In my mother tongue the word for make a change is the same as dancing. 

Through my own personal journey I will discuss the way I found my own dancing/making change, the teachings, the ups and downs, the price tag, the insights.

We will move and embody the call for a change, creating the space for options. We will hold the necessity to be part of a “tribe” - a gathering of people who care and choose to protect what they care for. 

Melissa Michaels, Ed.D.

goldenbridge.org

Colorado, USA

Soul midwife, educator, author, and artist, Melissa is the Founder/Director of Golden Bridge and Golden Girls Global — two not-for-profit initiatives dedicated to improving and empowering the lives of diverse people through body-centered initiatory experiences, mentoring, and community action.

For 39 years, Melissa has been creating movement-based, cross-cultural educational opportunities liberating the potential that is available during major life transitions. Her work somatically supports people as they navigate through the narrow passageways of these challenging times. This body of work grew from Melissa’s decades of guiding diverse young people from self to soul to service through dance-based rites of passage experiences.

Activists, artists, healers, and educators serving on every continent on the planet, Melissa’s mentees, SomaSource leaders, are creating innovative ways to work within some of the most marginalized communities around the world.

Together, they are devoted to our collective sustainability through the liberation of the creative spirit.

Her body of work includes the book,  Youth on Fire: Birthing a Generation of Embodied Global Leaders; online moving journeys, including Thresholds; as well as her video narratives of resilient people and communities mobilizing around the world. Melissa’s award-winning film, Twisted Gift shares her dancing journey through late-stage ovarian cancer into health.

Navigating the Edge from Center: Keeping our destiny dates amidst it all

Sunday, 8 PM UK

Respectfully and honestly showing up to serve in these times is a sacred art. The inner work is uniquely robust as we aim to metabolize the unprecedented images and stories that show up on our screens and dance floors. The outer work is demanding in unfathomable and new ways. People, the Earth, the basic fabric of life are on the edge. The call to find our right place and way through intensifies as the world we have known unravels.

During our time together in our ICMTA community, we will journey back to the original call that brought us to this world work. Moving through the Life Line in new ways, we will explore afresh own sacred steps that move us both backwards through our life thus far and forward into the moving work of seeding and bridging that is so needed in these times.

Our process will be inspired by the decades of embodied leadership Melissa has offered in diverse communities around the world. Melissa will share some stories of the work in numerous spaces where the dance was once forgotten and is now being remembered and amplified.