pta camp 21 - 29 august '10
What's this camp really all about?
celebration of spirit
Spirituality is a many-splendoured love that we honour in all its forms. Hinduism through bhajan and yoga, Buddhism’s mindfulness meditations, Sufism’s healing practices of Ilahinoor and the danced prayer of zikr. We have Aramaic and more western Christian prayer, Native American Dance of Life, and Earth Magic too.
Above all we have the Dances of Universal Peace, whose central purpose is to soften distinctions and differences that arise between people as a result of their convictions.
psychological healing
Emotional release can be a healing event when it’s done with awareness in the atmosphere of compassion. Self-awareness as an aspect of that process and include here: Family Constellations, Astrodrama and the 7 Words.
Additionally, the whole business of community camping in circles and learning how to live on the land together in harmony is also profoundly therapeutic.
celebration of joy
We dance a lot, we sing a lot and we play a lot – as shown by the excellent programme for everyone. There is Harmonic Temple, Circle Dance, volleyball and teen sports, a Creativity Area for kids and parents, and a hundred colourful moments in every hour in every circle; we are also rather proud of our café with its special relaxed caring atmosphere.
Teachers
For 20 years Unicorn Camps have attracted teachers at the highest level of attainment and influence and have seeded camps in such countries as Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Russia and America. Entirely new aspects of wisdom have often arisen in thousands of workshops – Harmonic Temple, 7 Words, new songs, new dances, new flower essences, novel methods of healing with crystals, sound and linguistics, empowerment of teens and adults, and other evolutionary experiments in 3rd-milleneum social processes.
On camp this year are the founders or co-founders of many important initiatives: Sufi healing method Ilahinoor, Harmonic Temple, Lammas Housing Project, 7 Words Self-Realization Method, Oak Dragon Camps, PTA International Camp, Khanqah Salaam Sufi Retreat Centre, Campscene Directory, Unicorn Camps Ireland, Unicorn Centre Vilnius, 7 Words Doula Training, 7 Words Theatre, Editor of the Family Constellations Journal and composers of a hundred melodies and dances known and loved throughout the world.
Muiz Brinkerhoff
Formally initiated onto the path of universalist Sufism, within the Sufi Ruhaniat International, in 1975, in San Francisco, California, Muiz was trained by his two initiators in a variety of Sufi subjects including spiritual dance and walk, concentration, breath and sound practice, increasing and maintaining spiritual magnetism, and spiritual transmission and attunement.
He was formally certified in 1979, by the head of the order, as a Leader of the Dances of Universal Peace (DUP), and raised to the post of teacher in 1996.
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He has been mentoring Dance Leaders informally since the late 1980s, and formally since being asked in 2002, to join the Mentor Teachers Guild, a collaborative training effort of the International Network for the Dances of Universal Peace (INDUP), and the Sufi Ruhaniat International, the particular Sufi order he represents when he teaches.
For the past 31 years he has shared this work of body-centered, spiritual transformation and heart-awakening in classes, workshops, camps, and retreats in California, around the US, and since 2003 around the UK (at Sacred Arts, at year-end retreats at Springhead and BonHays Farm, plus a variety of annual evening, day long, and extended weekends in West Yorkshire, Preston, and Machynlleth in Wales), as well as working one-on-one with his formal and informal Sufi students and Dance leadership mentees in the US and the UK.
Having worked for many years to balance and integrate both the masculine and feminine, Power and Beauty, aspects of his being, and to clear a backlog of shadow issues, he often uses a cooperative, power-sharing, sacred circle leadership model, with a deep respect and honoring of Divine Mother in all Her forms.
For whatever it may be worth, he also holds the unique distinction of almost certainly being the first openly gay man to be confirmed as a teacher within any formal Sufi Order.
Muiz’ Sufi and DUP work is informed and deepened by a wide variety of interests and talents from other areas of his life: including 10 years of his own psychological and psychic healing and integration using the personal, inner growth work developed by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, and the 3-Selves/Huna system taught by Rev. Frida Waterhouse; 7 years working with Both Sides Now, a gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender social, educational and community outreach organization on the island of Maui, Hawai’i; 4 years of very active HIV/AIDS education, prevention, counseling and support work, plus co-founding and working with the Maui AIDS Foundation, during the mid 1980s; a year of studying, dancing and performing Hawai’ian Hula; co-facilitating 2 groups of court-mandated men for Maui’s Alternatives to Violence domestic violence prevention program; offering counseling, and DUP mentoring during 5 annual DUP Leader Training Camps at Lama Foundation in New Mexico USA; 3+ years directing a biweekly men’s group; co-producing several weekend men’s retreats
Last but not least, a zany and irreverent sense of humor combined with a very active belief in never taking himself too seriously.
James Burgess
James has taught at Unicorn Camps since their inception in 1988. His background is in Sufism and he has a role in Eastern Europe’s developing studies of the work of Hazrat Inayat Khan. He was appointed as the Sufi Representative for the Baltic States in 2000 and has permission to lead the practice of zikr, a dynamic form of meditation that repeats devotional Arabic phrases to reach sublime states.
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More recently he has devoted most of his effort to promote awareness of the 7 Words System, a life management technique with wide applications for personal and spiritual development, for which a lot of material can be found on the
7 Words website.
He has composed many dances and wazifa walks to support the DUP and Sufi teachings. If you have a pdf facility, a full list is available to download from his personal website James Burgess.com.
Rasullah Clarke
Rasullah has been teaching the dances since 1987 and has created many new dances especially from the Hindu and Celtic spiritual traditions. She follows Druidry, an earth based spirituality centred round celebrating nature and the seasonal festivals, as her spiritual practice. On the camp she will be offering some insights into Druidry and its application as a personal path as well as sharing some of the dances that celebrate this. In the mornings she will lead the Dance of Life ( see Voice Camp for more info) and she will also be helping Nickomo teach his Harmonic Temple chants.
Nickomo Clarke
Nickomo is a composer, choir-leader and musician. He has played for Dances of Universal Peace and Circle Dances for over 15 years, and will be supporting both at the camp. He will also be offering sessions of the ‘Harmonic Temple’ - acappella vocal harmony based on spiritual texts.
Tone Wrench
Tony is a singer and multi-instrumentalist who has been playing music to accompany Circle Dances since the eighties. He is charismatic, inspiring and visionary, and manages to form a band of excellent musicians out of all-comers, with their recorders, tubas, guitars and drums! If you would like to play in the band you are welcome to attend the daily rehearsal sessions. It really is great fun!
Barbara Morgan
Barbara will lead sessions in Family Constellations, which is a therapeutic method developed by Bert Hellinger and practiced by psychologists, psychiatrists psychotherapists and alternative practitioners. Its objective is to release profound tensions within and between people. Those tensions may lie in a personal or professional context. Barbara has a we lath of experience in leading these groups, and is central within the network as editor of its leading journal.
Daren Messenger
Daren Messenger leads DUP, has a particularly deep connection to Sufism, the Aramaic Lords Prayer and Buddhist mindfulness and concentration practices. He is a Registered Existential Psychotherapist with special interest in Cognitive Therapy using eastern teachings, and is researching mindfulness at the University of Wales Psychology Dept.
Glenda and Trevor
Glenda and Trevor are both certified teachers of the Dances of Universal Peace who, for the past 10 years, have committed their lives fully to organising and facilitating their own dance days & retreats and responding to requests to take the Dances to other groups, new areas and venues.
Glenda is a Dance Mentor and she and Trevor have been involved in supporting Dance Leaders in training at home and abroad since 2001.
They will be organising and facilitating sessions to encourage, nurture and support the 'Next Generation Teachers' of the Dances.
For a more detailed biography, please visit their website: www.dancingspirit.co.uk
Ros Briagha
We are very fortunate this year to be able to invite Ros as one of our Development Group teachers. Her experience is quite unique in the realm of Earth Mysteries, having taught for over 25 years and been the central axis of the renown Oak Dragon Camps, which is widely and justifiably acknowledged as the mother of many - even most - of the camps that exist today.
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She was a stalwart of the Greenham Peace Camp movement and during the early '80s learned practices of wicca, earth magic, feminine lore and story telling. Living in Wales, she has organised covens, groups and meetings focusing astrology, dowsing, natural healing and ritual. Her tours de force are contemporary full-size stone circles that are to be found in various sacred places in South West Wales.
Sarah Godwin and Dave Boldick
Sarah and David will be offering group sessions where you can receive Ilahinoor and also learn and practise giving to each other. It is generally experienced as very nurturing and grounding, as we enter deeply into the body in the presence of Love. Ilahinoor is a powerful and ancient evolutionary energy field which has its roots in ancient Egypt and a strong resonance with the Sufi tradition. Embodying, balancing and unifying, it is an easily accessible energy which can be given by touch or intent, facilitating our awakening into multi-dimensional consciousness.
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Sarah has explored many forms of dance, movement, sound, touch and energy work alongside being a mother, with a growing fascination with embodiment. Through Ilahinoor, she has experienced a profound transformation of consciousness. David has practised healing for many years, mainly through Craniosacral Therapy and Reiki. He now teaches healing through touch, intent and allowing, in the UK and Spain. His lifelong involvement with brass bands has combined with his work to keep his feet on the ground while flying with the angels. For both Sarah and David, encountering Ilahinoor has felt like coming home.
Nesta Burgess
Nesta has been trained to advanced levels in yoga, which she will lead as a daily session for all who are interested. Her backgound includes Ayangara and Ashtanga, yet mainly her experience is within the Shivananda tradition. Her teaching experience has until now been limited to her own country, Lithuania, where she has led regular adult groups and at summer camps week long courses for children.
Nesta is also trained to lead Chinese and Japanese Tea Ceremony and South American mate drinking rituals, and is the programme manager of the Unicorn Centre in Vilnius, based at Arbatos Magija, the primary location for tea training in Lithuania.
Dominique Sakoilsky
Dom is a certified practitioner in 7 Words and will be facilitating a Personal Develoment Group entitled "Relationship in 7 Words". There will be 3 sessions looking at how the 7 Words Life Managemnet Technique can help illuminate relationship issues and find ways to work with them.
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For some time, she has been using this technique to deepen her work on her Bristol courses helping parents find joy in their birthing experiences. She also has long term experience with Relate, helping to sponsor deeper authentic communication in couples, work she truly loves to do!
"Relationship work is fun, dynamic, challanging and growthful! How we do our most intimate relationships (or not!) really shows up our blindspots, or less healed parts of ourselves. Finding a keyword to work with, and linking areas of unconscious behaviour with old stories we have about ourselves can reverse the errors of perception that lead to psychological suffering."
Rosa James
Rosa has been teaching Circle Dance since the early 1980's, and still runs a regular group in S.Shropshire. She has led these dances at many camps over the years - especially at Camps, and loves to dance under the skies, feet on the Earth, to live music.

