PTA Teachers

Philip is a leading international exponent of the Dances of Universal Peace. He is a senior dance mentor and has lead retreats and dance leadership training courses in many countries across Europe, North America, South America and Australia.  His style is relaxed yet focused, gentle yet powerful. He is also a teacher of the Sufi Ruhaniat International having studied Sufism since 1989. His background is in yoga and the use of sound in healing. 

Philip also works as a Bioresonance Practitioner and is a spiritual coach. He lives in Dorset with his wife Lucinda.

www.philipodonohoe.co.uk

Grace is a sacred dance teacher, group facilitator, and spiritual leader and facilitates international trainings, retreats and events, at universities, conferences, schools, elder homes, churches, etc. She teaches body movement and dance as prayer that frees the body to move with the heart and soul.  The healing power of mantras, chants, movement meditation, and other peace-making techniques from world wisdom traditions are interwoven in her experiential workshops and can be used in the classroom and workplace.

Grace is a long established and well-respected teacher of the dances from Colorado U.S.A. She is known for her clear and sensitive teaching style and has a wealth of international leadership experience. She is an acclaimed teacher of peace-making within the self and towards the multicultural global community and is dedicated to the attainment of self-realization of all sentient beings. 
Link to Grace's website

Rasullah is particularly known for introducing dances from the Native-American and Druid traditions and will share a morning practice called the Dance of Life that is a form of moving meditation.

She trained as a Universal Peace Dance teacher in the mid -80's with Amida Harvey and, together with Nickomo, created on a small scale the first Dances of Universal Peace camp with Amida as teacher. From these small beginnings grew "Peace Through the Arts" She will also be assisting Nickomo with teaching daily Harmonic Temple sessions and will lead Dances of Universal Peace.

James has taught at Unicorn Camps since their inception in 1988; his background is in Sufism and, since 1990, he’s had a role in Eastern Europe’s developing studies of the work of Hazrat Inayat Khan. He has permission to lead the practice of zikr, a dynamic form of devotional meditation that repeats Arabic phrases to reach sublime states.

More recently he has devoted most of his effort to promote awareness of the 7 Words System, an intuitive communication method with wide applications for personal development and business management. Courses are available each year starting in September.

www.7words.co.uk
www.jamesburgess.com

Nickomo

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.

www.nickomoandrasullah.com

Especially over the last 10 years or so, Habiba has been very drawn to & inspired by the ancient Sanskrit prayers and mantras, and these have formed a major part of her spiritual practice. Two of her main sources of inspiration are Haidakhan Babaji and Amma the hugging saint, and some of the Bhajans we will sing together during the camp come from these sources.... though Habiba is happy to pick up Bhajans wherever she will! Bhajans are sung devotional mantras in the Sanskrit language, they have a very uplifting effect. At the camp Habiba offers Bhajan singing open to all, accompanying the sessions on the Indian harmonium.

She has also been involved with DUP since the 1980's and has been a popular leader on Unicorn Camps for many years. In that time she has led regular local groups and also shared dances at festivals, fairs and spiritual pilgrimages. She is especially well known in the South where she teaches the Dances at Monkton Wyld Court.

Glenda and Trevor were experienced teachers, healers and group leaders before discovering the Dances of Universal Peace in the early 1990’s. For the past 8 years they have committed their lives to leading the Dances, both at home and abroad, by organising and facilitating their own regular dance days & weekend retreats and responding to requests to take the Dances to other groups, new areas and venues.  They share the planning and presentation of their programmes and have evolved a unique style of joint leadership.

Part of their current focus is on developing opportunities for using the Dances to promote inter-faith and multi-cultural awareness within educational initiatives. Based in Devon, they travel with their work whenever and wherever it takes them and when at home, live as peacefully and mindfully as possible.

For a more detailed biography, please visit their website: www.dancingspirit.co.uk

Chrys Blanchard, is a voice leader who loves to explore sound and it's effect on us; combined with her 'passion for percussion' and her work in Theatre, this produces exciting opportunities for vocal and body integration.

Mike McElya founded the Sunshine Drumming Company in 1994. He has studied with drum masters from Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. In 1994 he travelled to Ghana to train with traditional drum master Nii Tahki. He has a life long background in theatre and was founder director of the Stark Raving Ensemble Co. in Chicago.
Over the years Mike has mastered the ability to combine professionalism and fun, earning him a reputation as a highly innovative workshop leader. The Sunshine Drumming Co designs and runs a wide variety of courses for clients ranging from school children, teachers and special needs adults to festival goers and corporate team-building bods!
His favourite food is popcorn.
Mike will be offering daily drumming sessions to the teenagers on the camp, culminating in an evening session of drumming for free-dance for all participants around a big central fire.

Bruce and Rebecca Knight hail from leafy Warwickshire in the Heart of England where they lead a number of popular singing groups, including the community choir Songlines, that Bruce founded in 2000.  This year at Dance Camp they'll be running sessions featuring some of their very favourite harmony songs from around the world.

Dee has been teaching and performing with acappella groups for over 20 years. During this time as well as touring established folk duo “Orion”, she formed and directed the award-winning  “Naked Voices” with Ali Orbaum and together they performed in “Sweet Soul Sisters” and “The Tea Ladies”. For the past ten years they have jointly run the huge and lovely 160-strong “Gasworks Choir” in Bristol. Dee also runs a monthly “Gasworks Gloryhole” which is an interfaith spiritual harmony singing session and will facilitate a Taize session at PTA camp as well as teaching some of her own song arrangements.

Kim is a singer, pianist and choral arranger and has been singing with Tone’s circle dance band for the past five years. She now has her own quartet and also sings with Exeter Philharmonic choir, the choir at St Michael ad All Angels Dinham Mount and this autumn for the Two Moors Festival. She has an Eastern European background and as is most looking forward to putting on her Baltic headscarf for the circle dance songs and supporting the singers.

Susan Harris will lead yoga classes in the mornings and she warmly invites all comers for basic stretches and exercises to set you up for the day.

Susan has become a familiar face at Unicorn Camps, well liked for her gentle style of presentation

Ernesta Burgess 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 chlildren.

Ernesta is also trained to lead Chinese and Japanese Tea Ceremony and South American mate drinking rituals.

SALLY J DAVIES  Composer, performer, choir leader, singer, instrumentalist and teacher. Has worked widely in theatre and dance for the last 20 years, collaborating with choreographers and directors. For the last 5 years she has led the ever more vibrant Wing-It Singers in East London who specialise in songs of Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Georgia. Last October she co-led the London Georgian Choir (Maspindzeli) in Tblisi where they were performing at a symposium. She gigs regularly with her duo Bow and Bellows (www.bowandbellows.com ) and Beskydy (www.beskydy.net ) playing fiddle, horn, whistle and her voice on stages, in cafes, for dances and at weddings.