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First of all I'd like you to know that you are welcome.
The reason we are calling you is not just to dance. It's because of all that dancing brings.
It's to reclaim the qualities of life that are so precious, vital and easily missed in our day to day lives.
Our vibrant and often subtle life force can drain away as we grow older, through sitting in school, sitting at desks, in cars, sitting in our armchairs. Or through being shown what to think, what to feel, who to be, by people around us and constant advertising. So while we don't have to throw ourselves around like wild banshies (although that is welcome too), we move - and in doing so we begin to reclaim more and more of our own life-force, which never really disappeared, but sometimes gets buried.
There are no steps to learn, it's more natural than that.
Come and join us, and see if this is for you.
Sue Rickards
Learn more about Open Floor and 5Rhythms dance movement practices
What’s On Offer..
Clearing
Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognise and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world
so worth of rescue.
Martha Postlewaite
A Message From Sue About Saturday Classes
For some time now I have been feeling the need to listen to a voice that's calling for some space to be heard. And yet, I love this work and don't want to retire. Far from it.
I spent a lot of time pondering, thinking, wondering, wrangling, and getting nowhere. Then suddenly, on retreat, whilst I wasn't thinking about it, I realised I must make space for a chunk of time each year. To pause in the doing, however rich the doing is.
So, I'm not going to hold Saturday classes though the lighter months. I will offer Saturday classes again from October though to March, inclusive.
Of course, my fear is that no-one will want to come back.
My hope is that you will.
Saturday Live Pop-Up Classes
7.00 - 9.15pm - United Reformed Church
United Reformed Church, Pond Square N6 6BA Parking on the street
Not Weekly: Saturdays: Feb 8, 15, 22; Mar 8, 15, 29 2025
Sue will then be taking a break for the summer and returning in October
Drop In - Pay On Door: £20 Entrance, £16 Concession, £12 Unwaged
15 Minutes walk from Highgate or Archway tube
Drop in dance; all welcome, however and whoever you are. No experience needed. These evenings are about allowing ourselves to be alive and real, however we feel. Come and give it a go
Click to join whatsapp for a reminder on the week when the dance is happening
An on-going closed dance group with Sue Rickards. Assisted by Angela Griffiths - in person & online
Each Term: 1 x Weekend SAT 11.00am - 6.00pm SUN 10.30am - 5.00pm + 5 x Thursday Evenings 7.00pm - 10.00pm
251 Hungerford Rd, London N7 9LD, UK
The next term starts with a weekend on 10/11 May 2025. The minimum commitment is 2 terms to allow time for new participants to arrive and to have a sense of continuity for the group.
And The Beat Goes On is an ongoing group intended to accompany us through our lives. We dance, we use words and other means of expression to explore our relationship with ourselves, with each other and in community, using movement as our bedrock. It is a closed group. New comers are welcome and invited only at the beginning of each term. We're a movement based community of dancers who practice dancing and exploring deeply, playfully, and seriously, expanding our ability to be spontaneous, honest, responsible and real.
To join or find out more information email Virginia: info@acalltodance.com
Phoenix Dance
7.30 - 9.15pm - St Mary’s Primrose Hill, 2 Elsworthy Rd, NW3
Weekly on Tuesdays
Drop In And Pay On Door
Held by a collective of teachers including Sue: Audrey Boss, 11th Feb; Mira Schauble 25th Feb; and Sue 18th Feb
Cost: Supporter Ticket £40 (one month of dancing at a discounted rate of £10 per week);
Generosity Rate £20 (makes it possible to offer sponsored rates to those that have less);
Fair Price £15 (what we need to make a living);
Sponsored Rate £5 (struggling financially but need to dance)
Tuesday & Saturday Classes On Zoom
7.00 - 8.30pm - Weekly
TUESDAY CLASS held by Richard Jerram
TUESDAY ZOOM LINK: https://zoom.us/j/970060735 payment link shared in class
SATURDAY CLASS held by Sue or Richard
SATURDAY ZOOM LINK: https://zoom.us/j/374997307
Please pay £10, or if you need to pay less in order for this to be accessible, pay what you can
PAYPAL: https://www.paypal.me/SueRickards
BANK TRANSFER: Ms S A Rickards, SC: 07-04-36, ACC: 43788875
EUROSWISE: BAN BE67 9671 0835 1487, Bank code (SWIFT / BIC) TRWIBEB1XXX, TransferWise Europe SA, Avenue Marnix 13-17, Brussels 1000 Belgium
Right Here Right Now
I'm looking forward to holding a night of dancing and falling into the simplicity of the present moment.
Hosted by Sarah Johnson in South London - thanks Sarah!
Be here now, be there then.
When: Wed 26 Feb 2025
Where: Anerley Town Hall, Anerley Road, London, SE20 8BD
Time: 19.00 - 21.30
Info & Booking: suerickards888@gmail.com
Everything Is Interesting 2025
A weekend of dancing in Antwerp with Sue
Let's have some fun and get curious. One of my teachers said: If nothing is wrong, everything is interesting. So simple and so inviting as an exploration.
When: Sat 22 - Sun 23 March 2025
Where: Atheneum Deurne, Jan Brochovenstraat 15, 2100 Deurne, Belgium
Time: 11.00-18.00/11.00-17.00
Cost: € 180
To book: https://www.owc.be/course/3505/everything-is-interesting
Info: suerickards888@gmail.com
Already Alright
An annual retreat and gathering in Orval, Belgium with Sue
Assistance: Frie Lavelli & Kath Jones
Room spaces and camping available
5 Days: Sun 27 Jul - Fri 1 Aug 2025
Booking & Info: luc@owc.be https://www.owc.be/program/already-alright#info
Already Alright is an annual summer retreat and gathering. The week is both unique for each of us and also deeply supported by our coming together. We dance and create space to be curious, excited and surprised by what is actually ready to emerge and be included. We don't need to know in advance what we need or what might happen. This simple yet radical practice of exploring and being curious can change everything.
Connected to ourselves and to each other, we find ourselves much less interested in thinking there is something wrong with us, or anyone else. We can stop fighting with the underlying fear that we are not truly ok and therefore we can relax and become available to delight and spaciousness. Freedom and freshness come through us, sometimes when we least expect it.
Each year we build our confidence in what's ready to emerge. Fresh each year, and as a result of all our years of dancing together, this Annual Retreat and Gathering helps us to keep remembering the value of our unique contributions and our Alrightness. Oldtimers are as welcome as ever - we welcome each other! And newcomers are always very welcome too.
Fire 2026
A winter closed group with Sue
Come congregate, dance, be quiet, be still
When: 11-15 Feb 2026
Where: Earth Spirit Centre, Peak Lane, Compton Dundon, TA11 6PE
Time: TBC
Info: suerickards888@gmail.com
Discovery 2025 - Past
A 6 week closed dance and movement group with Sue Rickards.
When: Mondays online
January 20th, 27th, February 3rd 10th, 24th, March 3rd 2025
Where: online (zoom code sent near the start date once registered)
Time: 6.30-8.30pm. (UK time)
Cost: Basic cost £160
Pretty skint - £110
To book: (pay, and then let me know that you have please)
Info & Booking: susanrickards@blueyonder.co.uk
Paypal
or bank transfer Ms S A Rickards SC: 07-04-36 ACC: 43788875,
or for people paying in Euros (€180/132 ) WISE:
IBAN BE67 9671 0835 1487
Bank code (SWIFT / BIC) TRWIBEB1XXX
TransferWise Europe SA
Avenue Marnix 13-17
Brussels 1000 Belgium
Join the good ship Discovery for the joy of seeing what we discover. The last series of Discovery for this Winter.
I feel this work is deepening and getting simpler at the same time. Some people return regularly and in each series new people jump on board. Our confidence and trust grows. We become more curious, more playful, more surprised. At least, I do! - and I don't think I'm alone in that.
We don't try to fix anything - we see what comes up to be acknowledged, included, celebrated, teased apart, explored....we don't know what until the moment arises. It enriches us. It gives us new perspectives. We dance. We're curious together. We explore. I can't really describe it, but if you want to come and find yourself newly and compassionately surprised, by yourself and each other, this might be for you
VILLAGE 2024 - Past
A year-long, monthly online moving village gathering to include losses as part of our vibrant living.
When: Mondays monthly online: 5-6.30pm;
22 April, 20 May, 24 June, 22 July, 19 Aug, 23 Sept, 21 Oct, 25 Nov, 16 Dec, 13 Jan, 17 Feb, 17 March
Where: online (zoom code sent near the start date once registered)
Time: 5-6.30pm (UK time)
Cost: £140 (€165) for the year
£100 (€117) early bird until 19th March
There are 2 places available at £40(€47) for people for whom the cost would otherwise be prohibitive
Info & Booking: susanrickards@blueyonder.co.uk
Holding ourselves, together
We need to be able to hold ourselves when grief and sorrow wash through our lives. We also need a village, to acknowledge our grief and loss, the big and the small, so that it can colour, but not define our lives.
For most of us this place and 'process' has been lost or ignored so that we are left in the cold of grief, rather than being alive to it. The difference, the cost, is our vitality. Which is a waste of our life while we have it. As Elizabeth says in The Last Devil to Die "I'm grieving, not dead".
So this group - 1.5 hours a month, is a village for our aliveness whilst acknowledging loss. Holding ourselves, together, as we include what's true; that sorrow is a healthy response in our vibrant life. It's not what we carry, but how. We'll dance, of course. We'll laugh, maybe cry, we'll be delighted, we'll be together and that's healthy.
I have been training as a grief-tender with Frances Weller, author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow, who names a few gates of the grief that we all live with, and that are often unacknowledged. This work will gently inform our times together.
Annual Rituals & Celebrations
Annual Rituals & Celebrations
Annual Rituals & Celebrations
Lost Souls, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve
A chance to dance together however we feel
