Where I Stand Now
In the fall of 1986 I gave my first workshop. I was looking for meaningful work after realizing that my career in law would not be satisfying. I already knew after my law exams that this story in my life was over. I also knew that I enjoyed dancing and meeting others. Sacred Circle Dances came into my life at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland in 1984 and I liked them, much to my own surprise. It was easy for me to teach the steps and in the following years I learned Sacred Dance with diverse teachers, took part in a training in Biodanca – Dance of Life – and continued to give my own seminars. I never assumed that I would make my living from this work.
However, that is what happened. I founded my own dance company in the autumn of 1992 and – a miracle – I lived from the dance until the end of 2020. At the beginning I taught the dances and approaches which I had learned; yet in the years after 1996 the idea to offer training groups appeared in dreams as well as the name for my institute „The Dancing Wild Sow“, and the energy of the female boar came into play. My own approach, „to dance out of the space of the heart“, was then born. It was based on meditative and free dancing and included working with archetypes.
Starting in 2004, movements from the inner realms began to appear which were formed into dances. These were not primarily circle dances, but dances which could also be danced alone, on your own. Rather than a conscious decision, this was more of a self-evolving process.
I started writing about dance out of my need to share the many extraordinary experiences of the dancers with others and also to bring my dances into an inner order. I published some essays in various magazines. Then someone asked me if I would like to write a book. So I worked side by side with the seminars to classify the whole into a „system“, and in 2010 my book (Tanze! Dein Herz – weibliches Wissen in Bewegung ( dance your heart – feminine wisdom in motion) was published.
The next stage of my work – taking place at the same time – led me to the Polli Talu Arts Center in Estonia. The initial contact was through a German dancer. At first I did not feel so enthusiastic because of the ecological impact involved to fly to Estonia with a group of German women. However, I made contact with Marika Blossfeldt, the director of the Polli Talu Arts Center, and we decided to try it out with a group of 5 Estonian and 15 German participants. It worked out well and was an inspiring experience to dance there. In the following years more Estonian women came, my book was published in Estonian in 2013, and the dance course became a steady summer event in Polli Talu until 2018. Since 2017 my work has been continued there by my student Eva Eensaar-Tootsen, which is a great joy for me.
In the last 10 years I integrated fairy tales into the dance and let them come alive through the dancing. This added an additional note of depth and fantasy to my work.
The corona time enhanced my creativity. I developed an approach to dance with others far away – without using a computer screen. Each one danced on her own in different places and countries and after this we exchanged our dance experiences via email. Mostly dancers who knew my dances were involved. It made tangible that the space of the heart worked over the distance, even though we all would have preferred to dance together live in one room.
The wildness, freedom and JOY were always there in the dance without effort, naturally. Dance has its own magic because it is so fluid and cannot be easily conceptualized. It takes us out of our heads and is not bound by perfectionism.
Sometimes dancers appeared in my groups who said that they had seen a friend with a special expression on her face when she returned from my seminar the year before. They then registered for the course, as they wanted to enjoy this experience too.
Today, after 35 years, I have primarilystopped dancing with groups. Maybe this will change again when I have taken in enough free time. I regularly dance on my own because I enjoy it, feel good in my body. I support other women with dances and ideas, mainly Eva in Tallinn. Sometimes we make a date where we dance together from the distance with a set programme and exchange emails afterwards.
At the beginning of this year when I had let go of all the dance work, an idea appeared to make many of my dances available in a filmed form to save them as a source of energy for the future generations. This is my project for this summer in Estonia. In the meantime some of these videos are published in my YouTube-channel: Dancing out of the space of the heart.
My book came out in its second edition in Estonia, somehow a resonance to this film project.
We continue to dance in the Bremen city woods outside for the EARTH at the cardinal points of the year of the sun, a tradition I started in my early years. On March 20thof this year we danced with many people on the meadow, also for peace.
You all welcome to get in contact with me anytime. Maybe there will be a surprise offer of a dance day. Life is always new if we dare.
June 2022
