Movement Classes:
I teach two movement modalities, Open Floor every Friday Morning and 5Rhythms on the 1st Saturday of the month. I trained to teach 5Rhyhms in 2008 with the founder Gabrielle Roth and have been teaching regularly since. In 2012, I joined with a group of others in forming Open Floor, I’m a founding member and was on the core faculty up to 2024.
I am a member of the International Conscious Movement Teachers Association an international professional network of qualified movement teachers from different schools who offer dance and movement practice as a path to wholeness.
I uphold the ethical framework for good practice as a conscious movement teacher, which can be found here.
Open Floor
What is an Open Floor class? It's dancing, it's a way of practicing being embodied (learning to listen to ourselves) it's called a movement meditation (bringing our attention back to the body over and over again). We explore moving in a variety of ways, moving towards freedom, whatever that might mean for us, it can be quite intimate and personal, or wild and expansive, different for us at different times and each class will have its own particular flavour. We're practicing flexiblity of our whole selves, emotionally and soulfully as well as physically.
Open Floor is a dance mediation practice. Using core movement resources such as grounding, centering, releasing, our aim is to become more embodied, to be more comfortable in our own skin, present for anything and everything. When we live an embodied life we are fluid, flexible and free to experience all of the wild and subtle moments that go by, the ones that are heavenly as well as the ones that have us dragging our feet.
Friday Morning Open Floor in Forest Row
Newcomers and experienced dancers all welcome at any time. This is a vibrant friendly group, please do join us if it calls you.
When? Every Friday, 9.30–11 am. Arrive from 9.15 am to warm up, doors stay open until 9.40am
Venue: Peter Griffiths Hall, Lewes Rd, Forest Row, East Sussex RH18 5ES map
Cost: £15 on the door - (cash or contactless). No pre-booking is necessary.
It can help to...
Wear comfortable clothes to move in, layers can work well.
Dance barefoot or in soft soled indoor shoes
Bring water to drink
Peter Griffiths Hall is round the back of the Freshfield Village Hall. It’s on the ‘Island’ between Tesco’s garage and Lloyds Chemist, it is in the centre of Forest Row with parking in the surrounding area.
Any questions, comments or responses please do contact me.
5Rhythms
What is a 5Rhythms class? 5Rhythms is a simple, powerful movement practice, a dynamic movement meditation. The Rhythms are: Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness. They are danced in sequence in what is called ‘The Wave’.
Gabrielle Roth formed the 5Rhythms after many years of working with people in dance movement. She saw that often people were more comfortable in one or two rhythms and yet if we are able to move through all five we are able to change patterns in our dance that can also echo changes in our lives.
With its roots in Shamanic traditions, the 5Rhythms is an open form, it is not choreographed, instead we improvise our own dance within the structure of each of the Rhythms. In movement, we explore the fluidity of Flowing, the focus of Staccato, the release of Chaos, the light of Lyrical and the emptyness of Stillness.
“There is a dance only you can do, that exists only in you, here and now, always changing, always true. Are you willing to listen with fascination? If you are, it will deliver you unto the self you have always dreamed you could be. This is a promise.” Gabrielle Roth
Saturday Night Sweat - 5Rhythms in Forest Row
Saturday Night Sweat is a guided 5Rhythms Wave, beginners and experienced movers welcome alike. Come and spread your wings in the huge and lovely gym at Michael Hall School. Great floor, great acoustics and lots of space. Parking is also plentiful.
When? 1st Saturday of the Month, every month, 7.30–9.30pm. Arrive from 7.15 to warm up, we keep the doors open until 7.45 pm.
Venue: The Gym, Michael Hall Steiner School, Priory Road Forest Row , East Sussex , RH18 5JA
Cost:
Concession: £14 + £1.87 booking fee = £15.87
Standard Reduced: £17 + £2.12 booking fee = £19.12
Standard: 20 + £2.23 booking fee = £22.38
It can help to...
Wear comfortable clothes to move in, layers can work well.
Dance barefoot or in soft-soled indoor shoes
Bring water to drink
This venue is wheelchair accessible.
Any questions, comments or responses please do contact me or email the organiser Beam
Supervision for Open Floor Teachers
I offer online supervision sessions for Open Floor teachers to be supported in your teaching, with time and space to articulate and unpack issues that inevitably arise. I offer a supportive environment to look at concerns around building your practice and further establish yourself as an Open Floor teacher, for example with:
Issues that occur in the dynamics with your dancers
The specific ways you teach the Open Floor curriculum
Your personal journey as a teacher, in a leadership role with visibility and vulnerability
Why with me (Sarah Davies)?
I have a diploma in Gestalt Psychotherapy; I am currently studying for full UKCP accreditation and MA at the Gestalt Centre in London.
I have been on the Open Floor Training Faculty 2021-2024, with experience as a mentor and supervisor. I’m a founding member and was a working member of Open Floor for 12 years, I have continued up-to-date knowledge of OFI and the curriculum.
I have taught conscious dance (5Rhythms & Open Floor) extensively since 2008. I have co-taught for many years, inherited other groups and have working experience of the ups and downs of starting a group and growing it to a thriving prosperous community of dancers.
I continue to have my own regular supervision, that I have had for years, I know the power of being supported in supervision
I aim to support you to enjoy joyful productivity, develop your practice, and thrive in your work.
1 hour @ £70.00
Gestalt Psychotherapy
I am a registered United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) Trainee psychotherapist currently studying towards an MA and full UKCP accreditation as a Gestalt Psychotherapist at the Gestalt Centre (the academic work awarded by London Metropolitan University). This not only focuses on working with individuals but also with groups. I currently work with clients at the Hospice in the Weald. I work with an understanding that raising awareness, with support, leads to change.
Gestalt is a highly positive and practical integrative therapeutic approach. Broadly, Gestalt practitioners help people to focus on their immediate thoughts, feelings and behaviour and to better understand the way they relate to others. This increased awareness can help people to find a new perspective, see the bigger picture and start to effect changes.
2021–2022: Diploma in Professional Development (Year 1)
2022–2023: Postgraduate Certificate in Gestalt Therapy (Year 2)
2023–2024: Postgraduate Diploma in Gestalt Psychotherapy (Year 3)
Embodiment Coaching
This might be for you if you would like:
To feel more comfort in your body
Increased confidence
Tools to reduce stress
Increased familiarity with your feelings
The sessions are a mixture of talking, enquiry and movement, both in a chair and moving in the space. I primarily use the Open Floor framework, the difference with individual sessions to group sessions is that the Individual sessions are tailor made for you, led by your focus and the area you want to explore.
I offer both in-person and online sessions. The in-person sessions are in Forest Row, East Sussex.
Embodiment is the practice of noticing the nuances of our feelings and tracking the shifting internal landscape. When we practice noticing our sensations we can come more into connection with ourselves, we have more of our selves available to us, we can improve the relationship we have with ourselves, and others.
Our bodies are intricately connected with our thoughts and feelings yet often there is a splitting off. Often we are thinking one thing and doing another, or we cover or alter our physical response to fit in or to stay safe. Sometimes we just don’t feel anything, or have no awareness of our feelings. In this work we give extra attention to your connection with your body.
Presence is a state that many of us yearn for, a state of alignment, when our bodies, hearts, mind and soul are in synch. When we turn our attention to how we are physically it can unlock our feelings and thoughts and allow us to be present. Our playfulness and creativity can come to the fore, we learn to trust our bodies more, to heed our own wisdom.
There are ten ‘Core Movement Resources’ that we utilise in Open Floor: Activate & Settle, Centre, Dissolve, Expand & Contract, Ground, Pause, Release, Spatial Awareness, Towards & Away and Vector. I shall draw on these to support you and to be a resource for you.