Festival of Sacred Dance, Music and Song 2023
Join us for our annual festival of music and sacred dance. This week long celebration will be filled with workshops, dancing, musicians and dancers from all over the world.
Live music, dance and teaching
We are very much looking forward to you joining us in the Universal Hall for our lively annual festival of music and dance from traditions all around the world.
Alongside workshops with local and international teachers, evening sessions will have musicians playing for us to dance – dancing to live music is an essential part of the Festival experience.
From world-wide traditions
Expect an evening of traditional Greek, Balkan and Armenian dances with Laura Shannon and musicians; Barbara Swetina with Sacred Harmony Dances; a Scottish Ceilidh; and an evening with the O’Connell’s band and Peter Vallance.
The final programme will be confirmed soon. We are currently not planning to have any part of the Festival online but this may change. Find updates here.
Special guest: Chrisandra Harris
This year our special guest is Chrisandra Harris, who has been travelling along the old silk routes for over 35 years. With great respect and love for the communities she has visited, she shares their dances, music, stories and culture.
From this sharing we can learn much about our own experience of homeland, celebration, community, connection with the earth, inner spirituality and more.
Chrisandra has been teaching world circle and folk dance events since 1989, and has a wealth of experience from her travels about the culture, music and dances of many communities. She is an empowering teacher helping people find their dancing feet and dancing heart.
We are hoping to bring a group of musicians together to play live music for some of Chrisandra’s dances. Read more about Chrisandra.
Come and dance!
More Workshop Leaders and Musicians
Susanne Anders Bartholomäi
Susanne is a dance teacher who fuses Sacred Dance into DanceMeditation. She offers an approach to dance that deepens the awareness and the experience of the movement and helps to find authenticity in the dance.
Susanne aims to bring awareness into subtle levels of the body, the mind and the heart. She lives in the Findhorn Community.
Laura Shannon
Laura has travelled widely to research Greek and Balkan traditional dances and her teaching offers a deep experience of the sacred symbols these dances contain. We hope Laura’s musicians can travel with her from Greece.
Laura has been researching and teaching traditional folk dances for over 30 years, and is known worldwide for her pioneering work with women’s ritual dances. Weaving together Sacred Dance and Dance/Movement Therapy, Laura’s teaching seeks to reveal the hidden wisdom and healing energy that traditional dances contain.
She has published widely on Sacred Dance, produced numerous CDs, and in 2016 edited the book String of Pearls: Celebrating 40 Years of Sacred Dance in the Findhorn Community. Laura lives in Findhorn and in Greece.
Kate and Rory O'Connell
Kate and Rory were instrumental in bringing live music to sacred circle dance at the Findhorn Foundation from the early 80s. As talented and inspirational musicians they bring an immense joy and vivacity to everything they do.
The Festival Choir with Kate O’Connell is one of the groups providing music for the final night’s community dance and celebration.
Barbara Swetina
Barbara shares dances from different spiritual traditions that use mantras, sacred harmony chants and simple movements to honour the sacred in all life.
Barbara is a classically trained musician who has been the inspiration behind the devotional singing culture in Findhorn – Taize Singing – over many decades. She plays many instruments and loves to share songs and dances that create connection to Divine Essence.
Her CDs and songbooks have inspired song circles worldwide. Barbara is the author of The Music Train, a game that teaches how to read music.
Peter Vallance
Peter will be sharing his approach to traditional and choreographed dances and how he blends and grows them together to create a ‘dancing field’, within which transformation can occur.
Peter has been part of the Festival throughout its existence and teaches evenings of Scottish Ceilidh Dances and Dances with the O’Connells.
He contributes to other evenings and is an enthusiastic and humorous storyteller and teacher. Peter leads tours to Scottish Sacred Sites and is Artistic Director of the Universal Hall.
Findhorn Sacred Dance Teachers
Findhorn Sacred Dance Teachers will offer classes of traditional and choreographed dances, bringing both their individual approaches and the Findhorn way.
Your Stay
Prices for the Festival vary according to the accommodation you choose. They are per person and include the price of the workshop, accommodation and meals.
Single, shared bathroom: £1,050
Twin/Double, shared bathroom: £950
Non-residential (includes lunch and dinner): £655
A non-refundable booking fee of £250 is required with your booking.
We look forward to dancing with you!