day 1 - Sunday, 3 November 2019
Join us for our launch…
the big room cic invites us to draw
[disentangle and sort] the threads of generations gone, and yet to come, to explore: “the community we were, the communities we are, and the community we need to become…” In this our opening event we are delighted to have Laura Shannon and Kostantis Kourmadias share their experience of community based on sustainability, shared leadership, mutual support, creativity and peacefulness through the example of Greek and Balkan traditional circle dance and folk music.
About Laura & Kostantis Laura Shannon: In 2018 Laura was chosen as an Honorary Lifetime Member of the Sacred Dance Guild in recognition of her ‘significant and lasting contribution to dance as a sacred art’. Her articles and essays on women’s ritual dances have appeared in numerous publications, including Re-Enchanting the Academy, Dancing on the Earth: Women’s Stories of Healing Through Dance, She Rises! Vol. 2, Inanna’s Ascent, Revisioning Medusa, and Spiritual Herstories - Call of the Soul in Dance Research. Laura is the Founding Director of the non-profit Athena Institute for Women’s Dance and Culture. She lives in Canterbury, Greece, and the Findhorn community in Scotland. Laura has been researching and teaching traditional women’s ritual dances since 1987, and is considered one of the ‘grandmothers’ of the worldwide Sacred/Circle Dance movement. She trained in intercultural Studies (1986) and Dance Movement Therapy (1990), and is currently pursuing postgraduate studies in Myth, Cosmology, and the Sacred at Canterbury Christ Church University in England. Her primary research in Balkan and Greek villages seeks out songs, dances, rituals and textile patterns which descend from the cultures of Neolithic Old Europe and she teaches these dances all over the world. Kostantis Kourmadias is a virtuoso of the violin and saz, specialising in music of the Greek islands and Asia Minor, where his grandparents were born. He teaches Byzantine music at the Ilion music school in Athens, and travels widely to accompany Laura Shannon’s seminars. The Details The event starts at 9.30am and finishes at 5pm. There is an optional meditative evening concert from 7pm until 8.30pm. Contributions welcome If you would like to make a contribution to the big room before, during or after the event please contact us. To contact us: 07779 727123 e: [email protected] |
"For... communities, and nations to succeed today and survive tomorrow, they must be deeply democratic – that is, everyone and every feeling must be represented. “ 
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