David Ellis
When I found myself on a 5 Rhythms® dance floor for the first time it was a profound and euphoric experience of coming home. Since then, I have danced and danced and immersed myself in study of a practice I fell in love with and have been transformed by time and time again. My passion for the practice led, via many wonderful teachers, to the teacher training with its creator Gabrielle Roth, which I undertook in 2007-8.
I taught my own regular weekly class and a workshop in Cambridge as well as a collective class with movement teachers from London and further afield. I have also taught as part of the Rhythm Brothers men’s dance collective in London. I am delighted to join the Totnes Dance Collective after a break following the arrival of our second child.
For years I co-organised a group called ‘Cambsdance’ in Cambridge and we put together programmes of conscious dance and movement events with teachers from the UK and further afield.
For most of my working life outside the conscious dance world, I have been engaged in environmental work. This began as anthropological and environmental research with indigenous peoples and on rainforest conservation. It then moved into environmental policy research and political lobbying on environmental issues. I managed a project which administered grants to environmental groups in rainforest countries to strengthen forest protection laws in their countries. I co-founded Transition Cambridge as part of the Transition Towns movement. I worked for many years to bring an eco-housing project to fruition. I have studied permaculture and have planted many trees along the way. I believe passionately in taking practical action to restore the earth.
I have undertaken trainings in holding ceremony and spiritual counselling and I have an active interest in shamanic practice.
"Three of my main passions are movement, meditation and music. The 5Rhythms® practice brings these together in an embodied and completely compelling way. It fills me with joy to witness the beauty of people getting really present with themselves and dancing their own unique dance. Each person’s dance is such a positive offering in the world." David
