a new way to move.

connect with your inner animal - release new ways of thinking and feeling

I also run classes in person on request for retreats, events and festivals. Please drop me an email to discuss your group requirements

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I also run classes in person on request for retreats, events and festivals. Please drop me an email to discuss your group requirements ⋆

“I had no inkling that it would be such an unexpectedly beautiful, moving, wild and freeing experience…I don’t think I’ve ever let go like that in my whole life”

— SR, 2022

Are you ready to try something new?

These open-for-all classes are designed for anyone who is curious about the wild animal within, and are particularly well-suited to movers who are new to creative movement, or feel apprehensive about movement in groups.

Next class: Dance the Crane

Thurs. Feb 15th - Online

6.30 - 7.45pm GMT+0 (UK) - £15

Every month we explore a different animal. In the first seasons we explored native British wildlife, and now we’re moving into Europe inspired by my autumn travels.

Please purchase mindfully as I do not offer refunds for this class.

“Other animals, in a constant and mostly unmediated relation with their surroundings, think with the whole of their bodies”

— David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Ecology

In this creative/free movement class we will dance different animals by exploring through intentional (conscious) and facilitated movement prompts (it doesn’t have to look like a dance - life is a dance!) the animate, soulful and embodied life of our beautiful native wildlife, and our own inner animal.

We will meet our animal guide, and connect with the physicality of the animal we’re working with, and you will be invited to consider the symbolic realm and take your embodied enquiry a little deeper. Each session is entirely facilitated, but I always hold plenty of silence and space for you to bring (and take) what you need. It is not my intention to teach, only to invite you into a conversation and relationship with yourself and the more than human world, trusting you will find what’s necessary.

These are open-for-all classes designed for anyone who is curious about the wild animal within, and are particularly well-suited to movers who are new to creative movement, or feel apprehensive about movement in groups. You do not have to flexible, fit or a particular type of body. The class follows a set structure, which makes use of cameras on (intro & close) and cameras off (during movement) to help you build confidence, whilst still benefiting from community connection. In previous workshops this has been one of the most successful aspects of running this online, where you are free to explore within your own limits of comfort and safety. This is a chance to connect with yourself and the ensouled world that lives in our own imagination, psyche and the space between what is known and unknown to us.

Just a few therapeutic reasons to come to an online, camera’s off, Animal Movement Class:

  • To help you begin a new conversation with your self/body – an essential in the ‘healing journey’

  • To immerse yourself in the power of imagination

  • To build mindful awareness of your feelings which helps you build a secure relationship with yourself (especially important if secure relationships are few and far between)

  • To develop your self-expression, which is awesome for shame, anxiety, depression, trauma etc.

  • To learn skills of presence to yourself

  • To be playful and curious and open which are all self-skills needed in overcoming anxiety, shame etc.

  • Getting yourself out of a frozen, stuck state and into flow – releasing resistance, reducing dissociation

  • Moving our bodies to a rhythm develops coherence and calming

  • Learn to modulate between thinking and feeling – interweaving the two for power!

“You create the most beautiful online spaces for us! How?”

— SP, 2022

Previous Classes

DANCE THE VULTURE

THURS 18th JAN SOLD OUT

DANCE THE OCTOPUS

WEDNS 26th JULY SOLD OUT

DANCE THE DRAGONFLY

WEDNS 28th JUNE SOLD OUT

DANCE THE SWALLOW

THURS 25th MAY SOLD OUT

DANCE THE HARE

THURS 23RD MAR SOLD OUT

DANCE THE WOLF

THURS 23RD FEB SOLD OUT

DANCE THE OWL

WEDN 11TH JAN SOLD OUT

DANCE THE BEAR

THURS 8TH DEC SOLD OUT

DANCE THE CAT

WEDN 9TH NOV SOLD OUT

DANCE THE SALMON

WEDN 12TH OCT SOLD OUT

DANCE THE FIRE (SPECIAL)

TUES 6TH SEPT SOLD OUT

DANCE THE OTTER

THUR 12TH MAY SOLD OUT

DANCE THE EAGLE

WEDN 3RD AUGUST SOLD OUT

DANCE THE BLACKBIRD

TUES APR 12TH SOLD OUT

DANCE THE HORSE

TUES 5TH JULY SOLD OUT

DANCE THE ADDER

THUR MAR 17TH SOLD OUT

“Animal Body Classes? Sounds a bit out there? Agreed. But! Give it a go and experience this unique combination of creative movement paired with depth psychology. Let yourself be guided to new places within yourself by experienced and highly intuitive therapist Ruth Allen - it’s magical.”

— CM, 2022

a few Qs

My classes and workshops draw on depth psychology, contemporary animism, embodied psychotherapy, somatic education and authentic movement, to name just a handful of influences. I am also influenced and inspired by the curriculum of Open Floor Org. My approach is always pragmatic and grounded, but also spiritual and ecologically conscious. These classes will suit other people who sit between interests and disciplines, who identify as curious and soulful, and who adore the nature world and all of her gifts.

  • For these classes you just need to bring yourself in comfortable clothes, a yoga mat or similar to soften the ground for your lovely body and notepaper/journal/pens/pencils for processing what you have discovered along the way. We always, always have time for processing and self-reflection at the end before closing, This is not shared but for you to make private and personal connections and learnings. I will email you before class with any further instructions.

  • In all my workshops we take time to give gratitude to the more-than-human life that offers us its wisdom to our bodies and our imaginations. I encourage you to remember that every animal has its own life, it’s own story, it’s own right to be in the world as itself. We do not seek to utilise but to relate.

  • These sessions are not recorded, to preserve the integrity of the session and its participants.

  • I cannot offer refunds so please purchase mindfully. You are welcome to give your ticket to someone else if you cannot make the class, just let me know who to look out for.