Rachel Wajiha Butler, Post Graduate Diploma in Dance Movement Psychotherapy, BVM&S
For over a decade I have been teaching and sharing my passion for dance as a healing and empowering tool. I discovered my love for dance whilst training to be a vet at Edinburgh Univeristy. I followed my heart to learn from the most wonderful dance teachers from around the world and my heart became rich with dances from North ,West, East and Central Africa and The African Diaspora .
I travelled to the Ivory Coast (2002) and The Gambia(2003) to deepen my knowledege of African dance . I discovered and explored creative , improvised movement forms, including contact improvisation, five rythmes dance, authentic movement, shamanic dance, somatic wellbeing and yoga.
I trained as a Community Dance Leader at Poole College of Arts, UK in 2002 and qualified as a Dance Movement Pyschotherapist in 2005 from The University of Roehampton,UK. I have worked as a Carnival Dance Artist in schools and community centres in Oxford, as a community dance artist with adults,children and families in Oxfordshire, and as a dance therapist with adults and children with learning disabilities and adults experiencing emotional and mental distress, in the UK.
My work,studies and explorations of dance have led me to develop my own unique style of healing dance, focusing on empowering and healing the feminine, through traditional African dance and dance thearpy , incorporating other movement forms that I have studied!
I reside in the South of France where I contine to share my passion for dance and creativity.
I would like to thank the following peolpe for being the most amazing and inspiring teachers whom I have had the priveledge to learn from on my journey of dance: Alison Orr, Gaspard Zamble of the Cote d'Ivoire National Ballet, Mandinga Arts, Anita Daulne of Zap Mamma, Olu Taiwo, Bode Lawal Of Sakoba Dance, Professor Miranda Tuffnell and Honi Borden.