Writing my own story

Here I am
writing my own story.

5 year have passed since my arrival in Belgium from my previous journey. One that started with glandular fever, that gave me the space to do NOTHING for the first time ever in my prestige driven rollercoaster life. A journey in which I ended up participating ancient dance ceremonies in several cultures. A journey in which I learned to connect with my body, with others and with the elements of nature.

Back home, the only way to share my experiences was in the way we used to do that a long time ago: embodied. The ‘5Elements Dance’ method appeared to be a great carrier for a diverse range of experiences: breathing deeply, connecting to your own body, making eye contact, exploring touch and expression of boundaries, unleashing the wild and playful inner animals,… Bringing my family and friends together in this dance, touched everyone deeply.

I was living in a tribe, a community, in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and in the nomadic-burners-rainbow tribe of New Zealand wherein I felt so ‘home’. People that live embodied, conscious, that craft their own life. A mixture of the tribal life with the stimulation of expressing who you are and bringing your unique gift. Phones weren’t needed, we could just walk up to others hut or tent. Coming back to Belgium was REALLY hard. I missed the flow, time with my tribe (everyone is so busy!), the wild nature and expressing my own wild nature.

Luckily, the city of Ghent did something really cool that time: the old library became a creative laboratory with on each floor another art/purpose. A meeting place of artists and entrepreneurs. There, on “De Vloer” (the dancefloor) I facilitated my first 5Elements Dance sessions and women circles. It was like lightning a bulb and the most colorful butterflies, conscious and curious creatures came. It was a time of weaving a web, the birth of a ‘kula’, a tribe. And the birth of my organization Kula Dance.

At Psy-Fi Festival

During 5 years I dived deeper and deeper into my body, history and patterns through studying Dance/Movement Therapy at AgapeBelgium. Deeper into my female body and cycle, offering women circles, Wild Woman Awakening Series, retreats and the ritual theatre ‘Inanna’s Rising’ with Mystery Pact.

Mystery Pact

Deeper into connecting in a save and conscious way, offering wheel of consent and cuddle workshops (‘WombSpace‘) and being consent lead at festivals. Deeper into our pre-roman culture and the land, learning ancient druid techniques at Ahawa and ‘the art of mentoring & coyote teaching’, a way to live as a nature-connected community. I learned that nothing is lost, the raw material (nature) is still here. Deeper into the realm of myths, archetypes, dreams, the individual and the collective unconscious, facilitating Authentic Movement and ‘embodied dreamwork‘.

Ⓒ Cindel D’hooge. Costumes: Wendy Brugman

I feel blessed with all the opportunities I created and took to share my Kula Dance ceremonies in companies, communities and at festivals in Europe and the USA. Grateful for all the people that have co-created with me: Jeroen, Sanne, Eva, Paya, Harald, the women of Mystery Pact and many more. Grateful for the warm tribe in which I feel so welcome and held. I am proud that I graduated as a Dance/Movement Therapist and wrote my thesis about the important link between dance/movement therapy, trauma and dreamwork. After nestling in the Corona times with my partner and an intimate group of friends, I feel now the need to open myself, my heart and my world again. It is time for a new journey! A journey in which I wish to sink deeper into my body, in the here and now.

So here I am
writing my own story.
And there are you
reading me 🙂