Clíona O’Conaill

To summarise: I’ve been a qualified counsellor since 2010 and facilitating and teaching conscious dances since 2012. I qualified as a somatic, spiritual therapist and an Open Floor teacher in the summer of 2017. My love affair with conscious dance began in London in May 2001 in London. From my first class I was hooked. I finally found somewhere I could be myself and discover my true self. 5Rhythms opened up a whole new world opened up to me, here were people like me who were real and genuine, who also used dance as a spiritual practice and to unravel the layers of armour we wear to shield ourselves from the world. I felt I’d finally come home. Back then I had no idea that conscious dance would be a catalyst that propelled me into a voyage of self-discovery and spiritual awakening that is still ongoing….I moved to Devon in 2006, primarily to train with Suzanna and Ya’Acov Darling Khan, then members of the 5Rhythms core teaching team. In Devon I began dancing with Jo Hardy and training as a counsellor. I also began travelling around Europe, dancing with international core team of 5Rhythms dance teachers: Andrea Juhan, Kathy Altman and Lori Saltzman and Jonathan Horan. In the most intense 5Rhythms workshop I’ve ever done 12 days of Mirrors, Jonathan Horan finally found the “On” button and when I came back to England I’d stopped procrastinating and finally started teaching Earth Beats, a conscious dance to honour the earth in 2012. When Gabrielle died it felt right to continue training with the same international teachers I trusted. There were so many conscious dance teachers around Totnes, in Devon I moved to Stroud in 2016 and I qualified as an Open Floor dance teacher in 2017. It felt incredible to realise this dream of 16 years and the begin teaching professionally. I left England on a spiritual pilgrimage in December 2019, on sabbatical from Earth Beats on to find my new life as I’d been guided. Now I’m further along the path to awakening, writing, offering spiritual guidance and healing and teaching Open Floor online dance with a more meditative element from Sardinina in Italy. For more info please see my website: www.earthbeats.co.uk