Circle Dance exploded into my life in 1982. It was then known as Sacred Dance. The thread of the Dance that I took hold of that May afternoon at Hawkwood College in Stroud, led me to the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, where the Dance originated. I took all the Sacred Dance courses available there, culminating in the training for would-be teachers.

Having established a fortnightly group near Stroud, I then trained for three weeks in Holland on an intensive with Friedl Kocke-Eibl, who had trained with Bernard Wosien, the Master who brought the gift of the Dance to Findhorn in the mid ‘70s. I had the privilege of dancing with him the last time he visited Findhorn before his death - a peak experience in my life!

In the following years I gave more and more of my time to Circle Dance, until it was a full-time occupation. I have felt strong guidance in all of this and knew very early on that if I committed to this work I would be ‘looked after’ and that has been so – my life has been, and still is, sustained physically as well as spiritually by the Dance!

Over the years I have run many regular groups in Gloucestershire, England, and in Glastonbury, as well as giving danceshops in France, Greece, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Canada, the States, Iceland and Britain also introductory training courses for people wishing to teach the Dance.

My background is the professional theatre. After training at the Bristol Old Vic Drama School, I had wide experience in repertory theatre, T.V. and films, culminating in two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-on-Avon, London, and on tour in the States, Japan and Australia. In my time with them I played Bianca in ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, Phoebe in ‘As you Like it’, and had six exciting months as part of their small touring unit performing in schools, colleges, Arts Centres etc. with direct audience contact and participation.

Later, when my children were small, I trained in Natural Beauty Therapy and Massage and practised both in salons and privately at home, as well as running Higher Education classes at Stratford-on-Avon College, in Personal Care, Social skills, and lecturing in Advanced Level Theatre studies which included practical drama work and production.

I have brought together two of my passions in the danceshops that I now lead combining Dance and Drama, and have recently obtained a Certificate in Dramatherapy, which will focus and intensify the therapeutic qualities of these danceshops.

My danceshops usually have a theme. I have always enjoyed exploring the ‘marriage’ of other disciplines with the Dance, for example Yoga and Circle Dance, feeling that both are enriched by this partnership. I have also linked the Dance with Myth, Story telling, Drama, Shiatsu, Psychosynthesis, Runes, and Dream work etc., sometimes with another facilitator, sometimes on my own. I also enjoy allowing a theme to emerge from the danceshop, rather than setting one up beforehand. This evolves as the dancing and the group energy evolves, and will frequently come from the times of sharing within the circle.

My particular focus is the relationship of the human with the natural world, and the re-awakening to the sentient beings of the Earth - the devas, angels, fairies - and how to work in harmony with them. I journey consciously with the cycle of the seasons and the eight festivals of the year;- with the four sun stations of the Summer and Winter Solstices and the Spring and Autumn Equinoces, and the four cross quarter days, the reflective Earth/Moon festivals - Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain. Whatever the occasion - be it a danceshop, or a regular evening group, the dancing will always have this awareness - of the cycles of the Earth, Moon and Sun, and of the world of Faerie.

For an eight year period from ’86 - ’93, I co-ordinated a network linking dancing circles in many parts of the world. At each of the eight festivals, during those years, I sent out a letter with information on the traditions and history, a relevant dance for the circles to dance at the same time, and some place on the Earth for the energy to be focused. In these letters I wrote also of my own personal experience working with these turning points of the year’s cycle, of how the outer and inner realities reflected each other, and how they guide me on a journey, taking me each year into an ever deeper understanding of myself. This is now available as a book, for more information go to Books by June Watts.