5Rhythms® Dance with Bernadette Ryder
Workshop feedback / reviews
We can tell you a lot about our intentions and practical provision but, if you’re wondering whether to book for any or all of our forthcoming workshops, there’s no substitute for feedback from participants to tell you what it was like last time.
Beyond the extraordinary power of the work itself, many people also find a connection with the land, and a depth of experience of community with other participants in workshops, that is hugely reconnecting and healing.
So, with gratitude to all who shared – and gave us permission to share it with you – here is some of the feedback we received after Rhossili workshops:
Rhossili Residentials – booking now
Gower Coast, South Wales:
find out more:
Elemental Rhythms 2024:
Earth: April 18-21
Fire: June 27-30
Water: Sept 19-22
Air: Nov 7-10
(bookable individually or as a series)
Cycles with Tammy Burstein
Bristol, Residential
April 9-13, 2025
Receive details on launch
To find out as soon as anything is launched, why not join our mailing list?
In the rugged and beautiful landscape of Rhossili we journey together into the depths of our beings. Bernadette and the team guided us there with gentleness and a responsive intuition that allowed us to journey deeply and smoothly. She held the retreat with such spaciousness that there was always a sense of ease and comfort and the experience never felt harsh or forced and yet I left feeling like I had shed some layers, released some old patterns and touched into a deeper more restful place inside myself. We bonded together as a group in such a nourishing and secure way that this allowed us to dive deep into ourselves knowing we were held in safe connection.
The way Bernadette led us in the dance allowed me to finder greater ease and softness in my movement and let go of the pushing and striving. The setting of the retreat, the nearby beaches and incredible landscape became part of the elemental experience fostering not only a sense of connection to ourselves, to each other but also to the earth and nature. All this along with the healthy and delicious food and gorgeous music meant I left feeling renewed, moved and inspired.
I got so much more from this workshop than I could have ever expected. Under the guidance of Bernadette and with the support of a lovely group of fellow dancers, I ventured deep within myself to discover places in need of healing that I never even knew were there . This has been a great stepping stone for me, both on my healing journey as a whole and on my venture deeper into the dance. The whole thing was meticulously organised and held, I could not find any other word to describe it other than ‘perfect’.
Talk about the experience of The Deepening taking me to nurturing pastures new. Wow wow wee, I feel like I’ve got a new pair of glasses that has given me the capacity to see, me, the world and my fellow travellers with new and curious sparkle. I feel connected, supported and blessed by the experience. Simply delicious!!
This has been an exceptional workshop. The week has been, on so many levels, a gift. Bernadette’s experience and generosity as a facilitator, her skill and capacity to hold space for a whole group whilst having a particular sensitivity to individuals as they work, is tremendous.
Although this was my first 5R residential, and she provided my first deep dive into the rhythms, exploring and explaining from first principles what they are, what they mean in the emotional and psychological body, and how to engage with them as tools for transformation. I now understand in a visceral way that all of life can be danced into being at the level of intention, and dancing into our unknowing opens us up to possibility. I feel this has been a pivotal event for me in beginning, finally, to learn how to really breathe.
The location too was in many ways magical – a lovely room for dancing, great food, excellent company, amazing weather and a beautiful location. I swam in the sea, and danced on the wet sand.
I returned home with a sense of surrender to flow, and of clarity – and the following Monday morning of the following week, I awoke from a dream in which I was dancing, to find that I was indeed still dancing…
Bernadette’s workshop should come with a warning label! While it was intensely enjoyable, it also took me to a place where deep healing occurred. Bernadette and her team hold a welcoming, safe and boundaried space, where the magic of the dance is allowed to unfold in all its amazing, unpredictable, healing expressions.
So well thought out, so well cared for and so well intuited. So gentle and so deep. So rich and so complete. So attentive and so spacious. So held and so liberating. Really hard to have a proper experience of all of this until you attend a workshop led by Bernadette. Impossible to put into words how perfect it was and that doesn’t even begin to go into the magic of the location, the landscape, the ocean the sunsets, the food and the togetherness.
A gift into deep insight and magically supported creativity- suffering and felt experience into art. Healing in its midst. Empowerment and Possibility in its aftermath.
What a beautiful retreat. First I want to acknowledge how well the retreat was held by Jon, the organiser. He took great care to welcome us in advance, and I felt held in the energy of the retreat before it even began. That is a rare thing even with good facilitators.
The retreat itself was beautiful woven. I felt met. Everything that Bernadette led us into felt authentic – it felt as if it came from her authentic practice. I particularly loved the sunrise gatherings, especially on the third morning when it felt so tender – I felt like we were the heart of the world. And by the end of the retreat, I felt complete… nothing was left dangling. I experienced Bernadette as a teacher who stands in her own authentic power and offers an invitation to others to do the same. Everything was carefully sculptured so that exercises built on each other and therefore felt fully integrated. She is the first 5Rs teacher I have encountered who uses writing in a way that felt integral to the process as opposed to a throwaway exercise. It felt like entering a carefully layered nest that felt safe at the same time as it was exhilarating.
Other thoughts. It was a great setting. I loved being so close to the coast – the ease of access was wonderful. I liked having your living room space as an additional meeting place… Eating together was great and the nice weather made… space for quiet if you felt like that…
Oh yes, and I loved the last day with a change up to the schedule. Walking to breakfast felt perfect and then time on the beach… and return for the closing circle also felt perfect – the level of sharing must have let you know how well it all went.
I hope you are able to get next year’s dates out soon – selfishly, I want to get them in my calendar before I get booked up…
I had a wonderful experience at Rhossili. I have to admit, that being quite introverted, I was very nervous at the outset, but as the days went on, I found myself drawn into a dynamic that had its own unique rhythm. Little by little, I got to hear stories, get to know people, share in some of the tragedies that have hit some of us and, in turn, give something of my own life story – and this is a rare thing to do, especially in such an empathetic, loving and supportive community, which is what we quickly became over those few days.
Then, the dance itself, which, at times, took on almost a mystical quality as we somehow, did indeed, delve deeper into the meditation that the 5 Rhythms nurtures; the writing/choreography [exercise], was, I think, one of the highlights, something that I had never done before and which was incredibly empowering and liberating at the same time. And another highlight – if I can be a bit frivolous – was the impromptu 80’s disco on the Saturday afternoon! When Bernadette played ‘I’m every woman’, well, I think the power of the female was unleashed in every single one of us there!! Will the genie ever go back into the bottle?!! And indeed, why should it?
Seriously, I’d like to thank you, Bernadette and the team, for what turned out to be a transformative process for me: I returned from the Gower feeling calm, energised and with a personal mantra that one of the workshops enabled me to discover, and which has been an important factor in every day of my life since coming back.
What I’d like to keep the same or more of….
- the spaciousness of the timing balanced with the clarity of start and end times
- the way you hold the opportunity to journal, helping us build on our thoughts in a meaningful way (most times we get told ‘write for 5 mins..’ and that’s it, which is unhelpful for me who struggles to get back to words after dancing)
- the consistency and regularity of the food – always on time!
- the support group was hugely helpful in feeling connected to other souls at vulnerable times and I loved how you weaved the support group into the [process]
- warm dance hall and lovely floor
- the lyrical sunday breakfast – what a lovely way to complete.
I felt blessed, grateful, joyful, painful, present and alive over the week in Rhossili. Most of all I felt safe in a way I rarely feel. Safe to begin dropping defences and layers that prevent me from revealing who I truly am rather than projecting how I want to be seen. This feeling of safety was present in every beat of the week, not just the holding on the dance floor: the nourishing food arriving on time and with just the right amount, the simplicity of the accommodation, the stunning location with a powerful connection to nature, rocks, sea, light, wind. I left on Sunday with my heart loving and vulnerable. Open to create and drop into a deeper authenticity with myself.
Rhossili Residentials – booking now
Gower Coast, South Wales:
find out more:
Elemental Rhythms 2024:
Earth: April 18-21
Fire: June 27-30
Water: Sept 19-22
Air: Nov 7-10
(bookable individually or as a series)
Cycles with Tammy Burstein
Bristol, Residential
April 9-13, 2025
Receive details on launch
To find out as soon as anything is launched, why not join our mailing list?
