18/04/2026
My testimonial :Society often dictates what the “right body” should look like—shaped by cultural, historical, and media-driven ideals. In Western culture especially, there is a strong glorification of the “thin ideal” or the “muscular ideal,” as though the body must fit a narrow aesthetic in order to be seen, valued, or expressive.
I often internalised this. I often felt I had to compensate for not having the kind of body that was represented in dance. I believed the body was something to be shaped and refined—an external form that needed to match an internal sense of self, while also meeting the expectations of social norms.
When I first came to dance the 5Rhythms, I carried that conditioning with me. I pushed, I overworked, I tried to mould myself into something that looked like a dancer. I believed I had to earn my place through effort, rather than simply arriving as I was.
But over time, the practice began to shift something fundamental in me. The map didn’t ask me to become someone else—it asked me to listen. To feel. To trust what was already present.
I began to drop into my body in a new way—into my feet, into my weight, into the intelligence of my own physicality. What I had once resisted—my groundedness, my tendency to build strength and density—became a place of belonging rather than limitation.
I also became aware of how much I was holding. The tightness, the striving, the constant effort to be different. And through movement, there were moments where that grip softened—where control gave way, and something more honest began to move through me.
Lyrical was the most challenging rhythm for me. It invited lightness, air, and ease—qualities I didn’t recognise in myself. I thought I had to leave my body behind to find them. But slowly, I discovered something much more profound: lightness doesn’t come from escaping the body, but from softening within it, from allowing space to open inside what is already there.
My first fantastic 5rhythms teacher was from zurich Europe 25 years ago now He was the first to truly see this in me. During a7 day workshop I met my body as if it held limitless potential—not something to fix, but something already whole. Through his presence and guidance, I stopped dancing against myself and began to move with what was real.
In that shift, I found a freedom I had never known before. Not by becoming lighter, but by allowing lightness to live within my strength. My body became something I could travel through, rather than something I had to correct—a landscape of weight and breath, grounding and expansion, effort dissolving into expression.
Now, when I move, I no longer try to compensate or perform. I listen. I follow. I allow. And in doing so, I experience a freedom that feels both deeply rooted and infinitely spacious. Love
Suzie 5 rhythms accredited teacher
