About me
"As I prepare to teach today I sit with a rather humbling question: why do I dance the 5Rhythyms®? Slowly, I am reminded how, through this practice, I have been able to awaken the perceptive skills of feeling and sensing - never stopping to call myself back home, that place which helps invigorate my experiences.
'I grew up in an intellectual and, as Gabrielle Roth - the creator of the 5Rhythms® - would say, normally dysfunctional neurotic Western / post communist family, that lead me to hide my deep yearning for soulful and artistic expression. As a child, very emotional and sensitive, I hit adolescence feeling lost, with an innate need to search for authenticity and justice, in relationships, the world and religion. With a rather insecure sense of self I was not accessing my potential, I followed family traces. I started to study Food and Cosmetics Chemistry at a Polytechnic in Lodz, the city I grew up in. It was easy as I inherited some natural talent from my family, yet deeply unfulfilling. I met the 5Rhythms® at the age of nineteen, towards the end of the first year of my study. I carry gratitude for my boyfriend at the time, who bought me the ticket. It was the first ever 5Rhythms® workshop in Poland. I still remember the moment I entered the dance floor. The sense of being at home struck me immensely. This particular workshop touched parts of me that were just waiting to be expressed. I felt an overpowering sense of freedom, it is like I met myself for the first time. Somewhere there I knew already that’s what I want to do. At that time I wasn’t aware yet how the 5Rhythms® would change my life. The healing journey started then.
Since that memorable workshop, the passion, aliveness that hadn’t been embodied in my life started calling me, sometimes unexpectly, in different directions. I did things beyond my rational mind and at times one would think impossible to achieve. I started following my heart. I changed study to Pedagogy of Health (specialization creative arts) and was studying Alternative Psychology at the same time I wrote thesis about Therapeutic quality of the dance (marked with distinction). There was not many 5Rhythms happening then and I had no financial background to travel the world. In many synchronities, just after completing my BA and graduating from Dyploma in Psychology in 2003 I was invited to the UK, where I would totally surrender to the dance. I found myself in the strange, and rather huge, city of London, without being able to speak the language and knowing no one - but I had the dance. It was also when I met Gabrielle Roth for the first time. Right then I knew that I wanted to be a 5Rhythms Teacher.
The call of my heart was loud. I left my studies and established a long term relationship and moved to London. Now I know that I needed to go through much more healing before I could step into holding others.
Driven by a great passion I learned English very quickly and started to work as a personal trainer. It was not until, around, 2006 that I hit a crisis. I found myself exhausted on a physical and emotional level, and that overlapped with a deep heartbreak. I was depressed. I questioned literally everything, including the 5Rhythms. I needed to slow down. I started working with people with learning disabilities through art and dance therapy and took up Gestalt psychotherapy, as well as oil painting. I took my doubts and deeply personal and existential wonders to the dance from a new angle: the floor. It was also the time I started reconnecting with my womb and femininity on a much deeper level. As difficult that journey was I made it through. I started working with groups using art and movement as a medium of self expression; as a member of the Polish Psychology Association I initiated the Academy Of Women and then supported a project for east European women, sponsored by the National Lottery. Disorganized as I felt, I started re-finding my love to the the 5Rhythms®. My relationship to the Rhythms matured and I finally completed my training in 2011, and recently took the practice to the Heartbeat™ level.
At present, I hold 5Rhythms® groups and classes as well as workshops (Waves and Heartbeat™ level) across UK and abroad; I offer one to one 5Rhythms® sessions, as well as personal counselling. I am passionate about my women’s 5Rhythms® closed group, Wisdom Of The Womb and the community it has created."
Katarzyna, Certificated 5Rhythms® Teacher Heartbeat level was born in Poland, She has been dancing and practicing the 5Rhythms® for twenty five years now. She has degree (BA hon.)in Pedagogy of Health with specialisation in Creative Arts Therapy as well as Diploma of Academy of Alternative Psychology. She is a member of Polish Psychologists Association, teaches 5Rhythms® in London and abroad as well as works as an art/dance therapist. She is passionate about art and uses oil painting for her self expression.