Ellen Kennedy founded the Newburyport Sacred Circle Dance Community in 1995 and has taught locally for over 30 years at community dance circles, celebrations, mindfulness meditation trainings, Kindermusic, Nock Middle School, River Valley Charter School, Northern Essex Community College and Salem State University. She was the founder and past director of the MT Holyoke College Sacred Circle Dance Troupe. Ellen developed, organized and led SCD workshops, trainings, events and retreats in US, Mexico, Findhorn Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, S. Korea, Cuba, Israel and occasionally leads pilgrimages to holy and wild places.

Ellen began her love affair with dance at five, studying ballet and modern jazz throughout her teens and occasionally as an adult. She discovered Sacred/Circle Dance in1989 and it ignited a slumbering dream to teach.  She traveled to the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland for a five week teacher training with the late Anna Barton co-founder of the Sacred Dance community and Peter Valance department focalizer, receiving her certificate to teach Sacred Dance in the Findhorn Tradition in 1999.

The Sacred Circle Dance Community was founded in 1976 by German Dance Master Bernhard Wosien in collaboration with the Findhorn Community, Scotland. www.findhornfoundation.org

She completed a two year Women’s Ritual Training program with Laura Shannon considered one of the grandmothers of the circle dance movement. https://laurashannon.net

She attended a workshop, retreat and teacher intensive with June Watts a leading figure in the Sacred Circle dance movement. http://www.junewatts.com

She also studied as a protector of the 21 Dances of Tara with Prema Dasara; Founder, Spiritual & Creative Director of Tara Dhatu, and creator of the Mandala of 21 Praises of Tara. https://taradhatu.org

Ellen collaborates closely with her teacher and mentor Janet Rowan Scott, co-founder of the original Sacred Dance community at Findhorn.

As an International Peace Activist, she has led Sacred/Circle dances for peace and solidarity from Occupy Boston to the Syrian Border, the edge of the Dead Sea and Jerusalem; from the US Naval Base in S. Korea to the holy island of Iona, Scotland; from the Imagine Peace Tower of Reykjavik, Iceland to the John Lennon Peace Park in Havana, Cuba.

A student of Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox and Creation Spirituality for the past 30 years, she is on the faculty as a Creation Spirituality Artist and serves as a Creative Consultant to the Matthew Fox Legacy Project. Ellen designed and leads: Art as Meditation; Dancing the Four Paths of Creation Spiritualty and led 500 people in the Spiral Dance for the Cosmic Mass at the Parliament of World Religions with Rev. Dr. Mathew Fox.

www.dailymeditationswithmatthewfox.org

Ellen lives in Newbury, retired from a career in advertising and marketing, delights in play dates with her eight grandchildren and welcomes this opportunity to teach at Roots to Wings.