Biographies

Below are links to Mala Sikka's biography, and to biographies of other practitioners who work closely with Mala.

Suprapto Suryadammo

A Javanese artist and teacher Suprapto Suryodarmo has, since childhood, studied different types of movement, including traditional Javanese dance and martial arts.

Suprapto Suryodarmo He studied Buddhist meditation (Vipassana) as well as the Javanese relaxation meditation (Sumarah) in response to his personal desire to explore nature and consciousness.

His teachers encouraged him to bring the same ethos to bear on all aspects of his movement work. Subsequently practicing and exploring alone for many years in all weathers and landscapes, he discovered the possibility for all nuances of the human condition to be expressed through movement.

Suprapto Suryodarmo This long and solo journey gives him great compassion and understanding in his teaching. Although its founder, Prapto does not see himself as the sole creator of this work but rather as a guide to an awareness that exists in its own right and is fundamentally 'The River of Life'. He serves its evolution and learns along with his students.

"This is the staring unsleeping eye of the world and what it watches is not our wars."

Tim Jones

Tim is a singer, performer, composer, teacher and workshop facilitator. He currently teaches at Goldsmiths College, London,(UK) and runs an extensive public workshop Programme.

He has pioneered a method of voice teaching, The Nature of Sound that draws on both his long study of South Indian music and Bhakti (devotion) spiritual traditions with K.R. Sivasankara Pannikar, Amerta Movement with Master Suprapto Suryodarmo, and his experience as a qualified Craniosacral Therapist.

The Nature of Sound invites inquiry into the rasa (often translated as juice, colour or flavour) of our lives experienced in each moment, and accessed through the simple acts of singing and moving. A sense of heart, beauty, embodied knowledge and humour is present in his teaching.

Tim has also had a lively performance life. He has composed for Indian classical dance, sung with Opera Factory and worked extensively as both singer and storyteller with the South Bank Gamelan Players. His commissioned solo show The Legend of St. Julian toured the U.K., Europe and India, and was adapted for television in India. He has toured programmes of South Indian classical music in the U.K. and Germany, together with programmes such as Bach, Dikshitar und Mehr that reflect his interest in the meetings of musical cultures. He is currently preparing to tour 'The Navagraha Kritis - Nine Planet Songs', new settings of the 19th century astrological song cycle by Muthuswamy Dikshitar.

In recent years his interest in inter-cultural dialogue has seen him develop Songworlds, process-oriented teaching/performance projects hosted in Bulgaria, Germany and Ireland, that look at the "resonant field" of individual and cultural memory through melody and song. Tim also co-hosts an annual international seminar in Italy, Sound, Dreams and New Thoughts exploring cultural roots and shared humanity through the accessing of the knowledge embedded in both dream and sound.

The leading British composer Judith Weir has called Tim's voice "a unique blend of virtuosity and human approachability".

Tim Jones - howjo@talktalk.net

http://www.jonsterckx.co.uk/tandj.html

Elizabeth St John

Co-founder of the Assoc for Therapeutic Healers (Affl Confederation Healing Org UK)

Elizabeth has over 25 years experience as an Etheric Healer, movement/mediation teacher and facilitator of healing training groups. She was one of the first people to pioneer a professional accreditation of Healer training in the UK. The diversity of clients and students she worked with has enabled her to evolve her own very contemporary approach to spiritual and Shamanistic healing: ‘The Healing Presence’. This approach includes flowing Chi exercises, and energy awareness training which develop the qualities needed to sustain a practitioner of the Healing Arts; resilience, detachment and heartfulness. Among her inspirational teachers have been: C.Maxwell Cade; Zen Master, Bio-physicist, and Biofeedback researcher. Anna Wise: Natural Dance and Holistic Health, the author of and The High performance mind. Suprapto Suryodarmo, Indonesian Dancer Ben Suharto and Japanese Katsugen Movement and Uki Master Mutsko Nomura.

Jan Howarth

(B.A.Hons, Dip.HSEC, PGCE Art Therapy Training) is a fine artist specializing in painting and installation Art. She trained and worked as an Art Therapist and teacher, and has also worked with major theatre companies as a designer, before moving into performance art and multi-media installation.

Jan is a qualified Shiatsu and Reflexology practitioner with over twenty five years experience in Vipassana Meditation. Her meditation master was the late John Garrie Roshi. She enjoys practicing Chi Gung and has studied Amerta Movement with Master Suprapto Suryodarmo for many years. Since 1992 Jan has run a successful healing practice at the Clinic of Complementary Medicine in Yeovil, Somerset (UK).

Jan spent her childhood in Africa, Malaysia, France and UK. Her art reflects the experience of these different cultures each with their unique artistic and spiritual flavor. Her latest solo exhibition was a series of abstract pigment paintings inspired by a journey back to the African landscapes she loves.

A strong sense of place is always present in her painting, a response to the changing patterns, colours and forms of weather and land, and to an ever-deepening relationship with the Dorset landscape where she lives.

Mala Sikka

Suprapto Suryodarmo

Terry Hagan