Testimonials
Individual Program
On this journey of finding freedom with my voice and comfort in my body’s space, I’ve sought out various dance and embodiment practices, but nothing has resonated and impacted me more than my experience with Padma during the six-month program. The space Padma holds is not only one of the safest and most genuine spaces, which was already beautiful to feel given that my sessions were over Zoom, but the groundedness and openness Padma holds has encouraged me to provide myself with the same presence I felt so held in. It’s an invitation of acceptance, surrendering, and igniting an active connection with the body, spirit, and Earth.
Feeling at home in my body has been something so foreign to me, but so desired. It didn’t take long in my sessions with Padma to begin to feel an admiration for my vessel. One of my intentions going in was finding freedom in my connection with my physical body, but I had no idea that I would discover a strengthened connection with nature, which would in turn allow a deeper appreciation for my physical vessel and vice versa.
There is a language- a communication and connection- that authentically captures what the spirit yearns to express, and the freedom in allowing that language has been the result of experiencing my journey with Padma.
Coming from an Indian culture myself but having grown up in America, I’ve felt so foreign to this integral part of my identity. However, given colonization and patriarchal norms redefining a lot of cultural components, I have often felt disconnected and unsure of how to go about feeling “Indian enough.”
I finally know what it feels like to be part of this culture I come from. I was aware of that sense of loss within me, but I didn’t know how enlivened I would feel once I began to feel a resonance that came from a profound, inner discovery of how that cultural component emerges within myself.
It’s been so incredible to feel a confident, feminine aspect within me get fostered through Indian dance traditions, but it’s stunning to witness how these concepts and teachings are so universal and applicable to anyone to restore a sense of connection with ancestors, Earth, each other, and the self.
There truly is a positive ripple effect externally when there is an acceptance of the body and the internal world. I hold immense love, reverence, and marvel for Padma and the life-changing work she shares to restore an appreciation, a playfulness, joy, and acceptance to the boundless gifts the human journey- especially through the woman’s body- offers.
-Ayesha Patel, artist
My childhood memories of dance were tainted with the embarrassment of being laughed at for being clumsy or getting the choreography wrong. But the yearning remained and there was something I couldn’t quite identify about the confluence of the spiritual and the dancing body. In my late 20s when I entered Jungian analysis, the central figures in my first Sandplay were a buddha and a female dancer—I couldn’t decide which should be the ‘most’ central figurine.
Now as a much older woman I have been dancing in Padma’s classes and have been drawn to do the Individual Program, twice. There’s a magnetism both to the beauty and freedom of the dance, and to an inner knowing that it will reveal what is stuck in me (and thus hopefully clear it). The latter part, for me, can be a challenge for the ego.
In my first programme, dancing a red deity who chops off and holds her own head, my tendencies to live in the mind and too often in the past were certainly revealed. The Goddess propelled me out of a solid city house once lived in by my grandparents and aunts and into a mainly glass house among the trees on a mountain, truly in nature. It was quite a chaotic time, as I suddenly had to prepare a house for sale, rush it through auction, and move my established work, but there was a sense of being guided all the way and pushed by the dance into working with embodied feelings and intuitions rather than with my usual ostensibly safe place, the mind.
The trees and birds, nature herself, revealed another level of stuckness, so I dived into another round of the individual programme, with the urge to become more creative. I thought I wanted to write a book. Padma suggested Saraswati. I was a bit reluctant, as I had seen only the images of Saraswati looking very pretty playing a musical instrument. But I went with it when Padma said ’Saras’ means ‘flow’.
The idea of the book quickly receded as I met the rocks and logs jamming the flowing stream, usually at times when I didn’t really want to. Padma, in her inimitable way, picked up before each class exactly what needed to be worked with, and would introduce that, respectfully, kindly, in words at the beginning of the class, or just present it in movement, which might be either delightful or experienced as a mild shock!
It became a process of learning to feel and love my body in new ways, to meet intense instinctual forces of nature in myself, to meet Earth herself, and archetypal masculine forces as well as the more obviously flowing feminine ones. To move quickly back and forth between them. To find grumpy resistance and physical/emotional ecstasy, all in the same body, with the mind watching on from the sidelines instead of being allowed centre stage. Feeling clumsy became irrelevant, the heart opened and flow became a possibility. Touching spaces where dualistic mind disappears and there is only the spacious present moment, stillness and flow. The buddha and the dancer no longer vying for the centre!
I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to have engaged in this work, and I would totally recommend this Individual Programme to anyone drawn to it. I have complete confidence that Padma will guide and give you what your heart desires and needs, in the way most suited to and safe for you.
-Helena McCallum, Psychologist, Awareness Space, Australia
“I have had the great honour of participating in Padma’s group classes for some years now and when the Women’s Individual Transformation program – Reclaiming Your Sacred Self- was offered, I knew I had to do it. With Padma’s safe and skilful guidance, the many layered stories held in my mind were gradually peeled away and I was able to experience the fullness, the purnam, of the Goddess space.
These experiences were at times challenging (many women are taught rage and ferocity must be avoided) however, the Goddess is legitimately ferocious, fearless and wise, gentle and loving and more. The revelations gifted to me during this dance practice were not fleeting and have become embedded into my experience of daily life and informed new understanding of the world around me. I feel, through the grace of the Goddess who guided me past my illusions, that I touched the very beginning of time and in that witnessing there was a visceral tasting and connection to reality in all its darkness and light, in life and death and that which arises in between.
I stepped through a doorway, a doorway that exists within us, where duality melts away and was transported to be fully present with the Goddess, in her vast forms. Her presence continues to expand, deepen, mirror and surprise me."
-Joanne Donnelly, Australia
“I first came across Moving Archetypes via a Facebook friend who liked the site. I am at a point in my spiritual journey that I wanted to understand physically what it means to experience the inherent Divinity and this website immediately caught my attention.
I took a free group class that Padma Menon taught and was really fascinated with the whole concept of ‘Moving archetypes – the Ancient Wisdom of Goddess’ and despite the questioning mind I signed up to take the individual program.
I have chosen the Goddess Saraswathi – so I thought. Little did I know that not only my established and embedded knowledge about who or what Goddess Saraswathi is, will soon be challenged but it will also turn into a realization that the Goddess chose me and not the other way around.
And so began my 6month journey with Padma Menon in exploring the Goddess through movement in the body. Suspending the mind’s judgments and chatter and allowing the body to move in severely contradicting ways was a huge challenge – how is it possible for the body to hold multi-dimensional sensations whilst the mind’s nature is that of single-pointed? I struggled initially to grapple this and soon Padma through the various movements made me realize that Goddess cannot be reduced to a preconceived idea, thought or a form – She is unconquerable and unapproachable through the mind.
The other realization that sat very firmly in my mind was how severely we women are conditioned to carry shame about desire - which is the undeniable, very powerful, pulsating life force of the Goddess. I will not be shy to say that this program taught me how to embrace the totality of existence (including desire) in all its essence in this body.
Padma’s approach to guiding the students in this journey is gentle, educational as well as inspirational. The intuitive insights that Padma gives through her observations are in depth and uncovers one’s personality in ways that one is not aware of.
If you want to
-Embrace life as it unfolds,
-Loosen the stranglehold of the mind,
-Live in this body without judgement and with open curiosity and
-Come into a State of Being where the mind melts into the embodied energy which results in a deep cellular level silence,
then I would highly recommend this program. All those things have been my personal experience and I am grateful for Padma to have shown me this connection between body and mind and how body needs to lead the mind towards Self-Realization and not the other way around.
24 weeks of investment in yourself frees you from lifetimes of conditioning - please take up the individual program that Padma Menon offers – you will not regret it.
-Padma Ayyagari, Public Service, Australia
Group classes
My story is very different to the stories of the archetypes, but the emotions are the same. And I could express myself with the archetype’s story, without telling my own story. This started a process of personal healing. She (Padma) taught me how to let negativity go and embrace all that is positive.
-Jaswina Bihari Elahi, Academic, the Netherlands
For the past few years, I have had the great pleasure of participating in Padma Menon’s dance classes. As a writer, I am drawn to the power of words to express my thoughts or tell a story but Padma has taught me how to use my body to explore an array of archetypes and deities through movement. I am not a dancer but the wonderful thing about these classes is that there is no judgment about ability or skill. Padma teaches dance as a symbolic and profound language which allows us to contemplate the sacred and connect with ancient Indian philosophy. There is an immense freedom and joy in dancing the feeling of these beautiful archetypes — and discovering unexpected, sudden depths of ourselves.
-Anita Patel, Writer, Australia
The movement process made me go deep into myself. Whether I was searching my body or mind I was not sure. But expressing what I felt was a liberation.
-Susheela Pai, Artistic Director, Mudra Centre for Dance, India
Padma’s dance contemplation classes have been for me a journey of discovery. Focussed on a traditional deity or an archetype, we are lovingly taken into an enquiry, not of the mind, but through exquisite movement and music into our own being. The practice, while deeply rooted in ancient philosophical and dance tradition, is contemporary and meaningful to life in our challenging times. I leave each class energised and willing to face whatever I meet in my daily life, and though still carried on the ebb and flow of the world, I feel I am accompanied by a deity who walks in the world with me, and through me. It is me.
The classes are filled with the rich emotions of the archetypes; it is a joyful experience to immerse myself in beautiful choreography, to experience the depth that lies within these dance forms, and then to make them my own. Padma skilfully guides us, but like all contemplative practice, we move at our own pace. There is no pressure, or judgement – only an invitation.
When I turn around and look back into the cave of myself, the archetypes may be waiting. They are familiar, I recognise them as a part of myself, but a part usually hidden.By connecting with them through the dance, I transcend my own small story and flow into a deeper experience of myself – one which is vast and connected to a much more expansive life.Through these ancient temple dances, a part of ourselves is awakened, and we yearn to know this place because it is beautiful, and rich, and filled with the promise of freedom.
-Jill Sulman, Australia
It was a life changing experience for me. My classes made me confident and happy with myself. I started to like myself for the first time in my life...It has helped bringing me back to life...Through the classes I have peeled off the accumulated layers and every day am a new person.
-Beena Vas, Central Government Service, India
This groundbreaking work has a sweet fragrance. Imagine dances which are imbued with tradition and holder sacred knowledge. Wonderment will hold you. Padma walks with you. Always checking how you are and working within the movements possible for the dancers. When appropriate she goes deeper. The journey is also shared through philosophy lectures, performance and exploration through body movement.
It feels like a life time that I have been travelling this path of the Goddess. A deity that appears with many names and qualities, like Saraswathi. Durga and Lakshmi. The charm is not one of acrobatics but one where one travels deep within. Movements that are full of surprises and music that comes from a far away land. The intention is to go deeply within and there I am. I find myself in a temple, in a cave. The journey is always beginning. Padma creates a most wonderful atmosphere with lights, flowers, pictures and much more.
There is a time when women held the understanding of society in harmony with life. When all was held as one. The seekers of the divine were cherished. Their wisdom and insights were sought. This pilgrimage is one to the divine.
-Josephine Lolicato, Teacher, Australia
Four years ago I came across one of Padma’s flyers and immediately felt impelled to join her classes. It turned out that I would be interstate for a few weeks but I was too impatient to wait. Instead, Padma offered me one on one tuition for that term. Although I initially felt overwhelmed and inadequate at the thought of exposing my lack of technical dance ability and little prior knowledge of the Hindu pantheon of archetypes, Padma immediately put me at ease. In the four years since, through weekly dance contemplation classes and occasional workshops, I regularly find myself in contemplative action, exploring a joyous inner universe, released from my everyday constraints of body and mind, fully engaged, free to immerse myself in whatever next unfolds, both in that moment of contemplation and in however it resonates through the whole of my life.
-Megan Flynn, Strategic Analyst and Facilitator, Australia
I loved a workshop I did in Melbourne with Padma some time ago, and a blessing of Covid is that I have been able this last year to participate in the Canberra classes via Zoom - it works well. This extraordinary temple dance wakes up body, mind and soul. It goes deep and moves me at every level, in ways it is difficult to put into words. It brings everything into alignment. There’s a wonderful sense of integrity and authenticity about it, and about Padma herself. And there’s sheer delight at having these ancient yet very fresh archetypes move within oneself. What a blessing!
-Helena McCallum, Psychologist,
Awareness Space, Australia
Padma Menon’s Moving Archetypes invitation might be missed because of thoughts like I can’t dance or other first impression. Please take another moment to feel another possibility before you. I find each class an adventure into a new unknown which I find remarkable in many ways. Some of the remarkable elements include an encounter with beauty, an engagement with an artistic dimension and not least this new discovery of my own body’s intelligence. Did I mention enjoyment? There seems so much to say but there is much more to appreciate as you bring your attention to your own movements and sensations while dancing.
Padma brings to each class a fresh perspective. She always provides helpful, informed, and gentle guidance. Her classes shimmer with her deep passion for the Dance. Each class is a delight. I am always surprised by something as she draws from her rich and deep experiences as a classical and contemporary dancer, philosopher, and writer. It really is a privilege to participate in her classes.
The virtual delivery of the classes works well. So, wherever you are in the world, bring your playful self and follow a perfumed scent. I hope to have the pleasure of your company in the Dance hall.
-Madeleine Maple, Heritage Conservator