Women's Circle: Move Your Hips the Way You Want To | Letting Desire Move You | North London
About this Event
A lot of us have spent years being appropriate with our bodies. Containing them. Directing them. Apologising for them.
And somewhere in all of that, many of us stopped moving the way we might actually want to, particularly anywhere near the hips and the pelvis. Not because anything dramatic happened. Because we were trained out of it, slowly, by a thousand small corrections.
What is left in that space can feel frozen. Or numb. Or just blank.
This morning is about going and having a look. And before you picture a dance class: it is not one.
The thing that makes this different from a dance class
A millimetre of movement that you actually feel is worth more than a wild dance you have performed.
That is the whole method, and it is worth saying plainly before you book, because lots of women read "movement" and picture themselves being asked to express themselves in front of strangers.
Big movement can carry you straight past what you feel. Tiny movement keeps you with it.
So we start smaller than feels worth doing. If nobody watching could tell you were moving, you are doing it right.
You can do the entire morning sitting in a chair.
What actually happens
First, in silence, we find where wanting sits in your body. No music at all for this part, which is deliberate: music gives you something to follow instead of your own sensation.
The questions are asked slowly and then left alone. Whereabouts is that wanting. What kind of wanting is it. Does it have a size, or a colour. Does it want to move, or does it want to be still.
Nobody tells you where desire is supposed to live or what it is supposed to feel like.
Then we wake the spine up. Slow breath into the lower belly. Spinal flex, a slow rocking of the spine, sitting or standing. Breath of fire, a quick pumping breath through the nose, is offered and is genuinely optional, with a slow version alongside it.
Then three pieces of movement, and every bit of it is led.
Ten minutes of tiny. A millimetre of pelvic tilt, forward and back, and nothing else.
Twelve minutes of the pelvis. Circles, figures of eight, rocking, side to side, called one at a time.
Six minutes where you follow what your body wants, with my voice still there if you want a lead. It is deliberately the shortest part.
Nothing here is open free-form dance. You are never left in the middle of the room wondering what to do.
Then we come down and rest. Lying down under a blanket. One hand on the heart, one low on the belly, and a thread of attention travelling between them on the breath. Ten minutes of that, and then ten minutes of nothing at all. For a lot of women this quiet part is where the morning comes together.
Then we say what we found, for as long as we want, and it is received without advice.
About being led
I am going to lead a great deal of this, and there is a tension in that which I would rather name than hide.
The truer work is that you follow what your own body wants. But left to ourselves, most of us do not go anywhere near this. Being led by a voice can take you somewhere you would not have gone on your own.
So I am asking you to follow my voice as a way in. And at any moment, if something I say does not feel right, ignore me. Your body's no is louder than my instruction. If I say circle your hips and your body says rock, rock. If I say breathe deeply and your body says be still, be still.
Both of those are true at the same time and neither cancels the other.
What this is, and what it is not
Fully clothed throughout. In this circle the touch is your own hands, on your own body, on top of your clothes. Some circles in the year include touch between women, always asked for and always your choice. This one doesn't. There is one point where a hand rests low on the belly or over the yoni, over clothing, and the belly is offered first so that nobody has to make a choice about it in front of anyone.
Nothing sexual happens in this room. Some of this may stir something in your body, and those are not the same thing. If it happens, it is welcome and it does not need reporting or stopping. If very little stirs, that is welcome too.
Nobody is on show. Everyone moves at once, eyes closed or down, and the only person looking round the room is me, keeping an eye on how everyone is.
A practical note on the breath work
Breath of fire is optional and there is a slow alternative throughout. Please skip it, and let me know before we start, if you are pregnant or have high blood pressure, glaucoma, a hernia, recent abdominal surgery or a heart condition.
Breath work amplifies whatever state you arrive in. If today is a heavy day, the slow version is the better choice rather than the lesser one.
Practical details
When: Sunday 25th April 2027, 11:00am to 1:30pm. Doors open 10:45.
Where: A warm, private home in North London (N11). The address is in your booking confirmation, and I'll send you a reminder a day or two before. Please note it is a first-floor flat, one flight of stairs up, and there is no step-free access to this circle.
Bring: Clothes you can move in comfortably. Herbal teas and water are available throughout.
Group size: Small, often three or four women.
Investment: Community £15 | Standard £20 | Supporter £25. Community pricing, so please choose the tier that reflects your situation.
Questions: [email protected] or +44 7876 706910.
About your facilitator
Melanie Knight is a Certified Sexological Bodyworker and Somatic Sex Educator. She runs small, unhurried circles where women can slow down and come back into their bodies, without pressure and without performance. Her approach is trauma-informed and consent-based.
Next month
The Art of Anticipation, on Sunday 23 May. Desire again, and the opposite move: wanting something, deliberately not having it yet, and finding out what happens in the gap.
Women's Circle 2027: A Year of Your Pleasure: Growing Into Your Desire
One Sunday a month, 11:00am to 1:30pm in North London (N11), except June's evening outdoors.
- 24 Jan What Turns You On Now
- 21 Feb The Dress You Never Wear
- 21 Mar Own Your Yes. Own Your No.
- 25 Apr Move Your Hips the Way You Want To
- 23 May The Art of Anticipation
- 20 Jun Sensual in the Wild (evening, outdoors)
- 25 Jul Loud and Proud
- 22 Aug What Your Breasts Know
- 19 Sep Your Breasts, Your Pleasure
- 17 Oct Good Girls Don't
- 14 Nov The Map You Were Never Given
- 12 Dec The Body's Own Fire
Book below.
Where is it happening?
GBP 16.96 to GBP 27.80
