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My interest in flamenco led me to dance.
I had absolutely no interest in any other dance forms, but for some reason, “I want to dance flamenco someday!”
I had decided this in my heart since I was a teenager.

My actual encounter with flamenco came through my first teacher, Blanca. At the time, I was living in the suburbs of Paris and was going to the Parisian library to study French. I met Blanca at the “Centre de danse du Marais”, which was near that library. She was small and slender. Even I, who am not particularly tall, seemed to look down on her. But her presence was greater than anyone else’s, and her eyes always gleamed.

I wanted to dance flamenco more, and to do that, I had to go to the birthplace of flamenco! That’s when my “flamenco quest” began.
After arriving in Seville, the capital of Andalusia in southern Spain, and completing the school enrollment procedures, the question “Why flamenco?” arose in my mind.
The answer finally came to me after some time.

It was “salvation.”
When I watched a flamenco performance, the singers, dancers, and even the guitarists expressed anger, pain, and joy itself through their faces, bodies, and rhythms. It wasn’t just expression; it was as if they had become the essence of it-they were living them.
“It’s okay to reveal my true self…”

Flamenco was where my journey began, but it was during my time living in Israel and Palestine that my perspective expanded beyond flamenco to the broader possibilities of dance itself.

In these two countries—where diverse cultures and ethnicities coexist as vividly as a rainbow—I was fortunate to live in a kibbutz, a communal society, and become part of a family of nearly three hundred people.

Living together in such a community brought profound joy, far outweighing the challenges that naturally come with it. I was deeply touched by the history, religion, and traditions of the Jewish people, as well as by their resilience and generosity shaped through surviving persecution. Life there felt, in many ways, like heaven on earth.

Through collaborations with inspiring artists, and while teaching and performing at dance schools and festivals, I gradually became aware of a deep wish within myself:

“To bring peace to the world through dance.”

In these two lands, where conflict has been repeated over time, the fear of one’s existence being threatened is never far away. There is hardly anyone who has not been affected—whether by becoming a soldier, taking lives, or losing family members and loved ones. This is true for both Israelis and Palestinians alike.

I felt strongly that this reality must change. As a foreigner, I questioned what I could do. At times, I felt overwhelmed by the weight of history and the scale of nations. Yet I chose to shift my perspective and ask myself: What can I do, even as one individual?

Holding onto that question, I began living in Palestine as a volunteer.

It was there that I encountered words that would become a guiding principle in my life.

Through dancing flamenco, I came to a firm conviction.

Dancing heals people.
Dancing empowers people.
Dancing reveals who we are.
Dancing transcends all boundaries.

Dancing with children at the Tent of Nations summer camp ignited a desire in me:
“I want to bring peace to this world through dance.”

I went to dance with children and women in refugee camps.
Through dance, beyond language, I wanted to connect people and keep the flame of hope burning.
This is when I began to explore dance as a path to peace—where dancing itself becomes hope.

It was around this time that I encountered Movement Medicine (MM). A friend, who was the secretary at the dance school where I was teaching, said to me:
“Megumi, this is something that seems made for you!”
Guided by those words, I went to Germany to attend the first MM workshop.

“Wild Life,” taught by Susannah Darling Khan, one of the MM founders.It was a three-day workshop where we rediscovered the wild life within us through dance and learned how to express it in a healthy way. On the first day, as soon as we started dancing, I knew it clearly:
“This is what I was looking for. I will teach this someday.”
It was a moment that profoundly changed the direction of my life.