My Story
Hello, I’m Usha, when folk muddle my name I say think 'Fuchsia' now drop the 'f'.
Welcome to my collection of offerings.
I’ll start at the beginning…
My German mother and Siri Lankan father met on a dance floor in Glasgow in the late 1950’s and I blossomed into this world in Cumbria 1963! I spent my early years in Malaysia and Germany and returned to England in 1969.
I struggled at school. I’d missed a year, I felt lost, never really finding my footing.
‘Don’t put your hand up when they ask for the choir.’ I was 6 years old, not even sure what a choir was.
‘Here, sit in the ‘E’ band.’ I was 9; after that I stopped putting up my hand even when I knew the answer.
At 16: ‘“Don’t do arts and dance – dancers always injure their knees. Go to Uni and do English and Biology instead.”
What I didn’t know then was that I was dyslexic. Art, sport, dance and nature became my lifeline, my sanctuary. I could wiggle out of the limitations others placed on me – run, jump, make, dance – and in those moments I was in my element, free to be me. What a blessing! I loved TV programmes like Blue Peter and Tony Hart for their creative adventures; the 'here is one I made earlier' always left me smiling. When I heard on the radio that Kate Bush and David Bowie had gone to Goldsmiths Art College in London, I applied without telling my school.
I made sense of my world and found meaning through the experiences of being in nature and through movement, making and musing. These have become the key themes of my expression, offerings and ongoing research. Initially my love of fabrics saw me qualify in screen printed textile design, but eventually I could no longer tolerate the chemicals used at the time (deadly solvents), so I had to ask myself, what else do I love?
It had to be the dance of movement! I was drawn to somatic and embodied practices; they left me feeling more deeply at home in my own skin, my ‘creature connectedness’ as a being of our planets ecology. My ongoing curiosity in why the creative arts and movement bring learning to life for not just myself but for those I work with, led me to delve into developmental movement and the growing field of neurotherapies.
These worlds have come to cross pollinate and flower in multi-modal, multi-sensory and integrated ways.
I bring this inter-indisiplinary approach to the fields of education, health, wellbeing and ecology, enjoying opportunities to experiment, collaborate and develop my practice along the way.
I’ve always believed intelligence is a beautiful, whole-bodied and embodied experience and I'm always learning.
Oh, for the joy of sharing creative processes and the self-awareness, empathy and connection it brings – of supporting all ages and abilities, solo and communities to discover, express, transform and celebrate: hands-on, heartfelt and whole-bodied!
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