In many of her women's workshops, and as a weekly class when she is in Findhorn, Laura offers a creative movement meditation based on women's Middle Eastern dance movements and the four elements.

Middle Eastern Garden is an invitation to connect deeply with our bodies, hearts and souls, and to express our truest selves and deepest longings through our own free movement. Some basic movements are shown and we enjoy discovering them together, and then each woman is free to dance in her own way. The emphasis is on deep inner connection and self-expression, 'how it feels' rather than 'how it looks'. There are no onlookers and no mirrors, except in the way we reflect our collective beauty back to one another, magnifying and affirming each woman's natural strength and grace.

Women of every age, shape, size and level of ability or experience are equally welcome in the Middle Eastern Garden. Within the protective space of the enclosed Garden, the flowing, cyclical moments and rhythms of this ancient dance style invite us to reconnect to our essential feminine nature, accepting ourselves and each other exactly as we are.

Laura speaks with the music in poetic and rhythmic images, to guide us more deeply into the meditations of the different elements. Many women experience the Middle Eastern Garden as a powerfully meaningful and transformative journey of homecoming to our true selves.

Laura began her study of Middle Eastern dance as a teenager in 1982, learning from master teachers including Suraya Hilal, Travis, Amel Tafsout and Helene Eriksen. Mainly, though, Laura has learned by dancing informally in women's homes, gardens and kitchens on her travels throughout Eastern Europe and in Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, and Armenia. She seeks to recreate this warm, homelike atmosphere in her classes, so that we may freely dance our sensuality as a natural, joyful expression, grounded in our connection to the earth and to daily life.