About Joan
Joan Davis has been exploring the nature of creativity, particularly from a body based perspective, for over 50 years. She pioneered contemporary dance in Ireland in the 70s & 80s and has experimented with collaborative art as a professional artist and therapist.
From 1996, when she moved to Wicklow, she developed the arts practice and performance offerings of Maya Lila and more recently 'Garden as Gallery'.
Joan is a Body-Mind Centering® Practitioner, has studied Authentic Movement with Janet Adler, and Voice Work with Chloe Goodchild and Rajeswar Bhattacharya.
She continues to study developmental processes as well as embryology and early infant trauma. She has extensively studied Process Oriented Psychology (Mindell) and is a Hakomi Sensorimotor Trauma Psychotherapist.
She has undertaken trainings in Dynamic Attachment Repair Experiences (DARE) with Dr. Diane Poole Heller in Europe. She continues her studies with trainings in HANDLE a holistic approach to neuro developmental healing and repatterning. Joan completed her training as a teacher of the Discipline of Authentic Movement, with Julia Gombos as supervising teacher of her work, over a period of six years.
In 2013, Mary Wycherley, a dance filmmaker based in Limerick, Ireland, was funded to make a film of the work of Maya Lila. This film, called ‘In the Bell’s Shadow’ has been screened nationally and internationally since it premiered in 2015.
Between 2012 and 2016, Joan led a training course at Gorse Hill titled ‘Origins’. This innovative training wove together the somatic practices of Embryology, early Attachment Patterns, Body-Mind Centering® Developmental Movement Patterns, Group Process, and Authentic Movement. Emerging out of this came a second training titled ‘Original Nature’ (2018 to 2021) which supported participants in an in-depth exploration of Authentic Movement and the transformative practice of cultivating an inner witness.
Joan’s years in dance and choreography led to a desire to create the ‘Essence Programme’ which was a training for mid career and early career dancers and art makers interested in exploring environmental, interactive and immersive performance. This was an opportunity for Joan to share her unique and reverential relationship to the body with future dancers and to share practices in creative expression honed over many years of research. These trainings culminated in innovative outdoor performances open to the public in the magical gardens of Gorse Hill, titled ‘Garden as Gallery.’ Here, movers and performance artists created an event inspired by the present moment, the interaction between them and the powerful presence of the natural world.
After such a rich lifetime of creativity, Joan now delights in a role as Elder or mentor to others dreaming up their own unique artistic projects.
Joan now also offers solo and small group retreats at Gorse Hill. A distillation of years of exploration in therapy and the Arts. These intimate days are client directed where the participant is supported to deeper self-awareness and safety through art, movement, being in the outdoors - and in other wondrous ways that arise in the present moment.