Mayflower
Camps UK

Personal Background

 
    I was part of a generation that broke with its inherited worldview. Not merely in reaction but in experience. Much of what had been presumed to be real had been undermined. This obliged me to learn and grow in ways that might generally be called spiritual life.

    Learning a way to live opened me into many different streams of culture. Of what it is to be human. In '76 I dropped out of a job that I didn't relate to started making and selling candles. This was my main family livelihood until a few years ago. We used to travel around many fairs and festivals in the summer as traders. Yet in those days trading felt intrinsically part of a movement and a great place to just meet people and share in the atmosphere. Yet in so many ways my spiritual seeking was a relatively private endeavour until my heart opened.

    Rather than just aiming myself at some 'other' goal there was a shift towards sharing groups and workshops. It was a significant moment when I chose to book myself and family into a Circle dance weekend festival at Worstead rather than go trading to a Mind Body Spirit event. We didn't really have a clue what circle dancing was, but I lwas drawn to something both family friendly and with a spiritual dimension that I could relate to. It was a good choice. We went to a few Worsteads - which were fire-less camps around a village hall. Soon after I began teaching circle dance. It felt like a way to share in the spirit without creed or dogma and opened up a lot of doors for me. (And still does)

 
    Lynne and I started going to camps in 1986. From 1987 through to 93 we were solidly into Dance Camp Wales, an annual large summer dance camp. And from 1991 until summer of 1998 we were part of the organising core group for Dance Camp East.

Much as we loved the big camps we were always most drawn to circle living, out around a hearth, under big skies. Dance Camp Wales is primarily a circle dance camp with a huge diversity of circle dance and other activities, but I mostly would find the experience of circle living to be so alive and full that I 'did' less and less workshops.

    When Dance Camp East was proposed by Madelaine (around a fire in Dance Camp Wales), Lynne and I were into joining with her to bring Camps to the East. The first year of DCE was Madelaine's vision. Others like ourselves had supporting roles but she and Gary were the organisers. After that we became a much larger group and ran it as a co-operative group. This was helped by some of us having participated in Community Building workshops.

    In 1994 Lynne and I also began our own camps in the May Bank Holiday period. This was the first Mayflower Camp. A year later we added the October Gathering and in 2000 we began our Summer Camp.

- Brian 2003 (slightly ammended 2004)

See also - Why "Mayflower"?

Copyright Brian Steere 2004

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