Hello

I’m Pippa – Founder of Pranadance

The Coromandel Peninsula in Aotearoa New Zealand has been my home for over 40 years.

Beaches, forests, surfing, organic gardening, painting, playing in a folky/bluegrass band, raising a family…
I’ve lived close to the earth, close to creativity, and close to what feels real.

A full, rich, soulful life.

But one thread has always run through it all—dance.

Want to know where it all began?

✨ Scroll down for the story of how my dance journey started when I was just two years old...

My Dance Story: From Devotion to Homecoming

I've always loved to dance.

My Mum told me that when I was just two, she’d play classical music and I’d twirl around the living room, intuitively sensing what was coming next. I’d pause... then move, completely in tune with the rhythm.
Cool, ay?

From those early days of tap and ballet to my teenage years as a Rhythmic Gymnast, dance was my world. I even represented New Zealand at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships—but that’s another story!

Then something shifted.
At 18, I became a Hare Krishna. I stepped away from the career path I’d imagined in dance. But I never stopped dancing.
Devotional chanting, singing, and movement became a different kind of dance—one of spirit, surrender, and love. (Yes, that was me dancing down Queen Street in the mid-eighties!)

Years passed. Life filled up.
But somewhere in my early forties, a quiet regret surfaced:
What if I had continued with dance?
Is it too late?

And then… a friend mentioned a conscious dance class at Mana Retreat on the Coromandel Peninsula.
So, one sunny Tuesday morning in the summer of 2008, I walked into Geordie Jahner’s class in the Octagon at Mana Retreat.

I knew instantly:

✨ I had come home.

It wasn’t performance.
It wasn’t choreography.
It was soul.

There were no rules, no judgment—just the joy of being fully in my body.
Of letting spirit move through me.
Of remembering who I am.

That very first class stirred something deeper:
A knowing that this was not only for me, but something I would one day share.

So when the Open Floor teacher training came to New Zealand, I said yes.
Yes to the learning.
Yes to the inner journey.
Yes to sharing the magic and medicine of conscious dance.

Today, I teach Open Floor across the Coromandel Peninsula and at festivals and retreats around Aotearoa. And best of all?

💛 No more regret.

This is what I’m meant to do.
To dance.
To breathe spirit into motion.
To invite others—maybe even you—into the joy, healing, and freedom that lives in movement.

Come dance with me.

With love,
Pippa x