Changes to the 2011 Guidelines

In March 2010 the Guidance Council published a new set of Dance Leader and Mentor Guidelines. In April 2011 revisions to the 2010 guidelines were approved, reviewed by the mentors and put in place. The following summarizes key points and changes made in the 2011 Guidelines which are now published on this website:

1. The revisions reflect decisions that have been made by the Guidance Council and Dances of Universal Peace International throughout this past year. They are all in the nature of greater clarity -- there are no major policy changes. For example, all references to Walking Meditations or Spiritual Walks have been changed to Walking Concentrations, which (along with the abbreviation Walks) will be consistently used in future.

2. The document name is now the Leaders Guild Guidelines (formerly Mentor Teachers Guild Guidelines). The section MENTORING PATH is now a separate publication (available here) so that the focus of these Guidelines can be exclusively on leading the Dances of Universal Peace and Walking Concentrations.

3. The order of sections has been changed (see Table of Contents) for emphasis and greater ease of reference.

4. The section DANCE LEADERS JOURNEY now contains clearer descriptions of the two categories "Mentored Leader" and "Certified Leader". It also now includes "First Steps in Leading the Dances", which was formerly part of ELEMENTS OF MASTERY. "Dance Write-ups and Recordings" is added, which offers guidance on how the resources of the Leaders Guild resource library can be useful while still safeguarding the person-to-person, hand-to-hand and heart-to-heart transmission that is key to learning and leading the Dances. Further, the descriptions of the "Leaders Guild", "Dance Mentors and the Mentors Guild", and the "Guidance Council" have all been updated. Finally, the paragraph "Walking with One's Mentor - An Ongoing Path" clarifies aspects of the mentor-mentee relationship.

5. In the AGREEMENTS section, there are additions "Use of the On-line Dance Resource Library" and "Leaders Guild Fees". The language has been tidied up in a few other places.

6. In the ELEMENTS OF MASTERY section, there have been small changes to the language of "The Dance Lineage" and "Elements".