Dare Hour

I walked into the laughter meditation session to see a line of women lying on the floor, shoulders between legs and their heads resting on strangers-turned-intimates’ stomachs. They were false laughing, pushing out throaty ‘huhuhuhus’, while I struggled not to laugh out loud for real.

Next the group - dare to laugh and strike a pose: for the balance in you, run by MAU Motions ltd - jumped up and were instructed to move around the room, this time their laughter made the sound of motorbike engines as they bumped into each other - the fake laughter soon became real.

After, I spoke to Sue Popper from Joogleberry Ltd, who told me, “it was uplifting and enriching - a real laugh”.

Draw Brighton also proved to be very popular - I couldn’t get far inside the room but peeked in at the new-found artists, deep in concentration, trying to capture the lines of the naked female model.

Kate Springford found the experience so encouraging that she now plans to continue drawing. “It was brilliant - the instructor put us at ease by making us look at the person and not at our work. I started to observe in a way I never have before.”

The singing was incredible. I spoke to many of the participants beforehand and it seemed this was the group most fearful, many sure they would break the windows or frighten far off children. In fact they sang beautifully, expertly led by Julie Nye they even managed to sing in harmony in a round, which is incredibly difficult to do.

Aimee Richardson of A4E was particularly nervous before but after said, “It was much better than I expected. She just threw us right in though but actually it wasn’t as scary as I thought.”

Nicky from animal extravaganza launched the fear right back at her group’s faces - starting the session with details on how the creepy crawlies, snakes and spiders kill their prey and quickly moving onto a show, tell and feel session. The tiger cockroach got the most attention whereas the Boa snake really did not want to play.

Photo by Yogendra Yoshi

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