UNITED WE DANCE

Wednesday 30th September 2020

“The treasure of unity is found by those who look within.” 

-Rumi 

By dancing together we embrace our human family through our shared passion and experiences. People who dance together usually connect with peace and positive feelings which are amplified by being mirrored by the collective energy of the group. As we grow familiar with each other and start to let the guards down we find it easier to dance with each other, to look each other in the eyes and to open our hearts.

Through the simple act of dancing together we a birthing a new paradigm which encourages connection to each other and connection to the earth that sustains. This sense of connection opens up feelings of belonging to something that is more than just me. There is a sense of unity that in the dance we can participate in the cosmic dance that unites us all.

Dance is a powerful medium to open up these possibilities because it is active. We are the ones dancing and creating. It is also inclusive. Our bodies mind and soul are in the dance. These ideas no longer remain a abstract ideals but can become embodied through our dance and thus a living aspect of our experience in this world.

ECSTASY

Wednesday 23rd September 2020

“Every dance is and gives ecstasy.” 

- Curt Sachs 

Needing a natural ‘high’, dance is the answer. To enter a state of ecstasy we need to give up all forms of dance with specific steps or instructions that engage our minds. When we abandon ourselves to the rhythm and move freely as the music takes us we cross over the threshold of action and control and enter the blissful state of just being.

From a scientific perspective dance induces ecstatic states by releasing neurotransmitters that allow us to feel connected, content and at ease. But more importantly releases neurotransmitters that allow us to connect with pleasure. When our brains are flooded with these positive emotions our inner feelings and moods shift away from our individual problems to connect with expansive and inclusive states. These are states of ecstasy.

Key to getting towards this state are spontaneous movements, letting go our desire to be in control as individuals and entering the dance with a state of ‘unknowing’. When we start to dance and have no idea what will emerge the magic happens in the moments when we discover and experience something different from what we would have planned or thought of. Our brains delight in this and reach ever further into the realms of ecstasy.

AWAKENING

Wednesday 16th September 

“Spirituality guides your life. Culture informs your life.”

- Professor James Small

In a world where we sit for most of the day, shutting down our bodies and concentrating on our work using mental capacities, it’s easy to become disconnected from our physicality. However the way we are in the world and the way we experience life is intricately bound up with the senses especially our kinesthetic sense of movement. This disconnection is to be asleep while in a wakeful state. Sleep in this sense being unaware of life except that narrow aspect we focus on which for many is a small screen.

Becoming awake is not only a matter of connecting to the world around us. When we awaken into our fullness and magnificence we begin to discover that truth – that we are incredible beings of illumination who have the power to change our reality. This is a spiritual awakening to experience every facet of our existence.

In this state it is possible to connect with the archetypes of inner healer and creator we move away from the stories that we have been told by those around us. These stories which we can clearly see in the media are that we are not enough, that we cannot do, that we need someone or something out there to make us better, bigger or beautiful. The truth is that we don’t.

When we enter the dance fully we reach a state where that is quite transcendent where we realise that we are not a body-object dancing in a something-out-there space. In fact we are a body-subject and that our body is the dance and that IT is the experience we are having. By feeling into our movements and feelings, our experience is that we are the dance and that we are creating the experience. This is a powerful spiritual place when we experience agency. This shifts the focus from the world out there to recognising the centrality of our being in our own life. When we give ourselves over to the dance fully we literally shut down the mind – and of course, all the stories we tell ourselves or that have been told to us.

In this space the messages and wisdom of the body and more begin to emerge and we become our own healer. At least once in everyone’s dance experience we have cried, we have laughed, we have been ecstatic, we have been any one of the many emotions of the human condition. These have emerged spontaneously even if afterwards we interpret and rationalise them. A spiritual awakening is not necessarily to climb into a fiery chariot and float into the clouds. It’s a real experience we can have in the here and now through our dance when we become fully present in every sense of the word – when we wake up.


SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

TO DANCE IN AWE

Wednesday 9th September

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, 

but expecting different results.” 

- Albert Einstein 

Dancing under the stars with a bright full moon is most awe-inspiring. In these moments it feels as if my body and mind become mere spectators to the majesty and expansion of the heart. To dance in awe is to experience life from a completely different perspective.

The shaman’s path is to connect with nature, to be in awe of all that is. Being in awe is part of our evolution. Opening up to the strangeness of life is the doorway into the unknown and ultimately to wisdom and knowledge. Awe precedes growth and if we can stand in awe of our dance – we will learn and grow from it.

When the dance becomes routine, a habitual movement that seems to keep expressing the same emotions then we too will be stuck in the same loop of experience. There is no formula for connecting with awe except to look through the eyes of innocence with an open heart. To dance with an open heart is as sure way towards dancing in awe.

LEARNING FROM THE SAN HEALING DANCE