TO DANCE IS TO AWAKEN LIFE

Wednesday 1st April 2021

“Life only makes sense when you perceive it as a mystery 

and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.”

_Anthony de Mello

Have you ever felt that life is passing you by, or that it feels like a drag? Usually these feelings are related to the stories we tell ourselves about how life should be, or how it could be better if only, etc. These are stories that take us away from direct engagement and experience in the world. When we retreat into our head, shutting out the world around us then yes, life is passing by. Its passing when we feel disconnected.

To begin to engage an experience the world around us fully and with intensity we need to engage all of our senses. Dropping into the body we smell, touch and taste and see the world engaging on every level with what is presented to us. And when we open up our sense fully and take it all in we connect with the grandeur and marvel of everything around us. Suddenly the what, the who and how are not so important as just BEING IN THE BEING.

Dance has a wonderful way of stimulating our senses and allowing us to engage with life with more sensitivity. Because it is such a powerful body-based modality, we automatically connect with our sense bringing this wonderful ‘machine for living’ to life. We awaken to life in new ways with new perceptions creating new experiences. Just like the dance, there are no outside goals and destinations. The pleasure and enjoyment takes place in the doing, in the dancing. Truly we dance with life and awaken to magic past our wildest imagination.

“Way of the Bushmen:” Dance, Love, and God in Africa – Kimerer LaMothe

ELATION - When Dance lets the spirit soar

Wednesday 24th March 2021

“Honour yourself as a magnificent being of love.”

_Harold W. Becker

Connecting to a deep sense of peace – dance give us the space to stop the world as Carlos Castaneda puts it and for a moment feel completely free from worry and anxiety. Our dance becomes the island of sanctuary in this chaotic place we now find ourselves. For a moment we immerse ourselves into the music and let our body dance. These dances are acts of kindness to ourselves. They are a gift to the soul.

When we enter the space of elation we are filled with awe and wonder and a sense of coming home to a truth that lets us feel immensely grateful just to be alive. Our dances become sensations of expansion as our body relaxes and lets go the tensions of everyday life. Our heart is open. We receive each other with intense humanity. We are humbled.

These wonderful spaces that dance open up for us gives us the opportunity to transcend separateness. We connect with one another energetically to feel part of the same network of consciousness. Dance has been with humanity from the very beginning holding our hand on our evolutionary path, guiding us to experience life in all its greatness and magnificence.

To dance or not to dance – Sep Vermeersch

DANCE WITH JOY

Wednesday 17th March 2021

“There are shortcuts to happiness and dancing is one of them.”

_Vicki Baum

Feeling tired – DANCE!

Feeling low – DANCE!

Feeling uninspired – DANCE!

Dance is the magic that works on so many levels. It releases the feel-good endorphins into our body so that physiologically we change our endogenous mood from wherever it may be to a lighter, brighter and higher mood. This interrelationship of body and emotion has a positive effect on the mind. It influences our motivation. It gives us a different perspective on life and it releases our creativity.

Contributing to these shifts of the way we feel is, music. Music contains within its structure some universal emotions that are recognisable across all cultures. These musical structures are closely aligned to our motor system so that moving to music as in dance, gives us a four dimensional experience of feeling and emotion.

At some level this direct and embodied experience of the dance can short circuit the brain taking us out of the rut we may find ourselves at times. It’s as if music and the dance give us a gentle (and sometimes not so gently) nudge shifting our perspective and experience of life. The nature of the music and dance often determines what type of emotion we connect to. Personally I have my own library of feel-good music I fall back on when I want to life my mood. Do you?

Why dancing feels so good

GOODNESS GRACIOUS DANCE!

 Wednesday 10th March 2021

"I wish to live a life that causes my soul to dance inside my body."

_Dele Olanubi

Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a dance, pleasantly surprised? Sometimes is a particular feeling in the body. Sometimes its an insight. And sometimes the experience or release of an intense emotion. What is interesting is that dance works on all these levels, the body, the mind and the emotions. It is an integrative process and which involves our total experience. The dance stirs things up, shifts them around and opens the flow. We just never know which channel is going to express our experience.

When we are aware of the interrelationship of body, mind and heart (emotion) we know that we can use the dance to our advantage. If we are feeling stuck in an emotion or if it feels too intense, we can use movement of the body to shift this. Even if we have an amazing insight (the mind) we can used the dance to feel into it and embody it.

We use dance to navigate our experience. When we begin to integrate as humans it is possible to take dance to the next level. It becomes more than physical movement to music. It becomes movement medicine we can use to heal, grow or simply bliss out on. Dance is goodness, and dance is gracious. It is a powerful gift completely created by us. No one gives us dance. We create dance and in this moment we realise the power to create, shape and form life itself.

Dystonia. Rewiring the brain through movement and dance. – Federico Bitti

DANCE FORMATIONS

Wednesday 3rd March 2021

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

_Albert Einstein

Would you like to access your creativity? Dance is the answer! Numerous studies have shown that dance enhances, develops and accesses our innate creativity. We are all born as wonderfully creative beings. Recall those childhood games. Mine included ships, forests and lots of cars. In fact by the age of ten, I had been to sea as pirate and fought many battles – always victorious. It was simple. My ship was an old wooden desk, or the coffee table turned upside down. Thank goodness there are no limitations when you are ten.

So why do many people lose this feeling and forget that they actually are creative? Somewhere along the line people started telling us what was right and wrong, telling us what was good and bad, and instilling in us the harshest of critics, our self. How many people do you know never take a chance or express themselves just so they don’t look stupid. We think we need to first plan, master and fully form our ideas and actions in life. Make sure they are sound. Creativity is about experimenting, allowing yourself to make mistakes. Keep what works and learn in the process.

That’s where dance steps in. Not formal dance based on technique and routines – free dance that allows us to explore and express ourselves. Do often we are told by our dance facilitators that there is no right or wrong way of doing the dance. There is only YOUR way. When we are willing to take that ginormous step and begin dancing we unlock our creativity. This is not some ephemeral concept – it is physiological! We literally start to change the structure of our brain and the way we think.

Dance, dance, dance – and before you know it the world starts to look very different.

What is Creativity in Dance? – Yuko Nakano