re-structuring DANCES

“The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, 

move with it, and join the dance.”

_Alan Watts

To restructure is to arrange things differently. When we look at life we sometimes think we have to change something or transform it. Actually just becoming conscious of the patterns and habits in our life allows a shift to happen. We don’t have to rush into change – we just have to become more awake.

The dance is a wonderful medium for making us more aware. Are we dancing the same old same old? Do we approach the dance in a habitual way …OR…do we allow ourselves the opportunity to enter the dance fresh. When we are in the moment dancing as if we are doing it for the first time – then the opportunity arises for old patterns, beliefs and systems to slowly melt away – we are restructured by the dance.

When we shift our dancing and let go out thinking, it leads us gradually into deeper contact and permission to believe in the goodness of our instinctive passions and to express the emotions that arise from that experience. Using music and movement to create integrative dance experiences has a profoundly re-balancing effect on our bodies and psyche. Our fellow dancers in a group become the healing matrix where transformation happens, as we open up to each other and allow ourselves to express our feelings and passion more authentically.

_Christos Daskalakos

FUNTASIA ~the art of living a fun-filled life

“Trust me you can dance”

_VODKA

How often do we permit our self to have some FUN?

During difficult and stressful times this may sound a little flippant – someone who is always having fun is maybe not taking life seriously some would say. However FUN holds a very important place as it is the activities that gives a mechanism for people to soothe the stressful situation of everyday life and relax.

The Greek word for fun ‘διασκέδαση’ has an etymology which literally means ‘shred and toss away the accumulation of anxiety, unhappiness, and boredom. And as Zorba the Greek advocates….DANCE!

Dance literally shifts our position – we can dance our way from anxiety to peace, from sadness to joy, from indifference to joy of living. The emotions that are stuck in our body and come to feel like old friends can be shifted so that our inner mood changes. Through the dance we let the feelings flow till we reach a place where we can connect with ecstasy and bliss. That is an incredibly powerful and amazingly special place in our dance – when we surrender to life, and it becomes FUN.

_Christos Daskalakos

Integration Dances

“Mind-body integration is more than a personal health strategy. 

 It is a movement of consciousness that can change the world.”

_Matthew Sanford

• Feeling scattered?
• Feeling fragmented?
• Feeling disconnected?

One of the amazing gifts of dance is that we get to experience the feeling of being integrated. The opposite of scattered, fragmented or disconnected is to feel a sense of wholeness, fullness, and a sense of being fully present. The dance provides a beautiful space for us to feel connected to ourselves in a deeper and more meaningful way.

This is the perfect antidote to the topsy-turvy world we are currently speeding through. Sometimes when we lose our equilibrium in life we find that we act in strange ways that ordinarily our head or our heart would not align with. We feel something and do something contrary to our gut feelings. We think something and do something contrary to our rationality.

In the dance we have access and experience ourselves with a greater sense of awareness so that we feel that we can re-direct life and bring everything back on course. We align our body from head to toe with grace and movement. And in this doing we embody our natural self allowing us to integrate our mind, body and feelings again.

_Christos Daskalakos

DANCE: Here, Now!

 

“When the music changes so does the dance.”

_African Proverb

Life is dynamic, ever changing and ever evolving. Negotiating this adventure can be a struggle or it can be fun. When we remain stuck holding on for dear life to our stories and dramas we live a life that is always in reaction. Unfortunately that reaction is usually firmly located in those very stories and dramas. We can shift from reaction to interaction. Interaction is our ability to relate to life in the moment. It is our ability to respond to life based on what is appropriate now. We discard our habitual patterns of behaviour and draw on the wisdom of appropriateness interacting with what is presented to us so that we become the master and not the servant of life.

To enter into a vibrant state of feeling, life in its immediacy, we dance. A dance cannot evolve from preconceived patterns. Imagine that your body is moving one way, say downwards, and you believe, feel and decide it should be flying upwards. Doesn’t happen! But in the moment of going downwards you feel into what is appropriate to let you fly and suddenly you connect to the elasticity of your body and can emerge and spring upwards. This movement is the perfect metaphor for how we can engage with life in the moment. Listening and moving from what is present, here, now. Dance allows us to transcend the metaphor and to embody the feeling and practice. Dance reminds us through our body. Dance draws on our inner wisdom. Dance creates possibilities.

Dance is the perfect way to practice life!

_Christos Daskalakos

DANCE AWAKE!

Dance under the moon 

conjures the goddess

within awakening your

wild.

_Mia Wild

What could the dance ever awaken?

For Ram Dass, the dance awakens us to the realisation that we are not separate being, instead we are part of the totality. Through the dance, for him, “we find our way home.” This is certainly the experience we have when we dance our transcendent dances, especially round the fire where we connect with nature and embody our connectedness.


Dance not only awakens our transcendent nature but also serves as a mirror to our everyday reality. We embody our identity which translates into movement patterns that show up in our dance. Is this who I truly am, we can ask? Or am I dancing like a puppet on a string, pulled by life external without even noticing?


We become conscious in our dance and when we delve deep into our heart we are able to connect with our authenticity – to connect with who we truly are. Each one of us has a different dance on this earth. Some are men, some are women. Some are visionaries some are implementers. Some are teachers and some magicians. Through the dance it is possible to feel into our purpose and our role. And then we awaken this connect to self and express our uniqueness in the world for all to celebrate.

_Christos Daskalakos