Appreciating the Dance

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, 

and the life of the candle will not be shortened. 

Happiness never decreases by being shared.”

- Buddha

Appreciation can be an action when it comes out of saying “thank you” in gratitude. We can appreciate ourselves, we can appreciate those around us and we can appreciate life itself. These three levels of appreciation can be expressed in words but even more powerfully through action. The way we can connect with appropriate action is to dance and embody the feelings that arise when we are in gratitude.

How often do we ever take a moment in our dance to appreciate that we are able to move in our bodies, that have the freedom to move unrestricted by repressive societies, and even more important that we have this beautiful planet on which to dance.

Last Saturday we lit the fire and danced in the garden under a sky through which the stars were peeping through. As I danced, I began to notice the exquisite beauty of the tree in front of me. I noticed the shape of the leaves, the geometric patterns, and the beautiful colours. I then turned to dance with everything around me, the grass, the stones, the twigs, the flowers, the clouds, the moon, the stars…everything. And a most amazing feeling of gratitude and appreciation emerged in my dance. My movements became a thousand ways to say “thank you” and through the dance, my heart felt wide open and connected to the entire cosmos.

Dance is able to amplify and extend our feelings. Dance is able to silence the constant and distracting chatter that occupies our minds. Dance offers us an opportunity to immerse ourselves into feelings, relationships and life – through embodiment, that is experiencing through the body – and amplified by the dance.

_Christos Daskalakos