dance & RHYTHM

“It’s almost impossible to walk without engaging in rhythm.”

It’s always amusing to me when people say they have no rhythm, then turn around and walk away with a beautiful even step, i.e., rhythm. Rhythm is innate and finds many expressions within our experiences of life. We find rhythm of the heart, breathing, and daily biological cycles such as eating. These are regulated sub-consciously and are related to our survival. Other rhythms such as those related to movement can be initiated by sound and music. The close relationship between the auditory and motor centers of the brain means that our bodies move naturally to rhythm, such as tapping our foot or clapping our hands. This is not a skill we have to learn, as studies show that babies respond to music and rhythm naturally. If anything it is a skill we unlearn as we grow up.

So how does it happen that we can walk naturally with rhythm but become a jumble of arms and legs when we try to dance? This is even more astounding when we know that dance is a natural phenomenon that has existing in all cultures. While a small percentage of people suffer from amusia (the inability to recognise musical tones) the majority just need a little nudge.

This nudge is to shift attention away from the thinking head into the sense-filled body. Both our ‘outer’ senses of sight, touch, and hearing, and our ‘inner’ kinetic sense and proprioception, play a role in how and where we move. Our brains, and bodies, are able to connect to music, through rhythm, pulse and tone. This is strongly connected to the limbic system which gives music its emotional content. Our bodies express emotion naturally, which can translate into dance.

To dance and express ourselves means giving the thinking mind a pause and dropping into the body. We connect to the music and as we respond to the cues it gives us we can unconsciously give expression to not only what we are feeling but even to our very essence. Rhythm is a doorway into this world of magic. Just as we naturally tap our fingers to the beat, so we can gently open the space for our body to respond to music. When we are self-conscious, trying to plan the movement, and concerned about how they are going to be received – we shut down the spontaneity and become that jumble of arms and legs as our mind tries to keep up with the body. Letting go is the key. Find a simple rhythm. Give your mind the day off, and let your body move into the dance.

_Christos Daskalakos

dancing TRANSITION

“In the depths of winter, I finally learned 

there was in me an invincible summer.”

- Albert Camus

When we are dancing, each movement we make is a new creation. Unless we are executing a particular choreography, our movements arise without any previous preparation. What takes place is that our body responds to what is taking place in the moment. We make a movement and automatically we will select an appropriate reaction to that movement - each movement flowing from the other. In that moment our body is selecting, as it subconsciously scanning a whole number of possibilities.

The selection in the moment becomes a creative act. When we allow the body to select subconsciously, we open ourselves to insight and new possibilities. When we consciously guide the movement, we are actively engaging in a process of creativity. Both have their place.

In the dance we are constantly in transition, moving from one posture to another. Paradoxically, each moment in the dance is also a moment of arriving. To be both arriving, that is present, and moving through transition is to be in flow. Dance adds depth to our experience of life, exactly because it is in flow. Movement is the key. Conscious dance is powerful when we engage in movement.

_Christos Daskalakos

Dancing, between HERE and THERE

“At the still point of the turning world.

Neither flesh nor fleshness”

- T. S. Elliot

There are two dances that coexist side by side the one feeding the other. The first is the dance of shape, movement through space and the connection to chronological time. It is a dance that expresses our relationship to the outside world. It often reflects the story we hold about ourselves. For example if we hold a view that we are not creative, it can restrict the dance. In this way the world outside reflects and definitely influences the world inside - the hidden dimensions of being. When I resist the dance, it reinforces that inside of me that resists. When I let go into the dance, it becomes liberating and creates a whole different relationship to self and life.

However, there is another dance, that which emerges from the depth of our being. This dance prefers to dissociate itself from the ordinary experience of life through space and time. This inner dance is without time and exists in a space of atemporality, without edges and boundaries. To uncover this dance we sometimes require a different route. We find ways to still the outside world, to still the mind with its stories and to detach from time and space. Through these dances we begin to create greater sensitivity to our senses and our bodies. The paradox is that this body of boundaries, edges and vitality is also the way into our interior space when we re-engage with the dance in a different way. If we are willing to step aside, still the mind, and let the dance flow, we find a world of expansion, a world of integration, and a world of wonder.

_Christos Daskalakos