CHANNELING the dance

“It is music that dances the dancer.

There individual and the music no longer exist,

there is only the dance.”

_Rolando Toro Araneda

We stand frozen. Not daring to move until every last movement has been planned. Our head takes over. The mind works overtime. And we wonder why life is passing us by.

We never stop the dance to plan our next move. Each movement arises out of the previous one. Each step and gesture are an elaboration of what has come before. When we let go into the dance then it flows. We find our body knows where to go. We find our arms, legs, and torso find their own harmony and balance. These moments of physical flow are a doorway to feeling the free flow not only of our emotions but also of life itself.

Who is dancing our dance when we let go of all control? Who is creating our dance when we stop overthinking? Of course, it is still us. But it is an ‘us’ that is much bigger than the view we hold about ourselves. It is an ‘us’ freed from the shackles of littleness. It is an ‘us’ that is expansive, whole, and totally integrated. When we dance in the magical moment of pure presence, without any consideration, judgment of self, or expectation of outcome, we become the dance. In these moments it feels as if the dance is being channeled through us.

The dance of life can also be exactly the same. Living in the present. Responding and moving from a position of here-now is a powerful creative act. We don’t always have to have a blueprint. Life too can unfold like a dance. Life too can be in harmony and balance when we take the lessons we experienced in our dance and apply them out there in ‘real’ life.

_Christos Daskalakos

Dancing with Friends

“Happiness is the friend who’ll dance with you to the song

that’s not meant for dancing.”

_unknown

Group dancing has been part of humanity from time immemorial. Gathering round the fire the clan united, sang, danced in rituals of healing and worship. Through the dance we expressed our identity as the clan, we expressed our understanding of the cosmos and we expressed our relationship with each other, the world, and universe. For perverse reasons, we have lost this opportunity except in specialised situations.

It is natural for us to dance and as humans we are naturally susceptible to music - when we hear a good beat it makes us want to dance. Although music has an emotional content it is that primal beat that gets us in the chore of our being. It is a fact that people who dance together to the same beat feel connected to each other. Not only does this encourage social bonding but is also a very good way of promoting health and wellness.

A smile is always visible on the faces of people who dance together. Even if for a moment, the stranger becomes our friend. We are co-conspirators in creating joy and fun. Magic connects us in the dance. We relax and are able to open our hearts to the other. Dancing together creates feelings of mutual support which go a long way to supporting us.

_Christos Daskalakos

DANCE and Self-Regulation

“Self-regulation will always be a challenge,

but if somebody’s going to be in charge,

it might as well be me.”

_Daniel Akst

Dance is a wonderful tool for psychological self-regulation. It develops our ability to have a greater awareness of the cues we are receiving from the body, integrating our physical and mental selves.

Sometimes we are so out of touch that our bodies are positively screaming at us for attention, through pains and aches, stiffness and fatigue. These are emotional signatures of the body that first arise as bodily sensations. When we become aware of these cues, we are able then to ascribe meaning and interpret them as feelings. These become mental states that begin to govern our behaviour. When we are connected to our body, when we are aware of our feelings, it is possible to be conscious of our actions in life. When we are disconnected, we are little more than automated robots governed by habitual patterns of behaviour.

Dance is our portal to the body and our connection to everything that is going on in our being. We connect with our sensations, our bodies, our emotions, and our feelings. They are not always negative; we can sometimes be unconscious of the good times too. Integrating our mind and body through dance opens up our ability to direct and be creative in our lives. We learn ‘when’ to act. We learn ‘how’ to act. And so are able to self-regulate ourselves in life, not flouncing around a helpless victim of circumstance. We become active creators of a well-balanced life.

_Christos Daskalakos

Dance, Wellbeing and Self-REgulation with Moni Mogaji

POWER DANCE

“Dance is a superpower. 

Everyone has it but only a few are brave enough to unleash it.”

_unknown

Power Posing – or even better Power Dances…

Can our postures and movements alter our state of consciousness? There are many people who believe so. A few of these are people like Rolando Toro Araneda, creator of Biodanza, Felicitas Goodman, creator of Ecstatic Trance Postures and, Carlos Castaneda, author and creator of Magical Passes.

That there is a connection between what we call our mind and our body is now an established fact. Author of Biology of Belief, Bruce Lipton is someone who writes about the influence our mind has on our body. However this is a two-way street and as much as what we believe and how we feel influences the state of our body, our body can influence our mind, sometimes taking us into altered states of consciousness – in other words, out of our normal state of being. Postures and movement send signals to the brain. Whether we contract or expand our limbs and torso, will send different messages to the brain. Think of the hunched over person feeling depressed compared to an athlete who has just won first place, arms outstretched waving their national flag.

I was reminded of this on Saturday as I danced around the fire. Inspired by the strong shamanic beat of the music my body naturally began to move with a strong energy, muscles electrified with strong direct movements, torso expanding into movements of power. With this dance, my consciousness shifted into an expanded state that matched my body. For a moment it felt like my whole being had expanded and my dance extended from the fire out into the stars. This left me feeling powerful, invigorated, and very determined. Once again, this bears testimony to the power of dance.

_Christos Daskalakos