Who are we dancing with?

“If you have a good friend, you don’t need a mirror.”

_Proverb

How we hold people hostage, to their past…

When we engage with the people in our lives, are we present to who they are in the moment, or do we colour our interactions with histories from the past or expectations in the future? When we engage with people from our head space it is very easy to pin a story to them, but is that who they are now?

The magic of dance is that it can only take place in the now. We drop into the body and we can only be present with the movements we are making now. It’s very difficult to focus on our future dance, six bars of music down the line, or spend even a moment to reflect on our past dance, six bars previously. If we do, we will fall over!

Even in dance improvisation, when each movement gives rise to the next, we need to be present. Improvisation by definitions is not planned. If our dance takes place in the present, then who is it we are dancing with? Are we dancing with our past selves? Are we dancing the creation of a future self? The answer is clear. We are dancing with our purest essence – the person we are right here now this moment.

Our hearts are located in our bodies, not our heads. What a beautiful lesson from dance, to take into our relationships. Are we brave enough to dance with the other both now and in life in THEIR purest essence? Do we have the heart and generosity of spirit to release them from our own preconceptions or expectations and create a dance of relationship that is rooted in the present? Are we willing to co-create the dance, irrespective of where it goes, what it looks like, or what outcome?

When we do this, not only do we release the other to flower into their fullest expression of self – we do so for ourselves too.

_Christos Daskalakos