CREA-DANCE

“Surrender to the flow of life and watch the magic unfold.”

_Unknown

Creare in Latin means to create, to make.

What are we creating when we dance?

It goes without saying that dance has been part of the human experience from time immemorial. This is a somewhat strange practice as it does not appear to have any evolutionary goals. At the same time, it’s not something we invented later on in our human odyssey. So why dance?

Interaction in the world through movement is how we establish a sense of self and form the reality that we inhabit. Dance however is movement that stems from an impulse to express and sustain life and our existence. Rituals and ceremonies that have arisen from this impulse express many dimensions of life, ourselves, the cultures and societies we live in, and even our cosmic relationship. Beyond all this, there lies a deeper intentionality that is basic, positive, and life-engendering.

In the greater scheme of things, this “life” can be seen as an overflowing energy of the universe. In our own concrete reality – it is our embodiment – that complex set of experiences that affirm our own flow within the cosmic whole. Often we seek meaning outside of ourselves and yet there are those magical moments in the dance when music, emotion, and movement synchronise in those deep experiences that allow us to touch the edges of mystery, wonder, and awe. There we connect with and create meaning for ourselves. In a truly embodied experience, we find meaning simply in our being.

This is what dance can create for us. An experience through our vital bodies that is both a dance and a celebration of life through an integrated mind, body, and soul. To experience this is to see ourselves as an indivisible physical and spiritual whole. In the dance, the body is the spirit, and the spirit is the body. With this profound way of being it is possible to dance into a state of transcendence and create a life with meaning. Our dance becomes the way in which we can then navigate into a resilient life of well-being.

_Christos Daskalakos

gui~DANCE

“To the universe belongs the dancer.

Whoever does not dance does not know what happens.”

_-Apocrypha, Acts of John 95:16-17

More often than not when we need to solve a problem, resolve an emotion or compose a creation we turn to our minds. We don’t turn to our bodies because we have lost the art of listening to them. In the mad dash to get the next report out, to sort out the shopping, or take care of some hassle, there is no time left over to quieten down the mind and let our attention drop into the body for some guidance.

What does it mean to have our bodies give guidance? Just notice that the word “guidance” has dance within it. One of the ways in which we can listen and connect to our bodies is through dance. A static body is quite, nice to rest to. But creativity, exploration, and opening up new possibilities take place with movement. To be dancing into guidance, moving into guidance, it is never a static thing.

A guide is someone who shows the way and our senses, feelings and connection to the body have been given to us as a guide to show us the way. In its simplest messages, the body feels pain as a way to alert us to problems or things to avoid. The problem is that we think that our primary aim in life is to avoid pain. When we do this, we avoid all feelings and so lose out on the infinite intelligence transmitted from inside our being. Dance is multisensory. It also integrates the physical and emotional aspects of ourselves allowing us to travel into the realms of spirit and wonder. When we allow the dance to emerge spontaneously anything is possible. Unlike a strictly choreographed life, our dance opens up the world to us. In these moments of freedom, our body, dance, and passion create this world. Such is the power of dance

_Christos Daskalakos