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