who am I - WHEN I DANCE?

“I am a drunkard from another tavern. 

 I dance to a silent tune. 

 I am the symphony of stars.”

_RUMI

When we are open to our experiences of life, inevitably we can turn our attention inwards to start seeing ourselves within the experience – a kind of meta-experience. This is when we are both involved in the story but also detached at the same time as if seeing the story from a distance, objectively and in a different way. This form of inquiry invites a profound and experiential learning about the deepest essence of personhood. Who are you – really? In our familiar surroundings, involved in the day-to-day running of life, we don’t often get the time or luxury to stop and take stock.

Dance is a space that automatically separates us from the normal. It takes us out of conventional operation mode. We don’t walk, we leap, we turn and sometimes expand into unknown movements. This gives us an opportunity to explore qualities within ourselves that are not readily know to us through our familiar, everyday sense of identity.

Dance liberates creativity as we explore effortless the possibilities of becoming someone other than who or what we normally are. Dancing in relationship to others, enhances empathy and compassion so that we form new relationships with the world around us – including ourselves! Dance is ephemeral, transient, and fleeting so that we may not feel the impact immediately. However, as we dance, our awareness shifts to a deeper quality of presence in which a spacious, unencumbered sense of self arises moment by moment out of the deep ocean of being. The miracle of dance is that over time, the me we experience in the dance slowly permeates all illusions of separation and who I am in the dance, becomes who I am.

_Christos Daskalakos

dance FOCUS

“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.”

_George Lucas

Dance is expansive, dance is fun, and dance opens up lots of possibilities. However, in this creative chaos, dance also requires the dancer to have the ability to really focus. If we are not focused on the dance and what is taking place in the present, we may just fall over! To dance is to inhabit a body that is in continuous movement and ever changing positions.

For example, as we move through space we are experiencing different perspectives of our immediate surroundings, the room, the people and ourselves. And yet there is a part of us that retains focus so that we don’t bump into people or dissolve into chaos.

Focus becomes a key element. As we focus on our dancing body, we inevitably expand our awareness to feeling and thinking. The focus we bring to our self is integrated. Sitting behind a desk engages our thinking but our body cramps, stiffens and distorts in its limited range of movement. Listening to a piece of music may evoke feelings but if we remain motionless the emotions are literally stuck in our body, with nowhere to go. Inevitably when we bring everything into alignment through the dance our focus on self is expanded, we learn, we heal and we connect with creative insight.

_Christos Daskalakos

Dance is a CONSPIRACY of LOVE

“The most subversive of all disciplines is based on the joy of living,

the right to love and to contact…”

_Rolando Toro Araneda

Love is a universal field to which we all have access. It exists beyond time and space and we have the capacity to connect into this field when we are open to doing so. It’s quite a nice concept because it means that we don’t have to go out there seeking something called love – it exists and we just need to connect.

Love in action is the conscious moment when we do just that. For me, to dance is a conscious love in action for myself. It allows me access to the heart of my being and from there to connect with everything around me. To dance with others is to share this experience. In the dance, we can connect with undifferentiated love – the pure energy of love that holds everything together.

It is difficult to dance with someone and at the same time hold negative feelings. But to let go of these takes courage. To let love flow takes courage. To reach out and dance with another sometimes can be the most courageous act of love.

Christos Daskalakos

Dance to REVEAL

“What a liberation to realize that the ‘voice in my head’ is not who I am.”

_Eckhart Tolle

Are you, you – or are you the labels people give you?

Sometimes it’s hard not to feel a little bit of puzzlement when people say something like, “my, how you have changed” or “there’s something different about you”. I am still me. It’s just that somehow the me that is me, is being expressed differently in the world. People like to give us numbers, put us in a box, and tie a label. It’s easier than being in the present, responding and interacting with someone simply with what is being presented in the moment.

In a world that likes to put labels onto us we can sometimes forget who we truly are. Just as each of our dances is unique, so are we. And just as each dance has a beauty contained in its individual choreography so do we. The beauty of dance is that it reveals who we are in the moment. We cannot dance in the past, and we cannot dance in the future. In the present we express and dance life as it is playing out now. In the dance we bring our unique presence as it is being experienced right now.

Through the dance we can let go of the labels and connect with our true being – we dare to dance our dances that say … “I B ME”

Hiding behind the pandemic masks has become a challenge to express ourselves. Can you see my smile? Can you see my frown? However in the dance my whole body can sing, can laugh, and can cry. My whole body can express exactly who I am and how I am feeling. What a powerful and beautiful practice for life, is this thing we call dance.

What wonders it can reveal!

_Christos Daskalakos

the FREEDOM of dance

 

“Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit.”

_Herbert Hoover

Dance is a powerful way to experience freedom.

Freedom means different things to each of us. For some it is physical - the freedom to move around. For others mental - the freedom of choice and expression. And for others, it's the freedom to feel. Whichever way we define freedom at its core we all are seeking existential freedom to express ourselves fully in whichever way we choose.

In the dance we explore and feel our full agency. It is our body that moves. It is our movements that express. It is our expression that finds its freedom in the dance. When we allow our creativity to flow in the dance, we are able to break free from limiting constraints imposed either externally by society or internally by our own fears and stories we tell ourselves.

As the dance unfolds and we realise that the source of this wonderful expression is ourselves, we embody a deep freedom that allows us to fully express ourselves. In conscious dance, there are no mistakes, no wrong steps and nothing has to ever be corrected. The dance in the moment is just that, the dance. And when we learn to accept this, we find that we can easily accept ourselves. This is the ultimate goal as we fully accept, love and express ourselves in the world, we find we can connect with the experience of freedom, irrespective of what is going on in the world around us. The source of freedom is within.

_Christos Daskalakos

DANCE - the exquisiteness of presence

“Dancers are the athletes of God.”

_Albert Einstein

Do we ever stop to wonder at the miracle of our existence on this planet? In this time and place, each of us is present in our unique and magnificent way. This alone is reason enough to rejoice and celebrate!

In the dance, we can savor our own presence, and when we dance with another or in a group this increases exponentially as we reflect on each other through the dance. Just being present is enough, but the dance usually brings out our best! Very rarely do we dance half-heartedly. To dance is total commitment in the moment. We bring our body, our feelings and our soul into the dance, whether we realise this consciously or not.

To enter the dance is also to enter life. To choose the path of engagement, interaction and joy that can be found when we are truly present. We dance with presence and our body feels, knows and experiences what presence is. Through the dance we learn to be present in our body and so, present in life. Dance is not only a gift to us, but our presence in the dance is a gift to everyone around us too! And when we engage in this way, we bring joy to others simply through the exquisiteness of our presence.

_Christos Daskalakos

Dance OUT LOUD!

“You may be able to fight and win battles in a suit of armour,

but when you’re wearing one all of the time without knowing it,

it becomes impossible to dance.”

_William Reich

One of the fascinations of facilitating Biodanza is witnessing the gradual changes that take place in people’s bodies and movements over time. Everyone starts at a different place and has a different trajectory because we each have our own unique journey. However, what is a common theme is the way the body warms to the dance over time. In some extreme cases, movements are initially restricted and kept very contained. On the other side of the spectrum are movements that are freely flowing, employ all parts of the body and give full expression in the dance. With each class, the dancing bodies move along this spectrum towards dancing more freely. With each progression of movement and dance come more joy, spontaneity, and fun.

This is not about being able to dance like a ballet dancer! It’s also not about technique, steps, or acrobatics. It is more of a subtle letting go into the dance. Dearmouring has become a popular modality that aims to free the body. This has always been a part of Biodanza and is used subtly and with progressivity to soften the body and free the movement. When “Dearmouring” is done too quickly and with force, the results are short-lived as the defense mechanisms that created these protective forces are simply reinforced.

Through the dance, the process can be gentle. It also can accommodate and progress in accordance with the needs of each person. Dance is such a personal experience that it allows us to engage with life on our own terms. For some it takes time, for others, it may be quicker. But there comes a day when we fully let go into the dance, connect with our heart, and DANCE OUT LOUD!

_Christos Daskalakos