DISEMBODIMENT and the Value of Conscious Dance

 

Are you feeling isolated?

How connected are you to even your OWN feelings and self?

The greatest tragedy of the past year has been the level of separation among everyone.  In the West we have come to accept and even fight for our individuality as something that is normal and accepted.  The negative side of this is that we reinforce our feelings of separation and isolation even more so now during the pandemic where many are isolating to protect themselves and loved ones.

The negative consequence of this is disembodiment in the worst way.  We disconnect from our body to the point where we don’t recognise our own inner world, our feelings and our deepest desires.  Often when these do manage to surface we are quick to repress and push down reinforcing the notion that emotion, instinct and sensation do not have as much value as mind, intellect and rationality.

The truth is that we would be making better decisions and lead a much richer life if we wake up to the messages that come from our body.  These messages usually arise from the unconscious where the rational mind has no way of dictating experience.  To access these messages we connect with the body, feeling sensations, feeling emotions and feeling into our natural instincts.  Wisdom resides in this.

One of the most powerful was of connecting to the body and integrating body, mind and soul is DANCING.  Dance includes and integrates the moving body, the feeling body and the thinking body.  Conscious Dance in particular requires a person to be physically, emotionally and mentally active, all at the same time.  This gives it the power of transformation, healing and development.

_Christos Daskalakos

I don't dance - I AM THE DANCE

 

“The whole point of dancing is the dance.”

_Alan Watts

I don’t dance – I AM THE DANCE

Dance cannot happen without you being present. Totally present!

There are so many distractions in our life as we go about our business and our head needs to hold a lot of information so that we can operate efficiently. This is really an ancient survival mechanism, however sometimes we really need to take a break. Meditation usually gives your mind a breather while something like a massage will let your body relax and let go. However when we dance we engage with every aspect of our self. Our physical movements inspired by music give expression to how we feeling. This integration of mind body and heart means that when we truly let go we become the dance.

Conscious dance practice is not an activity that we engage that has a predetermined goal. We dance for the sake of dancing. This gives us true freedom as liberate our self from all the distractions of life. It that moment of dancing we are fully present. It’s the music, the movement and me. Just like the Sufi Whirling Dervish, we find our self at a point of focus, peace and stillness in the middle of the dynamic movement that is the dance. We become the dance and in that moment it is possible to transcend the distractive pull of everyday life.

_Christos Daskalakos

Through the dance we learn to trust life

Through the dance we learn to trust life.

Our natural inclination is to hold our body upright. We are precarious creatures with a low centre of gravity which means we can topple over very easily – so we hold on. Unfortunately we hold on too tight which leads to rigidity in the body as we seek to protect our self. We are less inclined to take a chance, let go, lean over, hand over control…sound familiar?

The beauty of dance is that it is fluid. We invite our body to leap into taking risks. Jumping, turning and swirling we never know where we will land. This experience of letting go gives us a sense of freedom. We learn to trust our body – that we can be flexible, fluid and off balance sometimes. And it is safe to do so. It is safe to let go and it is safe to take a chance.

To further extend these experiences it’s always great to dance with someone else. In these dances we learn to trust each other – to be held and to be supported. We learn that the other can be trusted, I can be trusted, life can be trusted.

Dance is a celebration of love

 

“Love in Action” is a phrase used by many people and I think it is truly apt when it comes to dancing. At so many levels we have to be ‘in love’ when we dance. We love our self enough to celebrate and express who we are through the dance. We love the other who we invite into our dances. Dance opens the heart not only to love but to feeling. Through the dance we sensitise our self to connect again to how we are feeling. But more importantly dance encourages us to feel a deep sense of love for life itself.

In this world dominated by a focus on head-stuff we can sometimes be disconnected from our body, remembering maybe for a moment at the end of the day when we permit ourselves to feel our exhausted self. Being connected to the body through dance, we open become more in tune with how we are feeling throughout the day giving us an opportunity to modulate our life so that we don’t reach that point of exhaustion.

The cherry on top of this cake is that when we connect to how we are feeling, we don’t have to be reactive, or fall into negative patterns. When we gently allow our heart to speak we discover that we are really beings of love. We are more comfortable in life when we open to this feeling. We feel more expanded and life becomes poetically beautiful. Dance is then a celebration of life.

When you explore the love within your own life, you can start amplifying and sharing it with others. 

 Dancing to change the world, one dance at a time!

My dance emerges perfect

Have you ever hesitated to dance because you thought it was not good enough? Or maybe you just think you can’t dance? Or perhaps you say wearily, “I have two left feet!”

The truth is that we go through life believing the lies we tell ourselves, that we are less than perfect. Each and every one of us expresses our self in the world in a unique way. Each expression is valid – there is no better, no worse, no good, no bad. All is a perfect expression of our wonderful and amazing humanity.

And so every dance we create is perfect. Dancing connects us to an experience in which we have no judgement or expectation. The dance is the perfect experience in the moment. Maybe at other times, our dance will be different. But for now, the dance that emerges is perfect. The lesson we can take away from this is that really WE are all perfect. What a wonderful place from which to begin our relationship to life and each other! We dance to honour and celebrate each other and of course ultimately our self.

Dance is an out-of-body experience

The paradox of dance!

It may sound counter-intuitive to say the dance is an out of body experience yet the question really is – which body? – what experience?

Our day to day experience of life is mediated through our senses, our movements and generally, through the body. The way we interact with the world is determined by our past experiences. And, we have a strange determination to seek out that with which we are familiar with – even if it’s not necessarily what is appropriate. We repeat. We cling to habitual patterns. We inhabit a body constructed from our life story – our autobiography.

When we dance – …when we really dance – …when we really surrender into the dance, we let go of this everyday body and we experience the thrill and ecstasy of being in a different way. We leave our everyday body and hence have “an out of body experience.” Each dance is a unique experience in time – that means we have the potential to occupy unlimited bodies through the dance.

Dance teaches us about potential. Dance shows us the way. Dance allows us to experience what its like to be actively creative in the way we relate and interact with the world. We can create a whole ‘new’ body with many stories to tell.

Dancing with others brings lots of fun and pleasure (even if its the cats!)

Have you ever danced with your cat? 😀

Its sounds crazy but the other day my cat Lulu was very insistent. We were in the dance studio after a class and she just wouldn't leave me alone. I picked her up, draped her over my shoulder, and we danced. In one ear the sounds of a gentle Samba in the other her purring. Heaven in stereo; we danced together. I know she was having a good time by the depth of her claws in my back. But so was I .

I have this book I picked up in a second hand bookstore - "Dancing with Cats" It’s really one of those off-centre books … but I wonder now? Was Lulu enjoying the dance just because she is so affectionate - or have eleven years of living in a dance environment rubbed off onto her? I'll never know because when I asked her she just looked at me with her cute cat eyes which looked like they might have been saying "what do you think?", with cat resignation. (Talking with your cat is the subject of another story.)

Meanwhile this beautiful moment just highlighted the magic of a dance shared. It may be one thing to dance alone, or even with your cat, but quite another to share with a group of people in the studio. I feel blessed to share dance both online energetically but also more so now that we are back in the studio with a group of people who are prepared to dance through any situation.

Something to remember during these COVID times;

Dance comes first, people come first. Fear and anxieties need to go the back of the line.