A friend and I have been talking lately about the Dark Goddess (or goddesses) and what She represents. As my ecstatic dancing is always exploring my relationship to the divine feminine, I wanted to express some experiences of Her darkness that I've had lately when I dance - the "below" that I connect to when I dance low to the ground and the energy I call up into myself from Mother Earth.
Once I read a book about Hatha Yoga that invited practitioners to use their imaginative minds when they held a pose to uncover the hidden meaning of that pose. Tree pose has always been a favourite of mine and I began visualizing myself as a tree, half of myself visible, above ground, half invisible 'below' the ground, a root system that is a mirror reflection in terms of scope and importance. As I balance in that position, one foot firmly 'planted', I visualize my roots extending down into the earth. My trunk becomes an extention of those roots and I no longer begin at the surface of the floor I stand on. My physical balance improves but so does my spiritual balance as I reflect on some deeper part of myself.
The Dark Goddess is here for me, in the unseen underworld. When I stomp or skip on the ground, I am awakening this part of myself the same way humans have awakened the fertile earth with dance for milleniums as part of their spring planting rituals. When I let my chest beat with the rhythm of the drum and I direct it towards the floor, bending away from my "head" and concentrating on my body connection to the earth, I feel goddess energy fill me and I can move into a "trance" state that is very restoring. I end the session feeling connected, alive, my mind cleared of debris.
I also want to tell readers about a local musician who has launched a successful new album that has some great meditative dance music. Elyse Bruce has teamed up with Gerry Dere to produce "Dreamtime", a project that is raising funds for the Make a Wish Foundation. Her son has an incurable disease, Myasthenia Gravis, and his life has been touched by the foundation. If you want a copy of the cd, Elyse can be reached through Centre Stage Performing Arts, Peterborough at (705) 745-5573. Mayeline and I are now holding our classes at their shared space in Peterborugh Square (with the Tai Chi Assn) and I'd be happy to get you a copy.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Yoga dance workshop
I have mentioned Amrita's beautiful Nritya yoga workshops. Here is an update on her fall session in Montreal.
Oct. 16th and 23rd
1 pm to 4:30 pm
$175
To register, go to:
http://www.ananda-amrita.com/Upcoming%20Events_Fr.htm
Oct. 16th and 23rd
1 pm to 4:30 pm
$175
To register, go to:
http://www.ananda-amrita.com/Upcoming%20Events_Fr.htm
Loving, welcoming bodies
With a new fall ecstatic dance session beginning, there has been the usual arrival of new dancers to the group. We are an open collective (or 'tribe' as some members like to say) and new people drop in all the time, needing to be welcomed. Some may not be that comfortable expressing themselves in movement.
This week I observed several dancers staying for long periods in the corner or sides of the room. We always have the choice to do this and I appreciate when the group leaves me alone to be quiet and reflective when I want to be. Sometimes it is because I am in pain and by back is stopping me from enjoying movement. Many members deal with physical injuries and dancing is another way for us to deal with pain or tightness. Other times it is because an emotion is asking to be felt in stillness. But for newcomers, it can simply be discomfort or shyness.
Several of us interacted from time to time Thursday, inviting new dancers to share more of the space. But one particular interaction caught my attention. A dancer who had been in the corner for a long time was joined first by one dancer, then a second. They just danced beside them, shoulder to shoulder, but not really with them. As if they were just keeping them company.
Then one dancer started to move forward slowly and the other began to follow. It was as if an unspoken invitation to join the space had been offered and accepted. After that, the solitary dancer moved with the others in the room. I felt I had witnessed a beautiful healing moment when someone's aloneness was shared and then dispersed into the group, allowing them to make the shift in their feeling state.
It reminded me not to be so caught up in my own journey all the time but rather to share my body generously with others when I am dancing. Moving with them. Or beside them. Or around them. Whatever way our bodies seem to wish to connect.
Loving, welcoming bodies in movement.
This week I observed several dancers staying for long periods in the corner or sides of the room. We always have the choice to do this and I appreciate when the group leaves me alone to be quiet and reflective when I want to be. Sometimes it is because I am in pain and by back is stopping me from enjoying movement. Many members deal with physical injuries and dancing is another way for us to deal with pain or tightness. Other times it is because an emotion is asking to be felt in stillness. But for newcomers, it can simply be discomfort or shyness.
Several of us interacted from time to time Thursday, inviting new dancers to share more of the space. But one particular interaction caught my attention. A dancer who had been in the corner for a long time was joined first by one dancer, then a second. They just danced beside them, shoulder to shoulder, but not really with them. As if they were just keeping them company.
Then one dancer started to move forward slowly and the other began to follow. It was as if an unspoken invitation to join the space had been offered and accepted. After that, the solitary dancer moved with the others in the room. I felt I had witnessed a beautiful healing moment when someone's aloneness was shared and then dispersed into the group, allowing them to make the shift in their feeling state.
It reminded me not to be so caught up in my own journey all the time but rather to share my body generously with others when I am dancing. Moving with them. Or beside them. Or around them. Whatever way our bodies seem to wish to connect.
Loving, welcoming bodies in movement.
Monday, 12 September 2011
Fall events
Summer is fading and fall dance activities are gearing up. Thanks to those who came out last Saturday to the Open House with West Coast Swing, Contact Improv, Afro-Modern, Ecstatic and Zimbabwean Traditonal dance. We had a ball! If you want to get in touch with any of the facilitators, contact me and I will be happy to pass on their info.
Mayelin Lovet and I will be offering an Afro-Modern fusion class this fall, Saturdays at 12:00 pm at George St. United Church. Email debbie.at.home.09@gmail.com for more information or to register.
Dance Your Bones has resumed Thursday evenings at All Saints Church and so will my blog reflections on meditation in movement.
Mayelin Lovet and I will be offering an Afro-Modern fusion class this fall, Saturdays at 12:00 pm at George St. United Church. Email debbie.at.home.09@gmail.com for more information or to register.
Dance Your Bones has resumed Thursday evenings at All Saints Church and so will my blog reflections on meditation in movement.
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Dance music
Dance Your Bones facilitator Tina shared her favourite dance music source Mondomix tonight so I'm passing it on in a new section at the bottom ... Favourite Dance Music. Check it out, only $.99 a song.
Dancing is the soulmate of music, so I'll get busy adding some music links in that section. Feel free to send me your favourite titles & links.
By the way, I checked out Dancing With the Goddess on YouTube and found Atman's great dance music so now there's a soundtrack to my blog :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpJYU8Qc_-k
It is linked down below.
Dancing is the soulmate of music, so I'll get busy adding some music links in that section. Feel free to send me your favourite titles & links.
By the way, I checked out Dancing With the Goddess on YouTube and found Atman's great dance music so now there's a soundtrack to my blog :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpJYU8Qc_-k
It is linked down below.
Saturday, 23 July 2011
The ethnicity of movement
This week while dancing, friends commented on my obvious joy of dancing to African music. A discussion followed about moving to music from different ethnic traditions and whether learning a dance style such as African (or more specifically Ghanaian or Zulu dances, as there is certainly not one "African" dance) affects how you relate to the music.
That was an interesting thought, that there might be an authentic way of moving to a particular piece of music or rhythm and that learning a style might limit your interaction with that music. I hear the voice of the individual here seeking freedom from tradition and boundaries, a very valid quest.
I have studied many different "ethnic" dance styles (and by the way, ballet is an ethnic dance for me, representing historical upper class European culture - I have had people try to tell me it is a universal dance form - boloney!). I can't say I have tried to find my own authentic way of dancing to music but rather I sought to invest my body awareness in trying to absorb how the teacher/dancer felt in her/his body so that I could feel the music the way they did. What I discovered is that there are very different ways of moving and being human.
Look at the lilt of the Celtic dances. Observe how the centre of gravity is higher in the chest and the feet keep the beat of the music and skip, as if over rocky terrain. Look at the dances from Africa, how the centre of gravity is low in the hips and how that frees the chest to beat with the rhythm, not just the feet. I feel profoundly different doing these dances, and yet I love both. I can express two different ways of being human. This is another path to freedom for me, freedom to explore the "other" from within their own cultural boundaries.
Do you have connections with different dance traditions? Have you "studied" that style or do you just like to move to it in your own way? What did you learn?
By the way, stay tuned if you are in the Peterborough area, as I will be teaming up with Mayelin Semmler to offer a modern/Afro-Cuban fusion class this fall.
That was an interesting thought, that there might be an authentic way of moving to a particular piece of music or rhythm and that learning a style might limit your interaction with that music. I hear the voice of the individual here seeking freedom from tradition and boundaries, a very valid quest.
I have studied many different "ethnic" dance styles (and by the way, ballet is an ethnic dance for me, representing historical upper class European culture - I have had people try to tell me it is a universal dance form - boloney!). I can't say I have tried to find my own authentic way of dancing to music but rather I sought to invest my body awareness in trying to absorb how the teacher/dancer felt in her/his body so that I could feel the music the way they did. What I discovered is that there are very different ways of moving and being human.
Look at the lilt of the Celtic dances. Observe how the centre of gravity is higher in the chest and the feet keep the beat of the music and skip, as if over rocky terrain. Look at the dances from Africa, how the centre of gravity is low in the hips and how that frees the chest to beat with the rhythm, not just the feet. I feel profoundly different doing these dances, and yet I love both. I can express two different ways of being human. This is another path to freedom for me, freedom to explore the "other" from within their own cultural boundaries.
Do you have connections with different dance traditions? Have you "studied" that style or do you just like to move to it in your own way? What did you learn?
By the way, stay tuned if you are in the Peterborough area, as I will be teaming up with Mayelin Semmler to offer a modern/Afro-Cuban fusion class this fall.
Friday, 8 July 2011
Wounds
Dancing, meditation in movement, has been very healing for me. It has helped me to identity where wounds lie in my body so I can start to become conscious of them and enter the healing process.
For some time, I have been dealing with a wound from the age of 20. Caught in a political battle between my dance school and the Royal Academy of Dance, I had a ballet examiner tell me "I would never be a teacher". No wound lies deeper than one that is closest to your divine mission, and mine is most definitely teaching. I was trying to become a dance teacher and when she failed me in that exam, a piece of me broke and did not repair for a very long time. I even quit dancing for a number of years.
I lost all consciousness of that wound for a very long time and it went deep into my body. A healer helped me to locate it last year in the right side of my chest, where my "wing" attaches. This represents my yin or feminine side for me. I have been working on reparing this breach so that I do not continue to have to live solely out of my male side.
While dancing, I have been balancing myself, thinking of my right side, flying around the room like a bird. Last night my body said "You can fly straight now" and I know the work is done.
Do you have experiences of healing while dancing?
For some time, I have been dealing with a wound from the age of 20. Caught in a political battle between my dance school and the Royal Academy of Dance, I had a ballet examiner tell me "I would never be a teacher". No wound lies deeper than one that is closest to your divine mission, and mine is most definitely teaching. I was trying to become a dance teacher and when she failed me in that exam, a piece of me broke and did not repair for a very long time. I even quit dancing for a number of years.
I lost all consciousness of that wound for a very long time and it went deep into my body. A healer helped me to locate it last year in the right side of my chest, where my "wing" attaches. This represents my yin or feminine side for me. I have been working on reparing this breach so that I do not continue to have to live solely out of my male side.
While dancing, I have been balancing myself, thinking of my right side, flying around the room like a bird. Last night my body said "You can fly straight now" and I know the work is done.
Do you have experiences of healing while dancing?
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