Dancing as one body

One of the things that I learned when I went to Bulgaria to dance with Anna Shtarbonova and tour sacred sites, is that it was considered very important by the Bulgarians to dance as one body--as one being. I had never heard this said before in any workshops I have taken over the years and it struck me as very profound in its implications. Wow! you mean I'm not just dancing by myself with others doing the same thing, but I am actually am no longer an individual but an integral part of a larger whole? A dancer who had grown up in Bosnia shared that it was considered bad manners in her village to dance in front of another person or behind another person. Thus, it was also important to be aware of one's relationship to the dancers on either side as one danced. My experience is that most of us are only aware of ourselves as we dance and not of the whole group as a dancing body and how our movements might be related to person next to us and the dance as whole.

Another set of concepts that is relevant here that I have learned in various workshops over the years, is that the three most important persons in a line is the leader, the dancer next to him or her and the last person in the line. The second person in line is the bridge and when the leader wishes to improvise, will maintain the basic structure of the dance and thus becomes the leader for a while. The last person in the line helps maintain the formation of the line and the pattern that the leader is tracing on the ground with his or her feet. By hugging the center of the circle (and the centerpiece), the last person in line can prevent the leader from tracing patterns and unable to do anything but circle around the last person in line and the centerpiece. Of course, all the dancers have a responsibility to be aware of the leader and help create the patterns he or she is initiating. A common mistake that is made by inexperienced dancers is that when the line of dancers changes directions, they will slow down and wait for their turn to change direction instead of dancing out to the point where the dancing line turns and then changing direction.

Three-measure dance patterns

As I prepare for the in-depth workshops I will do with women and those few men who are interested, I think about some of the basic teaching bits that I hope to transmit. They are: 1) the three-measure dance is a dance pattern that most clearly has roots in Neolithic times and a matrifocal society that venerated the earth as our mother and the Goddess as the creative force. 2) The most basic dance is the Pravo and this dance multiplies into many variations. So, there are not 10 or 20 different dances, but 10 or 20 variations of the same dance. The names we commonly associate with these dances is Pravo, Cocek, Sta Tria, Issos, Crossing Dance, Zonaradikos and Jeni Jol to name a few. 3) Laura Shannon sees these dances as carrying the wisdom of the ages, a nonverbal message passed down to us from our ancestors. The basic pattern of three measures, two of which progress to the right and one which returns to the left, Laura sees as a tree-of-life pattern. The first measure is the trunk of the tree, the second measures is the brances to one side of the tree and the third measure is the brances to the other side of the tree. 4) In studying the remnants of the Neolithic age which is mostly pottery, we see the design of "three" and an image with a center and something on each side such as the butterfly and the labrys repeated over and over.

Context scramble

Context scramble: This weekend I had an experience that illustrates context scramble perfectly. A context scramble is a situation is which a person's understanding of the event is not what is actually happening. In other words, the context that you put the event in may not be accurate. On Saturday, I was attending the Sacred Dance Festival and we all had ordered box lunches. As I went to get my lunch, I passed a man dressed as a woman, with a blond braid and very nice makeup. I said, "Hello, Michael" thinking that this was a minister of the church that was taking a holiday from being a man. He said, "My name is not Michael, it is Greta. And I am here to serve the food." I thought, "Oh, he doesn't want to admit he is Michael and he thinks that if he is to help out with food, then he must take on the persona of a women since it is a woman's role to serve food and not the role of a male minister of the church." This thought was very upsetting to me. "How sexist," I thought and could not shake this out of my mind. The next day at church I saw the minister, Michael, and thought, "my, his energy has changed--much more masculine." Then I turned around and there was Greta with the same softer, more feminine energy of the day before. Uh-oh! Michael and Greta were not the same person after all. As it turned out, Greta was a transgender man who was actually the chef for the box lunches we had received the day before. And the box lunches were most delicious and prepared with great love and attention to detail. Naturally, my anger had not more reason to be and left as rapidly as it had came. It was perfectly obvious that my reaction had to do with my own misunderstanding of who Greta was and not the actual reality. Wow! Really funny.

Heart centered dance

Heart Centered Dance: It is through the dance that we enable a connection with ourselves at the level of the body and the heart. First we pay attention to the sensations of the body and moving from there to the heart centered space, we slow down to get in touch with what we can appreciate at that moment. Focusing on what we appreciate or are grateful for is one of the quickest ways of creating a focused and balanced heart space. One word can then be found and shared with the group that captures the essence of the space we have stepped into.

Part of the healing power of the dance as it existed in the agricultural societies of the Balkans was the conversation that would take place among members of the community as a part of the dance. As dancers would join the line, they would often find a friend that they had been looking forward to seeing that day and with whom they had a lot of catching up to do. (I wonder if this would have been more true for women than men?) As they danced and felt the joy of the music, they would share the ups and downs of their lives. I believe this is a ritual that had a powerful healing power. Not only did this provide an opportunity to process the stuff of their lives and the emotional reactions to it, but the continued dancing after conversation had ceased, also allowed an opportunity for the nervous system to reorganize itself in new patterns. This reorganization is what would allow the movement forward into new ways of being and doing that living requires.

Then, I was thinking that it might be good to start a workshop suggesting that each person begin the dance next to someone they know or would like to get to know. And, while the dance progresses to begin sharing with each other about their lives, particularly the most recent happenings. With the second dance, each person could find a new partner and continue the process. With the third dance, time could be spent focusing on the body and the area of the heart. In this fashion, we create a pathway to the intellect that is informed by the wisdom of the body and the intelligence of the heart.

Maximizing Productivity

Maximizing productivity:

In reading the Time Management page of a website called Strategies for Success, I was struck by how much sense it made. At the same time, I feel there is a major issue that was not addressed. The infomation given very clearly said that major distractions to getting things done includes watching TV, unplanned visits with family and friends, etc. But what about the value of engaging in these activities? Should they just be avoided at all costs if one wishes to be effective in the management of one's time?

I believe that down time is essential to one's productivity. That is to say, that regular time off from the focus one maintains in order to be productive is necessary. So a period of sustained focus followed by a period of relaxation is optimal for maximum productivity. The specifics of the time periods involved needs to be worked out by and for each person. For example, one might find it very effective to work for four hours, have lunch, take a nap and, then, work for another four hours.

I also believe it is always necessary to have a long stretch of time once a week to just vegetate, see friends, watch movies, work in the yard, etc. Vegetating does not mean one needs to be a couch potatoe or cease all activity. What it means is that the activity needs to change to one that does not require focus: a shift from left brain to right brain activity if you will.

There are studies that reinforce this notion of brain rest as a part of optimizing productivity. One such study shows that learning/memory is enhanced if a period of sleep is interposed between bouts of study. A related idea is that the best way to live life and be productive is to be in "Go, go, go!" mode: straight ahead with no deviations from the path.

This might be a way to be productive if utilized in short bursts, but it is definitely not the way to live one's life. One needs to move ahead in a relaxed fashion with periodic pauses to review one's progress and to incorporate the past into the present before one moves ahead again. This produces and ebb and a flow--a rhythm to life that is very pleasant--and is necessary--I believe--to the life well lived.