Why Dance

Why Dance?

Everything is existence is in motion... the stars, the seas, our hearts, the tiniest atomic particle. Flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, stillness... the rhythms change and all life participates in the cosmic dance.

In our modern, fast paced, outer-directed lives, we have lost contact with nature's rhythms, as well as our own. And yet, some part of us beckons us to dance, perhaps roots that take us back to a time and place where "everyone" danced. They danced for pleasure, for vision, for healing and to strengthen the community. Our cells remember the joy of surrendering ego to the movement, the music, the moment.

What occurs when we surrender to the inner promptings of our bodies' wisdom and allow ourselves to gently explore our full range of movement is that the mind, body and emotions are in concert. We are content; we feel... at-one-ment.

In truth our bodies are a detailed map of everything we've ever experienced... good, bad or indifferent. The body wants to let go of pain, tension and negativity. The body wants to experience and be encoded with pleasure, joy and expansion.

Dance is a perfect and pleasurable way to do exactly that.

Wishing You Wonder and Expansion ~Eileen Pollock

The cure for grief is motion. ~Elbert Hubbard

Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.
~Rumi

In every breath there is a dance.

You can feel it.

~Prem Rawat

Life is a dance. May the music of your life be in perfect harmony with all of your dreams. -Unknown

THE LORD OF THE DANCE

I dance in the morning when the world was begun,

And I dance in the moon and the stars and the sun,

And I came down from heaven and I dances on the earth,

At Bethlehem I had my birth.

I danced for the scribe and the Pharisee,

But they would not dance and they wouldn't follow me,

I danced for the fisherman for James and John,

They came with me and the Dance went on.

I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame,

The holy people said it was a shame

They whipped and they striped and they hung me high,

And they left me on a cross to die.

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black

It's hard to dance with the devil on your back

They buried my body and they thought I'd gone

But I am the dance and I still go on.

They cut me down and I leap up high,

I am the life that'll never, never die

I'll live in you if you'll live in me,

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.

~Shaker hymn

God respects us when we work but He loves us when we dance.

~Old Sufi saying

Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order. ~Samuel Beckett

If you have Joy and Warmth in your Heart, a Light in your Mind, Peace and Love in your Soul, and Power in your Spirit, you dance well. ~Bensa Douno.

Daylight, full of small dancing particles
and the one great turning, our souls
are dancing with you, without feet, they dance.
Can you see them when I whisper in your ear?

~Rumi

Everything in the Universe has rhythm. Everything dances.

~ Maya Angelou

Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion. ~Martha Graham

Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states. ~Carol Welch

The people shall rejoice and dance within, and all the kingdoms shall rise together as if from the mist of the dreams of humanity, and forge a union with the divine.....and man shall join woman in the final dance of alchemy. ~

~ I Remember Union - The Story of Maria Magdalena by Flo Aeveia Magdalena

Are you seeking Light or just dancing with the Dark?

~Peter Newton

DANCING WITH GOD

When I meditated on the word Guidance, I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word. I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing. When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn't flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky. When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music. One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another. It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.

Then my eyes drew back to the word Guidance. When I saw "G": I thought of God, followed by "U" and "I." "God, "u" and "i" dance." God, You and I dance.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust that I would get guidance about my life. Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

Let's DANCE!

~Author unknown to me

May You Walk in Beauty and Dance in the Light.

~Erika Hildegard Germaine

Recommended Reading:

SWEAT YOUR PRAYERS: Movement as Spiritual Practice

by Gabrielle Roth

This is a vibrant, juicy, exquisite *in-love-with-life* book with lots of great ways to retrieve the scattered parts of ourselves and integrate them back into wholeness, in ways that are JOYOUS & FUN!