Ritual Dance

THE FIVE RHYTHMS

I was introduced to the rhythms indirectly. One of my teachers, Vin Marti, was studying with Gabrielle Roth, and slowly brought pieces of her work back with him. He incorporated her work into what he was already teaching. After a five years of working together, I began covering for him when he was gone.

 What I love about the rhythms is that it provides a very loose form, a container, in which I can have my own unique movement experience. While others are having their own unique movement experiences. I have the opportunity to push my edges, within the container of the 5 rhythms. For years, I was like most other dancers. Constantly injuring myself. What I have come to realize is that most dance classes are technique classes. They are about making my body conform to a specific movement vocabulary that the teacher believes in. Personally, I would rather work in a setting where my own movement vocabulary is being supported; where I can learn to develop my movement based on my own unique physiognomy, and my own history. I have tired of watching dancers move in predictable patterns, with blank faces. To my mind, dancing as it exists today, is in many ways more of a craft than an art. Many dancers are more like robots than creative artists. When I have worked with ballet dancers, their strength and technique is well developed, but when I ask them to move improvisationally, they are lost. They don't know how to generate movement from their own personal sensibility. And who can blame them, they have little or no training in improvisation.

There are five Rhythms: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness.

How does this form bring spaciousness? Some of the other forms that I have explained are preparatory phases. They are ways of opening up the body in preparation for life. The Rhythms represent the practical phase. It takes the opened body and uses it as a transmitter for possibilities. The form can be used to experience any of the levels of consciousness. This form allows for the acknowledgment that we do indeed have bodies, and that we live on this planet with other beings, in other bodies.

One of the ways the Rhythms are used is a process called Sweat Your Prayers. Here the rhythms are used to access the Divine; to use our bodies as vehicles for prayer. It is a wonderful form for people who are not able to sit quietly. I personally have a few somatic irregularities; one of them is restless legs. What this looks like is my legs will twitch involuntarily, at unpredictable times. And so sometimes, many times, meditation becomes an almost traumatic experience.

The Rhythms bring in a powerful external medium. And that medium is music. Music can be seen as representing the sounds of the universe. And so we have Sound and Movement as Medicine.

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Ritual Dance

My own creative and therapeutic practices have given me the experiences that influence how I currently view dance and movement. I see movement as an opportunity to experience a profound sense of one's self within the community. I bring people together, and provide a container for them to go deep into themselves, using movement as the vehicle. Ultimately, the vehicle allows for a transcendence of the small self, and access to the authentic Self. It is very similar to the methods used by "primitive" tribes for thousands of years. Some of the core ingredients:

Breath: use the breath to fuel your movement. There is nothing complicated here, no unusual breathing patterns. Just notice your breath, and try to stay with full deep breaths. The healthiest way to breathe is in and out through the nose. The nose has an intricate system of filters to keep bacteria and pathogens from entering the body. The mouth does not; in some parts of the world, breathing through the mouth is considered barbaric. If your heart is beating too hard, mouth breathing becomes necessary. This is an indicator that you are probably moving faster than your own bodily rhythm desires.

Music as Guide versus Dominator/Manipulator

Music is a powerful force. When moving to music, the sounds can very easily carry us into an altered state. Let the music be the jump starter, the partner in your journey. The trick is to notice whether the music is dictating the movement, or your body is following its own internal rhythm. There are forms where the music rules, and people surrender to it, and become channels for spirit to manifest. Voodoo is one of these forms. The witness is always asking: what does my body want to say now?

Repetition: If you watch any spiritual dance, they almost always have a very specific form to them. Finding repetitive movement patterns allows our mind to relax, to let go, and let the body express itself. You can concentrate on any part of your body, notice the pattern it is describing, and keep repeating it. At some point you will let go of the need to think about what you are doing, and the movement will be clear and strong and allow you to go into a deeper experience of yourself. You can concentrate on the tension in your body, on the images that are being conjured up by your movement, on how your movement resembles or differs from those around you. Is there someone next to you doing the same thing? Amazing! All of a sudden we feel our commonality, the still point.

Setting an Intention: This is key; without this, there is no container, no place for the alchemy to take place. I sometimes attend Raves or go out to the local clubs to see what is happening. Once in a rare while I will find a place with good music and a decent floor. (the body does best with a floor that gives a little; like wood. Linoleum, cement, these are hard on the joints and the back). But never do I find the container that would totally transform the experience. It feels to me like the younger generation is slowly beginning to hear the call of the Divine. If all that raucous energy could be put into a container, kids would come home with an intense experience of connection and transformation. The primary ingredient that is missing is that of setting an intention.

What is intention? It is the process of deciding what it is that we want to create. Where do we want to be during and after this experience. Some examples: I want to feel more relaxed in my body, I want to let go of the tension in my neck and shoulders, I want to dance with another person, I want to give praise to God, I want to release my emotions.

And then there is the tribe.

Acknowledging the Tribe: We have let go of the nuclear family. In our pursuit of happiness, we have been manipulated by the media to believe that more is better. Now it is time to come back toward the center, into acknowledging the communities and tribes that we have created for ourselves. Making that aspect of our lives more conscious. Do you know your neighbors? Do you know the people who you work with? Is that the kind of life you aspire towards? How can you create more of what you truly desire in the world? In this case we are talking about connection, about relationship. Each of us is a beacon, each of us can have a profound effect on the world around us.

Eyes Open, Eyes Closed: Dancing with your eyes closed definitely transforms the experience. It eliminates the visual channel from our experience. And so it makes the inner realms more accessible.

This, combined with the energy of being surrounded by others in the same process, has a powerful effect on us. Personally, I find that I get more of a workout when I dance with a large group.