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ECSTATIC MOVEMENT, BODY PRAYERS!
Trance Dance, Dance Improv, Contact Improv,
Barefoot Boogie, Yogadance, Dance Jam.
"Dancing is an expression of one's soul. When you
begin to tune into the rhythms of your body, you get in touch with your inner
ecstasy."
DANCE IMPROVISATION
A Dance Improv class is usually led by someone who guides the class through
various movement exercises designed to expand the dancer's repertoire of movement,
open up the ability to relate to each other through dance and contact, and/or
experiment in fusing dance with new and varied experiences of expression. This
may entail using one's voice while dancing, practicing movement such as smooth,
flowing gestures or robotic, staccato movements, or perhaps taking turns dancing
each other's bodies by having one passive partner and one active partner. The
active partner will move the other's body in various ways while the passive one
responds to what is being shown or suggested. Sometimes a class could have live
musicians who will tune into the movements of the various dancers or play certain
rhythms or styles according to the direction of a facilitator. Each class will
differ from the next in certain ways, while retaining some essence of continuity
in its approach. There is a period of free dancing where the dancers will just
move about the room, interacting with others or expressing themselves alone.
CONTACT IMPROVISATION
Contact Improvisation is a relatively new dance form where the dancers are
in close body contact. Any part of one's body may come in contact with any
other part of another's body. In Contact Dance, the dancers strive to remain
in continual contact while moving about, often lying on the floor as much as
being on one's two feet, or even one foot. You may find yourself completely
off the floor and supported only by the contact partner or partners. Contact
Dance will often include multiple dancers and sometimes can lead to a pile of
bodies squirming on top of one another like snakes. There is no shyness here
and for those coming to a Contact class for the first time it may take a little
adjusting to accept the level of intimacy that happens at one of these. Contact
Improv is helping to open up the social constrictions and body boundaries
maintained by the prevailing notions of morality which dictate the proper
maintaning of distance.
YOGADANCE
You walk into the room, people are lying about on the floor, in a prone position,
the yoga posture known as 'the corpse'. Soft music is playing. You lie on a mat
upon the floor and close your eyes, feeling the tensions of the day falling out
of your body. Slowly you begin to enter into a meditative state, peaceful and
relaxed. The minutes go by and you remain in a reverie until the music has
stopped and a quiet voice begins to direct you in assuming a yoga posture while
lying down. One posture leads to another. Slowly and gently, with no effort your
body responds to the stretching and contracting of each individual pose. Going
only as far as your body feels comfortable going, your breathing synchronizes
with the pulse of your movement. In Yoga, the practice of proper breathing is
called Pranayama. Gradually you come to a standing position and do some of the
postures done from this position. There may be a prompt for the class to begin
moving a certain part of the body and feel the movement of just a wrist or elbow.
Or perhaps a flowing sweep of an arm through the air, or just to walk quietly and
aimlessly about the room. Music begins to play and your body may already have
started dancing. Slowly you begin to respond to a lilting melody or to the
interplay of instruments. You're tuning into the inner rhythms of your own body.
As the pace picks up you're interacting with each person in the room, looking
them in the eyes, smiling, letting their movement influence yours. There might be
some suggestions from a facilitator to express your body movement in specific ways.
This is the Yogadance class.
One class exercise is to line up on one side of the room and following
each person as he or she does a movement as they cross the room. When they get
to the other side they turn around and see their visual creation. If done with
finesse, grace, and a strong dose of simplicity, they can take in the wonderful
sight of seeing a group of people coming across the room in synchronous rhythm.
Without just the right amount of these elements, you might turn around and see
the group coming at you with no semblance of order, each doing their own thing,
or a number of variations of what you did. Good for practicing bold gestures in
movement. Another exercise might be to dance in partners, with one being
blindfolded as they dance. A wonderful exercise in trust or guidance. One dance
is getting to dance with each and every person in the room for the duration of
one long song. Experiencing each style of dance expression and the changing
vibration of each person's aura in front of you while you are creating your own
interaction with them is stimulating and revealing. Another is to tune into our
totem animal and become that while moving about the room, interacting with the
other "animals".
Dancing to live drummers is sometimes the music used for dancing. Sometimes we
sound out certain vocalizations while moving, working on moving energy through
the body. At times there might suddenly be an abrupt halt to the music as the
teacher yells "stop!". At that moment your dance freezes in position as you
close your eyes and you feel this energy surging strongly through you that is
the dance. As a group, you might help create a human sculpture, changing one
person at a time.
TRANCE DANCE
The room is filled with dancers, the music is pumping loud. Electronic, pulsing,
spacey sounds
swirling, colored lights flashing, people dancing around and around in a circle,
eyes half-closed, bass drum beating out rhythmically... this is the way to lose
yourself in ecstatic movement. Welcome to the trance dance. This is the scene you
might find at a Rave or at certain dance clubs. Wild clothes can be a part of this
crowd. People might be wearing neon glowing gadgets or face paint in day-glo colors.
The dance is free and wild, the emphasis is on the expression of each individual
rather than the group dynamic. It's an atmosphere of see and be seen, a social
gathering, letting the body go, having lots of fun and just keep moving. You
might encounter multiple rooms, perhaps a "chill" space with pillows, tapestries,
an altar, incense, oriental carpets, quiet music and soft lighting; a cozy and
intimate place to be with friends or meet others. Another room might be the hard
core, fast pulsed, 100 decibel-plus, black light, strobe light, dance a go go.
It's a great place when you're in the mood to dance, dance, and dance.
BAREFOOT BOOGIE
Barefoot Boogie can encompass
many different musical styles as well as dance forms. As the name implies, you're
there to dance with your shoes left outside the door. Usually you'll find a warm,
friendly atmosphere with everyone having a good time. You'll see some dancing
alone, some with partners, some dancing in small groups or milling about. You
might see contact dance in progress, or someone sitting off to the side just
stretching. Barefoot Boogie is an "express yourself" kind of happening and is
lots of fun with no real dancing agenda or style. A great way to spend a Friday
night instead of going to a nightclub or bar type atmosphere. Be sure to bring a
bottle of water to keep yourself hydrated.
DANCE JAM
Dancing is such a joy and always fun when a group of people decide to get
together and move with each other. A dance jam can be a spontaneous gathering
or a weekly event. This is for the sheer
expression of joy and fun that can be had when dancing. Sometimes you'll find
that there are two rooms to dance in at the same Dance Jam. One will be for
high energy dancing and music, and another for relaxing movement and quieter
music to soothe the soul. It's fun to go from one to the other, pacing yourself
through the night.
I enjoy all these various forms of dance and seek out this kind of expression
wherever I find myself. Dance is a way of tuning in to the subtle expressions
of one's psyche. I find it to be a healing experience to move my body in dance.
I spent a few years dancing with Gabrielle Roth's Moving Center and was in her
band called The Mirrors at that time. She emphasized the cathartic nature of
dancing and referred to it as sweating your prayers. Gabrielle mixed dance with
theater, musical expression, shamanism, psychological insight, ecstatic
movement, and mysticism. It was an honor to be hand-picked to be a part of the
first eighteen people to go through the paces of her successful "Moving Center"
group way back in 1980, when I was still quite young. We spent 8 hours a day,
5 days a week, for three weeks, dancing and probing our inner selves for the
most profound expression we were able to elicit. I watched some within our
tight-knit group go through releases and breakthroughs that brought them into
emotional catharsis and dramatic transformation on a deep level of their being.
In three groups of six people each, representing the "doing", "having", and
"being" core issues, we would work out our personal issues, turn them into
movement and a phrase. Then in 3 circles, pass these around the circle in a
flowing motion of one into the next. Sometimes we would have homework
assignments, having to write about the image of the mother, the father, or what
pair of tendencies we thought we were in the
enneagram. At the end of each
week, Gabrielle would pick out various parts of our group movement creations
which were sometimes coupled with song, soliloquy, dialogue, or skits, and
fashion them into a cohesive whole. We would then perform this play for a small
number of invited personal friends.
I was part of a weekly Yogadance class for 7 years and eventually ended up
helping to teach both the Yoga and the dance exercises, often making tapes to
program the music for coming weeks. Some of my most wonderful friendships were
forged in that magnificent space. It was always fun and at the same time felt
beneficial to my health and well-being. I sometimes walked out of there feeling
like I was floating on air. Jeff Hoffman, the guitar player for Gabrielle's
Mirrors at that time, originally started the Yogadance class I went to often
and now has gone back to hosting it after a many year hiatus.
For many years I attended a Dance Improv class in Princeton, NJ. It was an
hour's drive but I looked forward to doing it and was excited to be a part of
what felt to be cutting-edge dance expression and movement. There is a sense of
intimacy in dancing with friends in an atmosphere of playfulness and exploration.
People are not afraid to engage, look into your eyes, or dance each other's dance.
This class has been run by Catherine Judd since its inception and is still going
strong. I sometimes went and just played music in the ever-changing roster of
musicians that accompanied the dancers. I met some very talented musicians there
and had as much fun playing music for the dancers as I did dancing.
I've been getting more into doing Contact Improv lately and only wish there
were more of it in the area where I live now. It's a wonderful dance expression
and there is so much more I'd like to do in being able to know the difficult
movements needed to execute the advanced postures capable in this art form.
Watching those who perform this with skill is very exciting and inspiring. Dance
is a beautiful way to pray with one's body. On the Big Island in Puna, my friend,
Skywalker, through Gypsie Nation, has been hosting dances on Friday nights in an
atmosphere of sacred space, with dialogue limited to the time before and after the
ceremony of movement. The music is a wide variety from all over the world and you
can also suggest music to Skywalker that you would like to hear and dance to. On
Sunday mornings at the Kalani Honua retreat in Pohoiki there is ecstatic dance. It's
in a nice large room with a wood floor. With its screened-in walls and tall ceiling
there's plenty of air and spaciousness. On the other side of the island is the Kona
Dance Jam in the Kealakekua Bay area.
I have spent some time in Berkeley, CA and
there are many opportunities for dance in the Bay Area. I would almost say endless.
There is one week a year when a lot of the ongoing dance classes, performance groups,
and weekly dances open their doors for a free sample of participation for all. A
special section in the local newspapers list all these opportunities for that week. There
are ongoing dances at the 8th Street Performance space in Berkeley and I was particularly
fond of the Friday evening dance improvisation.
Princeton Dance Improv
Group performance in Trenton, NJ.
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©2000 by Jaris Dreaming
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