An inspirational chapter from PAPA'S TRIBAL CAFE: A PARENT'S GUIDE TO NURTURING RAINBOW WARRIOR'S...on the power of dance....
ESSENTIAL PORTAL: DISCOVERING DANCE AS A SPIRITUAL PATHWAY
" Dance is the hidden language of the soul." -Martha Graham
The journalist, Bill Moyers, during an interview with the great teacher, Joseph Campbell, tells the story of an academic who meets a Japanese Shinto Priest at a conference.
Upon meeting him, he tells the Priest that, “I have been to your shrines and temples and observed your ceremonies, but I can’t see any theology or idealogy”.
After taking a long, thoughtful pause, the Priest replies that, “I don’t think we have a theology or an idealogy. We dance”.
History teaches us time and time again, that the spiritual quest of humanity, the path to discovering the light within, while it can be suppressed and manipulated, cannot be extinguished. I have learned through personal experience, and through deep exploration with others, that dance is one of the most effective tools we have for activating the light within, and connecting us to the spiritual quest, precisely because it is one of the most effective tools we have for, aligning and freeing, the mind, the body and the soul.
"Free your mind, elevate your soul…let your body take control".
-Soul II Soul
When we free our bodies from the confining patterns of repetitive movement that compromise our routine daily behavior, when we let go of control and allow our movement to expand and flow fluidly, to respond to the calling of the music, to align with spirit, we liberate not only our body, but our hearts and minds, as well.
The mind, body and soul function as reflections of each other. When we relax the body, the mind and soul relax. If we take on emotional stress, our body becomes tense. When we free the body, we free the mind and soul. If the body falls into routine, into rigidity, so then will the mind and soul.
Disease is inertia. Healing is movement.
"If you put the body in motion, you will change."
-Gabrielle Roth
Consider the range of movement the average person goes through in a day. It’s very limited and very repetitive. For most people their movements are routine and rarely branch off into new directions. They climb out of bed, they shower, they sit and eat. They drive a car, or ride a train, or maybe walk to work. They sit at a desk, or hammer a nail, or plant some seeds, or push their pens in basically the same way every day. If they take a jog, or have a swim even, it’s pretty much the same range of movement day after day. Generally, people sit, walk, stand and lie down in the same way day after day.
When we dance, as our bodies move freely beyond our normal range of physical movement, we break the routine of movement that confines our mind and soul. When we allow our bodies to move with fluidity and a greater range of expression, we open our hearts and minds. As we move and breathe and flow, we unblock our heart, release our breathing and open our channels, or chakras. We generate inner light.
The masterful actress Olympia Dukakis once compared the training of an actor to assembling a plumbing system. She said that, the idea is to open and connect our emotional being with our physical power and our intellect, so that everything flows without obstruction and is expressed with the full potential of our beings. Dance is a great tool for unclogging our pipes and accessing, not only our inner light, but the source of universal love which powers it. Flowing movement and breath are the keys.
"I have discovered the dance.
I have discovered the art
which has been lost for two thousand years."
-Isadora Duncan
My journey into the power of dance, which led Phoenix and I to Hawaii, began in the early nineties, in Los Angeles. Every action has a reaction, and in that way, the sprawling smoggy empire of fame and fortune, of greed and exploitation, LA, spawned a reactionary underground culture in response to the surface glitter. In the last part of the twentieth century, a generation of youth that had grown up without any elders to guide them on a meaningful spiritual path discovered their own path. By accident. They discovered it through dance.
They discovered it under a blanket of stars and surrounded by ancient desert. Los Angeles is one of the most polluted and soulless cities in America, but it is surrounded by amazing, diverse and powerful aspects of Mother Earth. Within a couple of hours, the living Mojave Desert, giant Sequoia forests, snow-capped mountains, and the beautiful Pacific Coast can be accessed. And these pioneering dance tribes accessed them all.
A revolution in electronic music fueled a completely new dynamic in dance. Through modern technology an ancient, tribal portal was rediscovered, without teachers, without rules. Organically the inner light was ignited through dance in communion with nature.
"When humans participate in ceremony,
they enter a sacred space.
Everything outside of that space
shrivels in importance. Time takes on a
different dimension. Emotions flow more freely.
The bodies of participants become filled with
the energy of life, and this energy reaches out
and blesses the creation around them.
All is made new; everything becomes sacred."
-Sun Bear
When I discovered the power of collective dance, my theater work was already moving in the same direction. What I discovered blew the walls off of the work I was doing, on multi-levels. Borders between performer and audience were shattered. The power of the immersive experience was levels beyond anything I could accomplish as a director in the Theater. Ritual was at the core. The relevancy to our culture and to the balance of life on Earth was far beyond any work that could be done within the handicapped and dying form of theater.
People were dancing, not simply for a release of energy or as a social activity, but with a higher purpose that tribal cultures throughout history have long been aware of: To enter a state of trance where the body, mind and soul are aligned and awakened to the personal and collective divinity and where the limiting illusion of the ego burns away to reveal the higher-self.
"Dancers are the messengers of the gods" — Martha Graham
As I researched the phenomenon, I found examples in countless cultures. There are, of course, the whirling dervishes, practitioners of the Sufi philosophy, which has survived for thousands of years as a highly refined path to wisdom. There are the ceremonial dances of numerous Native American tribes. There are countless African tribal dances and the ritual dances of the Aboriginals. Shamans from Siberia to South America dance themselves into states of trance to connect with healing powers. Hindu mystics write of the power and necessity of collective dance as a step towards higher spiritual understanding, especially in their teachings of Shiva, the cosmic dancer. Hundreds of thousands of Krishna devotees gather religiously all over India to chant and dance their way towards spiritual devotion. Euripides, the Greek playwright wrote over 2,500 years ago of full moon collective dances in ancient Greece.
"The dancer's body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul." -Isadora Duncan
The list is extensive and diverse and doesn’t stop here. While dance has transformed in modern cultures into a less meaningful interaction, its roots are powerful and transportive, and these roots do not have to be studied or known, to be accessed.
I discovered in the nineties, outside and around Los Angeles that the experience of dance in conjunction with hours of seamlessly mixed rhythms affected even those who had no awareness of dance as a spiritual experience. Ironically, these desert gatherings were started by a group of kids, that just wanted to play loud music for their friends, unknowingly they had stumbled upon a deep and essential calling of humanity. They evolved into something very special. Many came just for the party, but they left in a healthier state. It was inescapable.
"Within moments the eyes of the whole tribe
were on him.
His dance intensified.
It became freer and more expansive.
Like a flash fire it lit up the rest of the dancers.
The erupting dance activated the whole gathered tribe.
He was leaping and spinning in the middle of it all,
Soaring through the air.
The cover of fear that for so long had smothered
his heart,
Had finally, completely dissolved."
–Through the Eyes of the Phoenix
The forms of theater and film, which I had been working within, had been irrevocably transcended. This was sacred theater that approached ritual in its form and accessed the spiritual vision of the ancients through the technology of the present. I began to shift my focus from being a director creating theatrical experiences, to focusing on integrating mythological elements into dance gatherings in an attempt to focus them further and towards bringing out the ritualistic and tribal aspects.
I began to create events where everyone who came was participant through dance, and performance and where the energy of the gathering was focused on, most importantly the cycles of the Earth, moon and cosmos, but also on different aspects of our spiritual voyage as humans. I actively explored the realm where ceremony and ritual become rainbow bridges joining the physical and spiritual worlds. Dance was the key to the whole experience.
I have spent the time here to share a glimpse of my journey into dance in order to stress the value and potential that dance has to offer as a tool for nurturing our young Rainbow Warriors. Dance is an indispensable tool and portal. No experience is necessary. No format or system is required.
"Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery".
- Martha Graham
Given my path, Phoenix was obviously exposed early on to the power of dance. It has never ceased to be part of our lives. Music is usually in the air around our home and our movements are constantly reflecting the energy. My fingers are dancing as I type these words.
Children respond directly and instantly to music through dance. There is no better tool for freeing them up and initiating the expression of joy that flows effortlessly from the dance. The benefits of dance extend in every direction.
As a daily exercise dance is guaranteed to stimulate energetic flow and promote fluidity of movement. Dance is creative movement, encouraging children to dance supports their confidence to express themselves creatively in all areas.
"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy,
a quickening that is translated through
you into action, and because there is only
one of you in all of time, this expression
is unique.
And if you block it, it will never exist
through any other medium and it will be lost.
The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how
good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares
with other expressions.
It is your business to keep it yours clearly
and directly, to keep the channel open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself
or your work.
You have to keep yourself open and aware
to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open."
- Martha Graham
The freedom of dance empowers the spirit of our young Warriors to break through walls of conformist thought and behavior. The expression of joy that dance releases, allows, the spirit to soar and is a sure connector to the heart. The family that dances together laughs together.
"If I could tell you what it meant,
there would be no point in dancing it ."
- Isadora Duncan
When words are insufficient, when words are too much, when we or our children become trapped in our heads, in our thoughts, dance is a great liberator. When our energy feels low or dormant, when we, or our children, are feeling a touch of the common cold of mental illness, depression, dance is an empowerer.
When our all important sixth sense, the sense we can least afford to be without, our sense of humor has left us, or our children, stuck in seriousness, dance will reconnect us to our smiles.
Dance is a journey. Whether that journey is one of play or is a sacred journey, whether it is for five minutes, or it entails hours of sweat, it is always of value. Whether it is free form or it is an exploration of a particular style or tradition, dancing allows the Rainbow Warrior within to creatively express themselves and to stimulate the flow of their life force through all of the aspects of their being, and to unite their mind, body, and soul in joyous communion.
"You can’t change the World, but you can make it dance ".
= Smoochy
