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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 needs of the "teacher". Often held on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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'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.
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