Notes and stories from some of my recent dance choreography

I have recently choreographed dances to these songs.

• ‘What are they doing in heaven today’ by the Be Good Tanyas.
• ‘Farewell Shallabiye’ by No Blues.
• ‘Drive the Cold Winter Away’ - a traditional Carol.
• ‘The Huron Carol’ (Twas in the Moon of Wintertime) - a traditional Carol.

Heaven Today?- as I have called the dance - is already a song I enjoy singing and in a simple way holds some deep truths that are supported in the lilt and yearnings of the song - which lends itself to harmonies and a heartful expression. I have also long held a sense of wanting to dance more of the songs I sing - and to add more English songs to our dance repertoire.
At various times, unborn dances nudge or prompt me. Some attempt to be born and have many hours and moments spent that yield only a dance in pending but not really through. It isn't a matter of finding or deciding steps but of feeling the qualities in the song and music and honouring these in the dance. Heaven Today? has a lazy lilt where the singing lags the waltz just a little - and hold the theme of human loss, suffering and courage - and asks a question that cannot really be framed in worldly terms which in broadest terms holds a sense of life beyond the world we seem to know and struggle within.

When I choreograph, it is a form of playing. I allow movements to occur and explore those which feel alive. But often many possible variations arise and it can become quite maddening - so there can be a need to establish some basic sense of the way of it - as a sort of skeleton structure or idea in which to focus. But always the head has to serve the heart or else the dance becomes a sterile imposition. Of course the experience of this is more about trusting myself than it is about rules of any kind - but there is a rule of asking within as to how it feels - and what it speaks of or teaches. I often find lovely movements that nevertheless do not have a home in the particular dance I am working with.
It is often the case that some of the movements evoke or symbolise aspects of the dance - and where these fit without force they are welcome. In the parts of this song where hardship is sung, I found the dance moving closer to centre but turned away from it - and for the part that approaches ‘heaven’ we simply move to centre and sway - but initially with downturned eyes and humbly - because we do not expect to deserve Light, Love, and Peace from our worldly identity. But when we look up we actually find neither sin nor sorrow - this has a reaching up and discovery that is also shared at the centre. ‘Peace is found/abounds like a river’ is one part of the song that does not have this lazy lilt - and flows as a continuum - which feels congruent with the lyric - so also in the dance the continuum of sway, turn and grapevine and sway is all exactly on the beat and without pause in a flowing movement.
I also like a dance to have something unique in it that carries a moment of discovery for the dancer and perhaps extends the vocabulary of movement - but again this is a matter of discovery rather than invention. In this dance there is a common motif of a sway that on completion spills into a turn on a swivel and another sway - which is not something I have met with before.

‘Farewell Shallabiye’ by No Blues.
This is an exercise in Arabicana - a fusion of a US blues track and an Arabic song. I feel that to join these cultures in shared joy is itself a prayer that heals. It is feelgood and upbeat with exotic Arabian threads through what otherwise could pass as a JJ Cale track. I danced a very simple intro dance to it at an IFD workshop that was like a congo and quite unsatisfying to me - but I got a copy of the music and found it lovely - and desired from time to time to dance something more congruent to it. The whole dance came to me while my partner Cathi went to post some parcels at the local Post Office - almost ready made and effortlessly - (Whereas heaven today had required concerted persistence and been crafted over many sessions).

There is an instrumental theme that is very catchy and occurs between each other part of the music and this found a simple crossing step with a slight lean and a lift of hand and foot as one. Totally brainless and immediate as well as easy to gain orientation without need to count anything. The blues part found a series of step, slipstep and sway that just fits the flow of the delivery. When the Arabic singing comes in I felt to let it be an expression primarily of the hands - so I let the feet have a sort of grapevine where the latter two beats were more expansive - like the singing - and the hands were free to move to the arabesque singing. This is an area of growth and awakening for most circle dancers - and with appropriate permissions and encouragement is enjoyed greatly. So much of our expression as dancers is forfeit when we hold hands all the time. The second time the Arabian part comes round it is much shorter and subtler. I invite this to focus more on the energetic of presence expressed through subtly held gesture - and scarcity makes it precious as there is no time to take it for granted! At the final part there is blues and Arabic singing in fusion - and I hold this as an opportunity to do the blues part of the dance in the hands free and expressive style. This is not accessible at first for most so I leave it as the standard ‘blues’ part of the dance until the dancers have found the dance in their bodies and their own freedom in hand gesturing - but again is an opportunity for growth as a dancer.

What is growth as a dancer?
Not really the acquiring of techniques or skills so much as the release of obstacles that allow the fuller freer expression of life in dance.
Of course this coincides with increased perspective and freedom within a more spacious awareness to feel and be presently expressive as the very resonance of the music in ones own being. A grace and lightness of being. A natural un-armoured demeanour. A calm and receptive presence.

‘Drive the Cold Winter Away’ - a traditional Carol.
Well actually I made this last year - Christmas 2007 - but wanted to add a few notes here.
It is a merry and convivial carol with references more to the warmth of forgiving, restful and celebratory hearts than direct references to Jesus’ birth - and I wanted a simple but fitting movement that flowed in the manner of the 6/8 music. As I write this I have just seen a partner option for the first part that would add further merry meeting.
It has a pattern that naturally invites looking up in greeting - with a ‘Condor’ moment at the centre. The Horslips instrumental version is fine for when driving the winter away appeals but the seasonal celebrations are behind us! I haven't news of a good recording of the sung version that fits yet - but it is fun and hearty to sing and I enjoy doing so.

The Huron Carol - a Trad Carol.
I found versions of this Carol on youtube and liked elements from different versions - but for the dance initially I was drawn to a version that can be viewed HERE
I was drawn to the sense of opening and aspiring in the third line that then falls into a pause amidst a rather strange and wonderful incompletion from which the chorus then stands forth. I immediately ‘felt’ a dance!
As it happens the week before I had made up a simple dance on the spot for 4 seasons because I didn't recall or like the original but wanted to sing and dance the song - and the first part of this tapped me on the shoulder and said "I fit this Carol just right" - and I agreed. It is a forward travelling step slipstep step - slightly expanding and contracting.
The third line faced centre and palms up moved in to right, in to left. The 4th line has us step back before then stepping in to centre and bending knee in reverence and pausing. The chorus then bends again and suddenly rises our arms as we steap back and rock and sway to indicate the cardinal directions which is also a cross and arms come down with a slow grapevine to finish.

The feelings of this are a travelling around that comes to face centre in willingness to behold and receive - yet this is in some sense hesitant as of approaching a holy state or place that the conditioning of our past might have us feel tempted to unworthiness or fear of - for we are stripped of our pretensions in such a light. Yet we do approach and in essence kneel or give recognition, welcome into our heart and honour. This for the wise men who left their kingdoms in guided search for truth and received it. The immediate response of the awakened heart is to give joyously and to rise and release and allow the light to plant itself in the world through them, here in this place, here with these hands I join.

Now of course these words are not in the dancer - but something of such energetic symbol is innately in the dance and it is a way to bring the appreciation of the entrance of the divine into the human story - into wordless experience felt and known.

There are other aspects to the Huron Carol lyric that I hope to address. I will make a new lyric from the literal translation of the Huron version that was made by St Jean de Brébeuf a jesuit missionary in (then) New France c.1643. The popular verses used are simply a version made by Jesse Middleton, a Toronto journalist and church musician in 1926 that renders the standard nativity in American Indian terms - whereas the original included aspects of teachings in addition to nativity references.

That Christianity may be associated with the white man’s subjugation and genocide of indigenous peoples is distinct in my mind from the story of Jesus - which is not owned or ultimately interpreted by Christianity.
The crucifixion was an act of ignorance. The mind in ignorance knows not what it does - for it does not know what and who it is! Jesus is a story of a man who did know he was ‘of the Father’ - and who released his own will in service and love for ‘the Father’s Will’ found in his own heart’.

Which brings me to consider the sacred and dance as a subject for a future blog entry.
But for now I would say that to be congruent in receiving and expressing the music felt in heart and body, is to be adding not - nor taking away - but is in effect surrendering one’s self will to allow a greater Will - and this is the open ‘door’ to the sublime in whatever kind of quality of life we share.

PS - The Huron Carol - I have gotten a version by the Crash test Dummies which I will try with either a slightly adapted (simplified) dance - or use Amazing Slow Downer to play it a bit slower.