rewritten from a response I gave to a curiosity about Circle Dancing and me

Circle Dancing is a vehicle for me in which the Spirit came awake in all sorts of ways that I noticed and appreciated and have grown.

It has become a path and a Calling - yet not something I sell or evangelise - because we all find what we need when we are open to it - and then discover the need being met that we didn't realize was there - beneath the surface stuff.

Like anything in this world - the purpose for which something is used is what determines it's function. I feel and practice sharing the heart in what I do - but not in a way that sets up a WOW! factor or shouts itself loud. But nor to hide or depreciate the light of the heart that rises in our sharing together.

There's a very wide spectrum of music associated with our dancing - lots of international folk music as well as contemporary music. Likewise we include lots of traditional dances - but also have new choreography - and these vary a lot too.

Dancing with awareness and in a spirit of joining can open to music in ways that wouldn't happen if just listening - we can become intimately appreciative.

Alhough as I said, some modern dances use modern music, in general I feel the sense of community that expresses the human - and Divine - heart, in the songs and energies and qualities of the music - again at all sorts of levels and ways; sharing what it is to be human. Embracing these qualities opens a greater heart - a sense of inclusion that is more than merely thinking comforting or inspiring things. An appreciation of life that is of a different foundation.

I have written much at www.livingcircle.net - my dance site - but I don't sense that any words can communicate an experience.

All I know is that it has been given me as a Calling or vehicle and that I find a way of service by which I gain through the giving - not financially - but in the growing or shifting and awakening from a thought based identity to a heart awakened sharing.

Unlike an idealized spirituality - love manifests in and through the ordinary - that is otherwise passed by or discarded by those who still seek specialness. Yet the light of love transforms the ordinary such that we allow light and joy to move through us. To move us such that we are moved as one. Such experience is not available to intellectual imagination for it embodies an integrated willingness that can not be attained or enforced - but only allowed or accepted as it is.

I mostly teach via the way I teach - rather than try to overtly teach ideas to people who have come to dance. And of course the way I teach is of an integrated and defenceless willingness - that is simply the fruit of my willingness to listen, trust and allow. Not a polished act - but simply being as we are with what we have. The real Teacher works through us in ways we do not consciously intend or expect - but we block our reception when we believe we already know - and then assert or defend our position.

The scope of the music used for circle dance is extraordinarily rich. Sometimes music may be shared in a very local way by teachers at workshop events - not strictly a retail thing but as an educational resource. But most music can now be gotten online cheaply - where artists and sources are known.

I haven't properly tried to make recordings of my own music yet - partly because my primary motive is relationship and not product, but I sense that there may come a time when I may record my music. However, recording is like a hall of mirrors in which relational connection can easily collapse into 'not making mistakes' - and that does not make for living music - and nor does over use of post production editing studio techniques - though that's the way of the world these days.

There is often a grace through my singing because it is generally a clear expression of direct presence and passion - or felt presently. Because I feel it as a part of my relationship with Spirit I have not ventured into the realms of performance and the marketplace - though that is not to say that relationship is absent from such - but it is often subject to distortion or lost to idolatry and self image. Freedom is the natural environment of the heart; to be all that it is.