Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

“Some dance to remember, some dance to forget” ~ The Eagles ‘Hotel California’.

The forms of our dancing draw on folk dance from many cultures, and from contemporary movements to a wide variety of music, old and new.
But what is it?
One can say it is many things to many people or that what it is can only be known in the dance itself and cannot be articulated. One can itemise benefits or describe the mechanics and origins. But I feel there is something I want to try to say - so I will see if it can find a way to speak through my willingness.

The areana I would address may seem beside the point but I feel that the context in which we do anything  is the determiner of what it is. Indeed the same external behaviour can demonstrate opposite things. It all depends on where you are coming from. It is not so much what we do that is important, but what we hold in our heart. I don't mean this in any superficial sense of emotional affirmations or wishful thinking - but the actual and active desire sets the purpose or context from which all else follows.

Though it seems we have  many options in a complex world, they can all be seen as either self transcending or self fulfilling - and I use the latter in the sense of seeking to maximise a personal sense of satisfaction in terms of a currently defined sense of self.  Self transcendence is not unfulfilling - but is an expansion or a shift into a greater sense of self and life than as themind tends to define - and arises from a willingness to join or open in relationship in the moment as it moves.

The mind that sleeps in its own self definition is a kind of taken for grantedness that doesn't need to really look or listen because it believes it already knows. It sees forms but attaches its own meanings and manages its sense of itself and world in an essentially private way. It is self protective and will maintain an insulated or separated experience as a way of protecting against believed chaos, pain or inner conflict. It uses forms of communication and joining without conscious embrace or extension of trust - as in a masked presentation. We are all very adept at such behaviour as it has seemed to protect us in a loveless world - and mind.

But in innocence of any strategy, we may find life surprises or undoes us of our defences in moments of transcendence, of beauty, of joy flowing freely, of an opening of our heart that occurs spontaneously and naturally. And  not surprisingly, we want to experience that again, and again and yet again.

In time we move from innocent willingness to join or trust, into a mind that acquires history, preferences and partialities and begin to grow a personna in place of a relatedness. We become opinionated and judgemental and conditional. We look to certain forms or arrangements to satisfy or qualify our involvement and withhold unless such conditions are met. We associate ourselves with specific aspects of a wholeness that carry our personal sense of the sacred or true value - and hold these over and against what seem to be misguided or off centred - or even heretical or corrupted - movements that we do not feel at one with. And so we factionalize.

to be continued...

This I would share with you

What is it to grow a living culture that uses heart-connected music and dance as its vehicle of expression and renewal?

What is it to uncover the inner dancer, whose movement expresses as a whole and from within?

What is it to grow trust within yourself and therefore from there with others, so as to move through what had before seemed either difficult or obstructive to a greater joy in life?

What is it to take a few steps in trust and then find the dance somehow knows where to go? - and without your having to control the process?

What is it to know a oneness of the moment and movement of being that cannot be spoken - yet is a shared quality in which we naturally become released of a need to focus on differences and defences?

What is it to expand our horizons such that we grow our sense of participation in our world and in the dimensions and qualities of life?

What is it to share life without a sense of contractual obligation, one-up-mans-ship or ownership?

What is it to transcend the inward thinking judging mind and experience the body as love’s expression?

What is it to have regular and frequent renewal in spirit as part of a life lived on purpose?

What is it to serve and grow the culture by which you yourself have so much to be grateful for?

What is it to step out of a closeted existence that only seems safe - and embrace life as the transformative process that it unavoidably is?

What is it to find life each day ever anew - because of living out from an awakened heart and mind?

What is it to be a part of bringing the world to the light that it forgets and hides from in ignorance and error?

What is it to be called into a dance that will not let you forget nor hide again because you feel the call in your own heart and will not deny it or rest easy if your should try to?

This I would share with you.