Running naked in the storm and dancing in the rain

I met the following quote

"Life isn't about coming in from the storm.  It's about getting out there and dancing in the rain!" (source unknown)

(also quoted as "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass it's about learning to dance in the rain")

When I read this it reminds me - amongst other things - of once when at an early Dance Camp East, when a great thunderstorm arose.
Being at camps was for me also an immersion in the energetic and vitality of Life - whole bodily embracing the qualities of life in the natural world - rather than merely pigeon holing experience from an inwardness of past impressions and thoughts.
And the charge and exuberance of the storm - and then the pouring sheets of rain, had me suddenly throwing off my clothes and running in the rain in pure delight!
I often ran for joy in rain at occasions afterwards - but this first occasion was of such an inspiration and spontaneity that I remember feeling - "this could be where dance originates, for the very power of Life Moves and is given expression in movement".

Being Moved is very different from submerging self in a so called animal nature - because it is in and of an open awareness rather than letting urge take over in order to gratify a sense of need or appetite.

In the path of opening as a dancer - as one who is moved, called or inspired, I have had all sorts of openings in all sorts of situations, that are part of restoring or growing a capacity to dance. I'm not talking technical stuff here - I'm talking of an integrated being - though of course ease also allows more free attention to bring to nuance of form if that is called for.

These openings in life are primary spiritual intimacies where inside and outside fall away, as irrelevant or without currency.  Sometimes they are served by outer conditions that support or at least do not block the impulse of Life - such as a camp in which the above COULD be allowed without any fear of freaking anyone out or merely making spectacle of exposure. Or a held circle where emotional release COULD be allowed in the same light. But always the primary condition seems a receptivity that is lost to us if we take on a life of inwardness and self concern.

It's hard to dance in a suit of armour!
Or as Sydney Carter put it; "Its hard to dance with the devil on ye back!"

in Gratitude

Brian

PS - I remember also as a 4 or 5 year old with my friend Robert, in his garden, both taking off clothes and running and yelling in warm summer rain. I think we ended up in the sand pit until Robert's Mum carried us back in and dressed us on her kitchen counter - Something of that moment with Robert and his Mum was one of the earliest memories I have of consciousness stirring in me. Of noticing consciousness.