Issues arising out of website chat

Adapted from a conversation on website presence for the circle dance network. Though some facets may be somewhat irelevant out of context - there are others that I feel relate not only to what we use circle dance for - but to the social issues of our world far beyond our sharing dance focus.

Yes - some people have the wherewithal to implement a working website - and there are various ways of doing that which may result in an html web site served but use various tools, templates, online systems and programs. Some of these work in the code itself and some via template interfaces or create the code from creating the design in a wysiwyg interface. They are not all compatible with each other and so don't suit a group effort unless a group all use the same tools. That's the wiki idea probably because it is the lowest common denominator - as far as I can see. However, I notice that ANYTHING to do with computing whatsoever brings up a sense of incapacity or inadequacy in MANY - and is associated with 'technology' which is presumed complex, dangerous and liable to get messed up. People then HAVE exactly such experience and are reinforced in their convictions.

So I also have doubts about ANY attempt to share via computing as being conducive to a truly shared creative responsibility. And as I've said before I don't see the signs of any such willingness either. This is not the condition into which I give myself.

Dance notes and dance videos that ARE available become a model from which any uncertainty often finds a pattern. I often find various example of a dance and use my own discernment as to what I then choose. The fact that I learned X from Y does not make it authentic - and even 'sources' can in effect choreograph certain elements and styles to particular recordings. If the range of information available is presented one can then make choices. The only way I see an 'orthodoxy' being imposed is when extant versions are invalidated and excluded from being communicated - or communicated about.

I still don't know why the teacher contacts cant be restored to the regular groups list - which in effect was the regional list.

The existing setup finds pdf easier to update - I don't know why it is lest 'harvestable' - almost any downloadable pdf becomes available via a plethora of websites. IE: Birgit Karlson's pdf songbook appears through all sorts of sites that simply 'supply access' with no connection - just as youtubes are used as 'access' to mp3s extracted from them, or news items are extracted by Google. Anything 'up there' is harvestable unless hidden behind paywalls, encoded links and etc. But even so  - only one person needs download or access such a 'private' file to then propagate it or be compromised and it be propagated - such as sextexted photos in the news recently.

However, most people's details are already public - in directories, electoral registers and various public records. I am happy that interest in circle dancing can link to my site and have a way of contacting me. But I do not seek to maintain a segregated existence of different personalities. If someone wants to be a bit more private, they might set up a special extra email account SOLEY for use as a contact - and indeed a PO Box if they want. Then they can release further information to a legitimate request.

Health is witnessed in a diversity that can nonetheless interact, relate and blend or cross fertilize. Self-protective segregating movements withdraw into factions that become a body politic at war with itself - and a body politic afraid of its own capacity to change.

Coming out of the closet - is to my mind what is meant by 'when good men do nothing' in the phrase 'evil flourishes when fear prohibits or inhibits, a true presence from coming out of its closet'.

If one does not in fact choose to 'die' then one has to step forth, or at least stay standing when fear says "run and hide".

The inmost aspect of this is simply an recognition of the choice that one is come to, but one of the ways a change of heart can manifest is to become a giver rather than a getter. To do and be and act with what is in accord with who and what you truly feel yourself to be - in relation to this moment and this situation and this relationship - as an ongoing 'spiritual' practice of self-worth.

A website is not a way to get people to dance or to get more work as a teacher or get more dancers - unless you insist that that is the culture most aligned with who your truly feel yourself to be. It offers a communication - if you want - of who and what you are through sharing something you are passionate about. I know its a challenge - because it is sharing dance and music that one is passionate about - not websites dealing in largely static and linear verbal communications. But this is where I feel Teaching is what comes through the vehicle or tool or instrument and not focussing on the form as if that was the 'author-ity' in and of itself.

Materialism forgets what anything and everything is FOR. I do not want to invest in setting up a system that everyone can use to include themselves and their offerings without some sense of shared enthusiasm - propping up something that doesn't have the energy to stand otherwise. And that is significant to our culture of dance because if we set up dependencies then we do not seed culture that is self-sustaining, vital and expanding in creative unfoldments of passionate discovery. 

This leaves me with the thought that conversations often coagulate around "what can we do to attract more support and participation?" - where we might be thinking "how can what I have to share offer more support and inspire and invite more participation?".

I always come to the realisation that dance as I live it, is part of the 'spiritual' practice alluded to above and is boxed in by various dogmas or beliefs that it has acquired - which may be good in their context but not as a blanket orthodoxy.

And of course, even voicing such suggestion induces reaction in many readers because it seems to 'threaten' even the little we have left!

But I sense the crumbs on the floor are not the Feast Itself. Such is the 'austerity consciousness' that suits the few who have the most investment in the status quo.

Whatever one chooses, change happens anyway - but we can only experience it according to the perspective we have chosen. 

If a bright circle enjoys but one stays downcast throughout - they were integrally part of the gift , but can only see through the lens of a privately maintained framework. As such they are 'less harvestable' - but in the sense of the joy that goes out and shares itself as the experience of a truly connected moment. Such is the Feast - as I see the harvest of our living. Not a secret download serving a private agenda in a place set apart to be a power unto ourselves each alone. Or a cartel of the few who set the parameters on the many and protect against any change that doesn't suit their personal investments of pride, reputation or wealth. I am not talking about 'persons' here but simply acknowledging human psychology - regardless of the organisation or society.

If anything here serves thought for food - good-oh! But I have no authority that everyone else does not share in, and only use it to include the presence of what I am moved to share - without any strings attached, to take or leave or use or ignore as your free will moves you - which I see as a willing-ness to be moved rather than the wilfulness of coercive struggle - and its corresponding identity in defence and control. THAT's what I aspire to use the dance to teach, as an experiential and shared knowing - from the free recognition within the movement itself.