Sunday, June 27, 2010
“Life is a Dance.
Sometimes you lead.
Sometimes you follow.
You don’t need to know the steps.
You will remember them along The Way.”
I have been an active environmentalist for over 30 years. Early on, I combined my interest in scientific ecology with the sage teachings of the ancient Taoists. Both of these ways of knowing teach us that we are inseparable from our environment — We are One!
Dancing is one of the best ways I know of expressing this oneness. So now most of my environmental activism is expressed dancing — being with and flowing with the Tao.
I am happiest and feel most alive when I am dancing. At no time do I feel more at one with the environment.
Taoism tells us that this kind of movement celebrates the flow of the Tao, greases the wheel of life, promotes the flow of Ch’i. Dancing can be a meditative practice to remind us of our connection.
It is my opinion that we were built to dance and it is a crime against our nature to not allow ourselves to respond to the what our body wants to do when it hears and feels the music’s muse.
Too many of us wait to be taught how to dance. It is my contention that we already
know how, we only need to remember having learned in our evolutionary past.
Indeed, the science is now supporting the contention that we oscillate at a cellular level to nature’s rhythms. We have forgotten consciously how to dance, we only need to remember how.
My point here is that “nature has more to teach us about dance than man.” Learning dance steps is a human convention, moving with nature is natural.
There is an old American jazz song, “It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that Swing.”
It refers to the importance of rhythm in music and dance.
The noted Webster’s English Dictionary defines “to dance” as “to move in rhythm, ordinarily with music, to move lightly and gaily, to be stirred into movement, as leaves in a wind.” To me, moving in rhythm defines dance, it is NOT about a learned series of steps, fixed patterns of movement and gestures. It is about Rhythm.
Dancing is being in the moment, moving in rhythm with nature. If you are in your head — counting steps or thinking what you are going to do next, you are not in the flow of music and its rhythm. We need to get out of our heads. Dancing is about body movement not mental activity. Forget about looking at your feet or trying to remember patterns and gestures. Let your body flow with the music.
Do birds only sing to attract mates? Do dolphins only dance in the sea to navigate? Call me crazy if you want, but I believe that living things move by compulsion, unfettered natural compulsion — they play with the elements about them, they respond to their internal impulses and are shaped by the interaction. On-going compulsive play is life’s natural state and I believe it is those behaviors that have been selected for creating bountiful, successful living — a happy life. Those denying, withholding, controlling these natural impulse have moved into an unnatural state.
To me, a session of dancing, listening to soft melodies and pulsating beats, dissolving idle concerns into the patterns of a few carefully chosen rhythmic moves can “transport you to where you are” — in the immediate present. The spirit of dance is like the spirit of Tao: it flows spontaneously, roaming here and there impatient of restraint. There is an alchemy to dance — it is a way of getting you out of your head and into your body, of being “present in the moment” and it is good for you.
Touching the Earth with the spontaneous joy of dance is healing both to you and the environment.
David Sutton