Dance—The Sacred Art

Cynthia Winton-Henry

Description

Unlock the transformative power of movement as a life-changing spiritual practice.

If youre thinking But Im not a dancer or I feel awkward, I hope to reassure you. You dont need a special talent to move. You dont need to be graceful or especially coordinated. You dont need a body thats in shape. Dancing helps us embrace all this humanity. Dance connects us to the holy of life.
from the Introduction

Seize the joy and healing power of dance! Drawing from her years of experience as a dance and movement teacher, and as cofounder of the international dance organization InterPlay, Cynthia Winton-Henry helps you overcome your embarrassment or anxiety and discover in dance a place of solace and restoration, as well as an energizing spiritual force. She taps into the spirit of dancing throughout history and in many world cultures to provide detailed exercises that will help you learn to trust your body and interpret its physical and spiritual intentions. For both newcomers and seasoned movers alike, she encourages you to embrace dance as a spiritual tool to:

• Celebrate your unique spirituality and get in touch with your emotions
• Unify your body and mind, and push your personal boundaries
• Work through trauma or crisis and restore spiritual well-being
• Deepen your relationships and strengthen your community
• Find spiritual direction
• … and much more!

Sujets

• personal Growth
• Inspiration

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 06 mai 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781594733314
• Langue: English

Extrait

Dance-The Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as a Spiritual Practice
2009 Quality Paperback Edition, First Printing 2009 by Cynthia Winton-Henry
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or reprinted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please write or fax your request to SkyLight Paths Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to [e-mail] .
Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible , copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Grateful acknowledgment is given to reprint A Body Politic of Peace, 1996 by Gayle Brandeis. It previously appeared in Heal Your Soul, Heal the World , June Cotner, ed. (Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1998).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Winton-Henry, Cynthia. Dance-the sacred art: discovering the joy of movement as spiritual practice/Cynthia Winton-Henry.
p. cm. -(The art of spiritual living series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59473-268-3 (pbk.)
1. Dance-Religious aspects. 2. Dance-Psychological aspects. 3. Spiritual life. I. Title. GV1783.5.W55 2009 246 .7-dc22
2009030883
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Manufactured in the United States of America Cover Design: Jenny Buono Cover art: rgbspace-Fotolia
Walking Together, Finding the Way Published by SkyLight Paths Publishing A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc. Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237 Woodstock, VT 05091 Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] www.skylightpaths.com
Dedicated to Ruth St. Denis, mystic, pioneer, sacred dancer
For the world and time are the dance of (Love) in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it doesn t matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there . Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance .
-Thomas Merton
CONTENTS
Introduction
A Dancing Parable
Chapter One: May I Have This Dance?
Chapter Two: Approaching Holy Ground
Chapter Three: Unlocking the Dance of Joy
Chapter Four: Dancing into Wholeness
Chapter Five: Dancing for Healing
Chapter Six: Dancing for Spiritual Direction
Chapter Seven: Dancing with Beloved Community
Chapter Eight: Dancing as Peacemaking
Resources
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index of Movement Practices
Gratitude

About SkyLight Paths
Copyright
INTRODUCTION
T HE M OVEMENT OF L IFE
This book is for both newcomers and seasoned movers, for all of us seeking to nourish our connection to the dance of life. The experiential places we will visit in these pages are holy places, yet the only passport needed is a willingness to move, or, as one teacher said, If not willingness, then willingness to become willing. The means of transport? Dancing the way you dance. Codified steps, choreographies, and performance skills are not the superhighway to dancing. Just as breathing is a birthright, so is moving. You already do both all the time.
If you re thinking, But I m not a dancer or I feel awkward, I hope to reassure you. You don t need a special talent to move. You don t need to be graceful or especially coordinated. You don t need a body that s in shape. I can tell you that after decades of dancing in my spiritual practice, my feet still turn in more than out. I continue to bang into coffee tables and the corners of things, exceed my ideal weight, and fluctuate between social grace and goofiness. Dancing helps us embrace all this humanity.
Dance connects us to the movement of life. We already know most secrets of dancing. The challenge-and gift-is to unlock the amazing wisdom in our bodies. Unfortunately, natural ways to do this have been overlooked and undervalued among modern people for such a long time that we may feel as if dancing our own dance is beyond difficult. Yet a wise person said, If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will enter heaven on earth. Mustard seeds are as common in the Middle Eastern plant world as salt and pepper are on the dining room table. Just so, the common mustard seed of dancing is freely available. I d love to place it in your hands to marvel over.
In the pages of this book, I want to open up the possibilities of dance and movement as a spiritual practice. Perhaps this statement seems like an oxymoron. Some can t quite imagine dancing and spiritual practice as companions-especially if someone along the way has pointed out the evils of dance. Again and again in this book, you will cross the paths of countless people who, whether they intended it or not, heralded dancing as a sacred art. Consider writer and pacifist Aldous Huxley, who once noted, Movement is so intertwined in the deep order of things that it is with their muscles that humans most easily obtain knowledge of the divine.
Dance is not just a novel way to illustrate beliefs and theology, nor is it dumbed-down prayer. It is a completely different way of knowing the Holy. We need more than words to connect with our Greater Source. Whenever we sit, walk, run, sing, laugh, embrace lovers, gaze at stars, go fishing, and visit trees-all these things involve movement, and they just hint at the divine dance to which we are all invited.
Y OUR G UIDE FOR THE J OURNEY
When I go on a journey, I want a guide who knows the terrain. In my memoir, Chasing the Dance of Life: A Faith Journey , I wrote, The dance of life begged me to find it. Looking back, I can now see the benevolent guidance I ve received as I danced through my darkest of hours and my most glorious seasons. I m grateful for the many guides who nudged me to dance, and I m happy to offer myself to others. Here is a bit of the story of how dancing became central to my spirituality and life practice.
When I was a girl in the Methodist church, Reverend Ray Ragsdale encouraged us kids to sing and dance in youth choir. In spite of old church legacies that viewed dance as a sin, one day he asked me to dance in worship. A veil was lifted. Dancing in church made total sense to me.
When my high school physical education teacher, Mrs. Mac, also began to drop hints about dance in church, I took note. What did she see in me at age sixteen and seventeen? She made a lasting impression on me when, in my senior year, she drove me a hundred miles to meet a minister whose previous life as a professional dancer influenced the life of his congregation. She also encouraged me to enroll as a dance major at UCLA, even though the only dance classes I had taken were the PE dance classes with her in high school.
At UCLA, there was one wintertime that I was hit hard by despair. I couldn t figure out how dance could be of any real use-until I turned to the autobiography of Ruth St. Denis, an early modern dancer who dreamt of a Church of the Divine Dance. As I read her words in my small Los Angeles apartment, I had a profound religious experience. I felt an unforgettable energy enter my being, and my vision expanded. My heart felt a love so great that all I wanted to do was serve it. When I asked, How? I heard my answer.
Hold dance and religion together.
My work was cut out for me. Curious about dance s untapped power, wisdom, and spiritual technologies, I began researching ways to foster freedom and wholeness in body and soul. Reverend Mike Fink, a campus minister, pointed me to a master of divinity program in theology and the arts at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. There, Judith Rock, Doug Adams, Carla de Sola, and the Sacred Dance Guild showed me that I wasn t crazy. I learned that I was not the only one who sought to understand the role of dance in spirituality.
My dance career began in earnest with the Body and Soul Dance Company where Judith, Phil Porter, and I choreographed, performed in theaters, traveled, and danced in worship. We taught anyone who wanted to learn from us. In our collaboration, I began to recognize movement s uncanny ability to help individuals tap their body wisdom and connect with the Holy.
In 1989, Phil and I founded InterPlay, an active, creative, improvisational approach to unlocking the wisdom of the body through movement, voice, stories, and stillness. As we gently guided people to reconnect with movement and physicality, we began to see folks befriend their natural ability to move. Gradually, we designed a system of practices and tools that reintegrate body, mind, heart, and spirit. We learned that all of us who befriend our natural ability to freely move can quickly grow in intimacy with self, others, the natural world, and God.
Phil and I gradually shaped InterPlay into a set of eight core principles; dozens of incremental, effortless forms of practice; and twenty-six tools. Most of the ideas and practices I will be sharing in this book are taken from InterPlay, which has now become a worldwide organization of teachers, movers, leaders, and players. I am humbled and amazed that, like those whom we have taught, Phil and I also use the InterPlay tools as the cornerstone of our own spiritual practice. It is our reference for living healthy, happy, creative, and grace-filled lives. I believe we deliberately yet mysteriously stumbled onto a landscape known to many dancers, shamans, and artists. T