Our culture loves dancing but, oddly, we move a bit self-consciously and control our movements to a certain degree. Or if we dance uncontrollably, it may be because we’ve had too much to drink. In any event, I think something terribly important is missing ... the wild, crazy, ecstatic form of dancing is not on the popular antenae. And perhaps it ought not to be because it is dangerous. It’s dangerous for people to lose control, get out of their heads and dance as if no one is watching. It’s dangerous because people may change; the dancing may move into other areas of our lives, like our livelihoods or sex lives or political lives. We may not be as controllable any longer, and what boss, church leader or government official likes people they cannot control?
What I’m simply talking about is a deeper kind of dance. A dance that screams and belts out all the cobwebs in the body, mind and soul — a movement that can initiate altered states or cathartic states of release that can literally shake up who we imagine ourselves to be. Some deep body therapies use dance or movement as a release of tension or to shake and toss around the neuroses that we hold in our bodies and mind. After such an intense exercise of movement or dance, experiencers often question bewilderingly later: what the heck just happened? Who was that person who just did those outrageous things and where did those outrageous feelings and sounds come from?
I was involved in a group that did Dynamic Meditation, created and popularized by a pop guru of the 70s and 80s, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The entire group put on blindfolds, had their designated spaces of about ten feet in diameter and a huge pillow on the floor nearby for possible punching or holding during the various phases of the ritual exercise. For fifteen minutes we breathed quickly through the nostrils while jumping up and down and shooting our arms out with each breath as we shouted the word "Hu." I won’t go through all the specific ritualistic details of the routine meditation. You get the drift. By using movement and deep breathing, one oftentimes enters states that typically are induced by drugs or lengthy periods of therapy. The point is that rituals or exercises exist for people to get outside of their normal conception of themselves and literally burst out. Now, you may not want to do this in a public dance arena. But, if you do seriously let go in a public arena and go a bit crazy you will perhaps understand what I am referring to.
Another exercise that has been used to shake up the mind from its consensual ordinary constraints is a method called Holotropic Breathwork. This method was created by Stan Groff who needed to alter his famous "LSD workshops" from acid to using the breath, once LSD became officially banned.
Holotropic breathwork is a bit similar to Dynamic Meditation in that there is both a focus on breath and movement as well as, and this is a key ingredient, receiving, surrendering and responding to music that travels along the chakra energies of the body. The music is wild, loud, eerie, erotic, mesmerizing, animistic.... In both rituals the music starts at the lower chakras and moves slowly upwards. Usually after one travels via the music, the body/mind/spirit and eyes begin beaming with a Light that is simply transformational. However, depending on people’s woundedness and specific neurotic behavioral patternings, no change may occur. These types of rituals are not for everyone. Even Utne editor Jay Walljasper writes in the July/August issue of the work of Bradford Keeney (who flinches a bit at being labeled a shaman) who not only believes but is committed to making movement and dance part of the healing process. When Walljasper asked Keeney, "So, what you’re telling us is that a Polish wedding dance in Wisconsin could be a more mystical experience than a month of guided meditations in Carmel, California?" Keeney nodded vigorously and with a wide, almost conspiratorial smile said, "Much more." [Read more about it in the latest summer issue of Utne.]
Of course, I would add that we need to stop the duality and simply say that both processes are healthy for people’s evolution depending on the specific phase they are in at the time ... and leave it at that.
Environmentalists and others often cry out to save the wilderness. Who is crying out for our need to save the wilderness in ourselves that is being lost daily? If we don’t reclaim our own wilderness then it is inevitable that the wilderness in nature will continually be bulldozed, civilized and tamed. There is a connection.
So, why am I writing all this? Two years ago I thought it would be interesting to create a safe space where people could dance wildly, unsupervised and unauthorized. I rented out Pat Jackson’s studio for a while and also rented out the Higher Movement Dance Studio on Francis Street (in SLO). At points there were perhaps 40 dancers at most. We also had different DJs. Rick Mathews, Chris O’Connel and Wally Stahle were featured DJs.
But it died. After three weeks in a row where there were only one or two dancers, I decided to end it. Other cities have been quite successful at these types of musical/community events but here in SLO it didn’t happen. Perhaps if I would have charged $50 for a workshop in Wild Dancing, it could have taken off. Perhaps the $3 cover charge for the spontaneous unworkshop-like atmosphere was too much? Perhaps it was too dangerous? Perhaps because it was a drug- and alcohol-free event it inhibited people from coming? Perhaps there wasn’t enough room for socializing? No matter what the various possible reasons for its demise, it died.
Two years later I find myself wanting to do something similar ... and actually thought of pursuing it in a bigger and broader way and requesting input and support from all sectors of the dance community to do it just right. And then I stopped. I listened. I questioned my motive and came up with the "sociability" of wild dancing, dangerous as it may be for transformation, is not my gig, not my particular style.
I thought that perhaps just getting 6-10 people who are committed for a two-month period (every-other week, perhaps) and paying the minimal for the rent of the studio would work. There wouldn’t be a demand to "get more people," or "get the word out," or turn it into a "huge success."
The thought of having 6-10 committed people who are eager to move and dance to transcend themselves without the use of drugs started to sound very cool.
We would come together and co-create what type of trance/world/ecstatic music we liked, where to take breaks (if any), rent a big enough place to run and dance wildly and support each other in our ecstatic travels. Just perhaps like they do in indigenous cultures, we may shake ourselves awake to the healing properties of dance in our lives and not call it names like aerobic or tantric or shamanistic or any other of the buzz words that actually takes the natural out of the simple act of boogeying deeply.
If you are interested, call me at 544-9663. Even if you are out of the area call me and I will keep your number in case others from your city would like to create the same. |
