The Lift & The Ground

Our bodies tell us to groove every second of the day. A hand on the heart or a finger on the pulse instantly supplies you with a steady beat for which to tap your foot. We know that it all has something to do with electricity and “life-force” but there is still plenty of unknown magic out there just waiting to be discovered. Why are we even alive? Why do we breathe and love and feel? Why does the beat and the pulse exist so evenly, so rhythmically? Even more, these things work inside us without us having to think or volunteer any real effort at all. We are spoon-fed magic every moment…and all that is required of us is respect.

But what of the other “inside things” we don’t control? What about the simple truths our minds hold? Our subconscious?

I’ve been using dance as a tool for expression for longer than I can even officially remember. Before schooling, before performing professionally, before becoming cognizant of what I was doing. However, for the last decade I’ve been allowing myself to explore it further. How can dance be utilized as a tool for spirituality, meditation, trance and possession?

The prospect of intentionally dancing myself into a trance came about as I was beginning to question my Catholic upbringing. I shirked many a responsibility as an eager teen – lusting for Truth. I wanted to learn more about the alternative spiritual systems that had previously only been hinted to me and experience their magic. I eventually came to realize that the esotericism I sought was right under my nose, as a beautiful & stoic old woman – quite dear to me – began to disclose some of what she thought to be the secrets of the universe before her quiet death. I didn’t understand it all at the time but was elated to finally hear something. Her words were memorable enough to open many doors through the years, even after her death and so – I held on to them tightly.

The first time I felt I had enough knowledge and courage to attempt a spiritual dance encounter in a focused, deliberate manner I was struck by how both scared and liberated I felt. While dance was something I already practiced and excelled at, this was much different than a staged performance piece. This dance was for the spirits, the earth and all vibrations between. Not for an audience of commercially driven spectators. The magnitude of this hit me like a sack of bricks. There were no mirrors or spotlights here. Time to shed the ego.

A tough pill to swallow – even dancing alone surrounded only by my four walls and some candlelight turned me into a self-conscious, trembling mass. I was too open. I was too vulnerable. “What floating personality has entered me? Surely I’ve no idea where I am within space and time. Surely I’ve never moved this way before in my life.” It felt to me like holy communion. I had ingested, become and was suddenly dancing the message of some God-force, some spirit, some animal…I was awake and lucid and sweating; Writhing on the floor like some twitching beast. Ecstatic.

Something beautiful happens when you allow yourself to give up completely the 9 to 5, the final exams, the boyfriend/girlfriend drama, the stress and the suffering. When you pass into a rhythmic induced meditation and pass back out of it you are left with a mental clarity that I hold no doubt is a healing. You – the empty vessel – have allowed your physical being to work as both conduit and doorway to your own personal nirvana. Lifting you up – grounding you down.

Now as I study set and setting, prepare for my excursions into the next - I am beginning to understand how to shape my journies so that they may be productive experiences as much as they are freeing experiences. By setting my intentions at the start I can mold my dance into a focused meditation generating specific results. Primal instincts coming out and assisting me in my troubleshooting processes – giving me the outside perspective I need to work out life’s lifey-ness.

Sweet catharsis.