Dance
Ritual
The word 'ritual' can
be off-putting to some people. Let me first define what ritual means to me
and how I apply it to the dance.
We've all heard the
expression, "There are lies, damned lies, and affirmations". Why is it that
a lot of the time affirmations don't work? To understand this we have to
look at how the conscious and subconscious minds work. The conscious mind
works inductively. That is, it looks at overall patterns of activity and
tries to find theories to explain them. The subconscious mind works deductively.
That is, it will take a premise and develop it to its ultimate conclusion.
Affirmations work by giving the subconscious mind a suggestion which it then
develops. However, there is a hierarchy of suggestions, with the verbal being
fairly low down on the list. You can say "I'm going to be a success" until
you're blue in the face, but if your desk is such a mess that you can't find
anything, then that is a more potent suggestion for failure, and the subconscious
mind will work with that one.
Ritual, then, is a kind
of mega-affirmation using high profile suggestions, if it's been constructed
properly. Ideally it should use all the senses and be congruent with your
current life-style, or at least with a life-style that is easy to change
to. It may have no immediate effect. Rituals plant seeds for the subconscious
to grow, and it will take as long as it deems necessary to do so. This involves
a certain amount of trust. By and large, the more involved with the whole
ritual process the participants are, the more they get out of it. Or, to
paraphrase Tom Lehrer, "Ritual is like a sewer, what comes out of it depends
on what you put into it".
So how
do I apply this to the dance?
I have a three point
plan. Firstly it should be fun. If it's not fun there's no point in doing
it. Secondly it should be simple, but not at the expense of being fun. Things
can be too simple and not challenging enough to be fun. Thirdly it should
have meaning, but not at the expense of being simple or of being fun. I actually
plan my ritual sessions from the bottom up. I decide what meaning the ritual
should have. Then I work out how to empower that meaning simply. Then I work
out how to make it fun. By doing it this way participants can then choose
to engage with the workshop at the level they want to. They can simply enjoy
the day with a feeling of 'what larks', dressing up, painting each other,
doing weird things etc., just enjoying the form of the day. At the opposite
extreme people can make a commitment to change their lives in some way and
'go for it'.
All my workshops have
their basis in Sacred Dance but a whole host of other things are often used
too. These include visualisation, free dance, voice work, chanting, drumming,
body painting, dressing up, one-to-one work, drama, in fact anything that
feels groovy at the time which will produce the effect I need. I draw most
of my inspiration from the Western Mystery Tradition and combine elements
from it into the dance. So for example, one workshop is a combination of
Sacred Dance, Sacred Geometry and Esoteric Astrology. Another combines Sacred
Dance with Esoteric Numerology. Others; Dance with Alchemy, Dance with Tarot
etc.
These dance rituals take
a long time to put together and I work on them over a period of many months,
sometimes years. There are new ones in the pipeline all the time.
Current
Dance Rituals
In The Beginning Was The Forest...
The
Dance of the Fool
The Ritual Dance of the Seven Zodiacs
The
Great Work
The Pattern on the Trestleboard
The
Magnificent Seven
The Emerald Tablet of Hermes
Tarot
Inside Out
Although
not solely dance workshops, Tarot
Inside Out consists of a series of tarot based workshops
which often potentiate great transformations, so they fit
in more here.
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