About Sacred and Healing Dance
Sacred dance is an ancient art, perhaps the first form of healing and prayer along with rhythm and song. Traditionally, people from all over the world danced in ceremony to pray for spiritual guidance, for food, for peace, for safety, for healing. They have danced in grief, in gratitude and in celebration.
The history of sacred dance is far too ancient and too widespread to provide any kind of sufficient summary here. While ceremonial dance still thrives in more tribal parts of the world, it has suffered terrible repression in others ~ most notably, in the Christian and Islamic religions where it was widely outlawed to dance in prayer. Fortunately, the power of combining dance with prayer does not require any kind of religious lineage. It is accessible to anyone, anytime, as it only requires your body and our soul to guide you.
The power of dance for healing lies in the simple fact that through dance, all parts of yourself can be accessed and brought into union. Through simple intention, dance can merge body, mind and soul into one. We can create a moving bridge between the physical realm and the spiritual realm. There, we can experience our whole, true state of being ~ and we can experience our union with all of Creation. We can quite literally “plug into” the loving, Divine energy to bring healing to all facets of ourselves.
In our modern, western lifestyle, our dependance upon machines, automobiles and technology has made our physical bodies suffer from immobility. We rely heavily upon our minds to get through our days. Our minds are often given more exercise, more value, and certainly more education, than our bodies. This leaves many of us unaware of the power and importance of the body, feeling “out of touch”,“disconnected”, “out of balance.”
In our modern lives, we are also experiencing the effects of centuries of violence and ancestral traumas. Compiling this onto the fact that at least one-third of Americans grew up in an abusive environment, these wounds from our ancestors and our own lives, can feel overwhelming. If we have not been provided with the guidance or space to truly heal these wounds, our inclination is often to “leave” our bodies to try to escape the pain. Or we willfully sever communication between mind and body in an attempt to protect ourselves from the pain. However, the truth is that our healing power lies deep within our bodies, requiring our mind and our spirit in open communication with our bodies. We cannot leave the body out of the equation while attempting to heal our psyches and souls. It is the state of wholeness and Divine union that brings about healing opportunities. Sacred dance brings us into this state of wholeness, and from that state we can “plug into” Divine healing power.
In my teaching of sacred and healing dance, I encourage people to return to ancient techniques to experience their relevance for any day and age. Dancing in sacred geometrical patterns, dancing the natural elements, dancing to raise the Life Force Energy within us, dancing to commune with each other and the Divine. I encourage people to become aware of all parts of themselves ~ the buried wounds and our own internal capacity to heal them. I encourage gentleness, dedication, self-love and healing through the pleasure of the dance.
