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Sacred Dance
by Helen Roberts
This
is not a structured essay on sacred dance but a collection of ideas and
starting points to entice you into thinking more deeply about sacred
dance, doing some research or writing a more in-depth article on one of
the issues raised.
What is Sacred Dance?
Sacred dance is considered to be the original form
of worship, practised since the time mankind began to paint on cave
walls. Today it is a spiritual practice that uses dance as a means of
worship, prayer, celebration, meditation, holistic healing and personal
empowerment. It can be integrated into any spiritual path because it is
the inward participation which allows the dancer to connect with the
Divine and allows the spirit to guide the dance. Although some sacred
dance is performed in front of an audience or congregation, it is not a
performance art. It is the spiritual focus of the dancer which is
important not her technique or performance skills. The same applies to
the solo dancer: if the focus is not an inward spiritual one, then her
dance is just exercise.
Think back to Torvill and Dean's ice dance
interpretation of Ravel's "Bolero." Their technical skills were
excellent; they were competing in the most prestigious event of the
skating world; they were performing in front of a vast audience – but
all these are secondary to the fact that they were dancing from the
heart, dancing for themselves, totally engrossed in the music and the
movement. Perhaps that is why they received the perfect six.
Dance is a form of sacred expression which is
innate. Even in the uterus a foetus will move to the rhythm of its
mother's speech. Slow motion photography shows that within a day or two
of birth, a baby moves its arms and legs in rhythmic synchrony with its
mother's voice. ("The Conscious Ear" Tomatis) Toddlers bounce about to
lively music even if they have never seen anyone dance and certainly
have not had a dance lesson. My son was just over two years old the
first time he saw "The Snowman" but he jumped up and started dancing
when the jig started playing for the party at the North Pole, totally
ignoring the dancing snowmen on the screen.
"Through dance we experience a dimension that the
linear mind is not structured to perceive. It may have been dance that
enabled us to first conceive of existences beyond our immediate physical
experience, thereby creating the concept of spirituality, of 'God'."
("Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance" – Iris J. Stewart)
This presents us with a "chicken and the egg"
problem. We now dance to celebrate the Divine, but did we create the
Divine as a means of explaining the experience of dance?
Sacred Dance and Meditation
Meditation is the state of being in which the mind
relaxes, in which we can listen to our inner self, to the Divine. We can
achieve the same state whilst dancing by letting go of thought and just
being the dance for each moment of "now". Meditation can confer insight,
serenity, healing, comfort, courage – whatever it is that one is
seeking. Dance combines physical energy with the power of the mind:
movement adds another dimension to the meditation. When doing a dance
pathworking or a moving meditation, some people like to close their eyes
in order to block visual distractions. There are obvious safety hazards
in doing this, even on your own in a familiar room, more so in a group.
One way round this is to use a veil over the head. This gives a feeling
of separateness but still enables you to see sufficiently well to avoid
other dancers and anything else which might cause injury. (The symbolism
of the veil will be discussed in a later part of this article).
Another option might be "The Wave. Ecstatic Dance
for Body and Soul. A Revolutionary Moving Meditation" by Gabrielle Roth
who describes herself as an urban shaman. "'The Wave' is a map to your
innermost being. It's a fascinating journey through five powerful
universal rhythms. You can use these rhythms, Flowing, Staccato, Chaos,
Lyrical and Stillness, to free your body and spirit from ordinary
consciousness and catalyse motion deep in your psyche. Each sacred
rhythm becomes a teacher, a gateway to your soul." The Wave can be
focussed on a theme so that the 5Rhythms become "metaphors for events
and people in your life and work."
The video is available (in PAL format) from
STACCATO, Bridam, Kents Road, Wellswood, Torquay, Devon, TQ1 2NN.
Tel:01803 295442
Music
Gabrielle Roth has her own musicians, The Mirrors,
to create music for her ecstatic dance but you can use whatever moves
you: classical, New Age, natural sounds, drumming, didgeridoo, world
music, ethnic instruments, hymns, Gospel music or even make your own. If
you are dancing to celebrate a harvest, use the sounds of sifting grain
and the grinding of a mortar and pestle.
History
Although we have only been able to record dance on
film for the last hundred years or so, sacred dance has been documented
through art and literature: the writers of ancient Greece and Rome have
almost unwittingly left us a record of some of the sacred dances of the
Classical era; the Bible contains accounts of dances of worship; artists
have captured real occasions of spiritual dance as well as interpreting
written accounts of it; statues also freeze a moment of ecstatic
movement. Medieval paintings show that dance used to be a part of the
Christian religion in this country. Although dance returned to its place
in social life after the overthrow of the Puritan regime, it wasn't
until early in the twentieth century that it was once again viewed as a
medium for spiritual expression. The revival began with dancers such as
Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Ruth St Denis who was the inspiration
for the Sacred Dance Guild and Dances of Universal Peace which are major
sacred dance organisations. Sacred Dance Ministries can now be found all
over the world, and especially in America. "A recent survey in 'Dance
Magazine' found churches in more than twenty-three denominations that
now embrace dance in some form as part of worship: Methodist, Lutheran,
Catholic, Unitarian, Mennonite, Russian Orthodox as well as some Jewish
synagogues. Could it be that the return of dance as religious and
spiritual expression coincides with the rise of women in leadership
roles in the church?" ("Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance")
Why dance?
In the West we are
conditioned to think of prayer as being spoken, read or sung. Anything
physical was considered sinful because the body was seen as vastly
inferior to the mind or spirit. The pleasures of the flesh – including
the enjoyment of dance – had to be denied if you wanted a place in
heaven. However, words can sometimes be limiting: how many times have
you been stuck for words because we just don't seem to have the right
words in our language to express what we are feeling. Even within one
country people don't all speak the same language – but language barriers
can be transcended with dance, movement and gesture. Indeed, we often
enhance the spoken word with gestures in order to emphasise or refine
the meaning of what we are saying. When we dance our prayers, our
thoughts are given motion and energy and our spiritual light is
magnified. Try dancing your prayers instead of reciting them and see (or
feel) what happens. You might also like to read "Sweat Your Prayers" by
Gabrielle Roth.
Dance Training
Must you have some form of dance training before
you can practise sacred dance? Yes and no – both answers are right. To
use clichés: if the spirit moves you, go with the flow. In other words
it doesn't matter if you have never attended a dance lesson in your life
– you can still express your emotions through movements unique and
specific to you. Most people have a natural rhythmic ability which is
only inhibited by their lack of familiarity with the experience or the
fear of feeling daft or looking foolish. This is where the other half of
the answer comes into its own. Any form of dance gives you a vocabulary
of movement with which you can feel comfortable and use as your form of
expression. The downside, however, is that you can limit yourself to
that learned set of movements thereby cutting yourself off from other
forms of expression. Gail Stepanek, founder of Improvisational
Inspiration says:
"As we enter into
improvisational dancing, we automatically live in the present moment and
enter the unknown, moment by moment, as we are creating. As we abandon
and surrender ourselves to the dance that unfolds from within, we enter
a 'thought-free' state where the mind becomes a focussed instrument for
the song of the heart and we are able to enter deep levels of joy and
bliss and a feeling of union with the all-pervading spirit.
"In offering ourselves fully
to the spirit, to the sacred dance, spirit enters and moves us,
transforms us, awakens our soul's passion, enlivens every cell of our
body. We become the essence of spirit in motion, the divine cosmic
dancer. The sacred dance can take us across from one world to another,
from one state of mind to another, from contraction and fear to
expansion and love. It is a symbol of life, vibrating, alive and
radiant. It can guide us home to our true state of inner freedom."
("Sacred Woman, Sacred
Dance" by Iris J Stewart P134)
Improvisation or Choreography
Some people find it easier to
surrender to the music, to the moment. For them the act of trying to
remember what comes next would impinge upon the experience and detract
from its essence. Others would maintain that practising set moves -
which have a spiritual significance - until they become second nature,
frees the mind and spirit to concentrate upon the experience. Neither is
wrong. Just as we all learn in different ways (visual, auditory,
kinaesthetic), so we have our preferred way of dancing.
If your dance is a narrative
one which is being performed for an audience or congregation, then it is
important that all those present see all the moves relevant to the
story. Therefore choreography is necessary to make sure that nothing is
missed out and to enable the audience to understand the story and share
the experience it is telling.
Veil
Dance
Many ancient cultures have a
story about a Goddess (usually a Goddess of love or of the harvest) who
travels down into the underworld to seek a loved one (Ishtar and Tammuz,
Isis and Osiris, Demeter and Persephone to name but a few). During her
absence from the earth nothing grows and there is neither love nor
celebration. As the Goddess journeys to the centre of the underworld,
she passes through seven gates. At each one she removes a veil. The
stripping of the veils symbolises facets of our lives and personalities
which we don't really need. At the centre of the underworld we stand
unveiled and meet our true selves. In the legend of Innana she meets her
dark sister Ereshkigal who represents everything she had hidden or
denied about herself. By restoring the loved one to life or by
integrating the two halves, the Goddess is complete again and can return
to the upper world. In modern society the dance of the seven veils is
seen only in the physical sense i.e. as a strip tease. Its true meaning
has been lost. On another level the legends explain the change of the
seasons and the cycle of death and rebirth: once the Goddess returned to
earth, complete with her veils, everything flourished again. Behind the
veil is hidden the secret of life therefore dancing with a veil affirms
the vitality of life itself. There are pictures and statues from ancient
times which appear to show women dancing with veils but after the Greek
and Roman civilisations there is nothing. This is almost certainly due
to the dominance of patriarchal religion and the consequent suppression
of female mysteries.
Modern veil dance, therefore,
does not have a historical continuity from the past. It should be
considered more as a re-instatement of the concept. Time and dance have
moved on since the Roman era and so the physical side of the dance
incorporates many modern ideas drawn from ballet and other sources. The
more spiritual side of veil dance is still there within the legends
which have survived and can be adopted or adapted for use within
expressions of spirituality and sacred dance in the twenty-first
century.
An interesting aside on the
subject of veiling and the secrets of life comes from the dancer Morocco
in her article "Dance as Community Identity in Selected Berber Nations
of Morocco". Talking about the Blue People of the Tuareg tribe she says:
"Why do Blue men, feared to
this day for their ferocity and skill as warriors and respected as
businessmen, "veil" and defer to their own women? Because of their
belief that the world has a great number of evil "spirits" eager to
invade the body via any opening - especially the mouth and nostrils – so
they must cover/protect the entranceways, but since women know the
secret of life (only they can conceive and give birth), they have
natural protection against these evil spirits."
Guedra
The Guedra (pronounced gee-dra
with a hard g sound) belongs to the Blue People. The word guedra means
the cooking-pot which could be covered with a skin and used as a drum;
the blessing dance and the woman who performed or led the blessing
dance. The guedra dance is performed at night. The drum plays a
heartbeat rhythm whilst others clap or chant. The aim of the Guedra
(woman) is to envelop the area and all present in good energy, peace and
spiritual love. This is transmitted from the Guedra's soul via her hands
and fingers. Morocco, (ibid) describes it thus:
"Pulling the tail of her robe
over her headdress so that it covers her head, face and chest…. The
"veil" signifies darkness, the unknown, lack of knowledge. Her hands and
fingers are moving under the covering, flicking at it, trying to escape
into the light. When she feels the time is right, the Guedra's hands
emerge from the veil's sides.
"With hand –to-head gestures,
she salutes the four corners: North, South, East and west, followed by
obeisances to the four elements: Fire (the sun), Earth, Wind and Water.
She touches her abdomen, heart and head, then quickly flicks her fingers
towards all others present, in life or spirit, sending blessings to them
from the depths of her soul's energy.
"Why does she touch her
abdomen? In the east, the heart is known to be fickle and unreliable.
When somebody wishes to convey true depth of affections or emotions, the
way of expressing it is to say: 'You are in my liver.' By indicating the
approximate spot on her abdomen….the Guedra underscores the depth and
sincerity of her blessing.
"Blue People believe their
second fingers to be direct lines to the soul, with power to transmit
blessings or curses, so the Guedra directs most of her mini-bolts of
energy through them, gently holding them a bit lower than the others.
This energy can be specifically focussed on an individual, present or
not, to a group or to the entire world.
"If her hands flick to the
front, the Guedra sends blessings for the future, to the side – the
present, to the back – the past, overhead – to the sun, down – to the
earth, from side to side – to the waters and winds. Time is a circle. In
the guedra, the vast majority of movement flows from the fingers and
hands, with some arm movements from the elbows down.
"The ribcage is lifted and
lowered/relaxed, as in some African dances, when extra emphasis is
called for. The head can be turned from side-to-side, causing the braids
to sway. As the guedra comes to a crescendo, accent in the chest
movements transfers from lift to lowering and the head swings more
strongly from side-to-side with chin lifts, causing the braids to 'fly'.
"…the guedra goes on for
quite a while, gradually increasing tempo and intensity, but still
keeping the heartbeat rhythm. Likewise, the guedra's breathing also
increases in intensity, until she collapses in a trance.
"So seriously is it taken by
Moroccans in general, that his majesty, King Hassan, had his own
personal Guedra, B'shara of Guelmin."
The guedra should not be
confused with the Zar, the Egyptian trance dance..
Dancing and Drumming
The Zar is sometimes referred
to as a trance dance. However, it is more than that. A zar is used in
North African countries, including Egypt, as a cathartic healing for
someone – usually a woman – who has been “possessed”. The rite is
normally performed by women who are led by an older, more experienced
woman. The “spirit” is not necessarily driven out of the person:
sometimes it is integrated or placated. Although zar shares some
characteristics with sacred dance, it differs in its intent: both use
strong drum rhythms and both effect an altered state of consciousness
through dance but the purpose of zar is to heal the person who is
troubled.
Sacred dance, on the other
hand, uses drumming and dance in a way that parallels that of the shaman
or shamanka (female shaman). The drum is often referred to as the
“shaman’s horse” because s/he rides the rhythm up the World Tree until
s/he reaches ecstatic communication with the spirit world.
Women have always been the
makers and keepers of rhythm because the rhythms of life are so strong
in a woman. Her life is governed by rhythms and patterns: the heartbeat,
the monthly menstrual cycle and the lifelong cycle of birth, life, death
and re-birth, witnessed yearly in the changing of the seasons and
reflected in varying lengths in the rest of the natural world. “The
matriarchal early planters invented the drum, underlining their ritual
dance with a regular ostinato sound. Drums beat for the birth of a
child, a coming of age, marriage and a death. It was said that the
all-begetting Mother beat a drum to mark the rhythm of life.” (“Sacred
Woman, Sacred Dance” Iris J. Stewart). The circular shape of the drum
has symbolic meaning: the ever-repeating cycle of life, eternity and the
cauldron of Cerridwen which in turn was referred to as the womb of life.
“Tempo” and “temple” share
the same Latin root so it is not surprising that drumming and rhythmical
dancing are used as a means of expressing spirituality. The brain of a
human being has four definable rhythms: “beta (walking, talking and
other daily activities); alpha (relaxed meditative); theta (inspiration,
creativity and extrasensory perception) and delta (deep sleep). Rhythm
is energy so…when we move to drum rhythms we feel as though we’re being
carried along by the beat – a feeling of effortlessness and safety…
Perhaps that is why rhythm seems to lift time out of the realm of the
ordinary, as we know it, and transmutes it into timelessness. Rhythm is
essential to transcendence; because of its power, the drum becomes a
force in its own right, its mesmerising beat affecting the soma and the
psyche.” (Ibid)
Different rhythms are often associated with
different spirits or saints, depending on the culture. When these sacred
beings are invoked for healing through drumming and dance it is the
rhythm which acts upon the heartbeat and also causes body rhythms to
change. The percussive shifts stimulate adrenalin producing the
fight-or-flight response which then transforms into the desire to dance.
“Drum-inspired dance has the potential for restoring our sense of
balance, for changing our focus and for soothing the nervous system.
Emotional states of joy and fear are energy-based and easily become
rhythmically expressed; energy-depleted psychic processes, such as grief
and depression, can shift with external rhythmic activation. As the
right and left hemispheres of the brain are joined together in this way,
a deeper integration takes place, one that expands consciousness.”
(Ibid) In other words, we connect with the divine.
The connection, however,
takes place not within the beat of the rhythm but in the stillness
between the beats. This stillness is also mirrored in the pauses in the
dance. Ideally the dance and the drum should work as one, with the
dancer following the drum and the drummer responding to the nuances of
the dance. Neither leads; both follow, both live the rhythm and in its
pauses both find the divine soul.
Mazes, Spirals and
Serpents
Snakes are considered in many
cultures to be symbols of healing because of their ability to shed their
skin and emerge renewed. The physicians’ emblem, the caduceus, which
comprises two snakes entwined, possibly derives from this and,
interestingly, is the same shape as the double helix of our DNA.
However, the symbolism goes beyond the physical and the emergence of the
“new” snake from its old skin becomes a metaphor for the spiritual
mystery of birth and rebirth. Throughout the history of mankind the
snake has played an important symbolic role: the earth serpent
represents the energy lines which flow through and under the earth, and
the creative energy which flows through people.
Cultures all over the globe
have evidence of snake dances in the form of mazes, spiral dances which
reflect the coiled serpent, or indeed dancing whilst holding a snake.
This is seen in evidence from Minoan Crete which had a strong snake
culture. Snakes were synonymous with life. On a practical level they
guarded the granaries from attack by rodents and, in Pharaonic Egypt,
snakes were encouraged and considered lucky in domestic settings, not
least because of the protection they afforded to the food stores.
The association of the snake
with life is seen very clearly in these sinuous movements of the belly
during childbirth. These serpentine moves were copied and developed by
the dancer to include not just the abdomen, but also other parts of the
body, such as the arms. Pictures or statues of Indian Goddesses with
several sets of arms show this idea very clearly. Group dancers in a
line can physically re-create the undulating shape of the snake as it
moves, or they can spiral inwards thereby making the image of a coiled
serpent. Circular mazes are a permanent construction of the image of the
snake and the devotees who danced through this image would twist and
wind until they reached the centre, a point of spiritual significance.
The outward path represented their rebirth into a new life. In some
cultures it is a cosmic serpent or snake Goddess who gives birth to the
earth and its inhabitants.
To dance the energies of he
snake, use fluid, undulating movements of the hips, rib-cage and arms.
These movements should roll to and fro in waves, but circles and spiral
moves can also be included, as well as head slides. Slow, mesmerising
music is often preferred but remember that snakes can and do move like
lightning when necessary.
A final thought – in the
Middle East, hissing like a snake during a dancer’s performance is seen
as a compliment and in Greece, during the Karaguna (a traditional snake
folk dance), the dancers make a hissing sound to accompany the leg
lifts.
Rites of Passage
Even today, with all our sophisticated technology,
pregnancy and childbirth are still both a risk and a miracle. How much
greater must this have been for our foremothers. No wonder that in
pre-historic times women were revered as the giver of life and that
women, as “the producer of offspring, thus also became the inspiration
for the dance of reincarnation/regeneration…. a dance performed in the
hope of immortality, for a life after death.” (“Sacred Woman, Sacred
Dance” Iris J. Stewart) Dance moves which use the hips, abdomen and
lower back (bellydance is an ideal example) prepare the woman’s body for
the strain placed upon it by the developing baby and subsequent labour,
as well as helping her to regain muscle strength afterwards. Beyond the
physical benefits, “belly dance puts a pregnant woman deeply in touch
with her power and beauty as creator and progenitor……Birthing is Life
taking over, and yet positive participation in the process by the woman
is essential.” (ibid)
At the other end of life it has invariably been a
woman’s work to care for the dying and to be the midwife to the soul as
it leaves the body for its new life in another realm. Dancing for the
soul expresses the belief in rebirth. “Funerary dance is often a chin
dance performed with arms interlinked in a protective manner, showing
support and comfort for the community, and symbolising the unity of life
and death, thus sustaining the connection between the departed and the
living.” (ibid) Circular dances were a physical manifestation of the
circle of life, death and rebirth. This idea appears in the Goddess
vegetation myths mentioned earlier in the Veils section of this article.
These legends make a good basis for dance drama about life and death.
For a woman, there area several fundamental and
physically obvious stages between birth and death, and these are often
referred to as Rites of Passage. The first of these is the menarche, the
onset of menstruation. A dance ritual, during which the young girl takes
her place in the circle of women, shows her that she is growing in
spiritual power and is now ready to learn the women’s mysteries. On a
practical level, she will also learn that certain movements can also
help to relieve menstrual pain, such as pelvic circles and figure
eights.
The next major life change is marriage and in some
Middle Eastern countries the carnal knowledge required for the wedding
night is imparted by an experienced dancer, such as the Scheikha in
Morocco, who dances the movements and behaviours that the girl will need
to know. This is done as part of the pre-wedding celebrations in an
all-female group who share a lot of irreverent laughter at the dame
time.
Childbirth has already been discussed earlier in
this article so the next rite of passage in a woman’s life is usually
the crone stage. As there is no definite start to the menopause (or even
a definite end) it is difficult to pinpoint a time to celebrate a
positive initiation into the freedom of the crone phase. Many women
today would reject the idea anyway, because in this youth-centre (some
would say obsessed) culture, the wisdom of the crone carries little
weight or respect, although I think the pendulum is beginning to swing
back again simply because the movers and shakers of the sixties are now
in (or approaching) their sixties and are not about to take old age
lying down. They might enjoy celebrating this new phase of their life by
holding a croning ceremony which could include dance. Not surprisingly,
there is an increasing body of literature on the subject of women’s
third age and three of the best writers are Susun S. Weed, Marian Van
Eyk McCain and Jean Shinoda Bolen.
Conclusion
Sacred Dance has metamorphosed and survived down
the centuries and now we are the keepers of the flame. However, there
is no particular style of dance which can be labelled definitively as
“Sacred Dance”, no right or wrong ways of dancing, no set formats or
situations which call for Sacred Dance. If all this seems nebulous, then
consider the paradox that it is the very adaptability of Sacred Dance
which has preserved it. It is now up to us to continue the spirit of the
dance and, in due time, to pass it on.
FFI bellydance classes in the
Forest of Dean, UK, visit
www.goddessdance.co.uk
Also visit Helen's Coaching site at
www.lifeandcluttercoaching.co.uk
or contact her at:
Helen Roberts,
Life Coaching, Clutter-Free Living, Workshops,
Weekends, Bellydance.