Dear you,
We have just emerged from the blessing of the Spring Dream Dance ceremony, which was back at "home" at Rill Estate in Devon, where so much of Movement Medicine has been birthed and tended.
We had a wonderful mix of dancers, many Movement Medicine Apprentices and Professionals, some dancers who were new to us, some old dance floor companions who we have not seen since our 5 Rhythms days, and all of them brimming with their unique and original humanity and the sincere willingness to bring it all to the cauldron of the dance, to the prayer of the ceremony.
During the ceremony I was struck by the counterpoint between two very different energies. On the one hand the dancers' willingness and capacity to dance with their own original bright vitality and elan, their capacity for mutual support and respect and the beautiful sense of inter-connection which quickly grew between them. And on the other hand, I perceived a quality of deep exhaustion which every now and again made itself felt. As if the room was gripped by a weary pervasive ache, pulling us into a dulled stasis, almost a kind of paralysis of the spirit. I experienced that in the room, I felt it deep in myself too. And these two energies were both clearly there. It felt to me as if the seemingly unending horror, violence and violation of the sacredness of life in the last years had ground away at our/my sense of possibility, dignity, hope and the capacity to dream a better dream. Even more than we knew. Even more than I knew.
In the container and liberating structure of the ceremony I could allow myself to feel the grey nihilism which has been gnawing at the colours of my soul. Sharing this with the group was met by a wave of recognition, and as we sought the way together, we found a trail of tears and light reborn as we, collectively, consented to feel more. At least this is my take on it. I perceived us finding the way through a mixture of sensitive, deep listening to the emergent way, as, between us, we accepted the challenge of taking the next step, listened deep and stood up strong (wow - such deep group commitment) and a lot of very quiet passages, where the salve of gentleness and tenderness came though.
I am so, so grateful to have been with a group of people who were able to keep dancing, innerly and tenderly or wild and free, but to stay deeply engaged with the process, in movement, even when the music dropped into exquisitely tender realms. The sacred power of gentleness married together with clear structure and commitment and wildness. Both aspects. And held by these two energies, we took off and dived so deep and were able to offer a real heart filled prayer into the inner and outer worlds; full of love, full of a recognition of deep humanity and the joy of the spring. Blessed be.
And so we made it. We found a way to be with the grief and heaviness without that occluding the joy and the uplift, the play, the dreaming and the deep meetings with self, other, community, spirits and divine realms. And we found a way to be with the light of the rising sap of the spring, emerging from the deep dark fertile earth, without pretending that the current horrors don't exist, but without that awareness overwhelming the beauty of life which is here in the world too.
I bow to all the Spring Dream Dance dancers, and thank you so much for your presence, deep inner work, prayers and generous sharing of yourself with the space. Between us we made a collection in the name of the Spring Dream Dance which was connected with the healings Ya'Acov offered during the ceremony to the Parents Circle of £560. Thank you so much. If you wish to add to this, please go to: Parents Circle.
One of the things which emerged from all of this was the synergistic co-creation of a simple and significant ceremony to mark an important moment for many of those present. This emerged from members of the group stepping up. Witnessing this level of group intelligence in action is a huge blessing.
I wonder how this resonates with you and your heart. I do hope you have the resource of sharing your deep heart with others who can receive you, and vice versa. And I hope you can dance it all.
I am so happy that we also can share the depth of dances and ceremonies like these with a much wider world wide weave than can come to "in the room" events like these. The last online ceremony we offered (the Equinox Ceremony) had many of the same characteristics as the Spring Dream Dance and we are glad it is still available (via the recording). Ya'Acov and I danced it ourselves (using the recording) just before the Spring Dream Dance and it went deep. It's worth hearing the first 20 minutes with our inspiring guests from "Combatants for Peace" even if you don't dance the rest of the ceremony (but do!).
If you're interested in bering part of a global learning village of dancing dance, learning and sharing I recommend you find out about the Movement Medicine Study Hub.
And lastly, I want to celebrate two matters of song. Amber Dubinsky (who is a Movement Medicine teacher and school teacher - lucky kids) told me that her class of young school children have fallen in love with "All the Earth is Sacred" and wish to sing it a lot. I was so, so touched. And someone else told me that "Courage my Soul" was going round and round her head and heart and where could she find it? These are songs I wrote and recorded some time ago (from the album "All the Earth is Sacred") and I was filled with joy that they are still resonating round the world. They are now available (along with all my and our back catalogue) and can be found in the "discography" of the new website, where you can also find Amber and all the amazing Movement Medicine teachers.
So I wish courage to your soul and a prayer that we may remember that all the earth is sacred, including you and me and all of us. I'll end with these words which I find so inspiring and helpful from Vaklav Havel, who was a playwright, poet, dissident and first president of the Czech Republic.
"Either we have hope within us or we do not. It is a dimension of the soul and is not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world. HOPE is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. It transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. HOPE in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy that things are going well or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not because it stands a chance to succeed. HOPE is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out. It is HOPE, above all which gives the strength to live and continually try new things." - Vaclav Havel.
Thank you Vaclav Havel.
And with love to you, thank you for reading this,
Susannah Darling Khan
April 2024
