why the summer long dance matters so much to us
Dear reader,
As we prepare to gather for the deep prayer of the not-for-profit Summer Long Dance, it is important for us to acknowledge the waves of grief and challenge moving through our hearts and through our collective field. Although there is much more grace and compassion in our world than many of us are aware of, much of our beautiful world is hurting. We imagine you may well be experiencing the relentless ache of witnessing such ongoing violence, destruction and division. Gathering in community is always important. And we are aware that the level of polarisation and passionate feelings on different sides of many conversations has made some feel reluctant or unsafe to risk being in a group setting.
A SPACE TO BE HUMAN TOGETHER
We respect the sincere and different ways people strive to make a positive difference in the world. And the Long Dance ceremony is a space to focus on a unified prayer for self, others and the world we live in, whatever our different beliefs are about the best ways to get there. We include all that we carry in our bodies, hearts and minds and we give it all to our collective prayers for life.
Movement Medicine does not require its teachers to have one or another belief or position. We aim to create spaces for deep, real meetings for human beings - with themselves, each other and the spirit of life - through which redemptive, creative action becomes more possible.
A conscious choice
Some members of our community have expressed confusion and pain that we have not been speaking more about the harrowing awfulness of what is happening in Palestine and Israel. We are equally aware of the conflicts raging in Ukraine, Russia, the Congo, Myanmar, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
Although we made it clear at the beginning of the war in Israel-Palestine what our feelings were, in the furore of social media noise, after a time, we decided to remain publically silent. We prefer to do what we can through actions that contribute to peace. Our silence is not indifference. Nor is it neutrality or the absence of care in the face of suffering. It is a choice not to add to the causes of violence, as we understand them.
We have given our whole lives to doing everything we can to make this world a better place for those who follow, and we continue to do so. Though we do not know for certain that our choices are 'right,' we are always doing our utmost to listen carefully to that which guides us and to go on listening to the whole web of life.
That same guidance took Ya'Acov to Israel recently to offer voluntary work (Movement Medicine) for young people who survived the horrors of the Nova festival, parents who lost their children there, and the therapists and healers who have been working with them. He didn't go there to take sides. We are on the side of peace, justice and dignity for all.
The grief and horror we feel for all those who have or who are suffering in unimaginable ways in this war was shared by the vast majority of the people he worked with. He went there to bear witness and to offer the dance in the hope that it may make even the tiniest difference to the possibility of peace re-awakening in the hearts of many who have lost hope. We understand that some of you may not understand or agree with our way of living in this world. We don't have to agree in order to be in community together.
We prefer to make spaces that are open to people with different views, and we have discovered, again and again that, whatever we do or don't do, will satisfy some and not others. If Movement Medicine and the dance teaches anything, it teaches us to learn from the dance of opposites.
the sanctity of life
We believe in the sanctity of all life, and our hearts break for all those devastated by the horror of violence—no matter their nationality, religion, or geography. The pain is universal. And the grief belongs to us all. We hold a deep commitment to peace which can only mean peace for everyone.
We are not untouched. We are not unaffected. We dance our hearts out to keep the flame of the love of life burning strong inside us so that we have something to offer. Bringing as much Movement Medicine into the world as we can to as many different situations as we can is our mission. We are proud of the Movement Medicine teachers around the world who carry this flame to so many people and places in their own unique ways.
We see the empowerment, the empathy and the heart in the people who dance with us, and how the work leads to people taking more responsibility and being more creatively engaged with life.
movement is medicine
We return, again and again, to the moving medicine of our practice, of prayer, of presence. We return to the place where fear, anger and grief can be danced and witnessed, where trauma can begin to unfreeze in the warmth of communal attention. We return to the work of staying human in the face of dehumanisation.
This is not an avoidance of the world. This is our way of being in it—as fully, honestly and usefully as we know how.
The summer long dance
And so we prepare for the Summer Long Dance—a powerful ritual, a collective prayer, a living embodiment of our deepest wish for a peaceful and sustainable world for all beings. The Long Dance is not an escape from reality. It is a place to be in the embodied heart of it. It is a place where grief is welcome, where our anger has space to move, where hope, joy and the development of a deeper compassion are not naïve - but an expression of the wholeness of our hearts. It is a dance of remembrance for those who suffer. It is a celebration of the miracle that we are still here, able to choose love, to create beauty, and to experience deep connection with ourselves, each other and the source of life itself.
In this year's Long Dance, as always, we will dance for self, others and for the world. For all of it. We will not avoid the pain of life. We will dance deep to alchemise it. We will honour the dead and pray-dance for and with the living. We will invoke the Movement Medicine mantra, to 'Stand up, Grow up and Play our role,' so that each of us can deeply resource ourselves to keep going, keep feeling, and keep showing up with as much strength, heart, love and creativity as possible.
why ecstasis matters
Our work is rooted in the promise that all people, given enough love and resource, can rise like the Phoenix from the ashes of their suffering to tell a new story. Movement Medicine is not a luxury. It is not a performance. For us it is a necessity—a way to anchor ourselves in the values we hold dear: compassion, interconnection, and the sacredness of life.
And while we grieve, we also celebrate. We call for the spirit of ecstasis to move through us, to shape us and surrender to the rhythm, to be emptied, to disappear in the dance.
It may seem counterintuitive—perhaps even offensive to some—to speak of celebration in the midst of so much sorrow. But this kind of celebration is not ignorance. It is not distraction. Ecstasis is resistance to the pull of resignation and numbness, an affirmation of life, of what is possible. It is the breath that follows the tears. It is the flower that blooms in a crack in the concrete.
the celebration cascade
This is why we are inviting you to participate in the #celebrationcascade which you will find on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. We hope you enjoy discovering more about the Long Dance and its people. We invite you to like and share these posts and thereby help us share the vibration of the Long Dance, of Movement Medicine and all its teachers far and wide. Thank you.
This cascade is not about pretending everything is fine. It is not about bypassing the truth. It is about amplifying what is good, what is generous, what is healing. It is about remembering that alongside the horror, there is still immense courage, kindness, and creativity unfolding every day.
Every story of reconciliation. Every act of care. Every song, poem, dance, and ritual that affirms our humanity—these are the waters of the cascade. This is the medicine that helps balance the grief. Not to negate it, but to support each of us in having the resources to act from embodied soul in this world.
We are a community rooted in movement—both physical and spiritual. We learn to move with the full spectrum of our hearts. We learn how to listen to the earth, not as beings who are separate from it but who are part of the earth, who belong here. We do our best to honour the ancestors. We celebrate the children. We grieve the lives lost to violence, and we celebrate those who are working—visibly or invisibly, privately or publicly—for peace.
nuance
This moment in time calls for nuance. For humility. For the capacity to connect with those who have different ways of responding to life than we do. For deep listening. We know for certain that we do not know what is right for you.
We recognise that we are all tiny drops in an enormous ocean. And we recognise that each drop makes a difference. For us, the answer continues to be: come into the body, come into the heart. Listen. Move. Feel. Connect. Heal. Dance not just for joy, but for everyone and everything. Dance is a radical act and, for us, the Summer Long Dance is the epitome of that.
And that is why every dancer makes a commitment to raise at least £400 for a charity of their choice, or for the central cause of the Long Dance, the Fundacion Pachamama, so that we ground our prayers in action. This is a dance event of high commitment and we bow to all these who will be joining us this year, and who are supporting those who will join us this year in so many different ways. Thank you!
So, as we step into the sacred space of the Summer Long Dance, we invoke all that is unbroken in us and in the world to hold and dance all that is broken. And we water the dreams of peace and evolution for all. Yes, we still dare to dream. And from that place, we invite you to join us to add your prayer to the collective field. To grieve. To celebrate. To be with, embody and dance the many paradoxes and polarities of life in a body on earth. To deepen the peace inside us that we imagine we are all longing for so that we can carry it with us into our lives.
Thank you for dancing this path with us,
In grief, steadfast action, celebration, and for the love of life.
