by Gill Eardley

A dancer’s response can be easily stifled by choreography, limited movement vocabulary, poor posture, lack of confidence – the dance becoming merely outer technique and form.

In addition to teaching Arabic dance movements, a variety of innovative techniques outside the Arabic form are used which aim towards the discovery of a balance between outer technique and a deep inner response. This then can be taken back into Arabic dance with a heightened quality of confidence, expression and delight.

Move to Relax

Allowing body and breath to work in harmony brings a deep sense of peace and clarity, aiding the emergence of intuitive and creative living. A tapestry of breathwork, gentle exercise and imagework offering simple ways of relaxation for daily use.

“Dance is the Soul in ecstasy” (Isadora Duncan), and “Dance is the hidden language of the Soul” (Martha Graham). Quotes given to us by these two great heroines of dance hint at the “otherness” of dance, of a dimension beyond us brought about by bodily movement and rhythm.

How might these two quotations connect with this…. “Censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time. Write yourself. Your body must be heard. Only then will the immense resources of the unconscious spring forth” (Helene Cixous – quoted in “The Whole Woman” by Germaine Greer

Humankind has always danced, earliest dance being rhythmical movements echoing or imitating those seen in the natural world. Traditional peoples understood the connection between Soul, the human body, and the cosmos in which they find themselves.

They have (and do) acknowledged the vital importance of continually “re-membering” and honoring that connection for their very survival. We in the West tend to view this honoring either as pagan superstition or a romanticized idea not applicable to us.

We have only to look at such basics as our food and water, poisoned as they are with antibiotics and chemicals, our land and trees devastated by economic greed, and how we treat other cultures, other people and our own bodies to realize that something very fundamental is amiss, missing.

So what has all this got to do with the Dance? Dance has its way with us on several levels. I choose my words carefully there for dancing is different to being danced which, I believe, is the true aim in dance.

Dance, dances, can be thought of as Beings, each having intention with us. Through the constant repetition of rhythmical movement we are infused with it’s meaning for us as humans and we are changed as a result. This process deepens when made as a conscious act.

At community level it brings strong cohesive bonding of the group, community or village regularly dancing together. This is at its most powerful when the dances are in lines or circles, the participants touching each others bodies in some way such as holding hands or laying arms on shoulders as seen in folk dances around the world. (ZORBA) A strong sense of one’s community evokes a sense of loyalty and self-confidence to each of its members, invaluable in times of threat to the group.

At the “world around us” level, dance brings us into contact with a sense of being part of the world we find ourselves in. Dance is an echo, a metaphor of the Universe. Native American dancers dress in costume of Bear, Eagle, Deer, Butterfly and the other creatures they see in the natural world around them. The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert “become” the animal they track, only then they know that they are allowed to take its life to feed their families. They equate tracking with dancing – their word for dance also means “to revere”.

The natural world is deeply embodied in the movements of Arabic Dance. In this most ancient of all dances a wave of the sea, or the wind in a field of wheat can be seen in the undulations and pulsing movements; the rivers and streams spiral down to the sea and the smoke of a fire spirals to heaven; in sacred geometry the figure eight is the figure symbolizing Infinity – no beginning and no end; the Moon and Stars and all the planets circle on their path in space; the whole Universe vibrates as the Creation constantly shimmies into being; and the pulsing and jerking of the pelvis during those most holy acts of sexual pleasure and childbirth. All are celebrated, honored, in Arabic Dance.

(I AM…..THE LORD OF THE DANCE, SAID HE.)

[No beginning, there can be no ending]

When we are in contact with the Earth and cosmos on such a deep level as this, it is a small step to allow the Dance to take us to an awareness of that which is greater than us, that which is variously called Divine Spirit, Goddess, God, The Creation, Mother God. Father God, Shiva, Kali – the names are multitudinous.

Relating to this level through the Dance may be celebratory, placatory, or devotional and brings us sharply aware of the personal in relation to the Divine.

Dance as a Soul (some refer to this as spiritual) path invites us into a place where rhythmic bodily movement breaks us open (physical), cleans us (emotional) and loves us (Soul or Spirit – the Divine). In other words, our consciousness may be moved to a greater sophistication on many levels where we are able to act in the world, on a daily level, with greater awareness and love for ourselves, those around us, the planet and the Divine. We then become aware of the significance of things, the sacredness and meaning imbued in the things around us, in the activities we engage in. Allowing the Dance to have its way with us deepens our way in the Dance, deepens us as individuals.

I am not talking necessarily about dance therapy; dance therapy uses dance to effect emotional healing. I am talking about allowing the Dance to use us – allowing the dance into our soul, an inner dance. Exploring not solely outer techniques and forms but delving into the movement of the body in a wider sense, breaking open the inner senses, finding a balance of the inner and outer dance.

The Guedra dancer allows herself to be used by the Dance, using very specific movements, for psychic cleansing in order to maintain her connection to the Divine. The repetitive step patterns of Eastern European folk dance and Balkan Rom (Gypsy) cocek dances are danced for long periods of time, until the dancers move, are moved, into a place beyond time and space.

The seven stages of the Sema ceremony (Whirling Dervish) represents a mystical journey of the ascent through mind (the physical) and love (emotional) to the Perfect (spiritual) – turning towards Truth, growing through love, deserting the ego, finding the Truth and arriving at the Perfect. He then returns from this journey with a greater maturity and perfection, “able to love and be of service to the whole of Creation, to all creatures without discriminating in regard to belief, class or race” (from “Sema the Universal Movement by The Grandson of Hz. Mevlana, Dr Celaleddin B. Celebi).

A Soul or spiritual path in the Dance then can be seen as the connection of body, soul and cosmos. How do we allow the Dance to deepen into us? Many women speak of a deep longing in their desire to dance, often bringing them to tears as they speak of it. Our longing IS the Dance and it takes us with it. There are infinite ways of following the longing, of deepening our dance, of discovering the sacred union of the inner Dance with the outer.

In order to dance we position ourselves in space. In doing so we become aware of our Centre, easily identified in Arabic Dance through the basic posture. This vertical line runs through the centre of our body, extending from the soles of the feet into the Earth, out of the top of the head into space (Heaven). All movements come from and return to this centre and are always carried with one as one dances. This is the “axis mundi”, represented in mythology by the tree, the metaphor in the body being the spine. To be able to dance one has to be “centered”, “grounded”, “earthed” – it is interesting to note that in electrics one has to be earthed to avoid being blown up!

Dance is a place of contrast – of inner and outer, of hard and soft, of movement and stillness. The interaction of outer and inner, for instance, can be experienced in different ways. Even in the midst of intense or rapid outer movement there lies a deep inner stillness, our “earth” and connection to that which is greater than ourselves. And, when during the dance the outer movement is arrested to stillness, it is not simply a case of being still, but feeling still, embodying stillness, or, maybe, allowing stillness to embody us. Stillness then becomes a cathartic experience both for the dancer and anyone observing. This is part of the flamenco dancer’s “duende”.

Working with Steiner’s inner senses (he found seven inner senses in addition to the outer five) in the dance can push the boundaries of the body’s movement into a wider sphere of physical, emotional and spiritual freedom which can then be brought back into a deepened form of the outer dance of technique. Arabic Dance is the perfect place to work in this way, often as it does bring us face to face with our personal inheritance of a 3000 year long legacy of the denial of the female bodily functions and sexuality. Arabic Dance comes from a time and culture where sexuality and the female body were inextricably linked, being the exquisite metaphor of Life itself. “Censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time…”.

Following our longing, dancing the longing until we are danced by it, leads us to a place where, as the Sufis say, “The sole purpose of Love is Beauty” – the dance becomes the sense-uous experience it truly is. We are then graced with The Breath, The Body, The Earth and The Love…”Write yourself. Your body must be heard. Only then will the immense resources of the unconscious spring forth….”

(Used my website as a reference at the bottom of the article)