Movement/Dance

Awakening the Body: Moving Into Deep Connection (Workshop)

Moving into Sacred Realms, by Selene Vega (1983)

Dance Therapy Overview, by Selene Vega (1992)

Movement has been used in many settings, both ancient and modern, to enhance self-awareness, group bonding, and connection with the sacred. Without our conscious attention, the ways we move and hold ourselves in day-to-day life express feelings and attitudes about ourselves, our relationship to others, and to the world around us. Paying attention to this process allows us access to parts of ourselves that have been hidden from the conscious mind. We gain a wealth of information, and we have the capability of two-way communication -- by working with our movements, we can affect areas of ourselves that are blocked or stagnant and begin the process of healing and reprogramming. The dialogue with the Self that this movement communication process begins is a gateway for exploring our relationship with the environment we are part of. The influence of our culture on how we view ourselves and this earth can be expressed and impacted powerfully through movement, theatre, art, and ritual. Moving beyond our familiar verbal territory allows us to bring more depth to our connection with ourselves and each other and empowers us to move more fully into the world. - Selene Vega

In its most fundamental form, the spontaneous link between mentality, feeling, and movement is called dance - a direct, non-verbal, unreasoned assertion of sentience in universal forms of pure physical assertion. Dance is clearly an extremely powerful force in human experience. - Jamake Highwater

The dance is the only form of magic which has not lost its ancient power.Much of it has been drawn off into religion or psychology, but nothing has yet usurped the place of the magic experience which one receives today when one lets go of oneself in rhythmic bodily movement to enter into ecstasy; and this can still be experienced, even in these times, if one treats the art as a genuinely holy activity and not as a cheap and tawdry form of entertainment. - Ted Shawn

The dancer of the future will be one whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of that soul will have become the movement of the body. - Isadora Duncan

The true dancer, like every true artist, stands before Beauty in a state of complete suspense; he opens the way to his soul and his "genius", and he lets himself be swayed by them as the trees abandon themselves to the winds. - Isadora Duncan

Religion is a matter of feeling, not of intellect, and every spiritual teacher has complained at some time or another of the limitations of the language of written or spoken words. It is not a question of saying but of being, and the finest expression of Being is through the dance. - Ted Shawn

Delsarte says that "Motion is the language of the emotions," while Varnhagen says: "The dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff." You cannot express anything greater or higher than you are. - Ted Shawn

Bibliography

Barton, Lea & Nira Ne'eman. (1975). Movement Awareness and Creativity. NY: Harper & Row. Ideas for teaching creative movement, written by Feldenkrais trained movement teachers.

Berge, Yvonne. (1977). Body Alive: Towards an Education in Movement. NY: St. Martin's Press. Philosophy and inspiration.

Bonheim, Jalaja. (1992). The Serpent and the Wave: A Guide to Movement Meditation. Berkeley: Celestial Arts.

CORD Research Annual VI. New Dimensions in Dance Research: Anthropology and Dance - The American Indian. Collection of essays. Dry reading, but the ideas are interesting.

Dell, Cecily. A Primer for Movement Description. NY: Dance Notation Bureau, Inc. Describes effort-shape analysis, a system for understanding movement.

Ellfeldt, Lois. (1976). Dance: From Magic to Art. NY: Brown. History and philosophy.

Halprin, Anna. (1995). Moving Toward Life: Five Decades of Transformational Dance. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.

Halprin, Anna. (2000). Dance as a Healing Art: Returning to Health with Movement and Imagery. Mendocino: LifeRhythm.

Halprin, Anna. (1979). Movement Ritual. San Francisco: SF Dancer's Workshop. Wonderful out-of-print text about movement as ritual and drawings and description of Halprin's personal movement ritual sequence.

H'Doubler, Margaret. (1968). Dance: A Creative Art Experience. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press. Philosophy and inspiration.

Highwater, Jamake. (1978). Dance: Rituals of Experience. New York: A & W Pub.. Philosophy and analysis of dance rituals, primitive and contemporary modern dance.

Howard, Blanche. (1974). Dance of the Self. New York: Simon & Schuster. Specific movements to free up the dancer in everyone.

Jonas, Gerald. (1992). Dancing: The Pleasure, Power, and Art of Movement. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

Lonsdale, Steven. (2000). Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Lonsdale, Steven. (1981). Animals and the Origins of Dance. New York: Thames & Hudson.

McNeill, William H. (1997). Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Natale, Frank. (1995). Trance Dance: The Dance of Life. Rockport, MA: Element Books.

Roth, Gabrielle. (1997). Sweat Your Prayers: Movement as Spiritual Practice. NY: Tarcher.

Roth, Gabrielle. (1989). Maps to Ecstasy: Teachings of an Urban Shaman. New World Library.

Sachs, Curt. (1937). World History of Dance. NY: Crown. A classic, though his racism can be offensive.

Stewart, Iris J. (2000). Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance: Awakening Spirituality through Movement and Ritual. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions. Beautiful book documenting the role of dance in various cultures throughout history, specifically focusing on women's spirituality.

Vega, Selene (2005). Movement Practices for Self-Relations. In S. Gilligan & D. Simon (Eds.), Walking in two worlds: The relational self in theory, practice, and community. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker, & Theisen.

Wosien, Maria-Gabrielle. (1974). Sacred Dance: Encounter with the Gods. NY: Avon. Inspiring illustrations and text.