My firstYoga Trance Dance® was at Kripalu where I completed my 300 hour Prana Flow teacher training with Shiva Rea. Back in the day she offered Spring, Summer, and Fall modules so you could complete your training in one location. At the end of each training there was a public trance dance in the main hall. And there would always be wonderful live music with major artists like Jai Uttal or Donna de Lory. Some years there were over 250 people dancing together. In the main hall and still today there is a life size statue of Lord Shiva as the emobidement of Nataraj the cosmic dancer. Nataraj became a real form of my Ishta Deva, meaning my chosen deity, as in fact dancing is so old it never really began. It’s always been a part of my life. The metaphor of dancing through your ups and downs has usually worked best for me rather than thinking my way out of something. All of creation is a dance.
There was something so magical about the union of dance and yoga that felt so mystical and validating at the same time. From my first trance experience I knew that I wanted to maybe one day lead this unique form. And when I was able to lead a training for it, it brought it to a whole new level of wonder!
For the training in July in NYC we are going to be looking at different locations to experience the culture and nature of the city as part of our dancing experience. A movement meditation class in Central Park, and a maybe even flash trance!
Dance has a rich cultural history trajectory of both evolution and supression within the last 2500 years. Did you know that the New York City cabaret laws banned dance during the prohibition in 1926 in all NYC bars unless you have a permit? This law was originally designed to keep couples from getting too wild in the Harlem clubs and also forming interracial bonds. It was finally removed in 2017.
Did you know that Japan has had a ban on dancing since 1940 and will be lifting the ban in 2020 for the Olympics?
In Kuwait at public concerts anything other than light swaying and hand clapping is prohibited.
Or that the Taliban in Afghanistan, ancient Persia the land of the great mystic poet Rumi from the 13th c, beheaded 17 people for dancing at a party in 2012?
Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.
Rumi
