Move and Be Moved

On Valentines, 14 Taoseno's danced their collective dances of support and healing for Haiti through the global 5Rhythms effort initiated by Canadians Anne Marie Hoyga and Joanne Winstanley. Many 5Rhythms tribes throughout the world participated in this effort.

in the fundraising event organized locally by Visudha de los Santos, the 'Wave'(the 5Rhythms played sequentially) featured the rich and diverse music of the Haitians, both traditional and current musical themes.

One participant shared tearfully after the dance that she understood how our dances for healing are shared with others. Our tears and our sweat find their way back to the waters of the mother earth, and those tears and sweat carry our intentions through the waters and back to all of the people.

The Taos event raised $139 which has been donated to Doctors Without Borders.

Many, Many Thanks to all!

Taoseno dancer Mona Frastaci recently wrote an article in the Horsefly, the local paper of Taos, NM featuring the 5Rhythms in Taos with certified 5Rhythms teacher Visudha de los Santos.

Check it out: Horsefly 5Rhythms

I don't know what it means, and I just keep coming back to the dance, again and again.

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. "
- Albert Einstein

I'm navigating the abyss you told me would come. I'm in boot camp with God and all I know so far is that I need to dance slowly and quickly and sometimes I see a spark of the God in me and I listen to her because she knows everything at once. What choice do you have? You can't breathe and you can't see and you can't hear and it's over you're pretty sure it's over. The darkness is so real, so tangible. Learn or die. So, you come to yourself. Quite simply, you come to yourself. There is nothing else.

So. Long. Ago. Another person wrote that and I know her. She still speaks to me, questioning, crying, screaming. I listen.

J. said watch nature for how to die gracefully. So much depth from pain, sorrow, trauma. Now, it's time for light.

If life is what I decide then let me decide this:
To die gracefully.
"To be wounded by my own understanding of love."
To look at myself in the eyes.
"To bleed willingly and joyfully."
To find depth from joy.
To accept.

I dreamt about you months ago. You were a giant spiderweb and I was stuck in the middle of it. You were surrounding me. I had a sword. After a year of pain I stood up and looked at you, looked right at you. And in utmost joy I started cutting you down, chopping as fast and as hard as I could. There was so much freedom there, in those spaces without you. I got scared. I fell to the ground crying, remembering, the joy and the pain, the letting go letting go letting go killing me killing me killing me. Then a voice said to me "Do something different." I stood up. And instead of running away, instead of weeping, I stuck the sword down face up in the mud and I bowed to each side of you, each side of the cutting I had made, each moment of ecstasy and bereavement, and I sat down in the center and smiled.

This is the story of my death and rebirth. No less. My entire life written between these pages. Childhood, a quick death, and an awakening.

Something ……. "Be your own mother. Be your own mother."

Nearly 30 amazing dancers joined in for the First Annual Gratitude Wave in Taos last Sunday. We explored the 5Rhythms through a 'G Wave' which included Garner, Gratitude, Generosity, Genius and Grace.

The dancers raised nearly $300.00 which was given to 5 local non-profits. The beneficiaries were Taos Feeds Taos , Communities Against Violence, Stray Hearts, The Hanuman Temple and Casa de Corazon.

Visudha de los Santos, creator of Move and Be Moved, has just completed a year long journey with guides Gabrielle Roth, Jonathan Horan, Kathy Altman, Lori Saltzman, Andrea Juhan and 80 dancing colleagues from around the world. I wanted to take a moment, as her friend and witness, to acknowledge this initiation into the sacred territory of a 5Rhythm teacher. She offers herself as a beacon of light, facilitating movement and ritual in Taos and around the country. In my view, this offering is vital.

I started dancing with Visudha many years ago in the Olympia ballroom, even before I knew her. And, eventually, we had our first "road trip" to California and became instant soul sisters. I have witnessed her journey over the years, her dances, her surrender, her work, her play and her continual willingness to travel that higher road - to be beauty, love and light. I love you and I'm proud of you!

And, so, I want to recognize this essential moment in time, this lovely silly delightful preciously fleeting moment. And, honor the person, Visudha, for her devotion to movement meditation, to art and ritual, community conversation, and helping others to free their spirits. Thank you for living in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. Congratulations. May we dance together again soon!

Please join me in celebrating Visudha via the e-waves, give her a call, and show up on her dance floor!

[note: I'm loathe to bump Visudha's post of Michael Stone's fine interview with Gabrielle Roth down the queue by dropping my latest wordbomb, but here goes ... and please scroll down because it is well worth the listen.]

Okay, Mirrors … now 23 days gone and slip-sliding rapidly from memory as thoughts shift from then to next – which (lucky me) is Lori Saltzman in Olympia followed by Andrea Juhan the weekend after here on home turf. But in the mirror of Mirrors, my best attempt at a one-word précis is "zowie.� Let me explain …

Point one: All those core teachers (GR, KA, LS, JH) in one fantastic lap-of-the-gods dance space, blue waters laid out at our feet, pelicans and hawks gliding by on the updrafts + a supporting cast of teachers DJing the sweats - Peter, Margaret, Sara, Michael, Shawn, Davida - each with their own spin on the rhythms from candied worldbeat to Bittersweet Symphony, Groove Is In The Heart & (mamma mia!) did i dream this, or was there also three golden minutes of classic ABBA?

Point two: The rare pleasure of swimming through Tiburon waters with 80-plus dedicated rhythmatists, a UN of dancers from multiple points of the compass, all of us going broke (“I� statements please!) in pursuit of community and personal growth and more/more/more of this transplendent practice.

Point three: The initial sense that there wouldn't be nearly enough dance time, what with many hours of fresh hell in the form of a glue-stickathon art project and the dreaded (speaking strictly for myself) Rhythm & Repetition … only to be followed by the dawning realization that the entire 10 days (and all life for that matter – yes, I’m finally getting it) was a dance on and off the floor - from airport to hotel, hardwood to redwoods, Cafe Gratitude to men's night out in Sausalito, Marin Suite parties to Fairfax hot tubs, Muir Beach bonfire to home fires burning.

A few alternative words for the experience: “krunch bam kapow ouch whamm zap kapow urkkk zok biff zzzzzwap splatt� (to quote the cartoon bubbles from episode two of the original Batman TV series, courtesy of the website www.batmania.com). (no surprise, this continues overleaf ...)

Follow the link, and click on her picture.

I was walking out the door a few hours before the start of Mirrors when my back went. It is a chronic injury that flares up once a year but the timing was hard to ignore. Little did I know that three weeks later, not the typical three days for me to recover, that my back would still be in a weakened state.

Since our work was to surface our ego's, one of mine was predominant. Meet Justin Fine. Justin was often heard throughtout the workshop to be saying, "I am just fine." In reality, I was not fine...still am not.

To acknowledge that took humbling...a process that took 8 days when I finally could not make it to the workshop even after having a day off the day before. One of the learnings was how does one move in a movement workshop with an injured back, which I was trying to do? In my days as an EMT, 20 years ago, coming up on a back injury meant immediate immobility, unless of course, there were a life threatening situation present. Well, duh, the answer was not to move!

I upon discovering that, I actually experienced one person who was tending to me trying to get me to move and walked away when I said "no" when asked, "Don't you want to move it?"

Still, I knew there was locked up energy and ready to be moved! I knew I needed to let it out and the only thing I could do in the moment was feel it, not knowing how the energy would move but trusting my body would find a way. As chaos unfolded, my frustration at not being able to dance one of my favorite rhythms began expressing itself. I also began feeling the pain of my back. I was immobile on the outside but internally my body was seizing and sending waves of energy inside me toward my mouth.

And something beautiful came shortly after I had said "no" to moving. One of my close male friends placed himself beside me. He had told me earlier that day I was avoiding him. And I realized I was, not wanting to show my pain near him or others for fear of being weak. I asked him then to come to me if he saw I was loosing it and he did.