“The Wu Li Masters know that ‘science’ and ‘religion’ are only dances,
and that those who follow them are dancers.
The dancers may claim to follow ‘truth’ or claim to seek ‘reality’
but the Wu Li Masters know better.
They know that the true love of all dancers is dancing.”
Gary Zukav from The Dancing Wu Li Masters
We often engage the tongue-in-cheek phrase “when the spirit moves her” to describe action by another person we doubt is ever going to happen. Retrospect and perspective have helped me weave together the several calls to movement I received during the past week, and heeded, that now hang as a transformative tapestry in my psyche.
“The Wu Li Masters know that ‘science’ and ‘religion’ are only dances,
and that those who follow them are dancers.
The dancers may claim to follow ‘truth’ or claim to seek ‘reality’
but the Wu Li Masters know better.
They know that the true love of all dancers is dancing.”
Gary Zukav from The Dancing Wu Li Masters
We often engage the tongue-in-cheek phrase “when the spirit moves her” to describe action by another person we doubt is ever going to happen. Retrospect and perspective have helped me weave together the several calls to movement I received during the past week, and heeded, that now hang as a transformative tapestry in my psyche.
My first call to movement came softly last week, with the small flutter of a postcard announcing a hybrid “creative book group with dance, discussion and depth” called Heartworks. A brief chat with one of the facilitators to ask what kind of dance brought out her experience with 5 Rhythms®.
Ah, this I recognized. This inspired me to walk to my local library to get reacquainted with their copy of Maps to Ecstasy: A Healing Journey for the Untamed Spirit
(New World Library) by Gabrielle Roth, creator of the 5 Rhythms® dance method (www.GabrielleRoth.com).
Roth’s work in identifying and breaking down the five universal rhythms is synthesized nicely by Angeles Arrien in the book’s Foreword:
- The flowing rhythm is a teacher of fluidity and grace
- The staccato rhythm is a teacher of definition and refinement
- The rhythm of chaos is an announcement of creativity seeking form
- The lyrical rhythm is the teacher of synthesis and integration
- The rhythm of stillness is the teacher of contentment and peace
She also reminds us that dancing, singing, storytelling and silence are the four universal healing salves.
Moving with Nature
A day or two later, I joined three other Oneness Blessing givers at our teacher’s home. We sat together for meditation. Afterward, we moved outdoors to the stretch of beach that runs along her property, where for nearly an hour we chanted and did a moving meditation. A constant, gentle breeze was our partner, keeping us from overheating.
Unaware of this plan, I had on the wrong shoes for this venture. So I planted my feet in the rocks and sand for several minutes at a time, shifting every few minutes to allow for some leg stretching and lunging. Mostly, I moved from my core, reaching as high over my head and out in front of me as I could, twisting from my center, working all sorts of muscles that would have been ignored had my legs been the focus of my improvisational movement.
My white tunic was caught and lofted by the wind, making me feel like some giant bird doing a swooping ritual on the beach.
Centered and at peace, I was momentarily taken aback on the ride home when the other passenger, who chooses not to have a vehicle, and learning that I own one, demanded to know why I too had asked for a ride to the event. “Because I needed a ride today,” the observer in me witnessed the neutral response I offered, gratefully.
Later, the driver commended me on the response I had effortlessly given. When I asked if she thought the questioner’s abruptness might be something I needed to discuss with her, the driver gave wise advice. Perhaps, instead of confronting the person at a future time, I needed to simply move out of her way and let the energy pass by me, similar to the way a T'ai Chi practitioner flows with an “opponents” energy, not giving it a place to land, stepping aside to let its momentum whoosh past her.
Soulful Blues
My third call to movement came just two days later, when I received an out-of-the-blue and much appreciated invitation to attend a concert at the Camden Opera House. There was nothing subtle or flowing about this invitation. This invitation was delivered through blistering, electric guitar riffs and the unabashedly sensual movements and honey-coated, gravel voice of the big-as-life Bluesman Taj Mahal.
This hit me where I live, bringing back good memories of a long ago romance, where a true Blues aficionado taught me to love his music just as much. Unable to remain in my seat, I felt my body rise self-consciously at first, and then instinct took over and I let myself be me, moving my body as I pleased in response to the call of music from the stage.
I felt so alive it took me some time to settle in for the night after the show but still, I was unaware of the transformative tidal wave of movement that had begun to bear down on me.
Tribal Beat
The clincher arrived three days later at Alfred Beach, where two women talked about a Zumba® class they have taken. It is, said the one, liberating and freeing. This let loose some low and deep drumbeat in my body, my synapses honing in on my experience years before at an African Dance class I regularly attended.
African Dance, with live drumming. Rigorous. Tribal. Freeing. The salvation that got me through a mostly hapless position in the corporate world. Memories of a particular member of the executive staff pressuring me to craft press releases and quarterly report messages that were “vanilla,” meaning he wanted me to write words that basically said nothing to the media and our shareholders, floated up within me, demanding to be stomped out. After a long and stressful week I would don a colorful skirt and travel to West Philadelphia, where I would dance barefoot with abandon. It was liberating, exhilarating, restorative.
We would learn steps and words to simple, melodic songs that accompanied them. This is a celebratory dance or here’s a dance for restoring mental balance, the instructor would tell us. I quickly learned I was learning much more than dance – I was being invited into an ancient and amazing culture, where dance holds a revered position.
Often the only white girl in the studio, the black women embraced me, playfully placing me in the middle as we did our across the floor movements in groups of three, calling us an Oreo® cookie.
After ninety minutes of intense dance, where you have a low center of gravity, with often bent back and knees, you could literally wring my body out like a wet dishcloth. I would depart the studio physically spent, my spirit reborn and ready to soar.
When I got home from that couple of hours at the beach last week, heeding the drumbeat that had been set in motion, I touched base with Denyse Robinson, a local African Dance instructor. I will take her class this fall, immersing myself in my love of dance and the most rigorous exercise I have personally undertaken. It has proven to be the one forms of movement for which I must already be in shape to do.
It will be, thankfully, an introductory session. A chance to get my feet wet with the hope that my knee, injured in a fall on ice a couple years ago, and then just as it was nearly healed, another crash to the ice, will hold. After a fifteen-year absence, I trust African Dance will offer new transformative treasures, that my willingness to open myself and let the spirit move through and fill me, will transcend any limitation of my fifty-year-old body.
In Slow Motion
Of course not all movement has to be as strenuous as African dance to do the trick of opening ourselves to something bigger. Whatever name you call what I am describing as spirit – God, gods, muse or your own essence – the key is to open the door to the divine that wants to move through us and literally, move us.
In fact, sometimes it is a matter of closing the door on all the things clamoring for our attention, and getting quiet, or to sit and meditate. To be comfortable in the stillness, letting its healing power wash over us and soothe our beings.
The simple act of walking can do the job too. In her classic book from the 1940s, If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland urges writers to take a several mile walk each day in preparation for creating. Julia Cameron has, in recent years, added a daily walk to her writer’s toolbox that also includes “Morning Pages” and “Artist Dates.”
Walking around the converted Victorian home where I do my work, tending to Reiki sheets in the laundry, getting a fresh glass of spring water, making a quick bite to eat in the kitchen or having a quick chat with a colleague, is often enough movement for me to catch a riff of words that wish to dance on a page and send me, enthusiastically inspired, back to my desk.
Nature’s Dance
This morning in Maine we are enjoying a brisk Easterly breeze that has dried the steely dampness of yesterday’s gray rain and ushered in warm, afternoon sun. On this late August day, which has just a tinge of fall around its crisp edges, we throw open the doors and windows, inviting the purifying presence of wind to blow through unencumbered. Airing out what needs airing, mindful to capture a bit in a jar to put up for winter, when we will need it most.
No wallflower today, the spirit of Nature is lush - dancing in all her colors, impossible to ignore.
She invokes the element of wind to provide the necessary movement that will shift her energy, delivering a new weather pattern.
As Nature applies wind, we can engage in movement, to chase the tumbleweeds from our minds and bodies, transforming our energy and opening us up to new possibilities and solutions. It is the blessing of art – the restoration of our soul. If only we will sit still enough, move rhythmically enough, raise our voice in song or allow ourselves to be danced into trance by words on a page.
Next time the spirit moves you, do. You might just set something magical in motion and set yourself right.
For more information or to register for Heartworks, beginning October 13th and running eight months at the Open Door Yoga in Camden, call Deborah Cautela at (207) 691-0730 or Julianna Pfeiffer at (207) 236-3777, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
To register for a four-week, introductory West African Dance class with live drums, beginning October 5th at Camden Hills High School, call Five Town Adult Ed at (207) 236-7800 Ext. 274, or for information contact instructor Denyse Robinson at (207) 975-5325.
© 2010 Teresa Piccari
Teresa Piccari is a writer and teacher living in coastal Maine. She is the proprietor of The Village Scribe, a writing and editing business located at The Wellness Center, 71 Elm, in Camden. She runs The Ducktrap Writers Roundtable. She teaches writing workshops including Creative Writing, Mythic Structure, Writing & Healing and Memoir. Correspond with her at
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or call 207.344.7070.