I woke up to the sun shining, the air cleared out, birds singing and the promise of spring in the breeze…it felt like a big ‘Hello’ from the morning. This is the theme I took to the floor to dance with in our weekly RemedyWave class…’Hello’ ~ to the body, to the movements that emerge…Hello to the space between bodies, the connections to others and to the moving group…’Hello’.
And so we go…into the dance with Hello. Movers go into moments in inner tracking and hunting for the impulse, bringing that to awareness and into embodied movement. Inviting a moving ‘Hello’ to the body…the feet, belly, hips…hello to the spine and rib cage, arms and hands…hello to shoulders, neck, throat and head.
We dance all these hellos alive…some quiet with backs turned to the moving floor, giving their inner attention to what arises…some bubbling and bursting into movements, free and celebratory. We invite curiosity…what is calling my attention, wanting to make its presence known? Stay right there…with that…move with that…let that hello move you.
Such a seemingly simple invitation…pulling us deeper and higher into the body, into the dance with this body and the other bodies. Hello! Some find a glorious, free, playful, expressive ‘Hello’ within self and with others! Little connections and celebrations happening all around the floor…a few dance deeply within, following the inner dance. As the music and wave of movement lightens and expands, arms naturally raise and a lightning is welcomed in the body and…again the room shifts to another kind of spacious yet related ‘Hello’.
Together we empty even more into a quieting in the body…filling with that sweet spot of empty and full…a sense of expanding beyond, connecting with vastness. We soften into stillness in music and movement and the inquiry comes…’What is saying hello to me now?’ Gentle movements and pauses hold this deeper curiosity until we come to the resting place for this dancing exploration.
In circle we learn of the riches that emerged for movers:
Two speak of the dance with awareness of body, emotion and intellect bring choice points in their movement consciousness ~ to choose joy and happiness in body and movement…being moving joy rather than thinking about dancing their joy. I can see this in their dances and love knowing the ‘back story’ to their free full-bodied movements and smiles.
Another mover who was attending to her inner dance speaks of her belly calling her attention in a powerful way…she would rather be light and ‘happy’ but is not feeling that so surrenders to the pull of her belly (yes! Well done I exclaim) – fighting with herself in this exploration…she finds the call of her vulnerability. ‘I danced with my vulnerability and it didn’t feel so good…but it is what is calling me now in my life, I wish it was something else, but its my uncomfortable vulnerability now.” Something in her softens with this acknowledgment.
“My feet have been hurting….it seems counter intuitive, but I wanted to stomp them hard on the ground so I stomped and stomped and after a while they began to feel better, then I felt lighter and more open and connected in my dance.” She goes on to share a personal victory in her life – hiking a scary trail and breaking a personal barrier, were aided by reminding herself that her feet could carry her and her core was strong ~ medicine she was given from previous dances. Perhaps she was stomping out the left over tension, fear and bracing of old beliefs held in her feet.
For me, the end of my dance brings me a quiet hello from my undeniable shamanic nature…a deep vein in the river of my life…a natural and deeply rooted way of seeing and being in the world. I am flooded with gratitude and my heart lifts with a wave of recognition and home coming…Hello…and welcome home.
