(originally published 2/25/2016 by the NeuroImaginal Institute)
It is late Winter…early Spring…we are in this dance of between-ness, across the borders of season. Each season having its own energy signature within us, just like in life as we transition from one thing to the next, one meeting to the next, one home to next, one lifestyle choice to the next, we meet different energy signatures. This is also true as we dance through each of the rhythms in our wave as they invite different qualities of movement in the body. Tonight we play with the in-between place of transition, where the strong definitions become softer, the clarity of where we are is a bit muddled, the borders or territory from where we are to where we are going, blurry.
I wonder what this will bring up in people’s dance, in their movements and bodies, what feelings or experiences they may find on the floor individually and in the dancing body of our group.
We begin in a sweet fluid stillness. Juicy and quiet we find our way into this wave, the individual body and the community of other dancing bodies. The room begins to feel the pull into the full flow of the river and the growing pulse in the waves of rhythm that come. ‘Curious’ the movers are reminded…curious…’How do I meet this and then the next?’ What is in this space between and how does it arise in movement?
We play with the transitions and overlaps in music, bringing awareness to the space between this movement quality and that, between this beat in the body and the next…dancing through a whole wave of rhythm we end in a rich quietness. Still. Then…a soft, slow awakening…movers unfurling as if with the morning dew into the next wave of music and movement…we are pulled into the flowing river of the dance and a second, deeper healing journey.
The invitation is to expand awareness into the space between this moving body and the others on the floor. Experimenting with the connections coming and going in the dance. Feeling the emotions, noticing the thoughts, opening to inspiration in this conscious dance with the transition, the space between-ness. I see new, free and unexpected movements as dancers swirl and pulse together then away, I see ecstatic dancing smiles, arms high, limbs akimbo. I hear gleeful giggles and playful exchanges…hair across faces, blissful soft hands on arms like flowing kelp…until we find our way back into the spacious and full moments of delicious resting. Resting into the breath, into the images, into the knowings that arise from bodies in motion and then rest, bodies willing to be curious, to invite something new into movement and into awareness embodied. Slowly we breathe together as the room fills with quiet.
Another transition moves us into circle with discovery and insights shared:
- One mover remarks on the safety he felt in the experiment to really be himself, to follow his movements in a connective space with others, and how few places he feels in his life are like this. He talks of his experiment of being carried by the rhythm without any effort, the surrendering into the rhythm body, then the transition into choosing emphasis on movement and how that feels, and finding the moment or space right between those two differences…he pauses as if there is more to come in his discovery…as I’m sure there is.
- One mover began in opening circle ‘I’m really in my thoughts, in my head tonight…’ she says it with some irritation. I encourage her to do that dance…what does your head dance want? Dance with that…what ever comes up, follow that. In our sharing circle she reveals…I feel like my relationship with my self-concept has shifted tonight. She had a head injury as a child and always felt her head was ‘broken’ some how. Through the dance with her thoughts and her head she realizes…”I’m fine. I am not ‘broken’…tonight something shifted…I’m fine.” There is a bigness in this simple statement…I imagine the ripple effects will bring her deeper clarity and healing.
- “I spent much of my childhood between places, in transition as we moved a lot. This was always a happy, free place for me, but always very alone. Tonight I felt the freedom and joy and I find all these other dancing bodies in this wonderful freedom space.” She giggles, “My dance was so freed up, realizing I am not alone, that the isolation space has expanded and I am with others in this.” Her dance was freer and more expressive than I have seen it, as a fling of the hair and a rumba-like hand flip the air in my recall.
- “Tonight I realized I am not spending as much time reflecting on the good things that happen in my life, I felt bad about that.” He says with a deeply thoughtful pause…”maybe I am just having more good things happening and being in those experiences more.” I wonder with him if he is letting go of having to hold on to the few goodness moments and is learning to trust that they will ebb and flow, that he is in the river of goodness in his life. I see this in his dance as his movements expand, more trust, more risk, more playful freedom. “Yes…that is what it feels like…” ummmm.
I love this work, the body in motion with mindful awareness, with permission and support to explore and be with what arises and enough structure to invite a focus for exploration. The gift of time for reflection and witnessing, to be seen. As for me, I am realizing the paradox of transition from here to what is next, that in-between space, the journey zone, the curious crossing of borders…although a continuum in concept, in practice, in the body, it is really a moment of NOW, and then another moment of NOW, and now, and now…and so on…we go, into the dancing transitions of NOW in our life.
Note: Dr. Shannon Simonelli is a trained 5Rhythms Movement Therapy facilitator and has over 1,500 hours of training and experience in Authentic Movement.
