By Johanna Wright
May I introduce you to the movement practice that underpins the work that I do, with a quote from Fredrich Wilhelm Nietzsche:
May I introduce you to the movement practice that underpins the work that I do, with a quote from Fredrich Wilhelm Nietzsche:
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
At the age of nineteen a close encounter with death changed my perspective on life. I suddenly asked myself, "Who, other than my parents, would have noticed that I was no longer there?"
Some profound lessons learned from life coaxed me into studying the workings of the mind through different modalities, but it was round the age of thirty that a sense of divine discontent took hold of me and I started searching for ways of finding my full self expression. In studying the mind, I became disenchanted with the way my thoughts often lied to me. I had a strong sense that I was still nowhere near living my full potential, when I picked up Gabriella's Roth's book: 'Maps to Ecstasy'. It must have been exactly what I needed at the time because I devoured it. "...Being - existence, energy, vitality - means that our spirit fills our body. Our full self is embodied." She wrote. "If it isn't a vibrant self-brimming with energy and presence, then you're short changing yourself on the gift of life...." As I read these words I became convinced that the key to my liberation from my mediocre life, lay in my own body.
It was 1991 in South Africa and I couldn't find a teacher of Gabriella's 5Rhythms practice in my area, but I did find Tossi van Tonder, an ex-ballerina and Jungian therapist who took me on my first journey into the body. With Tossi, I managed to move away from my self-conscious (what do I look like when I dance?) attitude, to allowing my breath to move me. She introduced me to, the fact that I had a vocabulary of movement, that was uniquely mine, and that no movement was unacceptable or needed intelectual annalysis. That the body was unable to lie, and would always reflect the truth about my experience. I experienced the alchemical transformation of anger and grief burning in the beat...filtered through my body into surrendered joy and peaceful acceptance.
I started living in my body, allowing my breath to move below my neck for a change. Discovering my personal inner dance, was for me, discovering my voice. My unexamined life unfolded before me in a dancing story.
I realized that I had forgotten how to really move and be moved. This was my way back to life, back to myself! I had re-entered my body and my life, and was starting to feel my sensual aliveness. As I experienced my body I searched and experienced every movement based therapeutic experience I could find: first Eurythmy, then Nia and Biodanza.
The dance inspired my heart to share its secrets with whoever would dance with me. It eventually spilled over into my job as a counselor and I began moving with traumatized people. I used what I had learned from Tossi, to dance with those who couldn't speak.
Many years later, whilst living in Sydney, life would present me with a wonderful gift, by the name of Melissa Michaels from Boulder, Colorado. Melissa is a therapist and registered 5Rhythms practicioner who uses the 5Rhythms as the undercurrent of her magnificent work. I was blessed to be able to attend Melissa's workshop "Surfing the Creative" in Boulder, an amazing experience for me as I witnessed her take a group of young people, through a dancing rite of passage, and deliver them as vibrant, passionate esteemed people who are in touch with their personal gift to the world, and have a sense of responsibility to deliver it.
I am honoured to have had an experience of Melissa's lifework, which she gives and lives so passionately. As an elder in her workshop of young dancers, I experienced her incredible skill as she held a safe space for the very deep work that was taking place. Her work comes straight from her heart and is soulfuly presented through movement, interspersed with art, drama and ceremony.
She describes her work as:
"Transformational work that is a moving journey into the sacred temple of our being in order to access the wisdom of our bodies; the pulse of our creative wild child, and our natural connections with self, other, community and the Spirit moving all of Life."
I couldn't describe it better.
I was deeply and profoundly affected by Melissa's work, and felt my own sense of responsibility to inspire younger people to continue tapping into that ever available, vital stream of life and love that surges through all of us. I want to provide proof that time does not rob us of our radiance...it is when we refuse to step up and into the Dance of our life that we dull our glow.
Come out and dance...it is only those who can't hear the music of life, who will think your'e insane. Who knows, a few me be tempted to join you!
PS Click on the image and take a look at some pictures taken in Colorado.