Simple Suggestion #285 -- Dance!

My dearest friend and a dozen or so of her friends from across Western Canada have welcomed me into their Saturday morning 5Rhythms group. Early every Saturday morning, via an online video call platform, we get together to move to music. My friend comes up with a 20-25 minute playlist of 5 songs of different types -- Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness, and we enjoy embodying the songs by moving to them in different ways. The rhythms themselves form a wave that peaks with high activity in the middle (chaos) and comes back to stillness, a quiet and contemplative state. We conclude with silent meditation for ten minutes. Moving and meditating with the ladies never fails to touch me deeply.

The dancing part of our time together reminds me of when I was small, and my mom would play music in our living room. We had a really colourful rug, and I remember pretending it was magical, and that it gave me the power to be a great interpretive dancer, graceful and strong, and I would perform for adoring crowds in my mind, often with my sisters. For some reason, the songs that come to mind are Puppet on a String (chaos?) by Paul Mauriat and his orchestra (see below), followed by their version of Love is Blue (lyrical?). I suspect we asked Mom to play that record over and over and one song just followed the other.

The meditative part of our 5Rhythms time together is powerful too... just having a sense that we are all joined together in silence -- opening ourselves to quiet and peace -- somehow bonds us together even though many of us are strangers to each other.

As a practitioner of centering prayer most days, I have regular opportunities for quiet and peace -- it's the dance that I find I really need. In moving to music, I hear it in a different way because it is embellished with my own physicality. Dancing enriches the music experience, even though I'm not trained as a dancer and often feel a bit awkward in my movement. If a song has lyrics, those words find a deeper meaning somehow. If it is instrumental, the beauty of a certain instrument or the piece as a whole may resonate more deeply within me. Movement becomes a different form of active meditation as my body and mind work together to create a physical representation of something almost intangible. And that physical representation fills me with endorphins and probably other healthy neurological things I don't know about that combat stress and anxiety and are good for me, body and soul.

So the next time a piece of music catches your attention and you're able to move, why not dance? And invite those around you to dance with you! Life is too short to worry about how awkward we look or who might be laughing... and in my experience, often those who laugh wish they could lose their inhibitions long enough to join in.

If you find you're taking life too seriously, dance is one way to lighten things up! Here's the light-hearted Puppet on a String. If you don't want to get up and dance right now, just let your hands be the puppeteer... and have a happy day!

Enjoying our Canadian heritage

One of the things I really love about my country is that it welcomes people from all over the globe to become citizens, and I really love to see the different cultures celebrated at Edmonton's Heritage Days.

My niece sums it up perfectly in her status on Facebook: "Almost cried today because I was so happy that I can watch people dance their hearts out in their own way, and share their culture freely without judgement or harm. Loving heritage days!"

You said it, my dear girl!

And there's so much to love! I actually did cry when a Russian choral group from Calgary started to sing some very familiar melodies -- songs I remember hearing on a Russian record as a child. Getting old and sentimental, or something!

There's nothing like enjoying bratwurst and sauerkraut while listening to a German polka!

(Couldn't quite convince my daughter to dance with me, sigh.)

Both of my heritages, Russian and German, were within earshot of each other, 

so I got to hear both in my first five minutes

 in a park with 85 different nationalities represented.

For a complete change of pace -- here are some Greek knife-fighting dancers. 

One was left for dead (oh the drama!) but bounced back up with a smile and a flourish.

The Sudanese shishkabobs below were delish!

Compliments to the chef!

I could have happily listened to Guatemalan music for the afternoon, 

but there was just too much to see!

There were some yummy Israeli pastries beside these dancers' stage... 

and refreshing minty lemonade. Heritage Days means 

both entertainment and food, if you haven't yet guessed.

These gorgeous Polish young people had me thinking 

that I want to be a folk dancer in my next life.

Their performance told a story, where, at one point, 

they were so tired they were falling asleep as they danced.

Could have been the heat, which sent us into the Hawrylak Amphitheatre

for a wonderful showcase of different cultures' song and dance.

Below, some ladies do graceful Tai Chi to gentle oriental music.

This African group could really shake it up!

And the Chinese Dragon Dancers never stopped until the drummers did!

The park itself was lush and green after all our recent rains, for a pleasurable stroll.

I was happy to see the City of Edmonton's promotion of public transportation

as an effort to "give trees a year off"!

Wait a minute! What are the Wajjo West African Drummers doing at the Irish pavilion?

(My friend, Robert, is the third from the left, in the white cap.)

They're playing for the bonnie lads and lassies, of course,

in a wonderful Celtic/African fusion.

Here's a wee video taste of what we saw at the Irish Pavillion just before heading home. 

I'm very grateful that the Heritage Festival has been going on for these past 40 years, celebrating the many different people who make Edmonton such a wonderful place.
It's definitely worth a visit! I'm already looking forward to next year!

Simple Christmas idea #31 -- Dance!

Year end celebration...

Get out and dance with the crowds at the outdoor New Year's festivities wherever you live. If that doesn't work, consider putting on some favourite, lively music, rolling back the rug if you can, and inviting friends over to move and groove. Or if you don't feel like being sociable, turn up your favourite tune and dance a solo. I'm coping with my sense of imbalance, and our planet made it through another year in one piece, so I'm definitely going to dance!

Whether you feel like dancing or not, Happy New Year!

A little dancing for a Sunday

Here's another beautiful video for a Sunday... I seem to go on and on about music and song in my moodlings, but being a rather uncoordinated person these days, I find this movie about dance to be inspiring, too... another reason to get my balance back, somehow. It also reminds me of my L'Arche friends and their love of dance. Everything God gave us is for praise and celebration, our bodies included, so why not dance a little today? Let the Spirit move!

Do a little dance

Yesterday afternoon, in a bit of goofiness, youngest daughter and I started dancing to a tune that was playing in the living room. It was a happy moment. This morning at work, I was reminded of this:

http://larchecommons.ca/en/communities/news/So_You_Think_You_Can_Dance_2011-01-24

Lift your spirits today, and do a little dance!