The Dance of Rapture

Imagine yourself lost within the sound of a heartbeat, distant drumming that pulses like a lost memory in your subconscious. You stand with your feet planted on the floor, your head slowly rocking from side to side as your shoulders begin to roll, your arms lift as from unseen strings, and your hands dance like moths around a campfire. Soon your rigid spine becomes liquid, your rusty hips loosen themselves from their lazy hinges until finally, your feet can no longer stand in one place.

As the music ricochets from all corners of the room, your elbows find each other behind your back, your hands intertwine to tell their stories, and your breath finds a home deep within your belly. Gradually, you move in wider and wider circles as the drums shift from a steady beat to a more chaotic rhythm, joined now by joyful voices and exotic instruments of sound. As you dance around the room, your body frees itself from the limits of the mundane and you drop deeper into your dance. You’re vaguely aware of the other dancers moving around you, lost in the ecstasy of a moment where body meets soul and becomes one again. You move, you moan, you sing, you cry, you sweat. You become the dance itself.

This is the Dance of Rapture. Some call it Ecstatic Dance or Trance Dance or Sacred Movement, but the names all mean the same thing. Dancing wildly is a moving meditation, a childlike freedom, a dance with The Divine. It is permission to lose your inhibited self within the folds of a trembling drum, the smile of a perfect note, the emerging light of another dancer’s blissful glow. For a brief time, you are a barefoot child again, unbound by the constraints of societal limits, and it is there that the child remembers what she never should have forgotten: I’m free.

Photo Credit: Philip Novotny (Dance Church Facilitator)

Comments

[Gus]

The night before I first read this, I had played a set of drums for the first time in a very long time. Soon it wasn't me playing..but listening. Yeah..it's kinda like that. Awesome write!

[ellie]

I remember a day when my baby girl stood rapt as your sticks danced like bones against a crying wall. The world needs drummers like they need water, Dear One. Thanks for beating in a loud corner of my heart, bro.

[nina]

Oh, I need to do some of that. My body has been screaming at me that it needs to dance.

[Anthony V. Toscano]

This is the way I always danced, Ellie; and I was once a fabulous dancer. There is no trying when one dances with a song and soon becomes that song.

Dance lessons? Nothing more than letting go your human talent to make love to your own and others' bodies. I once held these spotlight eyes entranced with my apparent happiness. Others moved back, smiled and wondered where I'd learned. "From the music, friends. Music comes from inside us." We dance and make love like no other creatures.

As Frank sang: "For what else is makin' love set to music, playin'?"

[Ellie]

wow,
that is so beautifuly written. dance is something that really gets me. i long to worship God in dance but for now i make do dancing in nightclubs, but one day, one day i'll be able to dance before my God. i like banners too. :o)

[Fran]

Beautiful photo, beautiful words. There are a few teachers nearby who do Movement Expression--a la Gabrielle Roth. I used to go but not sure I'm able to let go like that these days. No excuses for not doing it at home, however.

[Lolly]

That was beautiful! And I love the picture of the little dancer. Did you take it?

[ellie]

One of the facilitators included this photo in an announcement for Dance Church--a weekly event at my local Yoga Centre and gave me permission to use it for this post. It is lovely, isn't it? Really captures the essence of freeing the body.

[Wow]

great post! Dance Away!

[Michael]

A few weeks ago I went to a gig by a band called AfroCelt Sound System: their music is wild and diverse, and, as fits the name of the band, it is a mix of African and Irish influences with Indian dhol drumming and some dance/techno in there for good measure.

Within two bars of them starting up, I was on my feet and dancing - and I didn't stop for two hours. When the concert finished I was soaked in my own sweat, but like most of the other people there I was filled with joy and energy.

If ever the AfroCelts are over performing near you (they're a UK band, but they tour a fair bit), do try and get to see them - it's a spiritual experience.

You can find out more about them at: http://afrocelts.org/

Peace,
Michael

[Hope]

This hits so close to what I am dealing with and where I think I am headed that I just sat here and cried. Thank you for giving me this glimpse of what can be.

[Jen]

Extraordinary photo and exquisite post.

I belly dance and that is exactly how I feel when the music becomes my soul.

Thank you for this.