Ritual Dance, Theatre of the Angels-- taking ecstatic dance even further
12/10/2009 - By Azlan White Ecstatic Dance gone Deep Ritual in a weekly practice of healers, gathered in a microcosm, stretching ourselves by 1. closing our eyes, 2. staying in contact with everyone in the group as if we are all limbs on one body. 3. Engaging with our Divinity
At Delphi, in ancient Egypt, and in Mystery Schools in Old Europe, Ecstatic Dance was part of weekly or daily shamanic healing. Gabriel Roth's Sweat Your Prayers book, practice, workshops and ecstatic dance maker in cities like Austin, TX, Santa Fe, NM, and Seattle, WA. My feet moved and grooved. With Bradford Keeney, my whole body shook like the snakes rattler, alive and stiffened with movement. Gabrielle Roth is a master teacher, she gave me the freedom to allow myself to love dance as much as i do. Her practice freed me to a deeper reservior of healing wisdom, which continued to unfold, along with my shamanic training.
Some time around 1998, I encountered a teacher that changed my landscape of dance forever! In ritual space, with my eyes closed, i see him as a tall animated being of light with light tipped fingers that change colors.
As an ancient space of ritual healing in a "theatre of angels," is raised, i feel myself falling into my journey. to a sound track of music i journey in consciousness, emphasizing changes in the singer's voice, within my emotional heart and energy system as it emanates from my heart, out through my fingertips and toes. In "Sweat Your Prayers practice," i learned to let go, to follow my instincts and to free my hearts expression.
This next initiatory level of mystery school utilizes these skills as a basic language and asks us to engage our consciousness, to the deeper journey of the heart and soul, to step off of the comfortable cliff of the ego, close our eyes, and "step into the higher self," rooted in the "third level of our heart." In the deeper mystery school work, there is a high level of accountability. If w were not using our consciousness effectively or we were in inner struggle in our will, or our heart was closed, or we were spacing out to the music and not focused in consciousness, the moment one of us would fall off the collectively conscious soul journey we would enter together, the moment i would fall off, he would pause, open his eyes, look into my eyes, and say, "where are you?" I didn't have to answer. Then he would say, if you are struggling, ask for help, hand it over, work your magic. Do whatever you have to do to get into your heart and out of your ego self," then he would grab my hand and we would close our eyes and "dive back into the stage of the angels." If i was stuck in my ego, he would not let me go along for too long before he would stop me and say, "You are meant to enter into this space as your higher self and if you are not there when we begin, you need to let me know and i will play a few more songs for you to do whatever you need to do to overcome this ego thing you are working on. Use your magic. When we enter again, i want you to be in your higher self."
These rituals, once or twice per week, lasting five to nine or ten hours, were deep initiatory teachings. This group dissolved after eighteen or more years of practicing together. I was with them for the last twelve or so of those years. As i've had six months or so to meditate on this practice, i've begun to share it with a small group again, a new group.
The experiences are new for all of us, all coming from slightly different traditions of dance and/or theatre.
I have written the above summary very quickly and would love time to refine it and create an article that can be more like a gift for ecstatic dancers to receive and create deeper magic in the space of ecstatic dance through a few extra guidelines and practices.
Thank you for considering,
Azlan White
p.s. i'm unclear about my category below. sorry for the confusion
As we embody the music as if we are actors on a stage for the angels, excercising our hearts as if we were the ones singing, as if we are actors, we step INTO the music with our full heart and body. With eyes closed, we focus our third eye center into an active visioning process which is connected to our journey of our heart, and guided by our higher self.
As we emphasize the different emotions in the voices of the musicians and singers, our emotional, spiritual and physical heart receives a mystical and physical work out.