Dance for God, Because that’s What You Do on a Thursday Night
Tonight I joined an amazing circle of dancers with my teacher, Banafsheh, “an embodied mystic of the divine feminine.”We started the class bowing to the Beloved, the Divine. As we opened our hips and our hearts we were asked to focus on who we are dancing for. We partnered up dancing while connecting deeply into the eyes of another. Dancing is like the condensed essence of the soul for me. Some of it brought wet eyes, some moments brought protective politeness, some moments I glimpsed a deep sadness meeting my openess. The intensity of this connection is far more compact than conversation, it is our whole being in communication. Dance like sex asks us to be fully in our bodies while giving and receiving energy and I feel is the most intimate request of our human forms.
Tonight we were invited to channel spirit through the crown of our heads and into our sex. We were reminded that dance is the core practice of igniting our life force energy. I know this deeply and I often find myself teaching this, but to hear it from teachers around me, and especially those older than myself feels unbelievably nourishing. Most of my students are older than me and explicitly comment on their desire to connect to their youthful sexual energy through my age. But I know that this wisdom is ageless and the transmission of it across generations is becoming restored.
What I’m so moved by is that the healing is happening everywhere. In our dancing tonight we sat in a circle where a young woman gifted us with her trust and her story of rape and depletion. The room felt more relaxed and present than I have ever felt when hearing this story. We gently spoke our questions our experiences and moved into prayer for her wholeness. I intend to share this here and now without revealing her identity holding the intention that more dance classes penetrate us so deeply and so collectively. Banafsheh reminded us that we are not whole if one of us is not whole. This sisterhood feels incredible, it trembles me with love. It feels so different than the unconscious competition or comparison that can so easily slide between gorgeous women.
We all rose from the Earth to Dance for God, because that’s what you do on a Thursday night in the city. It’s becoming simpler. Being whole, being sisters…is becoming simpler. Thank you for reminding me tonight.