“The fastest, cleanest, most joyful way to break out of your own box is by dancing. I’m not talking about doing the stand-and-sway. I’m talking about dancing so deep, so hard, so full of the beat that you are nothing but the dance and the beat and the sweat and the heat.”
—Gabrielle Roth
Ecstatic dance provides a safe space to listen to the body and express whatever movement comes from deep inside. When the body is free, so too is the mind. When I allow myself to move in a way that is free, when I listen deeply to my body, when I just let the movement move me, the body awakens and feels more alive. The mind stills, and the present moment awakens.
5 Rhythms
Ecstatic dance and conscious movement collide in the 5 Rhythms dynamic movement practice of Gabrielle Roth. Movement becomes the meditation. Move the body, still the mind. Movement is the medicine. Healing moves, disease stagnates. Movement is prayer, connection to the Divine. The dancer becomes the danced.
Jewel Mathieson
Every now and then a poem comes to me that speaks to the soul. It is so beautiful that I took the time to memorize it, just to have something beautiful and inspiring in my head. Jewel Mathieson is part of the 5 Rhythms School of Movement. In this poem, she captures the wisdom of that practice and applies it to life. Using dance as a form of creative expression, our internal experience can manifest into the outside word. At some point in this process, magic happens and the dancer becomes the danced.
If you have felt the hand of creative expression touch you, move you, and create through you, this poem describes that process of being danced. In those moments, we are our most powerful and authentic selves.
This poem answers the question that gnaws at the soul, “Why am I here?” … “to be danced!”
We Have Come to Be Danced
—by Jewel Mathieson (posted here with permission)
We have come to be danced
not the pretty dance
not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance
but the claw our way back into the belly
of the sacred, sensual animal dance
the unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance
the holding the precious moment in the palms
of our hands and feet dance
We have come to be danced
not the jiffy booby, shake your booty for him dance
but the wring the sadness from our skin dance
the blow the chip off our shoulder dance
the slap the apology from our posture dance
We have come to be danced
not the monkey see, monkey do dance
one, two dance like you
one two three, dance like me dance
but the grave robber, tomb stalker
tearing scabs & scars open dance
the rub the rhythm raw against our souls dance
We have come to be danced
not the nice invisible, self conscious shuffle
but the matted hair flying, voodoo mama
shaman shakin’ ancient bones dance
the strip us from our casings, return our wings
sharpen our claws & tongues dance
the shed dead cells and slip into
the luminous skin of love dance
We have come to be danced
not the hold our breath and wallow in the shallow end of the floor dance
but the meeting of the trinity: the body, breath & beat dance
the shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance
the mother may I?
yes you may take 10 giant leaps dance
the Olly Olly Oxen Free Free Free dance
the everyone can come to our heaven dance
We have come to be danced
where the kingdom’s collide
in the cathedral of flesh
to burn back into the light
to unravel, to play, to fly, to pray
to root in skin sanctuary
We have come to be danced
WE HAVE COME
Posted here with the generous permission of the author. (Moved from opendreaming.wordpress.com.)
For more information on her inspiring poetry and workshops:
Visit Jewel Mathieson on Facebook.
Need a little inspiration?
Read it out loud, and I mean, out LOUD…
Listen to my audio below.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/135773533″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Watch the video performed by the poet
Resources – Books by Gabrielle Roth (5 Rhythms)
- Sweat Your Prayers: The Five Rhythms of the Soul — Movement as Spiritual Practice
- Connections: The Five Threads of Intuitive Wisdom
- Maps to Ecstasy: The Healing Power of Movement
