by Danielle Rubio

Created on: January 31, 2008

Dancing Life

"I've got to tell you, your dance has really changed from when I first saw you on the dance floor," my friend from dance class said after I ran into him at the local health-food store.

"Really?" I replied, inquisitively. I wanted to know exactly what he meant, as I've always been a self-analyzer.

"How so?" I asked him. I wondered if he meant that it seemed I had changed and the dance was a reflection of that or if he was simply referring to my moves. I didn't want him to tell me that it seemed I was what changed and I began to feel a little defensive. Nobody ever wants to glimpse into a before shot of themselves when someone seems so pleased with the after shot, especially when they themselves never saw anything faulty with the before shot.

"I don't know," he said. "When I first saw you in dance, you were different. You seem more open now and more free."

"Was I closed before?" I thought. "Okay, enough self-analyzing. Let the man finish," I told myself.

"It's really wonderful to watch you dance and see how you've grown," he smiled. We both knew he knew what he was talking about. I changed. I still change.

That wasn't the first time I was told my dance was different by a fellow student, since beginning the 5Rhythms ecstatic dance practice a year ago. And yes, admittedly, I do think it is me that has changed and the dance is the reflection. The dances on and off the dance floor are perfect mirrors of each other. Life is a dance and the 5Rhythms dance practice, started by Gabrielle Roth in the 60's, embodies that idea.

Ecstatic dance truly is self-work. As in life, when we are fearful, closed-off or untrusting, we might shy away from the group or remain stiff. Once we trust, once we free our minds and let our bodies truly take over, we are loosened. I continue to become free.

This past year, I have done some hefty internal work that must have unleashed my being-ness. I no longer do anything on the dance floor. I just am on the dance floor.

I began dancing at a time when I recently moved to this rock in the middle of the Pacific called Maui. Having no idea why I was called to come, I felt disconnected with the world, unsure of my goals at 24; and at a time when my ever-present love of music hit a boiling point inside my every cell, someone asked "want to come to 'Sweat Your Prayers'?"

And so it is. I began to really dance. To go deep inside and ride the rhythm of my heart beat. I began to sail with the melody in my blood and the vibration in my bones and flesh.

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