Many wisdom seekers, may they be buddhist teachers, neurobiologists, anatomists (especially those investigating fascia), cranio sacral therapists, mycologists or danceteachers, are all definding the new frontier of our development as interconnectness. Actually this new frontier is not new at all, since what we are consistently finding through different research about nature, as well as in indigenous cultures and mythical traditions, is that they have been living and teaching this wisdom along. There is no seperation, only interconnectivity. We can not survive without this basic principle. There is no sustainable life without this quality of being. Period.
In Holistic Dance, may it be through the fascial touch quality during reaching in Contact Improvisation, the anatomical explorations along the spine during a pelvis clock, or witnessing a magical synchronicity moment in an Authentic Movement session, this interconnectivity is the main intention for our explorations. We experience bonding and deep relating qualities on cellular levels during early movement exercises, such as naval radiation, mouthing, homolateral and contralateral movements. We play with our relationship to gravity in our dances to ground ourselves energetically, to (re)learn to trust our ability to fall, roll and land on the floor and to experience our oneness with earth. We are earth and sky embodied.
Charles Eisenstein tells a story in his book “ The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible” called “Three Seeds" (enclosed at the bottom). In it he describes the "three transmissions from the past to the future, three ways of preserving and transmitting the truth of the world, the self, and how to be human.”… I hope I am not butchering Eisensteins’s ideas here, but once you get through my interpretation, you’ll hopefully see the point that I am making.
Here is a summary of Charles points:
“The first seed was the wisdom lineages: lines of transmission going back thousands of years that have preserved and protected essential knowledge.... The second seed was the sacred stories: myths, legends, fairy tales, folklore, and the perennial themes that keep reappearing in various guises throughout history....The third seed was the indigenous tribes, the people who at some stage opted out of the journey of separation.”
Careful not to over-romanticize indigenous cultures, and especially their contemporary struggles, he points towards the need for keeping the truth of inter-connectiveness, for the collective tribes having renounced Separation. “…These people of the third seed have nearly completed their mission today. Their mission was simply to survive long enough to provide living examples of how to be human. Each tribe carried a different piece, sometimes many pieces, of this knowledge. Many of them show us how to see and relate to the land, animals, and plants. Others show us how to work with dreams and the unseen…”.
I would like to add a fourth seed to Charles Eisenstein’s beautiful list and that is the wisdom of touch*. We transmit an enormous amount of information through touch, ideally in an environment that feels safe, resourced and healing. As Chris Aiken shares the phrase "the touch of no demand", or through what Daniel Odier calls "big elephant ears" or Hugh Milne calls "the breath of life" we share our deepest level of truth, recognition, archetypal wisdom, witnessing and being with each through touch. This happens both for the person being touched (or the mover) and the person touching (or the witness).
*Touch can be used here interchangeably for the touch of skin to skin, or touch during movements such as in CI or movement in touch exercises, or touch as a way of touching each other through sharing intimate moments of expression by moving and witnessing in Authentic movement or Contemplative Dance Practise.
(c)sabfab from the beach on Hornby Island, B.C. Canada
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