Fire Tribe Gathering

TRANCEforDANCE  

What is TRANCEforDANCE?

TRANCEforDANCE is an invitation to freely transform and transmute inner and outer multi-dimensional levels of consciousness through sensory expressions of body, mind and spirit. It can allow the spirit to dance in your body so that the dancer disappears and becomes the dance!

TRANCEforDANCE can free you to transmute any unconscious energetic blocks into the formless (e)motion of body consciousness. It is also about connecting with all things; about conscious breathing, alchemy, archetypes and perhaps most important, it is about being present so that your spirit can return home!

TRANCEforDANCE is not about choreography. You do not have to be a trained professional dancer. It is not about knowing specific steps or traditions. And it is not about performance.

Brief history of trance or spiritual dance

From Sub-Saharan Africa to the Arctic Circle, trance dances such as the Navajo Fire Dance, the Grass Dance, Balinese dance, and the whirling dances of the Sufi are found. Trance dance is a part of many spiritual traditions including Hinduism, Haitian Vodun, Trinidadian Shango, Cuban Lucumí-Santería, Siberian shamanism, and the Brazilian Umbanda religion. It is integral to many cultures including the Salish of Canada, the Sami of Scandinavia, and the Huichol of Mexico.

TRANCEforDANCE considerations at the Fire Tribe Gathering

It is very simple. Please know that everyone plays a part and everyone matters.

• Begin by moving clockwise around the fire circle;

• Respond to the sounds, respond to the rattles;

• Mirror shadows, others, and sounds;

• Simply be you and be spontaneous;

• Keep moving around the fire, moment to moment;

• Enter the dance circle aware of tempo so that you don’t block the paths of others;

• Be aware of the speed of the three dance orbits around the fire;
  the inner circle is fast, the middle circle is medium, and the outer circle closest to the drummers is slower — an orbit for deep trance;

• Smile, look at and connect with our drummers;

• The "Pyramid", or triangle by the drumming area, is a place to pause and interact more directly with the drummers. Visit occasionally, and then move onwards to create space for the next dancer.

• Be aware of spaces in, out, and around you;

• When someone offers a poem, spoken word or ceremonial piece, or any expression of spirit, remember to allow drummers to see and connect with the energy too. Please make a half moon circle to include the drummers;

• Energize your thoughts by exhaling them into the fire — letting go of judgments, fears, limitations, and old patterns that no longer serve you;

• Honor the sacredness of our community;

• Be available to give and to receive; and

• Move, be and breathe!

One approach to TRANSforDANCE

1. Start with your feet on Mother Earth, begin to follow the sounds of the chant or drum beats. Create your own patterns (right and left, up and down, tip toes, on your heels, side ways, hop, skip, or crisscross).

2. Continue with your legs and knees. You can either focus on only one part of your body, or all parts simultaneously.

3. Then like a wave, undulate or rock back and forth your pelvis, stomach, chest, shoulder blades, neck and head.

4. Breathe, holding in for a few moments, expand your lungs, exhaling out on your next body motion.

5. Slow down to feel your own vibrations, and those around you.

6. Remain fluid and unstructured within the safe container of our fire circle — and flow like a waterfall, a river or a stream.

7. You can experience the many shapes of nature; like air with upward movements, flowing in space, rotating your head or like the rain, thunder, and fire with fast and sharp movements.

8. You can also allow your arms and hands to be branches of trees, flowers — shaped and shapeless at the same time; or

9. You can express any animal spirit that you feel your body and spirit desiring to reveal; and/or

10. Simply just be; move fast or slow, fluid, or strong as a rock, or walk softly and slowly through your own journey; on your own along with your guides and the Fire Tribe community.

The healing powers of TRANSforDANCE

• magic of movement

• reunion with Spirit

• power of breath

• magnetism received from all the elements

• natural adrenaline massage of body and mind

• release of the toxicity of emotions

• cleansing and purification of body, mind and spirit

Another approach to dancing the fire

Enter with intent, dance your prayers, let your body talk to Spirit, let your body be God/dess. When you are filled completely, share the presence and joy with those around you, let your cup overflow. Create a dance blessing.

Dance your prayers
Into the present —
Every step a heart beat (says now)
Into the earth
With the healing soul of thy feet.

Embrace your prayers
Like a lover who is leaving on a journey,
Then let them go with a smile.

Carry your prayers
Like jewels upon thy breast,
Like honeyed wine upon thy lips.

Hold your moving prayers
In your hands like the blue egg of a wild bird,
Like a sleeping child —
Ever so lightly, yet so strong

Find your prayers
Inside every breath;
Let them open you
Until you are filled with tears
Of phenomenal blessedness.

Release your prayers
Like sweet smoke —
By forgetting the words.

Find where your fire lives.
Dance from there.
Find where your breath begins.
Sing from there.

Dance each step with only now —
With the spirits of place,
With divine intent,
With a prayer of perfect presence.

Dance where the roots of ancient trees meet underground
Like the hands of the ancestors,
Speaking in signs.

Each movement filled with grace —not of form,
But of surrender...
To hips and belly, eyes, thighs, and fingers.
Flicker and shake,
Undulate and prance,
One with the dance!

Dance your prayers into the present,
Spiraling between heaven and earth.

Dance for those who have no bodies —
Not too fast, not too slow.
Be their heartbeat,
Then bid them Peace.

Dance for the Gods,
Every cell a shrine for the divine.
Be a vessel overflowing with the water of life,
Be a vessel empty for Spirit to enter.

Let each movement be born in a place of prayer,
Let each gesture be filled with thanksgiving,
Let each step come from that place where you and spirit become one.

You are One,
With every One.

RESOURCES ON TRANCE DANCE

The Wave Series Videos by Gabrielle Roth

Sounds True (phone: 1-800-333-9185)

Sweat Your Prayers by Gabrielle Roth 1999

Penguin Books (ISBN: 0874779596)

Trance Dance by Frank Natale, 1995

Element Books (ISBN 1-85230-702-1)

Internet sites

Awaken One: Trance Dance Into Ecstasy

http://awakenone.freeservers.com/dance.htm

Chris Southall: Trance Dance

http://www.chris-southall.co.uk/trancedance.html

Crystal Links: Metaphysical Dance

http://www.crystalinks.com/dance.html

Frank Natale

http://www.franknatale.com/

Gabrielle Roth

http://www.ravenrecording.com/index2.html

trancedance.com

http://www.trancedance.com/

For information on upcoming Fire Tribe events please contact 808-864-1701, or visit http://www.firetribehawaii.org