Dance, Vibration, and Rumi

When I try to force myself to choreograph a song, it never works. If I push myself to come up with something, that particular song seems to never make it into my class because somehow it’s just not right. In every moment, an infinite number of possible movement choices exist, which encompass every possibility. But if I don’t feel good while choosing the movement patterns, the result is not satisfying. If I love the song, later, when I am in a better emotional place, the music will show me where to go and I can end up with a dance I really like.

We live in a world of vibration. Like vibrations attract one another. We create our future in this moment. If our emotions are fearful, our vibration is dragged down into anxiety. We are then attracting a reality we don’t much want.

Sometimes, for me, it is impossible to feel positive, especially lately. Logic would tell us that the chaos we see all around us right now is truth – and, horribly might remain the truth whether we like it or not. What comes next is anybody’s guess. If we stay stuck in fear, more fear is what we will see barreling toward us.

The more I pretend to feel positive when I really don’t, the more anxious I become. The monster under the bed gets bigger and meaner when I try to ignore it. So when I am calm, I think about the future. I allow myself to feel the joy that comes when love has prevailed over fear, when unity has overcome division, when kindness conquers cruelty.

If I just can’t get to that point, I read my favorite Rumi quote:

When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of distress and anxiety; If  I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me and without any pain. From this I know that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret in this for anyone who can grasp it.

So we don’t have to force ourselves to do creative work when it’s not “right.” We do not have to be in a positive mood when we don't really feel that way. We need only remind ourselves that love is who we are, and get a little help from Rumi or others of a similar vibration to give us a leg up.

Every positive vibration emanating from us affects the All. The more we love ourselves, the more we will see love all around us. If we can wait in our own place of patience, knowing that love always prevails, the dance will then take care of itself. 

 

Re-imagine

        

I always liked the Led Zeppelin song, “Kashmir.” Years ago I found an instrumental cover of it by a band called Bond that I thought I could choreograph. The chorus of the song has a weird count – and by weird I mean that the count is 1-6. I am completely flummoxed by any music that does not have an 8-count. I liked this version, though, and thought it might be a stretch to use the Led Zeppelin version in class, so I had to re-imagine the chorus. I decided to try and fit it into an 8-count. What I got was: 1-2-3 and 4 and -- which strictly speaking is actually 6 counts. Somehow, I cannot wrap my brain around a six count. My body will not respond to that pattern. However, in the re-imagined count (that I made up), I could do it. And even though I made it up, it fit. The song is now danceable (at least for me).

I am trying a similar re-imagining with the situation in the wider world that we share. When I look around, it is difficult not to fall headlong into fear, worry, and even despair. But what if all this turmoil, acrimony, and hatred is “woundedness” coming to the surface in order to be healed? What if we decided to think of it in this way? What if we superimposed on the relentless beat of hostility a new beat – one we could understand, one we could dance to? If we reimagine the chaos we see happening all around us, we can think of it as a wound coming forward into the light. It couldn’t be healed if we didn’t see it.

And all we have to do is be the love that we are. We can carry that vibration knowing it is felt by everyone.

We can re-imagine our rhythm, our song. One we can dance to.