It’s a place that honours the Fool, the Dancing Warrior, the Wise
Elder and the many different experiences we each bring to sacred
space.
And most of all, it is ceremony that is relevant for our culture and for our times
that honours the many indigenous traditions through which we have learned
and yet doesn’t mimic any of them.
The deepest expression of this that we have so far found is our annual
School of Movement Medicine Summer Long Dance.
Ritual is the way that humans have always used to place their own lives back
in relationship to the bigger picture of existence.
We remember where we came from, what we are dependent on, our
community and the wider community of all life. We bring things inside
ourselves and between us back into balance by committing a certain amount of
time to giving back to life. It’s called reciprocity.
We only take what we give. And ritual is the weighing scales on which we
measure where we are and bring things back into balance.
Last year, in 2013, the Long Dance finally landed in its originally dreamed
form. It took many years and a lot of hard work from a lot of people for us to
create the ground and the safety to be able to enter into such a deep journey
together.
Last year, we danced the full
72-hour version for the first
time and it was beautiful how
everything just fell into place.
It took 21 years to find its
shape but there we were, 135
people in a circle, dancing our
way back home.
YA’ACOV with SUSANNAH DARLING KHAN
The ceremony went on a full 24 hours longer than it had done up to that point
but the overall feeling amongst the dancers was that it was in fact more
relaxed and more fulfilling than the 48-hour version.
When things fall into place, there is a relaxation in the whole system.
At one point in the ceremony, I was watching the dancers and praying, singing.
As I sang, my voice vibrated and cracked the mould of my seeing.