A Story Of Dance

Once upon a time, long, long ago…….


Our distant ancestors began to make music, tapping out rhythms with rocks, wood and bones. They also began to dance - moving their bodies with the rhythms, to express their experience of life.

 

Perhaps they danced in a circle around a central fire. They danced to express joy, gratitude, love and fear and to mark the presence
of birth and of death. And they marked the turning of the seasons, worshipping the Sun, and Mother Earth that were so fundamental to their survival.

 

Later, community dances evolved, in which the whole tribe would fall into step, to follow the same simple pattern of movement.

Nowadays, the descendants of these simple community dances have survived, particularly in Greece and the Balkans. For example, dance anthropologists believe certain Greek folk dances (which are still regularly danced at community events) are almost identical to dances described in ancient texts several thousand years ago.

 


 

 

The dances I share come principally from the folk traditions of Eastern Europe, particularly Greece, but I also offer dances from many other places : from Armenia, Israel, Russia, Brittany, Latvia,  etc. And I also share new dance choreographies to world music of all kinds.

To discover these dances is to find an extraordinary sense of connection, not only with the contemporary community of dancers who share them, but also with our ancestors who have joined in communities down through the ages to step these dance patterns. In addition we rediscover our own roots, our connection with the Earth, our home. Many traditional dances embody an ancient world view of reverence for the Earth.

 


                                                                                                                           

 

“Dance is sacred. It is a prayer for the future, a remembrance of the past and a joyful exclamation of thanks for the present”
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

 

"Once your body surrenders to movement, your soul remembers it's dance."
Gabrielle Roth