SACRED COW OR FRESH MILK? by Stefan Freedman
Most circle dancers relish the interweaving of dance and silence and the sense of spiritual richness that can arise. Richard Hazlehurst urged us to acknowledge and emphasise the "sacred" aspect of the dances we love and to call it Sacred Dance. Then Rufus Maychild gave another angle. He too clearly treasures the dance, but as a teacher wants his students to be free to "interpret it any way they wish". He equates the word Sacred with "just the respectable bits above the neck" and finds the description an unwanted imposition.
Rufus, an explicit Pagan, objects to being associated via the word "Sacred" with Christianity, because - in his view - it attempts to deny the sensual side of our nature. His claim about Christianity applies equally to many interpretations of Jewish, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist practice too.
Yet orthodox Jewish Chassidim consider passionate, joyful dancing to be the very key to worship, and most Sufis, who claim Islamic roots, would feel spiritually impoverished without ecstatic dance, music and poetry. Bethan and I visited West Canada in October. One of our hosts, a popular circle dance teacher, inspired us with her vivacity, warm humour and passion for a huge range of folk and circle dances. She's a Catholic nun, and in her open-ness to all the dimensions of dance (and to hugs) she reminds me of other dancing nuns I know in England.
I'm smiling now as I remember our experiences leading dance with Wicca groups in London, many of whom seemed physically uncoordinated, and I note Rufus's observation that "most explicit Pagans are pretty lousy dancers and can't sing either"! Whether secular, Christian or Pagan, our lives are increasingly spun around the T.V, the computer screen, the mobile phone, the masses of information we are supposed to read and respond to hour by hour. Whatever starting point we are coming from, surely the remarkable thing is that some of us do regularly come together in a moving circle which is open to all. I hope that the circle is a place where we can free ourselves from insulating "labels" (including the label "circle dancer") and simply be. I echo Anne Robinson who wrote, "One of the many things I value about Circle dance is sharing something beautiful and profound with people of different traditions."
So why not just say that we do "circle dance"? David Roberts writes "It seems a bit twee to me", and reluctantly I'm inclined to agree - if I saw it on a poster it could sound a bit playschool-ish. Sometimes we describe our sessions as world dance - a suggestion by Elena (Judy) Armes - as some of my favourite choreography is to contemporary "World Music". When we're invited to the USA or Canada, they take care of the publicity and the heading is often Sacred/Circle Dance. I've no objection because it seems to resonate easily with the participants, and - interestingly - these include a significant proportion of active Wiccans and Pagans who don't object to the word "sacred".
I support a flexible approach. The spiritual/sacred/Pagan elements are emergent. A palpable presence can be felt and doesn't need to be interpreted. (On this I agree with Rufus and with Anne-Lise Kryger). Just as we accept that each group and each teacher will have their own choice of dances, I support all terms: circle dance, sacred dance, contemporary folkdance, holistic dance (another I've used). Experiment and see what rallies people! Why not give each occasion a sparkly seasonal name? Ken Masters proposed a brief subheading which I find useful: "multicultural, celebratory, accessible dances".
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