on the way to surrender to the spirit of the dance
before we begin we dedicate this session and all sessions to worldwide peace and well being
In our LIFELABS, what were previously called dance classes, we are not really teaching steps or positions to memorize as in other technique-driven dance classes.
not to compare because most all dance is wonderful, only to explain further, our lifelabs have very little in common with mainstream or even improvisational dance classes.
ultimately there comes a time when we wish to submit to something way deeper within and way more profound than what the mind alone can conjecture.....
these lifelab sessions are mostly for self-exploration within a real spiritual context ... the sessions are derived by carefully moving through a designation point.
a union occurs of meditative movement that is equally balanced in the stillness..
in a matter of minutes, we release the conditioned body/spirit/mind to the unknown...
we do use specific techniques to facilitate the course of the lifelab. these are foundational methods, original, ancient and particular to a sufi method of concentration that allows us to easily and swiftly, near instantly, get to that surrendered place.
recently as in 2006, i developed a sports injury, not very bad, but enough that i had to take time off from dancing and teaching. for the first time in my life i think....i also was participating in allowing all my worldly efforts to subside, so i could see what is going on more clearly....behind all the requisite cultural requirements to 'do' and 'keep busy'...
and, as a result, like very soon after the injury, though i couldn't move entirely all the way as before, i just stood there many times, in the studio
listening to the music, and eventually, an entirely new evolution of movement made it's way to me, and into my body.
essentially peaceful and calm inside the motion....
a few months later, i was invited to perform at a sufi gathering in new york and this dance made its debut there, and it was fascinating to see the new dance being enthusiastically acknowledged by a few of the sufi friends, as they recognized very quickly ....
each year a new kind of dance usually comes through in the winter time,
only this one seemed even more intrinsic to the sufi work itself.
it was a dance based on effortlessness...
just being.... with.... what.... is....
and so arose the name for this dance,
"the effortless dance of being'
and of course, everyone really has the effortless dance of being within them.....
:) it's true.....
and i feel there is definitely another level to unfold from here...
and that most likely we can all find it together at the same time .....
.....we continue ....
the skin is our greatest receptor organ...it constantly gives us feedback and connects us to the external atmosphere.
a deep feeling, one that is both sensuous and profoundly focused within the moment, carries out the eternal inner self as it interfaces with the dynamics of our immediate space and surroundings.
the interface of body and skin to the air is important -
- a brilliant and energized tactile identification is essential...
to allow through this physical impermanence,
as the transcendence delivers itself of submission...
progressive meditative techniques serve to slow down our perceptions to gain more awareness, as our ability to receive the atmosphere and its invisible constituents increases...
we become immediately more attuned to our own spacial dynamics and our knowledge of what is sacred and what is profane grows and clarifies.
we can make decisions based on the truth of this interface.
because it is more reliable than our habits and conditioned responses especially that we default to daily, and to which we first bring to our lifelab.
we give up seeking security through our boundaries
and become way more interested in the heightened dynamic of awareness,
...... adventurous and alive...
surrendering to the intuitive knowledge and to the messages we receive from the spatial atmosphere we live in, an expansion occurs----
the whole universe and the whole solar system are within....
when we've reached maximum absorption from the silent energetic of the external environment, the feedback converts to another internal dimension
and this fullness constitutes and creates an effortlessness that is immediate, direct and surrendered. to the cosmic stillness. to the spirit of all life.
and we are, without thought and at the same time utterly content.
we stay with this until the mind/being ceases to require any more,
and we gracefully let go, at this point we may lie down to absorb
and integrate even more ....a union of dualities....and boundaries...
we rest and for some the veils are so thin, a floating experience, drift into trance
blessed be my friends,
stephanie forest
PS.
and please keep in mind, ive written what i know about, and i dance entirely for the sweet pleasure of the serene, beautiful mystical unknown
read below for dates for upcoming lifelabs
