Dancing Freedom
“At the center of the practice is the choice to show up in the space of awareness to see what’s there - to access deeper connection to the real experiences, learning, passages, and insights of your life.”
Brought to life by Samantha Sweetwater and practiced by communities around the world, Dancing Freedom is more than just a conscious dance practice. It’s a global community that enlivens and awakens the extraordinary potential of the human spirit! Weaving Somatics, Ecstatic Dance, and a Co.creative partnership with the Elemental Field creates rich movement spaces where collective wisdom is honored and encouraged in the spirit of reciprocity. The Dance opens the doorway, one’s embodied experience becomes the teaching, and what is revealed (or healed) becomes the offering.
THE STRUCTURE OF A dancing freedom CLASS
The structure of each class is consistent and clear, allowing each participant the opportunity to listen deeply to their own experience - how their body moves, emotions flow and soul expresses. This combination of structure and freedom creates a potent platform through which great insight and intelligence can emerge.
Image by Rolf Gibbs
Arrival: We welcome one another, just as we are, paying attention to what is present in the space and within our bodies.
Circle: We join in community and take our seat within the circle, recognizing it as a place of equality, a place where all voices are recognized and valued. As we tune into the collective field, we reflect on and listen for the rising of our intentions and prayers. It is here that we invite the wisdom of our ancestors and guides as well as the elemental forces of creation. Our teachings are offered as inspiration for continued reflection and observation although we recognize and uphold our primary teacher: Our Life Itself!
Elemental Wave: The elemental forces of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether are our co-creative allies. When we move with and experience them as part of us, they can reveal archetypical and somatic teachings supportive of transformation.
Harvest: At the end of each practice, we tune into the wisdom of our body, heart and higher self, accessing the medicine that has come through our dance. Attuning to these three aspects of knowing, again and again, helps us identify the inherent wisdom that is present within us all the time.
Share-back: With a partner we create space to share our experience and harvest. Through conscious communication we invite the practice of speaking what is essential. We experience what it means to bear witness and to share authentically, vulnerably and openly. Awareness of our selves and our partner (the “we” space) helps us grow as individuals and as community.
The Inner Dance: Time willing, we enter into a shared dance space with our partner. Inspired by Authentic Movement, this is a time to move deeper into our prayers or harvest. Holding one another in equality, one partner dances with eyes closed while the other witnesses from a place of unconditional presence. We switch roles to allow each person the opportunity to experience creating and witnessing, giving and receiving.
Closure: We end our practice with a final sharing. We honor the space, one another and all that came through our dance. We complete our journey with a gesture of grounding and closure of the circle.