Dancing
is like music (it uses music, after all!) – once you become comfortable with
it, you can relax and go into trance while doing it.
Many
people have issues with folk dancing.
They were forced to folk dance or square dance in the fourth or fifth grade
and have resented it ever since. Or they’ve
always felt klutzy and self-conscious when it comes to their bodies and
movement; they’ve been taught to think of themselves as ungainly, ugly.
I
learned some square dancing and folk dancing in the fifth grade; I liked
it. I got to dance with the girl I had
the crush on. About this same time, my
parents were buying a series of books that were tours of foreign countries,
with slides and recordings. That’s where
I heard my first Greek and Bulgarian music.
Later, in Germany, I would hear Balkan music on the radio from distant
lands. In graduate school, I began to
learn folk dancing myself.
The
music of the Balkan Peninsula, where many popular folk dances originate, shows
a strong middle eastern influence: Unexpected
rhythms, strange (to us) scales, unusual harmonies. I’ve always found it particularly conducive
to trancing. In addition, when you dance
these dances with your friends for an extended period, the experience can lead
to a profound bonding of the group.
Of
course, you have to get used to the movements; that can be challenging if you
haven’t done this before. But my wife is
a good teacher, with years of experience and extensive background; her parents
square danced and talk Round Dancing.
She taught, I turned on the music.
Always fun, to get a little movement
into your Pagan practice!
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