“When we dance, we are at once ancient and universal.”
“Each dance transmits a specific and valuable meaning in a nonverbal language of danced patterns and symbols… Each time we form a circle to recreate these patterns and the information they contain, we help re-weave an ancient fabric or field of archetypal energy which carries the age-old values of community, sustainability, partnership, celebration and reverence for nature, so acutely needed in our world today.” ~ Laura Shannon
The Sacred Circle Dance movement began with Bernhard Wosien, a prominent dancer and choreographer with the Berlin Ballet for 50 years. Wosien had a great love for the traditional folklore and dances of Europe and the Balkans and studied these dances for many years. In 1976, seeking a repository for his vast knowledge of traditional dances and the sacred wisdom they carried, he came to the Findhorn Foundation, an international spiritual community in Scotland. People who traveled to Findhorn and learned these dances formed circles all over the world.
I have been so fortunate to study with wonderful circle dance teachers in the United States, including my first teacher, Judy David, to whom I owe much of my dance knowledge and love for these dances. I have also been so fortunate to learn from dance teacher and scholar Laura Shannon, who has inspired me in so many ways as a teacher and dancer. I have learned to teach and experience these dances with great depth and respect; and joy! I have a deep affinity with the traditional dances from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and also embrace more contemporary choreography that takes from the vocabulary of traditional dance steps. Each workshop honors the seasons and cycles of life.
If you dance with me, you will find me quoting Laura often, as her knowledge of the dances is so vast and rich. I highly recommend Laura’s website to learn more about sacred dance and women’s ritual dances, https://www.laurashannon.net
“The mystery of how the dance sustains the dancers is what enabled circle dancing to survive as an integral part of traditional life in Eastern Europe and the Near East, where women worked hard and didn’t have energy to fritter away. In these cultures, the social obligation to dance ensured a society where everyone could be regularly nourished by an experience of transcendent life energy and joy. This in turn was believed to benefit the whole community.” ~ Laura Shannon
“In my view, ritual dances can facilitate an experience of both transcendence and immanence: the dancers become aware of the divine feminine embodied within them, as a force vastly larger than themselves but of which they are inextricably a part.”
~ Laura Shannon