“No Goal But This…” ~ Deva Premal & Miten)

Have you ever gotten sore muscles from dancing or exercise? Do you ever find yourself waking up part of your body that you forgot about by doing a new move? How does your body communicate its limits with you?

One of the great things about dancing is how it lets us explore our range of motion and gives us an opportunity to move in novel ways that aren’t part of our daily routine.

There are between 7 and 13 major muscle groups in the human body depending on who you talk to. Nearly 640 different muscles work with each other in approximately 320 opposing pairs. From the tiny ‘stapedius’ in your inner ear, that helps you hear and maintain your balance by stabilizing the ‘stapes’, the tiniest bone in your body, to your enormous pair of ‘gluteus maximus’, your chief antigravity muscle, your muscles work in tandem with your skeleton to provide an incredibly dynamic vocabulary of possible motions.

As we grow older, the number of different ways that we move decreases. Babies and toddlers move in well over 1000 different ways, yet by the time children are in elementary school and trained to sit at a desk all day that shrinks to a few hundred at the most. The fact that our modern world of high technology relies so much on sitting still behind a screen only accelerates this trend, in both work and education.

That’s why dance holds such a unique place in our choice of physical activities. Most of the things we do have a goal in mind, or an end result that we are working towards. Exercise and physical fitness is usually done to build muscles or lose weight or maintain cardiovascular health. (although it can be a meditation in and of itself, and a lot of fun to boot!). Dance has been proven to improve our neural health , and even ward off dementia and Alzheimer’s disease!

If you’ve ever pulled weeds or used a shovel or painted a house, you know all about how work can wake up your muscles, and sometimes we get more than we bargained for. (I once found myself with a debilitating case of carpal tunnel syndrome in my forearms when I worked welding and polishing stainless steel winery equipment.)

But dance is different, especially the more improvisational or creatively interpretive forms that we usually collect under the ‘conscious’ banner. You might consider them to be more intentional forms of play, where the end result is simply to enjoy the movement potential of your body and explore how that can positively affect your frame of mind.

Dance forms are ‘memetic’ too. Somatic ideas have been spreading through imitation long before there was YouTube. New forms of social dancing have accompanied innovations in music for centuries. Almost invariably, each new development is met with dismay by the older generation who generally proclaims that this is proof that society is going down the drain.

The Waltz and the Tango were considered outrageous at the time, and then along came the Jitterbug and the Charleston. With the arrival of Rhythm & Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll, Jive dancing, the Boogie-Woogie, and The Twist all certainly signified the decline of western civilization, and then along came the psychedelic 60s, when all preconceived notions went out the window.

The flowing freeform dances born at the Be-Ins and festivals of the Woodstock era gave people permission to move outside of the box of established forms and simply follow the music wherever it led. I think that the roots of today’s conscious and improvisational dances can largely be traced to this period in time.

Nowadays, novel ideas about dance and movement are often passed around via the video platforms of the internet. Young folks learn to ‘Dab’ or ‘Floss’ on YouTube, and then innovate and come up with the next iteration before uploading their own version to the web.

I do a great deal of my regular dancing behind the turntables atDance Jam , our weekly ‘Audio Apothecary’ in Berkeley. One of our goals and intentions at Dance Jam is to always provide a variety of textures that inspire a wide range of movement. From songs that touch your heart to beats that move your roots, the idea is to bring your body to life. We notice how some music might bring everyones hands into the air, while other pieces may inspire folks to partner up for a moment of connection.

These thoughts about dancing and rarely used muscles came to light quite clearly for me this past week. Last Sunday while I was DJ’ing at the Silicon Valley Ecstatic Dance I played a lengthy high-energy techno track during one of the peaks. I had time to join the dancers on the middle of the floor and pushed myself as hard as I could for at least five or six straight minutes before returning to the turntables to shift the musical gears.

The next day I could tell I’d danced myself silly, and when I woke up Tuesday morning I was practically staggering, my calves hadn’t felt like that in years! Back in my raver days in the 90s I would often dance nearly all night three or four times a week, sometimes barefoot on concrete floors, and I wound up with shin splints, (and knees that are now showing their age!).

The lesson I took home from my sore calves is that it’s always a good idea to switch up our movement habits and keep our muscle groups guessing. You might be a yogi, a cyclist, or an aerial dancer, or you might just spend a bit too much time behind a screen, no matter what your usual habits are, there’s always more motion to explore.

So remember that your body probably has a lot of moves that you rarely use, your mind will thank you when you break your routine to wake them up!

Moving and grooving till next week!

M+

Mark Metz

Director of the Dance First Association

Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine

Dance First Member Spotlight –The Philly Tribe!

This week’s Dance First Member Spotlight shines on Rebekah Zhuraw and The Philly Tribe ! She’s at the helm of a passionate movement collective that offers a range of regular classes as well as hosting and producing workshops and special events for traveling facilitators from premiere conscious dance modalities including 5Rhythms, Soul Motion, Movement Medicine, Open Floor, and Azul.

Their mission statement reads like a template for the goals of quality conscious movement collectives everywhere: “The Philly Tribe offers supported movement practices rooted in personal growth, transformational experiences, and community. We provide opportunities to dance and connect to local, national and international conscious dance communities that share structures and processes, led by inspirational teachers.”

Alongside certified 5Rhythms teachers Rebekah Zhuraw and Ray Diaz are a vibrant group of collective members. Creative artist Keshia Mahan, 5Rhythms SpaceHolder Kaitlynn Minguez, Open Floor facilitator Christina Fanizzi, musician Mariama O’Brien, 5Rhythms SpaceHolder Michelle Mahan, and Karen Holmes, a certified Azul teacher.

Philly Tribe has a couple of outstanding workshops coming up for you! They’re hosting Kathy Altman for an Open Floor workshop entitled “In Good Standing” October 12-14, and then looking forward to next year for “Uncovering”, an Open Floor workshop with Cynthia Kennedy and Joseph Machado February 1-3, both in the facilities of the renowned Pig Iron Theatre Company in Philadelphia.

Be sure to connect with The Philly Tribe next time you are in the area, and make plans to visit historic Philadelphia for one of their special events soon!

Recurring Classes in 5Rhythms, Open Floor, & Azul

www.ThePhillyTribe.com

In Good Standing :: Open Floor workshop with Kathy Altman

Oct 12-14, Pig Iron Theatre, Philadelphia

Uncovering :: Open Floor workshop with Cynthia Kennedy and Joseph Machado

Feb 1-3, Pig Iron Theatre, Philadelphia