Developing your Level 2 abilities alone, added to your basic dance practice, will make you
an awe-inspiring and heart-reaching dancer. You will have the power to
connect and heal through dance. For many dancers, this is as far as it goes. And this is wonderful!
Think of it as reaching "Black belt" proficiency in dance.
Those of us who Level 2 abilities alone, added to your basic dance practice, will make you
an awe-inspiring and heart-reaching dancer. You will have the power to
connect and heal through dance. For many dancers, this is as far as it goes. And this is wonderful!
Think of it as reaching "Black belt" proficiency in dance.
However, if you've studied martial arts, you know that a "black belt, or a "dan",
simply states that the artist is a student. Everything prior to is at a beginner's level.
Those who are familiar with "internal martial arts" know that, traditionally, students spent years
cultivating their "hard style" capabilities before being invited to study "soft," or "internal martial arts."
There is a similarity in women's dance. We often see dancers who have excellent physical technique, but
there is a certain aggressiveness to their style, to their presentation. We don't feel warmed, or drawn in,
or invited. If anything, we feel repulsed or pushed away.
These are the women who are doing "hard style" belly dance. Whether they try to overwhelm us with their
technique, their loud zill playing, or their "in your face" sexuality, they are being a female equivalent
of a martial artist who is using his skills to bully.
Granted, this is extreme. But it helps us to make a comparision, to draw a distinction. And that distinction,
simply, is that there is a form of dance that is more active on the inside than on the outside. There are
some of us who can woo audiences, who can magnetize a room. These are not so much the women who "project"
a strong presence, as they are the ones who "draw" people towards them. This is a feminine energy, not
a masculine one.
(And as a side note, the greatest of the Tai Chi masters seek to capture this intrinsically feminine
quality. They also acknowledge the value -- sometimes the superiority -- of feminine energy.)
So our goal, at Level 3, is to access, build, and maintain our "internal energy." In Taoist and martial arts
circles, this is referred to as "chi." In yoga, it is "prana." And more specifically, the energy that we desire
to cultivate and use is called "ching." Think of it as a "honey-flavored chi;" a denser, sweeter, richer, more
enticing form of chi energy.
At Level 3, we realize that many of the physical movements that we learned at Level 1 and mastered (so that
they were natural and relaxed) in Level 2 are actually outward expressions of internal energy flow patterns. It is
as though we've identified the natural energy flows in our bodies (and specifically in women's bodies), and exaggerated
them so that they would be visible as dance movements.
You might expect to spend years and years at Level 3, but surprise! I feel that if you've mastered
Level 2 release work sufficiently, and if you've already had some form of energy "breakthroughs" ( a prerequisite, and
this has to happen inside you, it cannot be taught in class), then you can progress through Level 3 rather rapidly. This
means, perhaps, a few months to a few years, depending on how much you want to explore.
-- for details go to Chi and Chakra
(Note: page still under development)
