The radical act of dancing on behalf of peace

Join the 11 day prayer once or multiple times and come alongside a powerful movement designed to co-inspire one another and create shifts.

I am thrilled to be dancing on behalf of peace tonight with beautiful peace partners over the next 11 days Feb 19-29. In each 30-minute session at 5 pm Pacific each day, a peacemaker will share inspiration, and then we’ll be guided to dance on behalf of peace for our lives and our world. I’m very grateful to InterPlay’s Marla Durden and Christine Gauthreaux for this innovative and timely opportunity. To register, go to DanceonBehalfofPeace.org

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Dancing is essential to my body and soul. Because I dance, I know I have a soul. I feel it. Dance activates soul power.

I once told my friend David, an Alvin Ailey master teacher, if people ever ask me, "How is your soul?" I say, "fantastic even when life challenges me."

After I asked David, "What is soul like for you?" I watched his eyes deepen. He said, "Starting from age three, I just knew. "It's kind of like the You of You."

Dancing from the you of you! Yes. Moving from soul is like a Reiki treatment. It only takes minutes for me to feel more organized and whole. I've witnessed the ancient ways in Africa, India, Australia, and North America. The people always dance. Dancing on behalf of our planet, our health, and peace is not recreational. It is one of the greatest technologies of our species. I’m with Dorothy Day, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”

Dance is restorative. It's organic food for the soul, and it radically orients the communal body to the wisdom of Earth. And there’s more.

In the 1990's, when I brought Authentic Movement teacher Neela Hayes into a seminary classroom, I saw transformation happen when people witnessed one another's dancing authentically. I believe our bodies still remember an ancient truth about prayer. Released from performing, bodies connecting at a profound level, healers and dancers throughout the ages engage the medicinal power of shaking, rattling, and moving their own energy into the supportive field of their divine guides. Look up mirror neurons or what I call body-to-body communication.

Dance operates at the level of power. Want to kill power? Kill dance.

Martin Buber wrote, "One evening the Baal Shem himself danced together with his congregation, he took the scroll of the Torah in his hands and danced with it, and then he laid the scroll aside and danced without it. At this moment, one of his disciples who was intimately acquainted with his gesture, said to his companions, now, our Master has laid aside the visible dimension, the visible dimensional teaching, and has taken the spiritual teachings unto himself."

Dancing on behalf of another invites us to do a thing we are often shy to do– trust the spiritual teachings in our body and soul and be priests to one another.

But can I dance on behalf of someone when I dance so imperfectly? Rev. Steve Garness-Holmes wrote, "I am asked to dance, but my limbs are too weak. So, I will sing. I would sing, but there's something in my throat. So I will speak. I will speak, but my voice has failed. So I will look with kindness. I would smile, but my face is covered. So, I will pray. The light is in me and it will shine out, it will shine out. It will dance."

How do we find that shining light? For decades, I've helped unlikely dancers ignite the ineffable. Within us is the most generative interconnected power source in the Universe. I call it soul. It only takes one hand dancing to awaken soul. Even if you don't feel like dancing, you can be part of a dance as a loving witness.

How it works

If you are called to dance on behalf of someone, you won't need to replicate or heal another's suffering. Dedicate your dance to what you both want. That simple shift in intention can be clarifying for people who try to heal others when they think about doing something on their behalf. Dedicate your dance to the healing of the Whole, which includes you. Miraculously, dancing uplifts both us and others. It's a both-and art.

And for the witness? While individualism may teach us to pray on our own heroically, long-suffering is too much for us and illogical. Think of the physics! A single spine designed to bear a hurting family system, an eco-system thrown out of whack, or the heinous crimes and wars of a government? No.

We join movements because we need to dance on behalf of! We protest! We dance! Together, our bodies remember, embody, and coordinate to our most healthy right relations.

Can I release my concerns? Will I burden someone? When someone dances on our behalf, yes, they 1) relieve us from carrying the burden for a moment, giving some distance between us and the challenge, 2) creatively move the energy and image of what is suffering, 3) allow the struggles to transform without further work from us 4) transmit a changed reality 5) illuminate new ideas and possibilities. And they get to have all of this for themselves as well. Those who dance on behalf of others get the benefit of Nobility. To serve another is the greatest gift. It’s a privilege to witness someone dance for what I need and a joy to reciprocate.

How do we dance on behalf of others?

Practice in partners. Share a brief request or concern. The first partner dances on behalf of the other by connecting to love and grace. The dancer doesn't have to think, solve, worry, or work on the prayer because our body is directly connected to the Divine Dance. Be assured that the prayer is moving.

As a witness, notice what moves in you. Receive that. Let it print in your sensations.

Then, reverse roles.

To end, lift up your prayers to the Edge Of Everything, releasing the suffering and solution to a Greater Creativity. With one hand to our heart and the other to our dance-mate, bless all that aches and all that is ready for movement, healing, resolution, love, and joy in body and soul.

"On Behalf Of" Forms

As the cofounder of InterPlay, I'm inspired by ways my community adopted the Dancing on Behalf Of form. The following is taken from our training manual. Versions can also be found in my books Dance: A Sacred Art, What the Body Wants, and The Art of Ensoulment.  

Dances "on behalf of" can be structured in various ways. One person can dance on behalf of something that their partner has named. One might dance on behalf of one's own wish or dream or another person or situation outside of the group. Dances on behalf of can happen in pairs, or a group might dance on behalf of one or several things that are named. We can name the things we are dancing on behalf of, or they can remain unnamed.

It is possible to ask for a danced prayer without explicitly naming what we want danced. One variation is to have the person sharing their concern whisper it into their partner's outstretched hands so it won't be heard. Another is to speak the concern into one's own hand and then, with a gesture, move it toward our partner or into the wider space.

You can also do this form in groups of three. Each person will have a chance to have a concern or a desire for themselves or someone else to be danced by another member of the group. The group can discern who might want to be the mover. The third person will witness or could also dance if a duet seems appropriate.

As the one who is dancing on behalf of another, it is important not to presume to know what is "right" or "needed" in response to the request. The responsibility of the mover is to do just that—move. The dance can be as enjoyable and meaningful for the person dancing as for the one beholding it. It may be helpful to have the dancer throw the intention of the dance up in the air above them, releasing the sense that we will heal the person with our dance or our energy. The dance need not be literal. You may also suggest that the dancer is open to their trickster or "evil twin." It can be good to be open to unexpected movements and to be surprised by what comes out. The mover doesn't need to "dance at" their partner. They can feel free to go within and let the witness find the meaning they need. In the same way, it is fine for the witness not to focus on the dance but to let go of the concern entirely during this time.

Witnessing another person dancing for your deepest desires can be strengthening and surprising. Because we see it outside of ourselves, clarity that might not have occurred otherwise can arise.

A Variation:

1. Invite partner 1 to extend their cupped hands to partner.

2. 2. Partner 2 whispers their wish, concern, or prayer into the palms of Partner 1.

3. Partner 1 does not need to hear what is being said.

4. Partner 1 then does a form on behalf of partner 2's wish. (On the one hand, dance works well here). Switch roles.

Keep dancing!