A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to experience sacred dance at a women’s conference. The experience left me radiating with vibrant energy. It brought an experience of joy that I don’t get from meditation.  One of the women said that dance is a sacred expression of the Feminine Divine. In ancient times tribes used dance as a way to get rid of grief, work out differences, and appreciate and call on the five elements for help. Women and men around the country are reconnecting with dance as a way to deepen their connection with the divine. Deonesea La Fey is deeply passionate about the power of dance to open up creative energy and move us out of the head and more deeply into the body and the sacred heart.  In this interview she shares her insights about how dance helps us to connect with the Divine.

Debra:  How can dance be viewed as a spiritual practice?

Deonesea:  Dance is related to the spiritual practice of Embodiment.  When we move our bodies as an expression of music or an expression of a feeling, we open our Selves to allow our spirit bodies to fully engage in our physical bodies and expand into the environment around us, creating feelings of connection to all that is.  This is especially accessible through forms of Ecstatic Dance.  While it is surely possible to experience higher states of consciousness through Dance as an art form – for instance, ballet or modern or bellydance – it is also entirely possible to develop a high degree of technical training in those art forms without ever engaging the feeling body or spiritual body through them.  Ecstatic Dance, on the other hand, is about engaging all aspects of one’s being – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual – as a pure elucidation of our Selves as Spirit embodied in Matter. 

Debra: How does dance and using the body help us to connect with the divine within us?

Deonesea:  Dance helps us to get into our bodies, rather than being caught up in our heads.  In the same way that walking in nature or practicing yoga can help us to find a sense of calm and stillness in our minds and emotions, dance is a pathway that helps us to find that place of mental and emotional serenity.  From that place of serenity, we can open our Selves to feelings of excitement and joy and pleasure ~ the simple pleasure of being in a body that moves!  When we can feel that place in our Selves, then we are in touch with our Divine nature.  We are beings of Spirit embodied in Matter ~ our bodies are vehicles for the expression of our Divinity.  And like breath, dance is always available to us.  We can bounce, rock, groove and bob our heads while we’re driving and while we’re standing in line to buy groceries.  That bit of movement alone, when we are conscious of it, is enough to remind us that we are Spiritual beings here having a human experience and that we are Divine!

Debra: Describe how dance has helped you to connect with the divine feminine?

Deonesea: The Divine Feminine as I perceive Her is the aspect of Creative Source that embodies the qualities of nurture, compassion, emotionality, beauty, sensuality, ecstasy, oneness and unconditional love.  I find all of those qualities in myself and in the world around me through Dance.  Ecstatic dance gives me an avenue to experience ecstasy by journeying through the many expressions of my emotional body, acknowledging and honoring all of my emotions through healthy physical expression.  This is my chance to clear away any thoughts and feelings of anxiety or sadness or anger or stress, shaking them off to make way for deeper feelings of connectedness, gratitude and joy to emerge.  Consciously breathing in the breath that is life, I feel even more deeply grateful and I relax into ecstatic states of release and surrender to the Divine, allowing my Self to be danced by Her.  Deepening into feelings of ecstasy and joy through the sheer enjoyment of my body in motion ~ sweating, pulsing, spinning, squatting, twirling, shaking ~ I feel my heart open into deeper love and compassion for all life, love for the frailty and strength and tremendous beauty of this life we are granted.  I hear the music, smell the incense, see the beauty of other bodies dancing, touch my own hair and face with my hands, and feel the beating of my heart wide open to love ~ beating to the rhythms of the music and the rhythms of the Earth ~ and for those moments I can feel that I am the Divine Feminine, She in me and me in Her.

Find out more about Deonesea and sacred dance at: www.claydancestudio.com.

Bio: Debra Moffitt is author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind/body/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. Visit her online at http://www.awakeintheworld.com.