By Parashakti Alsultany on July 7, 2009

A Blindfold?

I am often asked if one can participate in Dance of Liberation without wearing a blindfold. The idea of purposely setting aside one’s ability to see physically can seem strange, even intimidating, for many people. Yet my experience demonstrates over and over again what a gift it can become.

Originating in my own shamanic apprenticeship, the use of a blindfold in all facets of my work is an invitation and tool to go on one’s personal Vision Quest through dance. The dance, in turn, serves as a safe and sacred container to explore and enter other states of consciousness and awareness, infused with the intention of healing. As I myself experienced in the apprenticeship with Wilbert Alix, “blinding” ourselves physically, setting aside what for many of us is our most reliable sense, frees us from seeing only what we ordinarily see. It frees us to discover the extraordinary – the whole world behind the blindfold. We find ourselves releasing the judgmental voices, inhibitions, and distractions that often plague us. The space behind the blindfold simply exists; we can move about effortlessly as the constrictions that limit us in our everyday life are suspended.

During my apprenticeship, I was guided to close my eyes in order to learn the tools and techniques that I teach today. And while as a facilitator of the Dance of Liberation I don’t cover my eyes, having trained in darkness, I see on the Dance floor differently because of that training. It allows me to facilitate a profound process that involves opening to an inner space of trust deep enough to allow the dancer to surrender to the rhythms of movement, breath, intention and inner transformation. The dancer journeys, in a trance-like state, through physical, mental, emotional and spiritual blockages, to a discovery of energies that heal the dancer’s own wounds. Surrendering to that initial physical darkness frees us to bring light to all the corners of our own souls.

The Dance of Liberation is like an inner “house-cleaning”; we rid ourselves of the old ideas, emotions, and traps that don’t serve us any longer, and we re-create our “home” as a sanctuary connected to our own roots. Like houses that have accumulated “junk,” when our bodies are over-packed with unpleasant memories, troubled desires and emotional baggage, we need “a spring cleaning.” That “spring cleaning” is our Dance of Liberation, at the end of which, when light returns, the Dancer’s true journey begins. We seek to integrate our new understandings with the world beyond the blindfold.

One such dancer is Angie, who I deeply have had the chance to witness her healing and wisdom on the dance floor, she shared the following:

What was your first experience with Dance of Liberation?
My first experience with Dance of Liberation was interesting. I was nervous at first but it was a good nervous. An awaiting for something amazing to happen….for a freedom and a true feeling of liberation. Being that I had never been to one of these before, but love to dance, I figured I would take the leap and if nothing else, then I would have a wonderful evening meeting new people and dancing.

Did you know about the blindfold – what was that like for you?
I knew about the blindfold and was very excited about it. I am adventurous by nature, and this was an exciting idea! To dance blindfolded in a room full of energy and love, while being led by my heart and amazing live DJ Fabian Alsultany and the Liberation drummers ….is truly indescribable. I enjoyed the idea of returning the focus inward. So much of our life is spent looking outward and around us, that we rarely have time or energy to look inward. We worry about what we look like on a dance floor, or what we are wearing, etc….and with the blindfold, the focus is intensified and purified and centered inward. It truly becomes “all about me” and once the rebalance of self occurs on the dance floor, we are able to be more mindful in the world around us.

And how did you feel after?
I felt alive! Reinvigorated! Like all the feelings….all of them, we released to the universe. I felt purified and detoxified. I felt as though I had cleaned house and made room for new and wonderful experiences. And I felt as though I was able to view the world through gentler, more healing eyes. That while there may be chaos around me, I am at peace in my heart, body and mind.

Dance of Liberation sounds tribal?
Yes! It dates back thousands of years. Our Ancestors danced in this way. It’s a communal gathering of like minded people, that I have come to know as my extended family. We deepen our relationships by seeing each other in a different light after the blindfold comes off and we sit in a circle and share our experience and journey. It’s like an oil change for our spiritual engine! All of our energies and emotions are free to “run out and play”, rev their engines on the dance floor, play and dance, while our deepest intentions are released to the universe. As I keep in touch with my new family from the dance floor, its powerful to witness how their intentions have manifested into amazing experiences, and that we are all spreading our gifts from the dance floor with the mission of helping and building community.

Do you always set an intention before the Dance?
Most of the time I do. There have been times that I found it difficult to find and intention, so I allowed “allowing” to be my intention. Or I offered myself as “open” to the possibilities….the message always comes if you are open to it. And sometimes, its easier when you don’t “over think” and overanalyze the situation. Just allow and let it be. All else generally, falls into place!

How do you feel Dance of Liberation has helped or changed your life?
I feel a freedom I never knew before. I feel it energetically, spiritually and physically. Dance of Liberation is a great workout! You sweat out your intentions and wring out the toxins of your life! Dance of Liberation has given me a new perspective and shown me that rather than always look ‘outward’, sometimes you need to just close your eyes and look inward. Rarely do we have the opportunity to look inward and focus on what our soul’s true intentions. Dance of Liberation is a gift. A gift in that it holds a safe space to allow you to simply be who you truly are. And in that being, you return to an organic, pure way of life that changes your perspective on self, love, health, the spiritual and the world.

And so, we discover that all along the truth has been already dancing within us.

DanceFree,
Parashakti

Join for weekly Monday classes 7:00-8:30pm:
Dance of Liberation

East West Living
212 243 5995
78 Fifth Avenue @ 14th Street

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By Parashakti Alsultany on April 21, 2009

Walking in the Footsteps of our Ancestors

It is a hot summer day, eleven years ago. I am a twenty-three year old Israeli woman who, along with other seekers, is on a trek into the Judean desert, south of Jerusalem. Our guide, a thin bearded man with intense, burning, blue eyes, is a Haredi, a “trembler” — the Hebrew word for an ultra-Orthodox Jew – and a Hasid, one immersed in the mystical traditions of Judaism. Within the Hasidic world, spiritual leadership was traditionally transmitted from generation to generation, from fathers to sons. Our guide’s own great grandfather was a Rebbe, a Hasidic Rabbi, and the son of a Rebbe, spiritual teachers and leaders of their community in Jerusalem.

We are filled with eager yearning to hear the profound silence around us as a higher calling for each of us. Our guide shares with us that he wandered the deserts of Israel for many years, until he heard the revelation of his own true path; until he heard the voice of God. The revelation led him to give up his life as a writer, actor, husband and father and to dedicate himself to the study of the Torah. And he knew, too, that he wanted to help others find their way to holiness by going deep into the Israeli desert – as countless generations of spiritually serious people have done from many of the world’s great religious traditions.

As our guide told us his story, we all felt both humbled and awed, for we all felt we too were seeking to be taken by the hand of the Holy and led into divine light.

Where does that search begin? In the womb? Is it a Call, a Vision, a Quest, a Mission inscribed in our being before we’re ever born? The Babylonian Talmud tells us that before we are born an angel teaches us all the wonders and secrets of the universe, and then, as we tumble into life, the angel touches us just above our lips – in that indent we all have – and we forget everything. Perhaps that is why we are all born with a longing, a dream, the sense that we have a path, a mission, we need to fulfill. For some of us that path is clear early in life; for others, it remains elusive for many years.

And finding that path can be such a scary process. We have so many defenses and fears to give up! On the other hand, perhaps if our individual truths, the bumps of the journey we have to walk, became known to us too early, we would never build the strength of character, never discover the emotional wisdom, never become the “heroes” we need to become to fulfill our destiny in life.

In fact, we who were so eager to discover the magic wand that would transform our lives were only in our twenties; when our guide was still wandering the desert in search of his destiny he was already forty years old.

I watched intently as our guide, like a shaman, skillfully drew on the forces of nature to help awaken the spiritual energy within each of the pilgrims. And the experience not only touched me deeply, but helped me to grasp a truth about myself. This is your lineage, said the voice within me. Understand it. Begin to dis-cover yourself.

For our guide on that desert journey was my father, Yisrael. And I realized that, just as Hasidic dynasties were passed from father to son, so this dedication to the spiritual life was passed from my father to me. My 94-year-old grandmother, Savta Ida, told me that my life task, serving as a vehicle of spiritual energy, chose me when I was just four years old and offered to lay my hands on my Zaydie, my grandfather, to relieve him of his pain and worries.

If my dedication to a spiritual path is in my very genes, my expression of it has been very much my own: as a little girl in a pink tutu, I danced freely, joyously, even ecstatically, as if I were in tune with living energies in our universe. I believe deeply that when the body dances freely it generates a sacred medicine never to be lost, an energy in tune with the natural world and able to open us to new visions. Over the years, I came to dedicate myself to the Dance of Body and Spirit as a way to discover one’s inner truth, just as my father dedicated himself to journeying with Torah into the desert.

I follow the call of the Spirit Dance with a deep knowing and a deep sense of trust that it is my task in this world to guide others into its embrace. I believe that it opens us up to dreaming big, to walking in the footsteps of our true calling, to listening to our inner Liberator, the child within that will show us as our deepest fears, the very ones that can turn into our greatest teachers. Yes, I am my father’s daughter. Today, more than eleven years after that desert trip, I am leading “Dance of Liberation”/TranceDances all over the world, and I am guiding men and women into the rich world of their own spiritual potential.

Join us for in 2010:
A Spiritual Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Israel. Guided by Parashakti, Zohar Zemach Wilson, Tamar Adi from the Chandra Yoga Center and with guest teachers, Rabbis, Shamans, and other religious cultures and backgrounds. April 5-20. A great opportunity to experience the land, community, culture of Israel and discover our authentic walk. If this adventure interests you, please write a letter of Intent to Liberation@parashakti.org

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