Level 3 Dances – Integrating Energy Patterns into Choreography

In Chapter 29 of Unveiling, “Pragmatic Esoterics,” I write about how we can learn to access, cultivate, and circulate our internal energy, or ch’i. This is something that martial artists do all the time. (Particularly true for “internal martial artists”; those who do T’ai Chi Ch’uan, or similar arts.) So far, elatively few of us do this in dance. (In Unveiling, I mention a few dancers whose work would readily inspire this kind of practice, though. I’ll post some links from the Unveiling website a bit later.)

Now, after having pulled back from both teaching and performing over these past few years, I am rebuilding my practice from the ground up. And now, all of my dances are essentially “energy work” dances.

This doesn’t mean that anyone can see a visible difference; this is largely a felt-thing. But just as those who have trained their sensitivity to energy work can detect ch’i flow in a martial artist, yogi, or ch’i kung practitioner, we should be able to detect it in a dancer. And not only detect, but observe and emulate, over time.

The piece that I’m working with right now incorporates energy-drawing movements and a basic Microcosmic Orbit (see link to Mantak Chia’s book below). I use figure-eights and other moves to access, build and compress the ch’i in my tan tien. (Geographic center point of my body.) I use shimmies to “vibrate” the energy. Other physical movements correspond to distinct “energy” movements and intentions.

This is a little complex, but not much more so than learning to play zills while dancing, or learning to dance with a veil. And it feels juicier! I’m really enjoying the sensation!