Mummers, Maypolers, Dancer Day

Photo of Kate Arms Roberts, InterPlayer in Canada

Dance of the Season video/poem
Practice Joy dance
Raise a hand in connection dance/poem/video

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Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh…

Dance of the Season video/poem
It’s a seasonal turning point.
Weather, energy, emotion shits.
Parade, stomp, circle, weave. Mark the day
When we dance to change the weather of our lives.

Dance affirms life. Our praise lets the turning season rise in us.
said Lord Byron
“On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.”

Practice Joy dance
When music plays,  something greater dances us.
Listen to music, tap, rock, sway, be the beat.
Welcome May as you dance in stillness or rise out of your chair
with Loreena McKennitt’s Beltane Dance.

Raise a hand in connection dance/poem/video
Raise your hand in connection to all who welcome the day
You are not alone in joy or grief as we greet the dance
at the beginning, in the midst or at life’s end.

“And so they linked their hands and danced
’round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
when all the shades are gone.”

Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.

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Bodies of Wonder

What does Wonder feel like in your body?
Watch The Discover of the Last Child in the Woods
Listen Wonder of it All
Touch your own skin
Hum the northern lights
Raise a hand in blessing

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Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh….

What does Wonder feel like in your body?
spacious? light?_____________

Watch
Shake out one hand. Shake out the other. Shake out whatever you are sitting on.
Watch “The discovery of the last child in the woods.”

Listen
Take in the “Wonder of it all” a magical song by James Shattauer, InterPlayer-singer songwriter (enjoy other songs on his website)

Touch
Georgia Jane Kaftan from Wisconsin’s has a motto- “Go out and play everyday.”
It’s easy to detach from nature as an urbanite. Might we touch actual beauty and wonder outside today?
Touch your own skin….wonder at it’s ability to sense so much.

Hum
In gratitude for this wonder full wild world tone or hum with the northern lights for up to 4 minutes. Let this northern lights Youtube fill your screen. Then sing, tone or hum with the magic and the wonder of the sky.

Raise a hand in blessing
Join Ron Kravitz’ on shurti with drum and voice as you raise your hand in blessing the sky, earth, fire, and water and all who love earth.

Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.

Do the Can’t Dance

Penny, Sheila and Dorothy dancing

Do the Can’t Dance dance…Play with Resistance
Body Wisdom
Bless the Resistance of Others

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Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh…

Do the Can’t Dance dance…Play with Resistance
Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh…
That I can do.
Shake out a hand
That I can do.
Shake out whatever I’m sitting on.
That I can do.

Sometimes the next step feels too hard.
“You want me to do what?”
I caaaaaaan’t!
When you’re asked to know right from left,
your up from your down,
your you from your me,
your tweet from your facebook,
your perscription from your perception-
your purpose from your obsessions
it can be toooooo much!

That’s when it might be good to DO THE CAN’T DANCE!

Body Wisdom
Resistance rocks!  Resistance is body wisdom saying No- it’s all too much.
Unfortunately, the tune of resistance goes flat pretty quick.
Other Choices?
*Whine in a made up language for a minute.
*Do nothing till your ready to. (You are not required to improve, remember?)
*Get a partner to push against. Pushing is fun.
*Do a “Can’t Dance” dance to your favorite music.

How do you play with resistance? Let me know at cynthia@interplay.org and I’ll send you a free, online resist-dance gift.

Bless the resistance of others
Raise a hand and as you move to all directions and dance on behalf of all others who dance with the “too muchness” of it all. Gratitude to Gladys Knight singing “I Hope You Dance.”

Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.

Holy, Holy Heart

photo by Don Moseman

Holy Holy Exformation
Body Wisdom
Blessing

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Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh…

Holy Holy Exformation
Sometime to find the Holy we have to let go of our pictures first. Let Batman and Robin help.

Got any Holy’s you need to exform? Go for it!

Now that we’ve got that out of our system…
Take another deep breath and let it out with a sigh.

Body Wisdom
Rick Kakareka, Washington DC

“Life moves pretty fast sometimes, especially when you spend so much time not moving very fast at all. Grandmother said to me, “why are you here again when you have not incorporated what I have already shown you, given you?  Ok, listen up.  Choose.  Remember.  Then we’ll talk some more.”
Here are some things I am choosing to remember at this time:

Who I am, where I stand, and that I take me with me as I greet the world.
My twin guiding stars of Play/Joy and Gratitude.
Permission, that it has been granted, and to bear that gift
My heart, to feel myself, to feel others, to feel my surroundings, and to trust my belonging.
Intention, to give a thought space.
My medicines of song, dance, story, imagery, and stillness, and to practice those alone and with others, for my own and other’s benefit.
Asking for what I need and want, to communicate with myself and others as clearly as I can about those.
Breath, to fill my belly with air and exhale fully, and to sigh.
Choosing, that I can make choices which support living my gifts.
Doing from Being, well-being-doing.

Blessing
All you who have accepted/taken similar vows, be they ministerial, shamanic, yogic, bodhisattvic, arboreallic, or otherwise, witness and bless each other’s heart. Bring one hand to your heart and the other hand and Dance to Snatum Kaur’s streaming music.

Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.