Last Friday, me and a dear friend, joined a 5-rhythms workshop. We had little idea what to expect. A few months ago, we spent a weekend at my trailer and read an article in a magazine about 5-rhythme dancing. That day on the beach, we decided to see if anything alike would be offered in Cologne. The blessing of the Internet made that very easy to find out.
So here we were, in comfortable clothes, waiting for the class to start. More and more people joined us, and soon the quite spacious room started to become rather crowdy. There must have been 60 to 70 people in there. You could tell that most of the people had been there before. They got very comfortable right at the start. Some were standing others already layed down on the floor.
Clearly the audience was used to leaving everything and everyone behind. By itself I think this is a great thing. A would call it a “no shame” area, and I am a big believer of truly getting in touch with who we are and not letting anyone tell us any different. Yet sometimes people get so comfortable that they nearly make others slightly uncomfortable again :)
Luckily, my friend is a very open-minded and tolerant woman. Incredibly kind but also rather down to earth and when I looked her in the eye, her eyes were twinkling and she could not resist a big smile. We both realized that this could easily be misinterpreted, and for a moment I even felt we could start to giggle if we’d kept looking at each other. So we made sure to limit the amount of eye contact and tried to merge into the experience. The music started off a bit Indian-like. I love this kind of music, and I love to dance, so I just let myself go with the flow and started off.
The teacher said little to none and just moved around the room while new songs kept coming and going. Many of the participants also started moving around the entire room. We were a little less brave and stayed in our “corner” and just went with the waves.
The next phase she announced was called Chaos, and soon it indeed became – even more – chaotic. Everyone was running around and truly getting into it. I must say, this is the part I’d sort of expected. It felt like the disorderly word out there with its many situation where people run around like headless chickens. Putting that into movement has something freeing.
Next up we had to find a partner and create a large circle. One partner had to dance inside the circle; the other person was part of the circle. The music was rather unemotional. I found it a bit hard to find a real rhythm to dance on. By this time, I could tell that my friend was getting a little more comfortable, but it was also clear this wasn’t exactly her favorite place to be. Sometimes with new experiences, we know fairly quickly whether they are meant for us or not. She loves to dance but on more modern, accessible dance music. The good thing was that the next 30 minutes or so were an interesting mix of pop songs. We just kind of danced away as if we were in a discotheque. One couple even started to do some kind of disco-vox. At the same time, others were making interesting movements along the pillars of the room. Crawling on the floor was also nothing extraordinary. It was a very wild mix of moving people.
Slowly the music became quieter. By this time, nearly 2 hours had passed, and the room – that thank God had air conditioning – nonetheless started to smell a bit. No wonder with 70 or so people sweating, it’s hard to avoid.
During the very last song many people just lay on the floor. But this song was so incredibly beautiful, the best one of the evening so to say. I couldn’t resist dancing. I gave it my all. Carefully avoiding all the “bodies” lying on the floor, I moved around the room and let me heart feel the music.
Those last perhaps 7-minutes were by far the best part of the entire workshop. I felt like this is how it should be. At least for me . . . A beautiful song and a space where we are comfortable to feel the music from head to toe and just allow our body to move in whatever way it pleases.
My resume; I love my friend for not bailing out. We will not likely ever go there again, but I am very grateful she went there with me, and we were able to reflect together on the way back. No matter how you turn it; every experience we take along brings us a little closer to who we are. And we did find out a few things about ourselves.
I’m personally still keen to join another 5-rhythms workshop in a different location. Because for me, no matter how and where, dancing is meditation.
