An invitation to Dance this Sunday

[Helen Whitehead]

Dearest Dancers, 

I welcome you to join me this Sunday to dance in good company with some great music. 

see the bottom of this email for booking info.

As we are still in the dark and slowed down time of the cold winter, let's take some more time to dream into the year ahead.

We'll tune into our bodies acknowledging what is present with compassion and curiosity. 

Aligning with our values and resourcing ourselves with the elements within and without. 

We'll turn our attention to the arc of time that stretches to the end of Dec 26

and use our imaginations to see, feel, intuit and imagine what the best possible outcome this year has for us and the rest of the world. 

Then from this embodied place we'll turn around to the present and pass on any wisdom from that place to our dancing selves. 

I find this way of working with intentions to be a lot less pressured, a lot kinder and easier to work with than anything I can create using only my thinking mind of what I 'should' be doing.  

There will be some guidance and also lots of time to just dance to the music allowing the rhythm to guide and support us.

My feeling is that in the West we are so disconnected from the seasons and the natural world which provides maps and guidance for us, if we take the time and space to tune into them. 

For a few years I worked on the shop floor at Marks and Spencers. 

We got our Christmas shifts in August which is when the store started preparing for the Christmas season. No one was allowed time off at the peak Christmas period in November and December. 

On Christmas Eve as the last of the frantic shoppers left, we'd stay back late to get ready for the Boxing Day sale. As soon as the sale was over we'd have promotions on healthy food and gym clothes were featured on prime display. Next came Valentines Day and before you knew it we'd showcase spring time duvets and homeware alongside Easter eggs and hot cross buns. And so it went on, the relentless marketing machine. 

In another job I had, I worked as a personal assistant to a woman who was housebound and nearing the end of her life. We worked well together to get her out of the house and gradually her world became bigger and brighter. To my dismay all she wanted to do with her newfound freedom was shop. 

For three days a week, we would do a circuit of all the cut price stores like Poundland, B&M's and Home Bargains, where she would buy all manner of mass produced plastic seasonal decorations and nik naks for her home and garden. After taking them home and installing them in her house, within a month or so she would throw them all away to make space for the next season's shopping spree. 

It became apparent to me that we're instinctively drawn to mark the seasons and without meaningful rituals and celebrations the advertisers step in to fill the void. 

I think the time of year can be really hard. Whilst the world demands new improved versions of ourselves, relying on force and adrenalin to 'make' a change. For many of us all we want to do is rest. It's no wonder that so many people fail with their new year's resolutions and this time of year can abound with well meaning intentions that prove too much for our animal bodies that are just needing stillness and hibernation.

As I write this we are only 3 weeks away from the winter Solstice, the darkest time of year. Solstice is a time of  inwardness and reflection, a time in nature when there is little growing. Summer migrational birds are still on their sunny holidays. Mammals sleep more using fat reserves put on in the glut of autumn to survive this fallow period. If it's warm enough, roots may start to grow getting ready for the returning light. 

Feb 1st is the festival of Imbolc which is just over 2 weeks away. This festival marks the  beginning of spring, traditionally a time of spring cleaning releasing what's not needed from the past making ready for the new growth to begin.

Imbolc is a time when we are emerging from the inner realms.

A time when the unconscious and the conscious join and unite to bring about growth and fertility. Whilst we kindle the embers of the fire within. 

It's a time to plant your ideas and leave them to germinate in the returning light. 

So in between these two seasonal markers I invite you to stay in the dark of your dancing  dreaming body and allow your inner fire to illuminate the way ahead. It may come as a feeling, a picture or words maybe just a seed or even a whole tree. Let's be curious as to what's moving inside us.

"We are trying in our own way to live the dreams and visions of a new age, but we are still connected to the old ways. We each carry the seeds of a new vision, a new way of being. Each time these visions re-emerge after the incubation period of winter they are stronger and we are surer" 

 

Glennie Kindred

from Sacred Celebrations a source book

We all have our parts to play. And only you can play your part. We are all needed and now is our time. 

See you on the Dancefloor!

6-8pm

Summerhill Pavillion and Gardens, Winchester Terrace.

£15-£5 + booking fee

For tickets go to Eventbrite here

With love

Helen Whitehead

07890302904 

p.s.  Here's a resource I enjoy for tuning into the energy of the coming year. 

Lee Harris Annual Energy Forecast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqwrSTwtf1M