Raising Kids with the Rhythms + Practical Suggestions to prepare your kid for 5Rhythms Class by Meghan LeBorious 

Brooklyn, New York City, USA

“I think we’re here to learn to be calm and gentle. And also to be fast.  And to notice things.” — Simon, age 7

My son, Simon, has taken a risk and let go of my hands for the first time today, up-rocking breakdance-style with intricately syncopated steps, twisting his waist emphatically, using all parts of his fast-moving feet, and following their gestures with sharp-angled arms. He is nearly as tall as me, lithe and bursting. Tight, brown, carefully-clipped curls frame his face, and his dark eyes flash with excitement and focus. Simon and I are at the Joffrey Studio in the West Village – in a Sunday morning 5Rhythms class. Simon suddenly looks around at the many dancers, then grabs hold of my hands again, pulling hard on my wrists.

Of everything that I do as a parent, I think giving my son Simon access to the 5Rhythms is, quite possibly, my best offering. Even at the age of 7, the practice has already equipped him with a powerful toolkit for moving through life.

Three years before Simon was born, I started dancing the 5Rhythms at the suggestion of a trusted friend. For the first two years of dancing, I cried almost constantly. I found that I needed to collapse again and again — an antidote for years of holding things back in difficult relationships. Sometimes I was crying out unexpressed grief, sometimes I was crying for joy; and often I wasn’t sure why I was crying — only that my at once tender and defended heart was becoming more and more available.

On first glance, a 5Rhythms class would probably just look like a wild dance club, but for most people, it is also much more. For me, it is a laboratory for life, encompassing psychological, emotional, philosophical, interpersonal and shamanic levels.

I had already been practicing for two years when I became pregnant with Simon. For me, pregnancy was a study in contrasts. My relationship with Simon’s father was marked by conflict and I felt anguish on a daily basis. At the same time, I loved being pregnant. In dance, I found a way to express and release the pain I was experiencing. Although I was as big as I would be by six months into pregnancy, I never moved like a pregnant woman as dancing gave me the ability to work with the fast changes in my body and allowed me to adapt consciously as my balance shifted. Also in dance, I was deeply aware of the miracle of pregnancy. I felt so full. So un-lonely. So fascinated with my own body. I danced both our rhythms at once, marveling that I contained two heartbeats and that I was both one person and two people at the same time.

When I was five months pregnant I danced like a wild animal in the rhythm of Chaos during an intensive workshop and became concerned that I might have harmed my small son. After that, I decided to play it safe and take a break from 5Rhythms until after the baby came. Things got even worse in my relationship, however, and after a week I realized that I urgently needed my supportive 5Rhythms community to balance out the conflict at home. I also feared the pain I was experiencing could harm my son unless I was diligent about moving READ MORE

SLIDESHOW EXHIBIT

Movement metaphors- allowing art to murmur messages to us by Tess Howell, United Kingdom

Ideally, as dancers the altar can alter our experience on the dancefloor.

An altar/installation can provide us with a place to spend a moment reflecting and finding refuge when perhaps our inner world is twirling and swirling just a little too much. We can make a personal prayer there – spend a moment tangibly touching in to something greater than ourselves. I believe that altars can play a regulatory role when we’ve let reality really rock us.

It’s the creation of a sacred space at the side of the dance floor, a gathering of objects and images to inspire us, provide us with a focus for a pause point, perhaps even instill a sense of wonder within us.

We can frame it as an installation (rather than an altar) if need be – as “just art” so as to not make it too scary to those still somewhat stumped by the idea of sacred space or by letting holiness hold our common humanity.

After all, art murmurs to us in metaphors…

READ & SEE MORE ART

Truth Bomb: Jealousy and the Dance +

11 lessons from 5Rhythms that no book has managed to teach me 

by Laura Marianne Pickerill, 

United Kingdom

#DanceAnywhere

#DanceEverywhere

VIDEO

Taking the dance outside to the park in

Krakow, Poland

The earth, the trees and the sky above us were an incredible inspiration for the movement, for looking for one another. Dancers and participants of my classes and other people who came to the park – mothers with babies, children and …. dogs too!  There was a lot of joy & tears of emotion when we move our bodies.

VIDEO

A community creates moving art together in Budapest, Hungary

Imádunk táncolni és játszani, hát táncoltunk és játszottunk!

We love to dance and play, so we’re dancing and playing.

VIDEO

Home is where the rhythm is — whether alone in your living room, on the beach, in the woods, walking down a busy street or stepping onto a 5Rhythms dance floor in community — the rhythms are a map to lead you back home to your truest self, a route to your roots.

We invite you, no matter where you are, to set aside a few minutes to dance your way home to your inner most soul.