Musings + Art + Happenings from our Tribal Individuals
The 5Rhythms practice | A lens for life
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HUMAN BEING PROJECT by Lina Nahhas, United Arab Emirates and Adi Argov, Israel
Adi (born Israeli) and Lina (born Palestinian) met in 2013, and have journeyed through a range of emotions together over the past 6 years of their friendship, whilst facing the many odds that come with sitting on opposite sides of a bloodstained separating fence. Along the way, they learned that the journey to genuinely dissolving any dividing walls between them and between the two sides of the narratives, is a journey of each first having to re - claim their right to their Human - Beingness and learning the art of embracing all that comes along with being human - in the body and in the heart.
Despite the sad political situation on the ground and all that it holds in unbalanced power dynamics and complex history, in August 2019 Adi and Lina co-facilitated their first workshop together, holding the intention for themselves and for all those who attended to come as equals, leave as equals, with equal input into the design and unfolding of the workshop and with equal passion for it all and equal respect for each other. All while consciously avoiding delving into the political narrative that divides our people. They sought to dissolve walls of tension created by some divisive historical narratives; whilst still creating space for them to co-exist as well. They are eager to share their common human stories that can soften us into our humanbeingness and keep growing us into its ever expanding multiple definitions.
When thinking about the where, amongst several options presented to them, they both felt Berlin would be the best landscape for a pilot, as a city that was wounded and divided by an imposed wall.
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Before the first workshop day, a recorded session was held moderated by award-winning Lebanese documentary Filmmaker Mahmoud Kaabour, with an aim to shed a light on Adi’s and Lina’s journeys into dissolving walls between them, as a born Israeli and a born Palestinian, by simply digging into their own individual stories of accepting their own human-beingness first...READ + HEAR MORE
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GIRLCIRCLE by Hannah Loewenthal, Capetown, South Africa
GirlCircle was founded in 2015 at Lawrence House. Coming out of workshops with all the young people in the home, we felt it would be most valuable to create an ongoing GirlCircle: meeting, dancing the rhythms, sharing stories and asking questions.
Our sessions are the only time these young women are in a girls’ only space. It is a space of trust, acceptance, listening and expressing. The girls are able to ask questions about absolutely anything, talk about whatever interests them, dance anything and everything that is moving and co-create the way we spend the time together. It is an ongoing and consistent way in which they can be outside of the house and simply be teenagers in the wild dance of change.
Each of these young women has made some kind of journey, usually treacherous, from another African country such as Congo, Kenya, Angola, Rwanda or Burundi and arrived in Cape Town, South Africa. Through different circumstances, she has found her way to a home and now has the opportunity of redefining herself. Most ties with family, culture & tradition have been abruptly severed. This is the long road to rediscovering who she is as a ‘foreigner’.
When we first introduced these young women to the dance, they were quite shy and self-conscious. ‘Dancing my own dance’ was a blank space which needed time and care. READ MORE
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LOVE LETTERS TO A RAVEN by Lorca Simons, Texas USA + United Kingdom
“When you’re out on the ocean and you are traveling across water it’s like this continuous expanse but it’s an ever changing picture depending on all the other elements. The depth of water is also interesting in different places, in some places you can’t see any distance at all and in other places it’s like looking down into a vast cathedral with shafts of light shining down.”
‘Love Letters to a Raven’ is a journey into the wilderness of the heart with all its tributaries and undercurrents, into the depths of our soul’s thread. This piece of theatre is a rewiring, a realigning, a return to what is most original and true. Unlocking those stories our bodies long to tell, one body part at a time.
Through visual poetry, physical theatre and spoken word, we dive into the bones of our memory’s keepsakes; those precious unravelings of our truth tales. “What will we find on the other side of all that we know?”
Having the opportunity to develop this piece of theatre with my sister Lake, my son River and a powerful ensemble this summer at our family theatre Hip Pocket was magic. There is nothing better than deep diving into what’s really going on inside and fine tuning that offering into a piece of creative action for an audience. Being held by that vast Texas sky, listening to the whispering wisdom of my elders, feeling my feet solidly in flow on ‘the skin of the great mother’ as Gabrielle would say was pure connection....READ + SEE MORE
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UCLA researchers invite you to participate in a historic study of conscious dance practices!
UCLA researchers Kelsey Laird, PhD and Helen Lavretsky, MD, MS, are conducting the first-ever large-scale quantitative research study of the potential benefits of 5Rhythms and other forms of conscious dance! Their brief online survey assesses characteristics of practitioners, their motivations for participation, and the perceived benefits of these practices on well-being...READ MORE
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OUR OWN BEST HEALERS by Chris Boylan, United Kingdom
I’m startled, surprised, delighted. Alan has run across the dance floor, taken my hand and pulled me into a clumsy, joyous, foot-kicking, arm-swinging dance.
It’s over two years since I met Alan. He would arrive with a care worker or a friend, make his way to a chair. He spoke little, he moved little. Often he would spend the whole two hours with his coat on. Sometimes he might swing his legs a little, often his movement was no more than shaking his hands.
When Alan was very small, he fell into a water-filled hole on wasteland and wasn’t found for a long time. He nearly died. He suffered serious brain-damage and multiple physical injuries. He wears special shoes. His movement is limited but expanding. These days he speaks little and laughs often. He is both a friend and a teacher.
Every Monday he joins us at The Club, a joyous, truthful, anarchic gathering of volunteers and people who are described as having “learning difficulties”. At The Club, we don’t use labels or descriptions, we are all simply people. When I was first invited, I had been dancing 5Rhythms for 17 tears and teaching for eight years. My first reaction: “This is what we do in 5Rhythms”. We weren’t dancing waves of Flowing-Staccato-Chaos-Lyrical-Stillness but much of it was there: embodiment, expression (lots of expression!!), release, imagination and soulful meeting, a profound sense of interconnection. Above all, acceptance. All is welcome at The Club and all are welcome. Does this sound familiar? READ MORE
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‘I have decided to stick with love; hate is too great a burden to bear’. This is the quote from Martin Luther King Junior which inspired ‘DeConstruct To a New Paradigm’, an exhibition put on in the summer from July 19th-August 16th in Asheville, North Carolina, by a collective of woman artists. I was a part of this wonderful exhibition and wove in 5Rhythms through a movement session at the art opening on Aug. 2nd and an empowerment staccato workshop Aug. 3rd, during the exhibition. In gratitude to Gabrielle Roth, I created a small installation to invite her love and creativity for movement.
The project was about being inspired by MLKJ’s quote through art and movement: how can we love more, rather than hate each other? How can we build this into a new paradigm? Curator Tekla Howachyn invited the collective of women artists to join her in expressing their love to create a new paradigm, exploring how this looks visually. The ‘DeConstruct To a New Paradigm’ was painted by Mary Lounsbury.
I was excited to be part of this collective and inspired by the beautiful installation, especially the labyrinth and the doorways, which show that there are always new possibilities of moving through our sufferings and challenges...READ MORE
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NEW SINGLE!
Our granddaughter, Sofia Ansell, has released a song to honor the memory of Gabrielle, her Nana G. She composed the music, wrote the lyrics and sings the vocals. Sofia is 19 and lives in Nashville Tennessee, USA LISTEN NOW
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Community is the next Buddha
- Thich Nhat Hahn
The 5Rhythms community is a 21st century collective unbound by history, culture, race, religion, gender or politics. We are bound by the beat, following our feet on a dancing path to freedom. We are beat-driven, service-oriented, heart-based individuals who come together to embrace our tribal longings.
The measure of a community is its respect for the wisdom of its elders, the innocence of its children, the passion of its artists, and the hope of its healers.
We are committed to inspiring and serving these roots and wings of community.
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is co-curated by
Morgan Nichols and Morgan Rae
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