Contemplative Dance Practice
Known as a Meditator’s Dance Hall or a Dancer’s Meditation Hall
Tuesdays | 4:30 pm – 7:00 pm
At the Baca POA Meeting Hall, Crestone
CDP provides a safe and free space to move in your honesty, from being aware of the body sensations, the energy and an impulse to move in a certain way, or explore stillness. In this way of moving from within, we discover what movement feels naturally pleasurable –in the moment– and find the truth of why we dance.
In contrast to traditional dance practices, one's physical capability or limitation is not a restriction for doing Contemplative Dance. Everyone is welcome if curious and open to practicing presence through movement and mindfulness.
For me, to enter into motion is to enter into meditation.
~ Maurice Béjart
Contemplative Dance Practice
PRACTICE • BENEFITS • DISCIPLINE
Contemplative Dance Practice is a training for personal and group awareness of body/mind through meditation and dance/movement sessions. We create time and space to explore and integrate what we already know.
Some of the opportunities that CDP offers:
• deepening spiritual disciplines
• awareness of one's inner and outer bodymind rhythms
• embodied creative process of discovery and expression
• time for self-nurturing and well being
INNER PRACTICES
1) Willing to come back to now - this moment.
Through cultivating mindfulness and awareness we train our body/mind in clarity and presence. This cultivation of gentle and precise mindfulness of thoughts/postures creates the discipline to return to this present moment - now - the source of clearly knowing what is.
2) Cultivating kinesthetic delight - synchronizing bodymind through awareness of movement, stillness and sensation.
With mindfulness we listen for the "voice of the body/mind." We honor authentic gestures with curiosity, allowing our "self" to be, and to explore. We care for ourselves with loving kindness and cultivate kinesthetic delight. This quality of delight dares to know all the colors of our thoughts, feelings, impulses, sensations, with openness and acceptance. We develop confidence to explore beyond who we ‘think’ we are.
OUTER DISCIPLINE
3) Respect for the ‘ensemble’.
This is the honor and respect we show one another, the way we conduct ourselves, alone and together, while we are part of the "classroom village." The commitment is to participate with respect and friendliness. We are influenced, encouraged and provoked by others. The ‘ensemble’ is a "mirror", reflecting back parts of ourselves that we may not have seen. This decorum of honor and respect creates the atmosphere, and strengthens the power in a gathering of like-minded explorers.
"If you bring the fullness of your attention to the most ordinary gesture,
it becomes extraordinary." ~ B.Dilley
LOGISTICS
WHEN
TUESDAYS
4:30 pm – 7:00 pm
COST
$5 - 20 Donation
(Cash or Venmo at the door)
RECOMMENDED
Wear comfortable clothing.
Bring a cushion if needed for meditation, chairs are provided.
Bring your own water/beverage. There is a container of filtered water present in the building.
LOCATION
The POA Meeting Hall
The Floor is a large foam mat floor about 30ft by 20ft, soft and comfortable to crawl and play with moderate intensity.
The Practice Form Guidelines
Please arrive on time, and stay for the entire practice, as leaving disrupts the container.
• Arrival/Set up and Sanctuary time: A time to enter to the Space, and let go of what’s not needed.
• Opening Circle: Introductions, going over the form for Beginners, and questions.
• Spread out/Meditation: 20 min (guided meditation for somatic grounding)
• Personal Awareness Practice: Explore the inner bodymind experience.
• Short meditation: 5 min
• Open Space: exploring the whole field of awareness of time and space with others.
• Short meditation: 5 min
• Closing Circle/Reflection: brief verbal sharing - connecting to the practice and speaking about one's experience.
• Clean Up
Contemplative Dance Practice
The Origins
Contemplative Dance Practice (CDP) was born at Naropa University in 1980, by Barbara Dilley, the first director of Naropa’s dance department and later president of Naropa. She adapted CDP from the experience of meditation halls and was deeply inspired by Dharma Art teachings of Naropa’s founder, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Barbara’s memoir and handbook, This Very Moment: teaching thinking dancing, is the main reference to how I hold the practice. There are many quotes of hers and many other teachings of all traditions throughout her book, that are referencing this space of the unknown, this space formed by us gathering in a collective towards a similar goal, all showing up with different backgrounds and experience.
Let the dance find you
Listen with your skin
FEEL space.
Let stillness move around you
Stay in the middle of the event and listen for messages from that place
No time but the present
~ Barbara Dilley
Facilitator Kegan H. Mathews
While I facilitate the CDP form—such as ringing the bell to keep time and sharing inspirational quotes to orient us to the form's purpose—I'm just a practitioner with you in every session. The practice is about cultivating the beginner's mind by staying open to moving based on felt-sense, from one moment to the next. We learn as we go, from our own experience and from what we experience together.
I discovered what dance is through the experience of finding a place where thoughts are outside of awareness. Where dance is all that I am in that moment. I first encountered dance through Trance Dance, finding it within the intensity of festival culture. So I set out to find that space again without the intensity and altering chemicals. On the journey to find the unknown, I found CDP, a reliable practice to take me there.
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Contemplative Dance Practice
Tuesdays Dance Practice
Upcoming Woorkshops
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Location
The POA Meeting Hall
The Door on the right when approaching the building
68575 County Rd T,
Crestone CO 81131