#ThursdayExpressions: Liminality

#ThursdayExpressions is your weekly invitation to dance online. This Thursday, I invite you to explore the liminal states - the place of becoming.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night

Everyone is just waiting.

Dr Seuss

Take a step over the threshold. Where are you? The in-between, the waiting room, a place of becoming. What is your experience? This is the liminal space, a place of transition and transformation.

The Eastern wisdom traditions talk of six bardo or liminal states. They can feel lonely, uncomfortable waiting places. With practice, we get used to the sense of releasing, transforming or changing role. In this space we can drop identity and ego-centric focus, and make our way into the next moment. The first bardo is that of becoming, from the moment of conception to our first breath, then we enter the bardo of life. Each day, we can practice in the bardo of meditation, and at night can access the bardo of dream. The place we fear, yet holds so much potential, is the bardo of death, where we surrender all that we know, and can discover our true nature, that of luminosity, peace and pristine awareness. Then we dance back into a new moment of life, with a greater sense of ease and trust.

Meditation, whether moving or sitting, is the liminal space that can prepare us for life in a profound and subtle way. We learn to stay with whatever arises in the moment, neither grasping onto to things we like, or pushing away what disturbs us. We watch everything that plays out through the body, heart and mind, as if on a movie screen. We become witness to our experience, and feel the lightness that arises when we stop taking ourselves too seriously. After all, everything passes, nothing stays the same.

You are welcome to join me in this liminal space, the Thursday Expressions bardo, to watch the passing parade of your own embodied experience. During this curated music set, you are invited to follow your body’s way. There are no dance steps, no choreography, simply your instinctive impulses and innate rhythm. We were made to dance and allow this practice to be an experience of becoming.

For those new to the practice: 

Expressive Movement is a somatic meditation, enabling a greater sense of presence and freedom. With music, and through a moving mindfulness practice, we are able to activate conscious awareness, creative action and authentic connection. The five phase practice, founded by Sian Palmer (@dancingsian) begins with a gentle warm up, and then moves through a deeper sensing into our present experience, expressing what is moving through us, and then releasing, dreaming into new possibilities, and finally opening to a sense of integration. These weekly classes have been hosted since Expressive Movement’s conception in 2009 and are home to a growing community of dancers.

Join us online to dance in real time every Thursday at 6:30pm SAST (5.30pm BST). All are welcome. No previous experience is needed. 

Investment: R60 Scholarship Rate; R100 Full Exchange; R140 Sponsoring you and a Scholarship dancer  

Bookings: Quicket https://qkt.io/aOvfeC

Platform: Zoom (After registering, you'll receive an e-mail confirmation with the relevant login details)