As Easter approaches each year I like to create a day of meditative dance, with poetry, and to challenge myself even further ... lunch for the participants! I hope that those who come enjoy it in the same way as we can be pleased to read a sad book or see such a film. In thinking of the women I thought of the anointing at Bethany and the hope of the women that they would anoint the body when they came to the tomb on Easter day.  I was pleased to find I had a bottle (sadly not an alabaster jar) of Hand & Body lotion named 'Heaven scent.' Wonderful aroma of lavender and bergamot as we shared it! 
I am obviously an amateur blogger as I cannot make the photos whole!

I do like a dance workshop to have a theme and a structure, and my visit to Peebles in July 2022 lent itself to this theme, after all we had twice had to postpone the event because of the pandemic! 
 
It was generous of Gillian Limb to invite me, and this is part of her reflection on the day
 
“Miggy introduced us to her theme and the format for the day.  She had created a Corona Mass……so relevant for this moment in time, as we come out of lockdown and mindful of what has been, where we are now and what is to come.  The Mass provided a simple framework and each dance was chosen to express each element: Gathering, Journeying, Praise and Prayer, Thankfulness and Blessing.  

During the morning Miggy took time to teach each dance, explaining a little about why she had chosen it, and about its choreography and music….  The afternoon session was devoted to dancing though The Mass with minimal reminders before each dance.  

The whole experience was a moving and powerful experience and a joy to be dancing in a large circle as one.  Miggy had decided not to hold hands and we noticed how this freed us up to use our whole bodies as we moved around the circle together.  It was a joy to feel part of the flowing energy and movement and a spiritual (in the widest sense) mood permeated everything.”
 
The choreographies I chose come from as far afield as Chile and Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, the USA, Holland and Belgium, Hammersmith, Kent and Devon. The music included a Swahili prayer, a Sami Joik, Lakota (North American Indian), an early Seventeenth Century Polyphonic hymn to Mary from the Quechua of the Peruvian Andes, along with a Russian Gospodi, Choral music from a popular French film and a Gloria from ‘The Priests’ of Northern Ireland.

​I would happy lead this day, or similar, elsewhere!

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Yesterday I led my now annual Dance Meditation day for Holy week. While packing up I was often asked the question “What are you doing for Easter?”. I know what the kindly questioners meant, but I wanted to say, “I have just done it”! 
 
My husband David once wrote a sensitive poem, called Flower Rota, thinking of a lady arranging flowers in church in memory of a loved one… he spoke of  “the sweet time it took”, as she worked alone with the flowers and the memories.
 
It does take much time to plan such a day, but much of it is ‘sweet’. I like to select reasonably accessible poetry, and find images to use alongside the dances, as I try to be thematic. In advance I often email a poem to a dancer to absorb, before asking them to read it on the day.
 
How delighted I was to find such lovely iris for the Centrepiece, even though not ‘bearded’, as we were bracketing the day with two poems from Helen Dunmore’s final collection. Cancer took her last year, she wrote till very near the end, and the second of the extracts here is from her final poem.
 
My life’s stem was cut,
But quickly, lovingly
I was lifted up,
I heard the rush of the tap
And I was set in water
In the blue vase, beautiful
In lip and curve,…..

 and 
 
 
Death, hold out your arms for me
Embrace me
Give me your motherly caress,
Through all this suffering
You have not forgotten me.
 
You are the bearded iris that bakes its rhizomes
Beside the wall,
Your scent flushes with loveliness,
Sherbet, pure iris
Lovely and intricate. ….

After a very wet week of rain and flood, it was good to have a gathering of 17 dancers to enjoy a few of the dances choreographed by Nanni Kloke for her Creation Suite. I have had a very touching note today from one of them who is not so well.
Thank you for a lovely day of dance.  I am so glad I managed it.  It was just what I needed.  It was very healing for me and invoked some beautiful prayer time.  I loved the dances and I am very grateful for what you do and how you do it.
Such a note makes it all feel very worth while; and what great use of a very murky day... we had felt our way there through the fog.
This morning in church we had these resonant words from the Venite. 
In his hand are the depths of the earth
​and the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his for he made it,
and his hands have moulded the dry land.
Now we have a hurricane in our forecast, so I must master the dance 'Gone with the Wind' for my next class...
There is now a hope that Judy King will bring this suite north again, to be enjoyed in all its fullness.
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This article came my way today as my Beloved suffers with Alzheimers. With Line and Square dancing mentioned, Circle dancing must be up there too, along with its unique emotional sensitivity.
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New research shows that dancing can do more than keep you physically fit. It could also help you fight off dementia
It’s easy to see why dancing is good for your health; it keeps you fit and makes you feel good. But a growing amount of evidence also shows that dancing has another benefit. For dancing can improve brain power and even help ward off Alzheimer’s and dementia.
A new study by the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases reveals that certain dance styles are particularly beneficial for older people. The study involved people with an average age of 68 and found that those who regularly did line dancing, Latin American, jazz and square dancing had a larger hippocampus (the area of the brain associated with age-related decline) and were therefore better protected against dementia. Interestingly, researchers also compared dancing with other physical activities such as walking and cycling but found that dancing had the most powerful impact.
‘Dancing is a powerful tool to set new challenges for body and mind, especially in older age,’ explains Dr Kathrin Rehfield, lead author of the study which was published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
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