Conscious Dance Practices/Integral Dance/is

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Integral Dance (búin til af Alexander Girshon) er dans sem leiðir til meiri heildar. Hann hjálpar til við að viðhalda djúpri tengingu við sjálfan sig (á líkama og meðvitundarstigi), tengir okkur við aðra á sérstakan hátt, hjálpar til við að finna tilheyrslu okkar heiminum (náttúrunni og listinni) og einhverju stærra sem erfitt er að tjá með orðum (andlega stigið). Ennfremur eru þessi tengsl kraftmikil að eðlisfari.

„Integral Dance spratt upp úr lönguninni til að tileinka sér dansinn sem leið til heildar og úr þeirri skilningi að slík leið er meira en bara meðferð. Mér líkar vel við orðatiltækið: Góð meðferð tekur enda, en dansinn er endalaus.

„Meðferðarmarkmið, eins og ég sé þau, eru markviss, aðstæðubundin, skýrt skilgreind — en dans getur fylgt öllu mannslífinu.“

„Dans sem getur fylgt öllu mannslífi, með öllu sem það inniheldur — það er Integral Dance.“

— A. Girshon

Meginreglur Integral Dance

1. Líkami og meðvitund eru óaðskiljanleg

Sérhver tjáning lifandi manneskju, sama hvernig hún birtist, hefur alltaf líkamlega túlkun. Allt sem við upplifum, hugsum og ákveðum er ímyndað. Heilinn er hluti af líkamanum — þetta er einföld en nauðsynleg skilningur.

Þegar einstaklingur kynnir sig, segir sögu sína eða tjáir tilfinningar sínar, lítum við alltaf á hvernig það birtist á líkamlegu plani — í gegnum svipbrigði, litlar látbragði, breytingar á líkamsstöðu, breytingar á vöðvatóni eða raddtónun.

2. Mannvera er ferli, ekki hlutur

Það er nauðsynlegt að sjá manneskju sem fjölvítt ferli í þróun.

Fyrsta niðurstaða þessarar meginreglu: allar aðstæður sem eru til staðar hér og nú eiga sér ákveðna sögu — einstaklingur hefur gengið í gegnum ákveðin stig, áföng og þroskaskeið. Önnur niðurstaðan: þessi staða mun halda áfram, þessari sögu er ekki lokið.

Í vissum skilningi fellur þetta saman við tilvistarlega skilning á manneskjunni sem ókláruðu verkefni.

Við spyrjum: Hvað heldur áfram að hreyfast? Hvað heldur áfram að breytast? Hvaða ferli er að þróast?

3. Í öllu má sjá dans og hreyfingarfélaga

Þessi þriðja meginregla kemur frá fyrri spurningunni: Hvað er þetta ferli? Og hér komum við að dansinum.

Ef við skiljum dans sem fjölvítt, samhæft ferli, verður mikilvægt að finna viðeigandi stað fyrir hvaða upplifun sem er.

Til dæmis: „Þessi staða hentar mér ekki því einhver hluti af mér er ekki á þeim stað þar sem ég gæti sætt mig við hana.“

Eða: „Staðan sem ég er í takmarkar mig og leyfir mér ekki að faðma það sem er að gerast.“

Frá heildrænu og heildrænu sjónarhorni getum við ekki hafnað neinu. Í þessum skilningi skiljum við dans á mjög víðtækan hátt og við getum litið á hvaða aðstæður sem er í lífinu sem dans og þátttakendur hans sem hreyfifélaga.

Fjögur samþættingarstig í Integral Dance

Dansa við sjálfan sig

Kjarnagildi Integral Dance eru frelsi, sköpunargáfa, heilleiki og umhyggja (fyrst og fremst — sjálfsumönnun).

Að hlusta á eigin takt, hlusta á djúpa löngun sína, hlusta á áreiðanleika sinn – þetta eru eiginleikar sem einstaklingur lærir.

Og auðvitað, þegar einstaklingur lærir að annast sjálfan sig, byrjar hann að byggja upp sambönd við aðra á eigindlega annan hátt.

True self-care is the ability to be free and to create.

Dance with another

At the most basic level, every person has a deep sense of being: “I exist, and I have the right to exist.”

I exist, and that is enough.

From here — if I exist, I can feel, and I can act. I have the right to feel and the right to act.

The next circle of integration is connection with the Other.

There can be no integration that is purely individual.

It cannot be that I am whole by myself, but in relationship with others I immediately lose this state.

If a person is truly whole, this extends to the quality of their relationships with others — in which, if one wishes, one can always see partners for movement.

Dance with the world

This means that I have my own place in the world, and I am at peace with it — my place in society, in culture, and in nature.

It means that I have a certain connection with nature — one that feels right for me.

These can be very simple things: for example, a person enjoys walking in the park and intuitively knows when it’s time to go there.

Or perhaps they feel a deep connection with a certain element or force of nature.

Connection with the world also manifests as connection with culture — in the sense that I truly understand which culture influences me, which culture I belong to, and why my tastes and preferences are what they are.

This is what integration means: what I do in society corresponds to my inner sense of self, and there is no strong contradiction between them.

There may be compromises or crises that I go through, but strategically I am in my right place in this world.

Dance with eternity

Most people who practice dance note that at times they encounter an inner experience that is difficult to express in words — as if part of it cannot be verbalized and lies beyond our consciousness.

If a person has experienced a powerful, vivid state through dance, it needs to be integrated — to find its place and meaning.

What place does it occupy? Where can it be of use, and what nourishes it in return?

Integral Dance provides space for this sacred side of the dance experience, creating a field for calm and clear understanding — where it leads and why it is needed.

Main Tools of Integral Dance

• Integral Dance-Movement Therapy
• Integral Somatics
• Integral Performance and Improvisation
• Dance as a Spiritual Practice

The foundation of Integral Dance is built upon several different schools of improvisation and improvisational performance on one hand, and body-centered therapy on the other. Dance therapy itself treats movement as a language of communication between therapist and client. Establishing non-verbal therapeutic relationships is the essence of classical dance therapy.

Another cornerstone of Integral Dance is Authentic Movement. Interestingly, Authentic Movement is both a separate discipline and, at the same time, already carries a sense of integrality. It can serve as a therapeutic tool, it can be a personal practice—sometimes for stress management, sometimes to support creativity, sometimes to address personal challenges, and sometimes simply because the process itself is valuable. It is also a spiritual practice. At least in the form practiced by Janet Adler, the Discipline of Authentic Movement is a modern mystical practice. Both aspects—the therapeutic and the spiritual—are explored in A. Girshon’s book Stories Told by the Body.

A significant body of knowledge emerged after classical dance-movement therapy, particularly in the 1970s–1990s, through somatic techniques. These, on one hand, share much with dance-movement approaches but are positioned under a different label. Somatic therapists often have separate professional associations, use somewhat different tools, and draw on a distinct knowledge base. Yet the foundations and goals are very similar. The somatic approach has significantly enriched the understanding of dance, movement, and human development. It also integrates well with discoveries in neuroscience—a field that must be incorporated today. Naturally, dance therapy and psychotherapy in general strive to understand and integrate this knowledge, relating it to practical therapeutic techniques.

Additionally, there are practices not focused on creativity or therapy per se, but rather on dance as ritual or prayer—dance as a form of spiritual practice.

Thus, Integral Dance draws on many foundations: improvisation, therapy itself, authentic movement, dance as a spiritual practice, and somatic or body-oriented approaches. Integral Dance is a process that helps us understand how all these elements relate to one another. By combining these forms of knowledge, we can more clearly and accurately—and most importantly, while staying connected to ourselves and our intentions—use Integral Dance for self-discovery, personal development, and enhancing our engagement with life.

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