Sacred Dance Guild Journal
Since 1958 articles by members & guests offer news about activities, history, Sacred Dance practices, profiles of Sacred Dancers, choreography, images & illustrations.
During our Sacred Dance Guild journey to the UK in 2017 a Mercyhurst College senior, Sarah Ruesch, asked if I would fill out a questionnaire regarding liturgical dance. I agreed and therefore it became part of her research for her senior capstone project.
One day in November 2017, I had decided to participate in a meeting and dance workshop offered by the Sacred Dance Guild, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting dance as a sacred art and as a means of integrating the physical, spiritual, emotional and mental aspects of the self. I had researched and written about sacred dance, but had never experienced it physically.
Thank you for joining me as together we enter the Sacred Ground between us and thank you for taking this time to explore the healing power of our most precious gift of Sacred Dance.
Bharatanatyam dance explores the path towards Spirituality. Dance is a form of praise, a way to connect with the divine. The purposes of the practice of a religion are to achieve the goals of salvation for oneself and others. Salvation, for the Hindu, can be achieved in one of three ways: the way of works, the way of knowledge, or the way of devotion.
Dance can be a profoundly personal experience of transformation. But when we dance for others, it is important that we become vessel for the prayer or healing to move through us and touch others. We start by remembering that indeed we are in ritual to illuminate for others.
as we engaged with open welcome in a dance workshop in a space where faith has been expressed in many ways over centuries, at least one woman from the local area found a renewal of faith expression through movement that had lain dormant for some time. As we engaged the mysticism of Julian of Norwich in a circle dance, those present connected with the spiritual ancestry of our context.
by Ilene A. Serlin, Ph.D, BC-DMT Over the course of the last twenty years, I have had the opportunity to get more experience working with intergenerational trauma, starting in Israel in 1986 through Dr. Vivien Marcow Speiser and Lesley University.…
The dance that evolves from my practice is a Sacred dance that embodies all the struggles and empowerments of selfhood and identity as well as the liberation of transcendence. These experiences are all interwoven and are integral to my divine journey.
I am obsessed with the Divine Dance. My dance led and moved me from childhood, into the UCLA Dance Department, through seminary and seminary teaching, into Body and Soul Dance Company, and on to cofound InterPlay with Phil Porter.
Our bodies are the earth. The earth is our body. In my practice of walking, dancing and writing in connection to the landscape and seascape is where I keep living these words.
Sacred Dance Guild Journal 