La Movement Medicine, restaurer son plein potentiel !
Movement Medicine is one of the main currents of “conscious free dance”, of which the 5 rhythms are part, open floor, biodanza, free dance from Isadora Duncan, and many other approaches.
It was created by Susannah et Ya’Acov Darling KhanBoth were very close students of Gabrielle Roth, founder of the 5 Rhythms dance, from which they moved away to bring into their teachings their knowledge of modern therapies (Gestalt, Polyvagal, Constellations, etc.) and the wisdom of ancient and shamanic traditions that they explored extensively.
Their observation at the origin of this evolution was to realize that even if free dance is liberating in essence, dancing and celebrating is not enough for us Westerners: it is necessary to associate it with real therapeutic work and a clear ritual dimension.
Their dream is to restore the sense of integrity and personal power to individuals to enable a more respectful and secure world. Their vision is strongly influenced by that of the Amazonian peoples to whom they have become very close (Ashuars and Saparas of Ecuador in particular).
Movement Medicine stands out from other free dance movements firstly by this strong affirmation of their shamanic roots. Strengthening our connection to our resources to deploy our potential for achievement is a priority. We learn to strengthen our connection to what is behind us no longer as a burden, but as resources: the elements, our ancestors, the visible and the invisible, and even our personal history…
We learn and practice directing our lives in a direction: we do not heal and grow only for ourselves: we are connected in the present to a community or communities and everything we do influences what comes before us, future generations.
This dimension of belonging and dedication of our dances to something greater than ourselves is manifested by the fact that the community Movement Medicine is very active internationally, and that the most intense part of the work (the Apprenticeships) is done in groups followed over several months within which the sense of mutual support is fundamental.
We will develop further down in the article everything that free dance can bring to the individual and to society, after having given in the following 2 paragraphs an overview of how it happens concretely and what the proposals are.
What is Movement Medicine, how does it work?
The practice of Movement Medicine is open and accessible to all, dancers and non-dancers, with no age or physical condition limits. No movement is ever imposed. All explorations can therefore be experienced at the level of intensity that is theirs. All styles of music are present, to support all possible qualities of exploration and expression.
It is offered in different forms: evenings, courses, training cycles. In all cases, there are always times dedicated to awakening the body, body awareness, the sense of support, connection to oneself, to others, to space… before entering into an exploration, whatever it may be. The sense of security is very strong in this approach. Likewise, the times of harvest and integration are very important.
Movement Medicine is one of the most widespread free dance movements in the world and is currently expanding rapidly, with a network of around 350 very well-organized teachers who benefit from a very high level of training and quality control of their teaching.
In France, several teachers (contact details available on the site below) also offer evenings and courses.
Long cycle and essential intensive courses
We (Anne Ena et Nicolas) are carriers of the long support cycle called ApprenticeshipIt is a cycle of immersion and deep experimentation of Movement Medicine practices for oneself, to receive the support we need to grow and achieve the best of ourselves. This cycle is deeply transformative and supportive. It restores the link to the community through the intensity of the links that are experienced there. It is also, for those who wish, the first step to take before being able to train professionally (in England with the founders).
Currently there are only two places in the world where you can experience this cycle, with us, in France, at the Hameau de l’Etoile, and in Hungary, with another couple of teachers.
We are also the only ones to offer two major exploration courses in France: “Phoenix” and “Initiation”.
The first « Phoenix » is a workshop that will explore and release the energy contained in our looping scenarios. It is a modern and danced form of shamanic process of soul recovery. It offers the possibility, through the acquisition and use of this process, to open new perspectives for one's life by uprooting the causes at the origin of our limiting repetitions.
The second, “Initiation », is a visit to all stages of life, from before conception to after death. It is a very powerful course to replenish what we did not know or could not receive as energy at certain times in our existence: whether there is trauma or family history has made it difficult. We remake all the phases of our life (already lived or to come) resources. It is a deeply rejuvenating dive, essential according to us to live fully and invest in the future still to be lived.
These two internships are wonderful opportunities to grow in responsibility in our lives. They are prerequisites to the Apprenticeship cycle.
The benefit of all the proposals of Movement Medicine is to grow in self-awareness, in bodily presence (embodiment), in integrity, in healthy personal power and therefore in the capacity to create one's life in a more full and creative way.
Movement is life
Human beings are animals. Every animal cell is made for movement, its life depends on it.
We carry it in our constitution: by moving, we hunt for food, and through it, solar energy. It is an incredibly creative, permanent quest.
Moving, and even more so dancing, is therefore much more than living or surviving: it is accomplishing the dance of life and participating in its creative and evolutionary process.
Dancing seems particularly appropriate to us in our modern times, where the sense of full, wild, sensitive, everyday movement has been alienated by a tendency to remain seated and seek comfort.
This is why the dance we practice is called Movement Medicine… retrouver le mouvement comme un art de la croissance et de la transformation.
Knowing yourself through dance – the metaphorical language of the body
For us, dancing is the most complete motor expression that we can have, because it involves our bodily intelligence, our emotional dimension, and our entire imagination: it is an activity that allows, certainly, to circulate energy, but which also carries, according to us, the highest potential for self-knowledge.
When we dance with intentions, everything that comes to us in the movement is a response to our intentions: the mind questions and the body responds with all its intelligence.
We can explore through dancing themes such as: our relationship to fire, or to our ancestors, or to facets of ourselves that we want to meet (wounded or powerful), or that we want advice for the future... the sensations in the body that emerge, the directions of movement that seize us, the emotions that emerge, or even the images that impose themselves are the beginning of stories that are told, in which we can enter with all our corporality. We can embody characters, landscapes... which is a little bit becoming enormous.
We enter, thanks to clear focuses, and with the amplification of dance, into the metaphorical language of the body, that of life.
Changing the dream of humanity and creating another world through dance
What Movement Medicine brings in a very specific way is to make free dance a way of connecting, of praying, and of creating another reality.
Movement Medicine is a particularly committed dance practice. Nourished by the great experience of shamanism and modern therapies of their founders, Ya’acov and Susannah Darling Khan, it offers a path where we find personal power, integrity and self-knowledge not only for ourselves, but especially to become better contributors in the world.
In this context, dance is a sacred ritual.
This is very new in the history of humanity: although dance has always had a place in rituals, until now it was very codified!
In free dance we can all dance in very different ways and yet be connected in a common intention: “All together in dance, each in his or her own dance”.
The ritualization framework specific to Movement Medicine further increases this phenomenon: we pass through specific doors, focuses that allow us to draw resources from the elements, from the forces of nature, to connect our visible or invisible supports, ancestors, descendants, to redeploy our circles of power, to explore the links that unite us to our different circles of relationship and to free their potential, to remake our past a support to invest our present and dream together of another future.
It really a new form of spirituality that emerges with this, both very structured, organized, and free and very creative… a spirituality that we believe is very well adapted to modern humans and their entire accumulated history of confrontation with the limits of frameworks but also of gigantic creativity. This approach unites the two polarities while engaging corporality.
All conscious free dance movements, and Movement Medicine in particular, respond to the physiological need for the sacred in human beings and provide an alternative to a space left generally empty by the great religions.
We are deploying the power, dear to the peoples of the Amazon, to change our reality by changing our collective dreams.
It is also a redeployment of our personal responsibility, in the awareness of interrelation. By tracking energy to create other futures, we come out of an attitude of “take, take, take…”, we come out of bottle-feeding, we become more actors.
This is the essential goal of Movement Medicine and its founders. It seems so fundamental to us in an era that places consumption as a value in itself and where the meaning and dignity resulting from effort and contribution are lost. For future generations, to regain power.
This article was written by Anne Ena et Nicolas BERNARD – certified Movement Medicine teachers. Founders of the Nine Breaths body dialogue approach
