"Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance when you're perfectly free."
— Rumi
"The body is our general medium for having a world."
— Maurice Merleau-Ponty
"I believe that dance came from the people and that it should be delivered back to the people."
— Alvin Ailey
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
— Friedrich Nietzsche
"Life is the dancer and you are the dance."
— Eckhart Tolle
Jamie Marich is a lifelong dancer and the founder of the Dancing Mindfulness community and facilitator-training program. She is a clinical counselor who leads trainings and retreats on trauma, addiction, and mindfulness worldwide.
When conducting trainings, Marich often asks people to share images and definitions that come to mind when they hear the word "dance."
Here are a few of them:
- Uninhibited movement of self.
- Allowing the music to "move" me.
- Setting one's spirit free!
- An expression of your soul.
This authoritative paperback presents an inspiring and enlightening overview of the art of dancing mindfully. Marich explains its seven core elements: breath, sound, body, mind, spirit, story, and fusion. She spices up the narrative with stories and anecdotes from her own experiences with dancing as well as those of others. The end result is a very good case for the art of dance as a legitimate form of meditation and a creative path for living your life.
Here are a few of the things we liked best about the book:
- The many helpful playlists of music and songs
- The practice of full body rising
- The description of runaway dance
- How we can dance with our positive beliefs
- How we can dance with the Divine
