Starting on Saturday, January 11th, Dance Temple Cortes will be held every two weeks in Manson’s Hall.
“Everyone has an excuse not to dance. In Gabriel Roth’s book, Sweat Your Prayers, there’s a two page list or maybe a three page list of all the reasons. That’s great, if that’s your choice, but there’s something to be said for getting over the resistance because there’s no wrong way to dance. There’s no wrong way to move. It’s incredibly freeing to be in a space where you can dance in all your goofiness, offbeat, rolling around, whatever works for you and just engage with your body in a healthy way,” explained Connie Quail.
“Sometimes it’s just stretching that shoulder. You can do Dance Temple sitting in a chair. You can do Dance Temple lying on the floor. It’s just about moving however feels freeing to each person. That’s the essence of Dance Temple. For some it’s a spiritual practice. For some it’s just a connective practice. For some It’s healing, hence somatic healing, and for me, in my recovery from a dissociative disorder, embracing mindfulness practices has been key to what’s brought me into being able to be functional and well again. So good for mind, body, heart, and spirit.”
“The support of a room full of people doing that has a collective energy that helps us stay engaged with the energy in our bodies in a way that can be transformative.”
Cortes Currents: How did you come to Cortes?
Connie Quail: “I moved here first in 2003, and left Cortes for some years to spend some time in Victoria, where my kids were in high school.”
“I found this weekly Dance Temple in Victoria and I just started going every week.”
“Dance Temple first began something like 15 years ago on Salt Spring Island and in Victoria. It’s a model, a container, a way of doing dance.”
“People picked it up all through the pandemic. Like Mary Lloyd, who facilitated dance on Cortes. She had these outdoor silent DJ headsets. We just kept dancing on the beach all through the pandemic and then back indoors when that was allowed.”
“It was slow to get the ball rolling on Cortes. I think it was just once a year for the first couple of years. Naomi Jason, one of my mentors and one of the founders of Dance Temple, came to Cortes a couple of times.”
“That just became such an important source of community, of wellness for me, a big part of my own healing journey. So I took facilitator training, I took DJ training just to be able to keep carrying this forward and offering it where I live on Cortes so I still always have access to it. It’s a little bit selfish that way, because I just want to keep dancing.”
“Andrew Lee and I picked it up with a lot of support from Dancing Wolf two years ago. We said we want this in our lives and we want the DJ experience.”
“I’m DJing Dance Temple in Campbell River at the end of the month. I’m DJing in Mid Island – in Cedar Dance Temple, Salt Spring Dance Temple – in the coming year. Then in Victoria again. It’s a consistent container in every place it’s offered, or as consistent as we can make it.”
“We start with very slow, gentle music, then slowly build, build, build, build, build in tempo and intensity of music until we reach a peak. The peak is the chaos stage of five rhythms and then we go down through what would be lyrical and into silence. So, into a quiet relaxed ending, sometimes the sound is healing, sometimes it’s just a little bit of breathing meditation.”
“So it’s a whole journey that we go on, and there’s something for everyone. Some people don’t like the peak. For years, I didn’t. I’d leave the dance temple in Victoria, go outside for a bit, just wait for the intensity to ease off, and then I’d go back in and rejoin the dance. Some people don’t like the slowness at the ending, so they duck out early, after they’ve had their journey. There’s so many ways to approach Dance Temple and it’s so much fun.”
Links of Interest
All photos courtesy Connie Quail
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