A friend of mine recently asked for a description of each of the 5 Rhythms.

Here are some quotations I pulled from "Sweat your Prayers" by Gabriel Roth describing each of the rhythms. The book is full of insights and juicy imagery. It is a great tool for deepening your dance practice and I highly recommend picking up a copy. It's one of those books that you may want to own instead of checking out from the library- underline the parts that make your soul sing and return to them when you are in need of inspiration for your dance. (Elise I currently have your copy and fully intend to return it at some point...) :)

Flowing: In flowing, there are no separations or distinctions between things, there's only continuous change. In this rhythm we sense our connection to the birth cycle and return to a prelogical, intuitive state, as if we were infants again, eagerly and un-selfconsciously absorbing the world around us.

Staccato: Just as in flowing we connected with our earthiness, in staccato we are on fire. Earth is solid and sensual; fire ignites and consumes. It is yang, it is passion and it awakens these energies within us. Staccato is dancing with your bones, creating all kinds of angels and edges like geometry in motion. Lines erupt out of curves, articulating our separateness, creating wall or breaking them down.

Chaos swirls us into a whirl of water. Fall in love and you are in chaos, out of control a terrified slave to your own wild heart. Life is chaos. Nature is chaos. Chaos is the nature of the universe.

Lyrical is the most intricate of the five rhythms. In flowing we become rooted in our feminine energy; in staccato, in the masculine; and in chaos, we discover how they are integrated within us. In lyrical we realize we are works-in-progress. Nothing is fixed, particularly our identities. You can't fake the aftermath of an experience if you haven't had the experience, and lyrical is the aftermath of chaos. If we don't completely let go of all the stuff we carry, the physical resistance, the emotional baggage, the mental barriers-we get stuck in chaos. But when we finally do divest ourselves of everything that weighs us down, we lighten up. Lyrical is an airborne rhythm.

(personal commentary: lyrical is somewhat akin to pillow time after sex, flowing is flirtation, staccato is foreplay, and chaos is passionate surrender)

Stillness: wisdom, compassion and inspiration. Astronomers tell us that most of the universe is made up of invisible missing mass known as dark matter. Some of them see light coming out of this dark matter. I do. And in the stillpoint of this light I see the alchemist spinning fear into love and pain into prayer.

Be the dance!