Reflections on the Choreocosmos Experience at Australia
The acknowledgement
Until I meet eurythmy, dancing meant moving with the beat of music and using my joints (shoulders, knees, ankles, and elbows) for robotic, mechanic movement. And, when I first joined the circle of cosmic dance, I noticed my stomping feet, my popping knees and my bouncing body. How can I get the eurythmical body to float with music? I also noticed my shallow breath, that made it difficult for me to get the rhythm of music. This is a typical example of how the modern environment works negatively upon my movement.
The attuning
As we all know, changing our habits takes a long time. What is the best way to start? I just imitate Robert and Lucky as a young child. When I concentrated on the imitation, I forgot to worry about how other people think about me and my movements. My arms feel lightness when I was able to imitate my teachers well. And then, my heart has started to respond with the movements and music. My body felt the sensation with the melody. Then my feelings, images and memories emerged. That experience surprised me, for I never expected that I can connect with music at this level.
The new challenge
Then, I noticed my teachers were not busy with their own thoughts and feelings when they dance. Seems to me, they were moving and receiving. They attuned with the responses of individuals and the dynamism of the whole group. I try to imitate their stance in the group, and gradually, I started to feel bigger space around me when I danced. First, I was able to pay attention only to the front of my body. Slowly, I extend the imaginal wings as the sensor of my back space, then expand my imaginal body to people on my right and left.
The stage of new awareness
Our group dynamism changes with each new set of movement and music. I felt the dynamism as a wave of warmth or an experience of colour. I was amazed and I wondered, ‘From where does this energy come?’. Then I recognised how special those moments were. So, the star gate was opened until the last note faded away…. To describe that intuition, I would like to use R. Steiner’s words (please imagine plants as human beings and butterflies as spiritual beings);
‘The plant’s longing for the heavenly holds sway above the iridescent petals of the flower.
The plant cannot of itself satisfy the longing.
Thus there radiates towards it from the cosmos what is of the nature of the butterfly.
In beholding this the plant realise the satisfaction of its own desires.
And this is the wonderful relationship existing in the environment of the earth,
namely, that the longings of the plant world are assuaged in looking up to the insects,
in particular the world of the butterflies.What the blossoming flower longs for,
as it radiates its colour out into world space,
becomes for it something like known fulfilment when
the butterfly approaches it with its shimmer of colours.Longing that makes warmth radiate outwards,
satisfaction streaming in from the heavens.This is the interplay between the world of the flowering plants and
the world of the butterflies.This is what we should see in the environment of the earth.’
(26 Oct 1923 Harmony of the Creative word pp69 -70,).
I understand, our cosmic dance circle as the flower in cosmic space.It is gracious to acknowledge myself as a petal of that flower. Thank you everyone who gives their creative impulse to hold the time and space for the longing.
