Sample of Authentic African Dance Music (10 sec delay)
Music From The World
Tribal Trance Dance
"dance that moves the soul"
Trance dance has been used by indigenous cultures for 40,000 years to experience greater wisdom, strength, and harmony.
There is no right way to trance dance. It is your dance, unique to you, and not open to external judgement (thus the blindfold).
Trance dancing has nothing to do with the expectations of others, and everything to do with awakening the body with internal, natural expression, --letting your spirit flow.
Dance is a way of exploring non-ordinary reality (vs. ordinary reality of day to day life). Trance dancing is a vision quest that will bring out your true inner, creative self.
Address:
The Atrium
6169 B Industrial Court
Greendale, WI 53129
(Milwaukee)
Audio Link:
Tribal Trance Dance
(DuCreations 2009)
Bio
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Contact
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©2007 Denise Keenan
Music & Dance From Around The World
Africa
Middle East/India
Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia
Oceanic/Hawaii/Polynesia
Native American
Five dances starting at the Tribal roots in Africa and ending with Native America
Each dance session will begin with learning "Meditation on the Breath", "Pranic Breath", and the "Breath of Fire" and followed by dynamic dance while blindfolded to build self-trust and to remove all external judgement.
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Natale
"Through Trance Dancing we alter our consciousness and enter non-ordinary reality or what I call, ‘the World of Spirit’, that world beyond time and space where everything is possible. Through ancient breath patterns, movement and rhythms which impact the brain, the trance dancer begins to see with their senses rather than their eyes. Other times and other forms reveal themselves, and the Trance Dancer’s consciousness is filled with the magical world of Spirit, which causes you to think with your heart, as our ancestors did. While your body dances, your soul travels and remembers, free of the limits of this life, free of the limitation of time and space. Tremendous energy is awakened; spontaneous healing occurs, and Spirit returns home and is embodied within you, the Trance Dancer." Frank Natale
What to bring:
Please wear loose, comfortable clothing appropriate for movement and dancing. Bring a bandana or blindfold. If desired, bring a cushion and a blanket for sitting/lying on the floor. No street shoes are allowed, however you may use soft "house slippers" if you would rather not dance barefoot. The Milwaukee "African" and "Middle East" dances are on carpet.
Trance Dance Events
" Imagine darkness so intense and so complete covering you like a velvet blanket. A blackness that cuts you off from the everyday world, forcing you to draw deep into yourself, a blackness that makes you see with your heart instead of your eyes. You can't see, but your eyes seem open. You are isolated, but you know you are united with all living things. And out of this darkness comes the roaring of the drums, the sound of the prayers. And among these sounds your ears catch the voices of the spirits, ghostlike, whispering to you from unseen lips. You feel the wings of birds brushing your face; feel the light touch of a feather on your skin. And always you hear the throbbing drums filling the empty space inside yourself, making you forget things that clutter your mind, making your body sway to their rhythm. "
Robbie Robertson
World Music Tribal Trance Dance
World Music Tribal Trance Dance
Music from
Aboriginal Oceania
November 20
Milwaukee
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Trance Dance is an ancient, indigenous ritual which allows you to invite creativity
and passion in to your life. It has been used for at least 40,000 years to connect with natural process, and experience more wisdom, strength, and harmony.
Trance dance is used to replace
old patterns of redundancy
with new patterns that can re-direct life’s course.
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Every indigenous culture uses dance as a means of seeking what can not be witnessed in the present world. It is the principal tool for otherworld journeying.
Finding that space within sets you free from your own redundancy.
Why would one believe that ordinary reality is the only reality?
Explore non-ordinary reality;
feel its organic growth from within.
No one can give you a "rite of passage" to greater understanding.
The initiation grows from within organically, emerging from its hidden crypt like a seed bursting toward the sun.
I am the Mystery.
I am enough.
The complexity of what you seek can be scaled down to what you attach to, and what you detach from.
The Thunderbird is that moment of revelation that crushes one's own ignorance.
Trance Dance is the conveyance of the Thunderbird
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Creation in the mind initiates
all that we know, all that we are,
all that we become,
and all that is.
These are matters of non-ordinary reality;
dance and seek.
"dance that moves the soul"
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Tribal Trance Dance is a practice that supports free expression without judgement by self or others. Blindfolded dance takes away reliance on our dominant sense of vision, thus shifting to the other senses resulting in de novoself-expression.
Dance searches for enlightenment from your inner being – rather than searching for a source outside. Happiness, love, bliss all come from inside. Trance dance enhances the expression of these states.
Trance Dancing is an opportunity not just for recreation, but for recreating ourselves spiritually and therefore healing ourselves through the presence of spirit.
Trance Dance is a matter of just trusting the process, clear your attachments to the outside world.
Spirit manifests physically as breath. Breath is the physical form of spirit. Because of this relation, breath is a tool used to facilitate the dance.
For LaCrosse Dances
Waldorf School
901 Caledonia Street
La Crosse, WI 54603
General
Trance Dance is a journey of de-attachment to what is, and communion with what will be
The visible and invisible are the same thing.
Be the explorer you were meant to be.
The stages of Trance Dance
Intention –
A vital element of any non-ordinary journey is intention. We frequently mistake this for wanting. Clearly, wanting and intending is not the same. Intention implies readiness for change. In order to achieve a sensational Trance Dance experience, we must be willing to make an exchange of ordinary to what is non-ordinary. The lack of this willingness to change course results in redundancy. George Bernard Shaw had a famous quote: “Doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result is a form of insanity”. Reaching the state of “Intention” is the most important aspect to accomplish change.
Most important in preparation is to clarify within yourself, your willingness to let go of all aspects of the ordinary. Therefore a period of conscious preparation is necessary. At the beginning of the Trance Dance Ritual, participants prepare their physical body, clear their minds of conflict and create specific intentions.
Beginning –
The Beginning stage of the Trance Dance starts with the Breath of Fire. By focusing on The Breath of Fire you begin to separate the 'self' from the 'ego-self', not by talking directly to the ego but instead by creating a physical condition in which the ego has no power. This induces a profound condition of shamanic trance, which is a slow but deliberate decent first into nothingness and then into an early altered state of mind that leads to the Deep Breathing stage.
Deep Breathing –
Here the Breath of Fire moves into a rhythmic breathing that begins to synchronize with the body’s initial dance movement. As the dance becomes more intense, the breath accommodates the movement. At any time the dancer may move back into the Breath of Fire that will re-establish a broader portal for the trance that sustains a vision or may flow into a new vision.
Trance in Motion –
This stage of Trance Dance is full movement that reaches and sustains the non-ordinary reality experience that the dancer has called in. Most of the Trance Dance is spent in this active dancing phase, and as mentioned above, breathing patterns can be used to change the trance level which one is experiencing.
Trance Motionless –
This stage may or may not be used by all dancers. For some it is a stage where the dancer slows the dance movement down may stand in one spot but still have dance movement, or may just sit quietly on the floor and begin to ‘unwind’. This stage can be done at anytime throughout the Trance Dance, and especially if a dancer is having a problem continuing in the high energy dancing. The dancer, after a “slowdown” may step the movement up again to the Trance in Motion level.
Stillness –
Stillness is a time when you will be asked by the Trance Dance facilitator to totally unwind from the physical dancing and lie on the floor; however, your non-ordinary reality journey will continue on in your mind – “dancing of the mind”.
Re-integration –
The stage of re-integration will begin with the “Om” sound, while still lying on the floor. Then we will re-gather in a circle and integrate what we have just experienced. Some may want to share their experience with the group as a way of confirmation of what just occurred. Others may want to keep their experience private and not share with the group. Sometimes Trance Dancers will want to share their experience privately with the Trance Dance facilitator.
Re-integration is about establishing the condition of integrity, which is at the root of all integrations. This principle is much more important when the relationship is with ourselves. The process of Re-integration is important so that it will be seated within our memory and be accessible at a later date.
The wisdom gained from a trance vision is useable and practical in our ordinary reality. You will find that your new “ordinary reality” will be altered from the one you embraced prior to the Trance Dance.
Dance as a gateway into trance dates back 40,000 years. Trance dancing is an altered state of consciousness connected to rhythms, smells, masks, primal movement, and ritual. You will have the opportunity to experience this sacred journey first hand and learn to use your intention
to experience joy and trust as you move and breathe your body.
use your body's dance
as
prayer
"feel the music release the dance"
Wilbert Alix's TranceDance.com
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www.MysteryKeepers.org
Second Supper article on our trance dance.
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Second Supper Magazine Article
We met former La Crosse resident Denise Keenan as she was preparing to facilitate a Tribal Trance Dance workshop at the Marian Center in Milwaukee last weekend. Seven women, ages 20 to 50s, sat in a circle as Keenan prepared them for their spiritual journey.
The sweet aroma of incense hung lightly in the air of the darkened room. As instructed, they had come dressed in comfortable, loose clothes that would not limit their movements. Shoes were left at the door. The mood was set. Soon the music, the drums, the dance would begin.
Trance dance is perhaps best described as “moving meditation.”
Tracing its roots to our earliest ancestors and the shaman of indigenous tribes, trance dance uses percussion rhythms, music, breathwork, dance and sensory deprivation (blindfolds) to help participants access their inner vision or “trance” state.
Behind the Blindfold
Sharing the Insights of Tribal Trance Dance
Participants, according to Keenan and other facilitators, often report they return from this “vision quest” with unique spiritual, mental, physical and emotional insights and greater wisdom how to apply their insights to their daily lives.
Keenan this week brings her Tribal Trance Dance to Three Rivers Waldorf School, 901 Caledonia St., La Crosse, with a 6:30 p.m. session Saturday, June 19 featuring African music. Registration is $20. Information is available by contacting Denise at Dance@tribaltrancedance.com or at (414) 774-2168, or by visiting the TribalTranceDance.com.
We asked Keenan about the elements of trance dance and some of the misconceptions.
Q. Before the dance begins, participants are encouraged to formulate a personal intention or focus as a starting point for their explorations. Can you explain?
A. Intention is a vital element of any non-ordinary journey. It is not the same as "wanting." It simply implies readiness for change. Setting an intention is part of the conscious preparation to let go of the ordinary and invite Spirit to enter into the dance with you, and to direct your dance. At the beginning of the trance dance, participants prepare the physical bodies, clear their minds of conflict and create specific intentions.
Q. One of the keys to achieving the trance state, according to some, is the breathing. Can you explain the type of breathwork used and why it is so important?
A. This is the Breath of Fire. It consists of two inhalations through the nose and an exhalation through the mouth. The nose is the only orifice in the human body that has direct connection to the brain. When breathing in this conscious way, you increase oxygen and energy directly to the brain, which, through movement, enhances the sense of euphoria through the secretion of endorphins in the brain.
Q. The Milwaukee session featured Middle Eastern music. The La Crosse session features African music. How does the music help?
A. We use lots of drumming rhythms because the body recognizes that sound instinctively. It is the beating of our heart. The brain will eventually stop listening to it, trust that it is there, and let go so that you can reach a trance state. We decided to do a progression of music — in a series of dances — from different indigenous civilizations, starting with the birthplace of man, in Africa, then following the flow of humanity as it moved around the world.
Q. After their breathing exercises, participants don blindfolds before beginning to dance. Why?
A. The bandanna or blindfold removes the ego’s participation and anxiety because people don’t worry about how they look. Your eyes come right out of your brain, so this also removes 90 percent of your perception of reality. People are encouraged to trust their bodies, letting their equilibrium be guided by their body sense, rather than their external vision. In the darkness, the pineal gland is blocked and one is free to dance from their heart. Going into the darkness and inviting Spirit (or Divine Essence) in has been a component of healing ceremonies for thousands of years.
Q. Dancers move to the rhythms but all move in their own way. Is there a right or wrong way to trance dance?
A. There is no right or wrong way to trance dance. Trance dance is pure energy, and when you open to allow this energy to move through you, you may find yourself moving in ways that you have never moved before. This is one of the healing aspects of the dance. Your body knows how to move to adjust to physical challenges and to reclaim and rebalance your mind. When you come out of the dance, more of your higher sense is intact, and less of your ego, giving you more freedom, creativity and spontaneity. Each dance is unique. The dancers are free to sit down or lie down or stand motionless at any time during the dance, and we will make sure that they are undisturbed by the other dancers.
Q. Do people really see "visions," or what do most experience?
A. Trance dance is a journey of movement and meditation and is a beautifully personal experience. Some people definitely experience visions and find themselves feeling as though they are deeply connected to Mother Earth and Father Sky, identifying with and moving as, a particular animal, or spiraling into the Milky Way. Re-enactments of past life experiences may occur. Throughout the dance, you may receive images and guidance, and sometimes experience emotions and deep healing.
Q. After dancing for about an hour, facilitators ask the participants to lie on the floor. What happens during this stage?
A. At the end of the dance, we play a low, rumbling "Om" sound and as participants lie on the floor, they are given the opportunity to integrate the grounded state of sacred Presence. We encourage people to lie face down, with their heart and third eye chakras facing the earth, and this can be a time of deep dreaming.
Q. At the end, the dancers gather in a circle to “integrate” what they have experienced. What does this mean?
A. This is an opportunity to share your experiences, if you choose, and to join together in a sense of community. Since this can be such a deep and personal experience, sometimes you do not feel like talking, and if so, you are free to simply sit in the circle. I always end with a guided meditation and ask for healing for Gaia.
©2007 D A Keenan, Llc
the power of dance = the power of you
Halloween Trance Dance
Saturday, January 28
7:00 - 9:00pm
Milwaukee, WI
Featuring Native American
World Music
$20 suggested donation
Denise at DAKeenan@aol.com
Trance Dance
