Eating breakfast at the Olympia Cafe in Kalk Bay this morning, I saw a whale breaching and waves of delicious pleasure rippled through my body. Is this my usual response to the magical delight of a breaching whale? Only when my heart is open and I am dropped deeply into my undefended self does my body respond with such spontaneous receptivity to the ecstatic energy of the “fathomless body” of a whale. A weekend of dancing “The bliss-filled body” at Bodhi Khaya, has left me energized, exhilarated, exhausted, elastic, engaged and brimful with Eros.
Seventeen beautiful dancers brought the totality of their beings onto the dance floor. The music facilitated a deep dropping into presence where the potential held in each precious moment could be fully explored. I danced into both my agony and my ecstasy, opening to the richness of what was there and feeling it fully in the cells of my body. In the spaces between the cells: relishing my body’s capacity to feel everything – pain, loss, grief, anger, joy, laugher, love & peace. Touching the face of my desire. Giving myself permission to follow my bliss. Exploring the risky edges of intimacy, shaking, shaking, shaking myself to its core – I arrive in the aliveness of this body, this matter that merges with spirit, this drop that is in the ocean and is also the ocean.
On Saturday morning our two and a half dance is in honour of our ancestors. As I dialogue with my lineage, dancing both the gifts and the wounds I have inherited, I process what no longer serves me well. I shed my rigid skin and step out of my psychic structure into a more expansive space. In deep appreciation of those that have gone before me, I and my father become one.
We danced four sessions of varying intensity. Slices of fast & slow; tender and rough, intimacy & aloneness, passion & playfulness, movement & stillness, fullness & emptiness. Gently reminded that “Bliss is the balance that happens when we fully embrace both our shadow and our light and come to rest in love.”
Dancer - Courtesy of Hendrik
With gratitude to Shakti for her fierce wisdom, for a fabulous & funky playlist and for the limitless possibilities created and contained by her skillful facilitation.
With gratitude to David, Perdita and Chantel for their quiet and gentle but efficient presences.
With gratitude to Nina for taste sensations that explode in your mouth.
With gratitude to Bodhi Khaya for its beauty and for the energy of the place.
With gratitude to the other dancers for daring to be both powerful & vulnerable.
Rhianne Van Der Linde
Bodhi Khaya 