FIVE ELEMENT DANCE
The wisdom of movement
The p o w e r of s o u n d
When
Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10am - 10:45am
Where
Classes take place on Zoom. I’ll send you the link to keep in your pocket!
How
Fill out the form below and I look forward to meeting you.
Sessions are free but pay what you like. Love offerings are appreciated. There are two convenient ways to pay:
At my bandcamp site. You can choose a song like my gratitude dance "Hu Ray" or whatever you like and pay what you will.
Through PayPal using my email address: spiesarts@gmail.com.
What it is
“In this world of forgetfulness, they told me, you will forget how to nourish the connection between humans, plants, animals and the elements, a connection needed to make food for your mind, heart, body and spirit.”
Joy Harjo, former Poet Laureate ~ from her memoir “Poet Warrior”
We nourish our connection to our breath, our voices and the elements by simply singing. I started this online gathering at the beginning of the pandemic, and we’ve continued twice weekly since then. Singing and moving brings joy and healthy lungs! No experience is necessary. All ages are welcome: some leave their cameras off, and others dance and follow each other.
You can simply listen to the healing and resonant sounds of the RAV drum and other music.
Every session includes:
an opening chant to Tara
greeting the directions
breath awareness
a thank you to our ancestors
singing vowel sounds that resonate with each chakra
moving to music for each element - earth, water, fire, air - and ether
a gratitude dance that can be a quiet body scan or a move around the room kind of dance
a kindness practice that deepens each time as we send light and love to ourselves, our community, around the Earth where needed - and beyond.
singing each other’s names
From Joseph Rael ‘s (Beautiful Painted Arrow) Tracks of Dancing Light - A Native American Approach to Understanding Your Name:
“..Get people to sing to each other so that we can feel the soothing power of healing that comes when we can feel right back to where we really came from and why we are here. A study of the vowels in your name will show you this.”
Sunsets time lapse of hundreds by Matt Molloy
Simple toning helps move us forward into our day with more presence and joy. Moving to music that honors each element connects us to our creative imagination and we can become collaborators with the earth, water, fire and air from which we are made. Gaston Bachelard has called the four elements the “hormones of the imagination.”
As we honor the elements within and around us we find more ways to act on behalf of the earth, water and air.
Some good words and description of the class from participants:
JoAnne is a sensitive, warm guide who draws from her deep knowledge of toning, the four elements, and the power of our names. Each week I look forward to her carefully crafted, accessible activities in sound and free movement that carry me deeper into myself. I always leave feeling refreshed!
Julie C.
Woodbury, CT
This class is a place where nicknames and other names are welcome! My Italian name is Giovanna, and my Sufi name is Saraswati. It’s interesting to hear the different effects our sung names have on us and others.
Rebecca sent in this thank you and description:
“Among the many qualities the Goddess Saraswati exhibits are the arts of music and expression. JoAnne/ Giovanna Saraswati Spies is the embodiment of these qualities.
Twice weekly she shares her talents and gifts to assist the globe in her desire that love for all beings be manifest and that kindness and peace prevail among all beings..
In the morning, we acknowlege and appreciate life expressed in the breath, the day, the directions and the ancestors.Through her gift of music and movement, we breathe, stretch, hum, tone, sing and move with the joy that is inherent in each of us. Under her guidance, we share that energized joy with all beings, indeed the universes. As each gathering ends, I am filled with joy, gratitude and smile the day.
Thank you, Giovanna Saraswati”
~*~
The p o w e r of LISTENING
Here’s a link to an article about sound pioneer PAULINE OLIVERIOS, and Listening as Activism>Pauline Oliverios Listening as Activism
Ever so old oak tree in Granby, CT
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Until the pandemic in the spring of 2020, I led singing circles at my house in toning, movement and music improvisation.
We shared call and response - mantras - toning - humming - music improv games - stories - singing the oldies - niguns - new songs - poems…
We leave feeling renewed, connected through singing (and much laughter) to our fuller voices and to each other.
you could call us an elemental orchestra because we honor the five elements with our rhythm, voices and all manner of instruments:
RAV drum, chimes, singing bowls, six string ukelele, dulcimer, guitar, rain sticks, boomwhackers, bundt pans, drums…
~ * ~
Take a moment and breathe up from your toes to your crown. After a few breaths up and down, notice the fire in your belly and in your radiant heart.
Here’s a link from sound healer Jonathan Goldman on the benefits of humming as an anti-viral agent:
https://www.healingsounds.com/sound-immunity-pt-i/
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Lots of information on healing sounds and family constellation work on the website of overtone chanting pioneer => Jill Purce.
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Here is a master of overtone chanting, Lama Tashi offering a Mantra of Blessing.
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Earth Dances
Thanks to Steve, Maria and staff at the beautiful Stationery Factory in Dalton for welcoming us movers and shakers. The floors are wooden, and the light is lovely and welcoming.
The idea for this class sprouted when I shared my song Hu Ray with a group that loved the idea of a 'gratitude hokey pokey.' The playlist is growing; world music, oldies, rhythmic, percussive songs.
All are welcome, especially couch potatoes and those of us with painful joints. We each move at our own pace within the welcoming energy of the circle. There’s lots of space to move and explore on a beautiful dance floor.
I’m sharing my love of Tai Chi, Five Rhythms, and yoga dance with the intention to plant seeds of wellness, community and joy. The name for the sessions became ‘earth dances’ as I realized my goal was to feel grounded and cultivate qualities of endurance, resilience and strength. When we reconnect with our own rhythm and the synergy of the group's rhythm, new seeds of wellness and joy are planted. It’s fun to move like a kid again, just playing and feeling free. My legs move more easily climbing steps the next day, and my inner vision expands to embrace a wider horizon.
Here’s comments after our first Earth Dances class on November 13th: “I was tired when I came in, but left energized.”
“I liked the variety of music played.”
“Great songs!”
If interested in finding a class, email me at: spiesarts@gmail.com
Here’s links to -> Five Rhythms
-> Hu Ray - download on Bandcamp
”Remember” - by Joy Harjo
Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.