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by OneDanceTribe

The words of Jo Cobbett:

When I found this dance I was stunned into vitality. Fingers dripping sweat my body aglow and spent, there was no separation between me and the elemental world. I had simply melted alive.

It was the late 80’s at Esalen in a class with someone holding space for their first time.
We danced.  It wasn’t the mastery of teaching, or the most brilliant playlist in the world, we were still on single cd players!
But it was what my soul had always craved.

Living in Florida at the time it would be awhile before finding it again.
I’d look, clearing the chairs and tables off dance floors, and get near the drummers wherever live music was happening.
Seeking the pulse in a relatively empty disco and letting my body takeover.

But my return to held space in 1993 was like a homecoming after the wars. I was hooked on this process of engaging with embodied immediacy.

This is a path of devotion. Steeped in shamanism through the ancestors it is fitting that it would be unearthed through the observations of an urban shaman. Gabrielle Roth trained in the Arica school and was drawn through her love of dance and scars of childhood to seek different paths. As she met Esalen spaces with an arm full of vinyl and moved them, Gabrielle witnessed patterns that fascinated her into naming, encouraging and fostering the 5Rhythms®. Eventually she created music and wrote books to spread the meaning and message.  Many of us were caught in the spell and discovered that here were deep roots; older than our civilizations, older than our churches temples and ideologies.

People jump on the ride for as long as it holds their fascination. Some only dance on the surface, others find a relevance that beckons them in to the depths.  What I love is that all is held here. There is no limit to where I can travel.

Perhaps only a couple of hours to shake and shimmy and glide and release the pressures and stresses of living in a structured world is all you need to be clear and carry on. Like a dip in a fresh mountain stream, or a swim in the ocean.

Many set up tent and stay a weekend, while a few of us need to completely immerse to find our own layers releasing.
Still others cannot stop… we go to workshop after workshop eventually finding ourselves on the teaching path, opening the doors, playing the music, holding the space so that others may surrender into their sweaty selves. I was one of those… a visual artist who believed i already had the path for a lifetime. Compelled by a curious body, an inquisitive soul.

Instead of painting with colors this is painting with sound. Capturing tender moments and memories and intentionally erasing old ones. There are so many metaphors.. I imagine if you’re a chemist you’d see the magic of creating new compounds. Or the architect as creating a sweeping space .. a cathedral for souls… but as a painter, a creative, I love that this is an exquisite collaboration of form and formlessness. One that emerges in the unique configuration that each assemblage is, as it evolves, changes, transforms and then dissolves. Even the footprints are gone after these waves are past.
We don’t capture it in images, or sculpt it. No one needs to frame it or wrap it up and store it away. It isn’t for sale and cannot be stolen.. Each dance is a compelling meeting that defines and erases itself.

After decades of teaching I am still fascinated. It isn’t about pushing but meeting ourselves, you cannot do it wrong. What happens in the space of the dance is constantly shifting, revealing and inspiring for me.. Watching a dance performance can put me to sleep, yet am always in awe of a room filled with spontaneous embodiment. I have held the ground for thousands of people and know that dancing with the earth, the fire, the water, the air and into the void, everything is possible.

Love
Jo

ABOUT JO COBBETT
5Rhythms

Jo-Cobbett onedancetribe 5Rhythms

Jo Cobbett will offer an in-depth experience at the next OneDanceTribe Hawaii event January 19-25, 2017 on Maui, Hawaii. 

Jo trained with Gabrielle in 1997 and has studied with many giants of the movement world, Emily Conrad, Susan Harper, Camille Maurine, Alana Shaw and Arjuna Vinn Marti. Jo offers a diverse weaving of art and drama in to her 5Rhythms teachings. 

movinground.com

 

OneDanceTribe HAWAII

Camp Keanae, Maui, Hawaii
January 19-25, 2017

OneDanceTribe
About OneDanceTribe
OneDanceTribe is an international community of people practicing conscious movement as a pathway for personal and global transformation. It is a portal to a unified field where teachers and dancers of different modalities and walks of life come together to celebrate the power of Moving as One.
The words of Jo Cobbett