Sacred circle dance community has more or less, sprung up as a grass roots phenomenon.  It seems that more and more people are discovering the cultural and spiritual richness of these dances. There are presently more than 100 active circle dance groups in England and dozens in Canada. In the United States the dance is growing rapidly along with the repertoire, which now includes dances from all over the world to music of tremendous ethnic and cultural variety.

The story behind these dances is a living, evolving story, as is the case with any art form based in folk traditions. These dances connect us to early generations and transport us to a time of a greater sense of community, and an understanding of our relationship to the natural world.   A time when people still lived in villages and great forests still stretched across the land.

Circle dance has grown out of European folk dances.  A German fellow by the name of Bernard Wosein, believed that many of the traditional dances were being lost to modern culture.  He travelled throughout Europe collecting and annotating an enormous repertoire of circle dances.  In order to preserve them he brought them to the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, which now serves as a guardian to the repertoire.

Some of the dances are so old that we are unsure of their origins, knowing only that they were done among the great standing stones or in villages. These dances give form to our images of that time, which rest in our collective unconscious today, and the lyrics of the music enable us to experience oral traditions. iIn all of this the dances enable us to experience celebration, community, joy, grounding, affirmation, and healing-all so badly need for both the Earth and Her inhabitants, which includes us here in this room.

Many of the dances speak to the seasons and to the days on the agricultural calendar, our wheel and in particular the solstices and equinoxes. Because these dances grew up in societies that were more agricultural than industrial, many tell stories of cycles of nature and our relationship to the earth; others tell stories of gender and age and relationships in a time when communities appreciated life's passages and the cycles within nature. Others celebrate the old Goddesses and Gods.  Today sacred dance is evolving into a mixed repertoire of modern and old dance. 

Sacred dance can be therapeutic and healing.  This form of dance can be used to explore esoteric and spiritual concepts that words cannot convey.  Its a way for you to explore yourself.  We dance in a circle, around a burning candle.  Each dance is made up of steps, that are fairly simple to learn, and repeated throughout the dance. 

The steps make up patterns, which can be symbolic, such as grounding steps for contacting the earth.  The patterns have a harmonizing effect both inwardly and outwardly.  It can be like a meditative movement, or a holy/wholly dance.  Healing your self to become whole.  The dance allows you to become closer to yourself and others including the Goddess and cosmos.  Some dances are calm while others are energetic and wild. 

Ecstatic dance is yet another form of sacred dance and meditation or prayer, where rhythm and music are used to move the mind into non-ordinary states of awareness, commonly associated with deep relaxation, meditative, and highly creative states. It is a way to travel between the worlds and journey into the deeper realms of the psyche as the shaman does.  It is also a very contemporary expression of an ancient practice of inviting Spirit or life force energy to embody and heal the dancer.   Ecstatic dance is a way of remembering this wisdom once again and recovering lost parts of us.

The Bach Flower dances are another form of dancing art that is regarded as sacred dance.  They tie into healing arts.  There are 38 Bach Flower remedies.    There is an original group of 12 remedies.   Bach Flower remedies are non-toxic, non addictive and a completely natural form of homeopathic healing remedies.  Courses are taught here in Calgary at the Wild Rose College.  More in-depth courses can be taken in Vancouver and Toronto, where you can get licensed as a practitioner.  The dances have been created & designed to reflect the actual remedy.  There are courses and workshops here and there about around Bach Flower Remedies & Dances.  Many people have found that they can be very relaxing, rejuvenating and healing to the spirit.  Needless to say of the energy that is created when everyone dances them together.