The Dances
Conducted in the company of a number of other dancers in a circle, the participatory dances are facilitated by a dance leader who plays a percussive or stringed instrument, usually guitar or drum as dance accompaniment. Each dance has a chant which is sung as the dance is performed. The chants are often sacred phrases put to traditional or contemporary melodies, and include a wide range of languages including Arabic, Aramaic, English, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Persian, and Sanskrit. The promoters of the dances claim that these forms embody the understanding that the truth at the heart of all religions is the same truth, and that peace can be promoted through an experience of this unity.
The DUP emphasis is on participation regardless of ability, and dances are almost never performed before an audience. Dancers of all levels of ability dance together, and each dance is usually taught afresh at each gathering. The practice of the dance is purported to develop the participants' spiritual awareness, awareness of their own body, and awareness of the presence of others. Dances are choreographed with movements, steps, and gestures that encourage the dancer to explore the deeper mystical meaning of the dance.
Read more about this topic: Dances Of Universal Peace
Famous quotes containing the word dances:
“Tommy is three and when he’s bad
his mother dances with him.
She puts on the record,
“Red Roses for a Blue Lady”
and throws him across the room.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“We have dancing ... from soon after sundown until a few minutes after nine o’clock.... Occasionally the boys who play the female partners in the dances exercise their ingenuity in dressing to look as girlish as possible. In the absence of lady duds they use leaves, and the leaf-clad beauties often look very pretty and always odd enough.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)