This month I’m delighted to share with you an excerpt from Collette Cumella’s beautiful story in the Edge Magazine about how practicing Romani (Gypsy) dance has energized her life. Collette is a member of Wisdom Dances’ Living Wisdom Community Practice.
Coming Home to Myself through Roma (Gypsy) Dance
How does Gypsy dancing enhance my life? At first, I slowly put on the movements of the dance, counting the rhythm and speaking the steps. I take one step and another, until the steps take me. I put on the dance in my body and feel so much at home and present in my body.
The spirit of the Roma (Gypsy) people seems to fill me up. The resilience of these people robbed of their home resides in their song and dance. They have survived through the vitality of their culture. In our classes, I experience dance as a way to draw up the power of the earth, share it in community, and release it through our universe.
I so casually dropped in to Gypsy dance a year ago and then made it my weekly habit. The steps I have made my own, feeling confident to dance through a song with hardly a slip. I own myself as I dance. I own some CDs of the music, too. The fun of dancing does not diminish; the feeling of the dance supports me through my own life challenges.
I am so moved to hear how dancing has touched Collette’s life.
What’s your story? How do you come home to your own body? How do you come home to the earth body? May we inspire each other through sharing our stories.
Blessings,
emily
