Since the beginning of recorded history, civilizations around the world have used trance dance as a form of prayer, as an active way for communing with nature, spirit, or deities. It was, and is, a participatory means for healing, for visions, or for finding answers to challenges facing an individual or the collective. Trance Dance has endured the test of time because of its power, offering us the same benefits today and it did in ancient times. Trance Dances are danced blind folded, for long periods of time. Although they appear to be social in nature, they are ultimately for the individual to journey deeper into, and with, oneself in the company of others. Trance Dance is a powerful and energetic way of gathering insights. David was certified in TD through his studies with the Natalie Institute in Austin, Texas and has lead this rituals internationally.
“Imagine darkness so intense and so complete covering you like a velvet blanket. A blackness which cuts you off from the everyday world, which forces you to draw deep into yourself, which makes you see with your heart instead of your eyes. You can’t see but your eyes are open. You are isolated, yet you are united with all living things. And, out of this darkness comes the roaring of the drums, the sound of prayers. Your ear catches the voices of the spirits, ghostlike, whispering to you from unseen lips. You feel wings of birds brushing your face, feel the light touch of a feather on your skin. And always you hear the throbbing drums filling the empty space inside yourself, making you forget things that clutter your mind, making your body sway to their rhythm.”
Robbie Robertson
Singer/songwriter, The Band