Monday, February 21, 2005
Dance of the bodhisattvas?
I had a conversation with one of my students who happens to be Buddhist. She happened to mention that there is a prayer that she has to memorize, but she has a very hard time remembering all of the names in the prayer. So, very she keen she is, she thought she would apply a dance move to each of the names that she had to remember and perhaps it would be easier for her to remember the prayer.
This struck me on many levels. First of all, without realizing it at first, we touched on what dance has been used for for hundreds of thousands of years-worship. To whatever deity you honor. During our conversation, we tied dance back to what our ancestors had used it for. Of course that is not to say that dance was not used for recreation either, but even that word when broken down goes back to some form of worship as well.
This practice is usually something for self or for a group of people that share your religious beliefs, for there are elements that would not be understood if you do not study, but I believe the general public would greatly benefit from seeing something like this on stage. We joked about an improv version to test her to see if she remembered her names! I am not Buddhist, and I do not currently practice or even study Buddhism, and I have a commitment a different spiritual path (that I have plans to make my own dancing prayer), but I would like to see if this way of honoring the Bodhisattvas on stage can become a reality. Perhaps, I will need to begin studying Buddhism afterall.
I had a conversation with one of my students who happens to be Buddhist. She happened to mention that there is a prayer that she has to memorize, but she has a very hard time remembering all of the names in the prayer. So, very she keen she is, she thought she would apply a dance move to each of the names that she had to remember and perhaps it would be easier for her to remember the prayer.
This struck me on many levels. First of all, without realizing it at first, we touched on what dance has been used for for hundreds of thousands of years-worship. To whatever deity you honor. During our conversation, we tied dance back to what our ancestors had used it for. Of course that is not to say that dance was not used for recreation either, but even that word when broken down goes back to some form of worship as well.
This practice is usually something for self or for a group of people that share your religious beliefs, for there are elements that would not be understood if you do not study, but I believe the general public would greatly benefit from seeing something like this on stage. We joked about an improv version to test her to see if she remembered her names! I am not Buddhist, and I do not currently practice or even study Buddhism, and I have a commitment a different spiritual path (that I have plans to make my own dancing prayer), but I would like to see if this way of honoring the Bodhisattvas on stage can become a reality. Perhaps, I will need to begin studying Buddhism afterall.
