In 2009,  WHEN DANCE BECOMES PRAYER for women and men, with an emphasis on practices from different spiritual traditions.  It was First presented at the Chaplancy Institue of Maine (ChIME) to students trained to be Interfaith Clergy.

Here are some of the comments and feedback from the ChiME workshop....

 I've been awaiting to get back to you on how wonderful your teaching was for ChIME when I had a fair amount of students feedback. Below you can read their glowing reports. Many have shared that it was their favorite workshop yet.
Joel Grossman, Director, MA Campus
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The experience can't be described with words! Incredible, growing, love - lots of comments about how special and unique it was to be dancing in our
love, and how special it was to have the experiences. Breathtaking? Light? I feel so blessed to have taken part, and deep sorrow for my classmates who had to miss the experience. What a wonderful woman, an otherwordly experience!
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 Up until this day, I had very little experience with
movement from a spiritual perspective. I was transformed further into
my new body-in-a-spirit perspective through Rupa’s dances and 
activities. She was very clear in explaining the background and 
history of each experience. She staged each one perfectly. 
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Thanks for this weekend. Great combination of personal movement, group movement, singing, working one-one.
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I don’t know if I can put it all into words.
She is sunshine. Her caring transmits through the way she teaches
and what she teaches. It was deeply, deeply nourishing.
She listened to the inner level and paced it just right.
She radiated love – I realize looking back that the avenue of movement
and dance gave us a group receiver, but that what I carry from it is
the river of golden light that was sent. One friend said to me in the midst of the glow of the day– “I think this is the first time where everyone in the room is loving the experience.”
Thanks for this weekend.

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Rupa on Sunday.
I loved this presentation. It kept my attention, my mind, body and soul engaged for the whole day. The two most moving parts of the day for me were both completely blissful.
We closed our eyes and danced and this was awesome for me. The crowning activity was when we did the exercise of touher/touchee. We sculpted each other’s bodies in reverence and as if we were touching a god or godess. The touchee had his or her eyes closed. The toucher moved each person’s limbs and put them in poses. Within this exercise, I felt total love for each person I worked with as the toucher.

I felt moved to weeping because of the love that I felt. There was something about the trust and the relationship that was more open because the sculpted ones had their eyes closed. I would walk up to each one and notice some place within their aura that was completely vulnerable and open, and I would just send them love in my touch. It was a beautiful experience. I also loved the oppositional dancing.

The other part that I found blissful was when we learned all the different parts of the Sufi song of universal love and we sang them together. This process created great joy within me and I felt great power in the process. It was a great way to re-enter the workshop after lunch.

The three point turning was also powerful and I practiced it upon coming home. It was an amazing experience and full of its own meaning of meditation. Instead of the sitting still meditation, this would be a great way to meditate sometimes, especially after lunch or in a lull when our students get sleepy because of an extended day.

I also loved the Zikr chanting ceremony. It was a great, high energy moving the spirit kind of day. I found many practical uses for what we did as well. 
                                    
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The exercise where we moved each other as art objects was absolutely
incredible. I have a much deeper love and appreciation for the human
divine body than before. That was wonderful. I also am much further
along in feeling comfortable moving my body without extreme
self-consciousness getting in the way of freedom. Rupa would make an
excellent addition to the regular Chime faculty. 



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 WHEN DANCE BECOMES PRAYER was at Rowe Confrence Center November 20 to 22nd 2009!  www.rowecenter.org. 

“This workshop is my autobiography. In a workshop years ago, I was invited to dance for the child in me, to dance for my soul. At that moment my life changed: I was suddenly awakened. Through my body, I became a seeker of the mysteries that were held in my heart, in my soul, in the vast universe within and beyond.”

“In the many years I’ve been an Alexander Technique teacher and a Rubenfeld Synergist, I’ve learned that ingrained habits of mind, body, and emotion become limitations to our free expression. When Dance Becomes Prayer is an invitation to go within, to loosen blocks that say we cannot dance.”

Allowing movements to arise spontaneously, with eyes closed, free form dance becomes meditation. This is not for others, but for your own being, your own soul, an opportunity to transform self-judgment into compassion and acceptance. Alone and in pairs we will explore sacred ways to move and to touch and be touched.

Most children know the experience of whirling themselves around and around. In their innocence and wonder, that experience takes them somewhere. What is that wonder? Feel it for yourself. We will do a simple form of the Sufi turn, exploring the joy and power of the circle. A Christian Mystic, Beinsa Douno, developed Paneurhythmy; it is a prayer, a connection with the circle of dancers, with the earth and the cosmos.

Mystic poetry will enhance this workshop, uplifting and opening our hearts and our spirits. We will take time to create art, to journal, to process, to spend time alone, to be in nature, to heighten our senses. We will open to diverse spiritual traditions and to modern approaches that bring mind, body, heart, and spirit together. Rumi said, “There are many ways to bow and kiss the earth.”

Rupa Cousins loves movement, dance, and the body/mind connection, and has been offering workshops in them for over 30 years. She has studied deeply several spiritual traditions where movement is a component and movement as meditation transformed her life in the late 1970’s. She is a Senior Teacher of the Alexander Technique, is a somatic-psychotherapist through the Rubenfeld Synergy Method, was initiated as a Whirling Dervish by the Threshold Society in 1990, began teaching Paneurhythmy in 1994, and has studied Turkish Mysticism in Istanbul since 1999. She has worked with teenagers and adults in countries dealing with war and conflict and is president of Associated Psychotherapists of Vermont.

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Below you will see some stories and feedback from the Rowe Workshop.
         

From Jim S.

Here are my stories:

Before doing your workshop, I had been asked to lead the December meeting of Soul Quest Men's Council, a local men's group I belong to. Among other things, the leader brings a topic pertinent to the goals of the group. Which as you might assume from the group's name, includes topics of spiritual interest. I was waiting to see what topic my intuition would present to me. After your workshop, what came to me, not surprisingly, was the topic of the connection between prayer and physical movement.

We begin our meetings with a 3-5 minute meditation. I suggested we spread out and shake for 5 minutes prior to the meditation. These men, who I judge to be fairly mainstream, agreed, bless their hearts. I had them agree that all would close their eyes and keep them closed for the duration of the shaking. Then we sat down to meditate.

At the end of the meditation I was curious about any effects. I requested them to pass the talking stick around once and only check in about the shaking. The second man chose to pass. I wondered, "What's up with that?" The stick made its way around the circle. One man said the shaking made him aware how much he needs to get back on an exercise routine at the gym. Another side he had one of the best meditations ever. That man has in the past reported difficulty meditating. Another man said the shaking brought to his awareness how out of shape he is.

Eventually the stick made its way back to the man who passed. This time he spoke: "When the stick first came to me, I was still so in touch with my Higher Power that I didn't want to interrupt the feeling. I have NEVER had a meditation this deep!"

I was amazed that a mere 5 minutes of shaking could have such an effect!

Then we did our usual check-in with the talking stick. This occupied most of the remaining time. I have come to believe the check-in is the most important part of our meetings, and voiced that belief. Another man said he had never thought about that, but agreed.

Near the end I said I wanted to demonstrate Sufi whirling, and asked the men to sing, "Ishq Allah Mahabu Lillah." I had printed the words out in large type on slips of paper and passed them out. I had also recorded Linda singing the words to the melody from your workshop. (Since she was in Maine and I in Massachusetts, she sang into the phone and I recorded it on my computer by holding a lapel mike up to the phone!)

So while we men in this group are not very talented singers, with Linda playing in the background, setting the tempo and melody, the men sang very well.

I had explained the whirling was intended as a form of prayer, connected to my topic of the connection between prayer and physical movement.

Picture this: a circle of deep-voiced men seated in a room lit by only two candles, singing those words over and over again, while I turned in the center. I was able to turn for about 7 minutes. I began to get dizzy once or twice, but focused my thoughts on the intention of my turning being a prayer I was offering, and the dizziness went away.

The men expressed their gratitude for my having introduced them to these two forms of prayer.

It was not until several days later that I was struck by the rare gift I had received: how many men in their entire life have the honor of turning in a circle of men singing Ishq Allah? Even now as i write this my eyes are misting up!

Jim's Next Story....

I'm also a member of two groups at my local UU church. One is known as the Bodhisattva Group, because when we began meeting 3 years ago we read Pema Chodron's version of Shantideva's Way Of The Bodhisattva. The second group is called the Men's Breakfast group.

The Bodhisattva group meets at 830 am and we meditate for 30 minutes, then share on the current reading (currently we're doing Thich Nhat Hanh's The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching). I discussed with the minister the possibility of us shaking 5 minutes before meditating. He said he'd propose it to the group. Then I suggested it to the facilitator of the Men's Breakfast group. he pointed out tome that I was overlooking the fact that this group doesn't even meditate. But at the meeting he brought it up anyway, and these men, bless their hearts, agreed to shake 5 minutes and meditate 5 minutes. Once again several reported extraordinary experiences. Again reinforcing my growing belief in the importance of linking physical movement with meditation or other spiritual doings.

I don't know where this path of prayer + physical movement will next lead me, but I look forward to it!

Hug,
jim
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And From Linda

One thing I did not share with you after the workshop was my most profound experience. I went expecting to learn about Sufi dancing, the Alexander Technique, Rubenfeld Synergy, and Paneurhythmy, - I expected to journal, listen to poetry, and draw. And I got all that! But the most surprising and moving experience? I fell in love with fourteen other dear human beings. Thank you for providing the possibility for that to happen.

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From David M.

"Rupa, you created a safe space for exploring new ways to get in touch with the divine.  I'll never forget the way my daughter and I connected through sacred dance and song. Thanks for the lovely

workshop." 


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 From Lydia O.

I am deeply grateful for any time I am able to spend with Rupa as the experience is so healing for me. Rupa is an authentic guide to the unseen realms.
The Dancing as Prayer weekend at Rowe left me feeling better than I had in years.
I felt lighter and more alive. I felt cleansed and nutured at the same time.
Many of us left Rowe with a renewed inspiraton to live our lives as prayer.
To eat, drink, and breath gratitude and love.

 

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WHEN DANCE BECOMES PRAYER was originally a workshop for women only.  Below is the original discription that I wrote for it years ago.  This format is still available for those interested. 

WHEN DANCE BECOMES PRAYER honors the sacred wisdom of being a woman through an exploration of the body as a doorway to the soul. Enticed by poetry, movement individually, sharing in dyads and as a group, we will lift ourselves from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Included are; Whirling and movement meditations, folk and free form dance. Together we will create a fragrance of sacred communion and ecstatic celebration. This workshop can be a day long or weekend long experience, and has been offered in Vermont and at Spirit House Retreat Center in Woodacre California. 









 

                   Contact Rupa Cousins rupa@together.net 802-387-5276