Movement as a sense-making practice

Do we over-rely on our brains?

Having worked as a facilitator for many years, I have become increasingly curious about our over-reliance on our mental capacities to solve the complex problems we wrestle with. What about other forms of knowing that we don't tap into? What might our bodies have to teach us? What role can movement and dance play in helping us find answers to the questions we hold?

This is not a new idea. For thousands of years, humans have danced to understand the world and themselves. In Southern Africa, the San trance dances serve as a powerful example of how dance and movement enable an engagement with the social and spiritual dimensions of existence. Through their all-night rituals, San healers enter altered states of consciousness to heal illness, resolve community conflicts, and connect with their ancestors and the vastness of being. 

Whenever I allow myself to dance freely and without inhibition, I notice something happening – an expansion of some kind inside me, a reorientation, a grounding. This sparked a curiosity in me: what is the potential of dance and movement to help us navigate the questions we face in our work and in our personal lives?

Over the last three years I have been experimenting with this question. It started with an invitation to ten close friends. “How about we come together and see what happens when we allow rhythm and music to move us?” “What wisdom might we unlock in ourselves?” 

Dancing as a portal to being with life’s big questions

That was three years ago.The appreciation and joy with which those gatherings were received prompted me to do a ‘Journey Through Dance’ teacher training in 2023 with Leigh-Rose Goodman. This training, combined with my skills as facilitator, and my passion for dance and music, has led me to design and curate numerous ‘dance journeys’ in recent years. 

Each journey is designed in response to universal themes and questions about what it means to be human. Who am I? What is my purpose? What boundaries need to be strengthened? What future is asking to emerge through me? What do I need to let go of? How can I make peace with my own aging and dying? All of these questions, and many others, can be taken into dance. 

In this sense, dance is an incredible ‘sense-making’ approach. It invites in the wisdom of the body and creates a space where we can listen to it. Like in meditation, we gently ask the mind to step aside for a while and allow other parts of ourselves to speak and guide us. Profound insights have come to me while facilitating and participating in these dance journeys. For example, arriving once in a state of resistance and overwhelmed by the chaos of the world, I was able to explore my own capacity to dance with chaos. I learnt that I am resilient, that I can play with chaos, treat it a little more lightly, and find ways of moving with what is. In another dance journey I danced with my aging and dying. Through music and movement I was able to let my body explore these massive transitions. “All will be well”, my body whispered to me. “Trust the mystery of existence, trust the seasons, trust what awaits.” 

Taking rhythm and dance into the workplace

My own edge is to find ways of taking rhythm and dance into the organisations I work with. Many clients and teams I work with are increasingly open to bringing the heart into how we engage with complex issues and challenges, including using creative processes to make sense of our realities. Even embodiment work is finding its place. But to dance and move, to sweat, sway and stamp … to surrender and let the music dance you, in response to a question we can’t fathom in the workplace … This feels like a  frontier of some kind. 

I wonder if it is because to pose a question, and then surrender to our body's impulses just feels too untamed, too primal, too beyond the confines of our desire for control. Perhaps the frontier is just in me, and that brave client is just a few days away, also looking for new ways to have the conversation.

The people we meet in our lives

Back in 2019, during a Presencing Institute Ecosystem Leadership Programme, I had the very good fortune of meeting Nora Wilhelm, a young change-maker based in Switzerland. Her courage to invite us to dance to connect and surrender was what inspired me to later explore dance as a sense making tool, and to start offering these dance journeys to the various communities that I am a part of.  

One of Nora’s initiatives, the well, was born out of her own experience with burnout as a changemaker. Since 2023, she has been collaborating with artists, art therapists and facilitators to co-create powerful and healing workshops to support the givers of this world in reconnecting with themselves, and taking care of their own wells. I am honoured to join the well for a 2-hour online workshop that is designed to guide us in an exploration around our purpose and power. 

Dance your Purpose

Many of us are looking at a world in deep crisis and asking ourselves: What is mine to do?This workshop is an exploration in response to this question. Except, rather than responding with our heads, we allow the alchemy of movement and dance to guide us towards the answers. It would be a joy to welcome you in movement, and support you in embodying and exploring your purpose.

Dance your Purpose Workshop

When: Sunday, 29th of June at 16:00-18:00 CEST
Where: Zoom link will be provided after purchase
Price: 35 euros*
No prior dance experience needed! All are welcome.

If you are curious to find out more about the workshop, go to the Dance Your Purpose page. I am so grateful for the Well team’s artistry and care in bringing this work to life and capturing so beautifully what is possible through movement and dance!

*Scholarships are available, you can inquire about one through the form