Dancing with your Skeletons

Everybody loves dancing – dancing themselves or watching others dance.

There is something about a human being expressing themselves with movement to music that reaches deep into the soul. Dancing shows off the human body at its most magnificent! It invites us into a different world and takes us on a journey of the emotions.

You do not have to be a dancer to benefit from the healing of dance. You could be elderly, you could be physically disabled, you could have a busy life that does not allow time for dance, you could live in an area with no dance classes, you could have religious limitations on dance, you could quite simply not want to attend a dance class, and yet dance healing is still available to you all.

We all have a skeleton, or a couple of skeletons in our closet: cancer or another illness, death of a loved one, divorce, an abusive relationship, rape, extremely low self-esteem, obesity, anorexia, your sexuality, retrenchment, alcoholism (your own or a loved one’s), being bullied….

A skeleton in the closet is something physical, emotional or mental that is holding you back from living a full life and being your true self.

It might not necessarily be a secret. Sometimes we are very open about our skeletons and yet we still need healing in order to heal and move on from them.

This book is divided into 3 parts, and all 3 parts offer different ways of experiencing dance healing, so that there is a way for everyone to comfortably benefit from it.

PART 1: DANCE HEALING STORIES:

True stories written by people who wanted to share their dance healing experiences with you, the reader. You can benefit just from reading the experiences of these beautiful and brave dancers. I, myself share my personal story of how dance has healed so much in my own life.

PART 2: DANCE HEALING:

Part 2 is a dance journey for you to follow for your own healing, from meeting your skeleton to dancing on an imaginary stage. This section includes information, visualisations and other ways for you to use dance healing to personally heal your own personal skeletons, or to assist others in healing their skeletons.

PART 3: DANCE DIRECTORY

Part 3 is a directory of 44 different, popular dances. Each dance gives you information on the dance itself, a simple dance move that you can try out, the healing qualities that the dance can bring into your life and a message from the dance itself.

Each part can be read and worked with separately, in any order or as a whole, so that you can personally choose how you would like to connect to dance, and what methods works best for you.

I believe completely in dance healing. In my life and others lives, I have been privileged to witness how dancing can profoundly heal the deepest hurts and give someone joy, peace and a better quality of life.

And so I ask you, dear reader, to come and explore this beautiful gift of dance healing, and to take your skeletons out of your closet, and to teach them to dance.