DANCES OF
UNIVERSAL PEACE

From the
beginning of time,
sacred movement, song and story
have brought people together. At times
of seasonal ceremony and celebration, as part
of every day life and life passages, in daily renewal
and meditation, the Dances of Universal Peace are part
of this timeless tradition of sacred dance. The Dances are a joyous, 
profound, multi-cultural way to touch the spiritual essence within ourselves
and others. They use sacred phrases, chants, music and movements
inspired by the many sacred traditions of the earth, to promote
peace and integration within individuals and groups, and to
expand the heart's capacity to give and receive love.  No
dance experience is needed.  There are no performers
or audience, although live music accompanies our
movements and song. New arrivals and old
hands form the circle together. All
loving hearts are welcome.
Please join us!

SANTA CRUZ 1st Sunday of the Month 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The Garden Prather Lane Santa Cruz

LOS ANGELES

  Children are very welcome; parents please see to their care and attention.
Recommended donation: $7 to 10

"Turning!  Turning!  In the Divine Dance of ecstasy!  Our arms are the thousand-petaled lotus of your perfect law, unfolding, uncurling, weaving, waving, in the golden hours of nirvanic bliss.  Dancing, dancing, in the ceaseless rhythm of the stars, whirling in the azure spaces of the soul moving to the unheard voices of the suns."
--Ruth St. Denis

"Come, come whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving--it doesn't matter, ours is not a caravan of despair.  Come, even if you have broken your vows a hundred times, come, come again, come."
--Rumi

"The mystics have always looked upon [dance] as a sacred art.  In the Hebrew scriptures we find David dancing before the Lord, and the gods and goddesses of the Greeks, Eqyptians, Buddhists and Brahmans are represented in different poses, all having a certain meaning and philosophy relating to the great cosmic dance..."
--Hazrat Inayat Khan

A Brief Dance History
(as excerpted from www.dancesofuniversalpeace.org)

The Dances of Universal Peace were brought together in the late 1960's by Samuel L. Lewis (1896-1971), a Sufi Murshid (teacher) and Rinzai Zen Master, who also studied deeply in the mystical traditions of Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity. In this creation, Lewis was deeply influenced by his contact and spiritual apprenticeship with two people, Hazrat Inayat Khan, who first brought the message of universal Sufism to the West in 1910, and Ruth St. Denis, a feminist pioneer in the modern dance movement in America and Europe.  Lewis, in his early 70's, began to envision and create the Dances as a dynamic method to promote "Peace through the Arts". From the early days and his original body of about 50 dances, the collection has grown since his passing to more than 500 dances which celebrate the sacred heart of Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Aramaic, Native American, Native Middle Eastern, Celtic, Native African, and Goddess traditions.  During the Past 25 years, the Dances have spread throughout the world, touching more than a half million people in North and South America, Europe, the former Soviet Union, Japan, India, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand. The Dances of Universal Peace have evolved and expanded in practical application to meet the deep felt needs today for rediscovering reverence, creativity, and a body-based connection to the natural world. Dance Leaders share the Dances in schools, therapy groups, prisons, hospice houses, drug rehabilitation centers, homes for the developmentally disabled, retirement villages, holistic health centers, and ecumenical worship celebrations.  They continue to be, as Samuel Lewis envisioned them, a way to make life-energy and the peace that passes understanding a reality for all who come in contact with them.  Hazrat Pir-0-Murshid Inayat Khan (1882-1927) was born into a family of musicians, and through the spiritual guidance of the ascetics and spiritual teachers of India with whom he was associated, became the musician of the soul, for his work was mostly performed in the higher spheres, tuning people to their real pitch.  His message transcends the objective of most esoteric schools, which is the awakening of the individual. Hazrat Inayat Khan calls it, the awakening of the consciousness of humanity to the divinity in man/woman, our inheritance of the divine perfection.  Ruth St. Denis (1878-1968) was a pioneer of contemporary dance in America. She was a sensation in her early years performing individual dances like Radha and Incense; she entered the inner realization of the figures of divinity that she chose to perform - like Mary, Kwan Yin, the Yogi, O-Mika and others and from that feeling danced a vision of perfection. By choosing figures from many different cultures, Ruth St. Denis presented a wordless show of unity before thousands of audiences all over the world through-out her life.  In her unpublished book The Divine Dance (1933), Ruth St. Denis wrote of her vision of a future dance for life and peace:  "The dance of the future will no longer be concerned with meaningless dexterities of the body.... Remembering that man is indeed the microcosm, the universe in miniature, the Divine Dance of the future should be able to convey with its slightest gestures some significance of the universe.... As we rise higher in the understanding of ourselves, the national and racial dissonances will be forgotten in the universal rhythms of Truth and Love. We shall sense our unity with all peoples who are moving to that exalted rhythm."

---

Vanessa Ragan
Vanessa@toGatherisSacred.com
(310) 795-0324