The 5Rhythms is a movement meditation practice created by Gabrielle Roth drawing on a lifetime of radical explorations in dance, trance, healing, theatre and spiritual practice.
The 5 Rhythms are not sonic rhythms in the sense of drum patterns, but experiential rhythms that describe landscapes of physical movement. Each of the Five Rhythms is a dynamic field of energy which the dancer moves into, with and through. The Rhythms are Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical and Stillness. Together in sequence they form the Wave. Simple, archetypal, creative and vast in potential, the 5Rhythms are a potent map to body presence and soul realisation.
The 5Rhythms is not a belief system but a structured ‘formless form’ designed to liberate the dancer living inside all human beings. The practice is available and accessible to anyone with a body who wants to move.
[Something about the dance being of consciousness as much as it is in the body]?.FLOWING
Flowing is the root of the dance, the beginning of all things. The dancer begins, finding fluid, continuous movements that flow without beginning or end. The body spirals, circles and turns around itself, others and through the space, in a state of flux. Flowing is the dance of earth and the feminine, an opportunity to experience and embody receptivity, softness and trust. It emerges organically from the ground beneath our feet and unwinds into the vast, fertile spaces of natural being/awareness.
STACCATO
Staccato is the home of the beat. Dynamically opposite to Flowing, Staccato is all about the start and the stop, yes and no, this as opposed to that. The dancer works with percussive patterns of movement; creating shape, line, form and structure. Staccato is about self-definition and self-expression; it is the realm of boundaries, clarity and creative action. It is the dance of fire and the masculine, activating the ability to do and creating a vessel for the passion of the heart.
CHAOS
Chaos is the natural, unavoidable dissolution of the structure. The tempo rises, the rhythms complexify, and the dancer must eventually either stop moving to stay in control – or release individual will and surrender. Divergent elements collide and either change, fuse or disappear. Chaos is the dance of white-water rapids: unstoppable and untameable. It is the dance of a rag-doll dervish making body-art. For those able to jump off the edge, Chaos offers a wild ride into the Mystery and deeper knowing.
LYRICAL
Once the body and the psyche have been purged by Chaos, freedom becomes more available. The dancer drops into repetitions, patterns and variations, has access to the inherent lightness of being. Lyrical is the magical landscape of the liberated imagination; effortless and playful. It is the dance of the wind, the shape-shifting theatre of the soul. Lyrical offers a gateway into the deep, awakened states of expanded consciousness known as trance.
STILLNESS
Ten thousand shapes vibrate, then fall silent. Still moving, the dancer lands in Stillness. Sometimes slow, sometimes quick; by moment containing each of the other Rhythms… body, breath and motion expand, contract, and become the whole of the world. Spirit rises, and existence is held in the palm of a hand.
THE WAVE
Together in sequence, the Five Rhythms form a Wave.
Find the text for this from guide doc / old website.
This physical Waves practice is the foundation of Gabrielle’s ‘maps to ecstasy’, which also include work with the emotions (Heartbeat); personal history and the mind (Cycles); the dance of Ego and Soul (Mirrors) and mystical realisation (Silver Desert)
For more information about the 5Rhythms, visit the 5Rhythms Global website .
“Put the psyche in motion and it will heal itself”
– Gabrielle Roth
*audio spoken word teaching file on each passage and each Rhythm…*
images for each of the Rhythms? visual language coherence needed… maybe phase 2 piece??
better Gabrielle quote?