The Dancing Circle - Volume 4 - Balance

Compiled by Judy King

Packed full of articles tracing the history of Sacred/Circle Dance back to the arrival of Bernhard and Gabriele Wosien in Findhorn in October 1976.

With a "who's who" of all the influential teachers then and now, with articles by many of them recollecting their early encounters with the dance

Articles

Excerpts from conversations with and the writings of Bernhard Wosien	Friedel Kloke- Eibl
Dance, playing and movement	Krisana Kirchner
The Sun Dance	Krisana Kirchner
Meditation en Croix in relation to the Path of the Cross	Friedel Kloke- Eibl
Meditation of the Cross - Meditation of the whole person	Sophia Kiessling
The Eight Pointed Star	Krisana Kirchner
Thoughts on the dance Garuda	Judith Sablowski
Moved by music- gripped by the dance	lisalotte Dworzak
From belief to enlightenment	Birgit Muller
Liturgy in Dance	Charlotte Willberg
The fulfilling experience of stillness	Karlfried Graf Durckheim
Stillness is very shy	Friedel Kloke-Eibl
Consciousness in Dance/Dance in the Consciousness	Alisée Schmucker
A dancing invitation to become more aware	Marianne Baumann
Dance: In Teaching and Therapy	Bernhard Wosien
Healing through Dance-An ethnological view	Dr Irene Aschwande
Come and Dance with me! A Healing Process	Trudi Schoop
Meditation of the Dance: Sacred Dance and Overcoming a Crisis	Susanne Riedel-Zeller
A close look at walking and repeating: the dance Rose	Rosemarie Nerling
From the edge to the centre	Bruno Dorig
From -‘Tanze aus Griechenland: Labyrinthtanze’	Friedel Kloke-Eibl and others
Waiting for the kiss of the Muse	Friedel Kloke-Eibl
To dance is to learn that everything passes	Bernhard Wosien

Review by Elizabeth Pinkerton

Balance is the journal of the professional association “Meditation des Tanzes – Sacred Dance” which appears twice yearly. Each edition contains contributions on specific topic. The publication is in German and thus not available to many of us because of our individual lack of knowledge of the language.

Because of this Judy King decided to approach Friedel Kloke-Eibl who has in turn made a selection of articles which she thought would cover a range of topics and be of interest. Judy then set about finding individuals who would translate these for this publication of The Dancing Circle. The selection of articles has been translated with care and sensitivity to meaning and cross language differences thus offering an opportunity to share the thoughts and experiences of dancers from the continent.

The compilation of writings covers a range of dances from the choreographers Bernard Wosien and Friedel Kloke-Eibl, their conception, development and growth. Traditional dances are also considered. There are also articles from individual dancers about their experiences and thoughts arising from dancing.

Reflections on meditative qualities, stillness, centering, attunement, connectedness; the healing experience of dance; and the origins of dances, and the symbolic connections of steps and patterns both created in and emerging from dances make rich reading for anyone wanting to explore the many layers and depths of dances and the circle.

I found this rich reading and would say thank you to Judy for undertaking the work involved in gathering the articles together, to Mandy de Winter who had the original idea and to the translators.