This is a photo of the Medicine Wheel that Agne and Denari created for the 2018 Midsummer Festival.
At the entrance to the dance floor where we danced the Midsummer Festival there is a tree which for me represents the tree of life. This tree is a continuous inspiration for me, a metaphor for what we can do through dance and other activities during the Festival. The trunk which is the part that connects the earth and the sky with its deep roots that give it stability and support so that the branches can open towards the sky, towards the light of the sun and the moon, towards the air and the rain.
The Dreamcatcher that Daniela created has taken its place hanging on the tree and the Medicine Wheel at the foot of the tree. Two sacred circles that adorned the platform, a welcome, meeting point, an expression through the creativity of love for something wiser than we are.
“As it is inside, so it is outside”
The Circle has always been a very powerful symbol: the Sun rises and sets in a circle, the Earth is round, the planets turn on themselves, the wind creates circular swirls, the birds build nests in the shape of a circle, etc. The circle reminds us that everything is One, the health of Mother Earth is our health.
Here is the teaching of the first Flow Rhythm, the foundation of all the following Rhythms. From one movement another is born, which we emulate and find in us through the dance with endless circular and round movements.
The circle is a symbol of equality, in it everyone observes from a different point and the understanding and consideration towards another point of the circle is as important as one’s own, because it is part of a single source. In fact when we dance in small groups or in the large circle we work on the awareness of our diversity which is at the same time our equality.
In the circle we regularly share in small and large groups. It is in this way that the group helps itself to express itself, to observe and welcome parts of itself, to share, to listen to themselves and others, to remain in the present moment.
The circle of the wheel is in constant movement like the waves we dance.
The center is the symbol of sacred space and divided into 4 directions, it symbolizes the 4 elements (earth, fire, water, air) with which we dance. In the 5Rhythms we dance: Flow, Staccato, Chaos & Lyric which are the 4 directions while the last, Stillness is the one that contains them all, the Spirit in everything.
The wheel is full of symbols that bind together all the native populations of the earth. How dance has always tied the tribes of the people of the earth.
In the wheel we can see the interdependence of all things. The wheel symbolizes movement, the passage of time, life and seasons. In the 5Rhythms practice we follow different maps that connect the Rhythms to the interdependence of the 5 cycles of life, 5 emotions, 5 powers of the soul, 5 parts of the body, etc..