Moving Meditation - 5Rhythms®

The 5Rhythms® is a contemplative movement practice created by Gabrielle Roth designed to bring us towards fully inhabiting our bodies. In the practice, there is a further deepening into the possibility of liberation by the release of obstacles that keep us tightly bound to habitual patterns.

The 5Rhythms® of Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness are gateways and teachers into understanding the ways that we inhabit our bodies and express ourselves in the world. Each rhythm offers layers of teachings that can illuminate and bring about a deeper understanding about the great mystery of our being. The practice can help us to become more grounded in the core of our truth and emerge into being the ecstatic beings we are meant to be.

 www.5Rhythms.com

Spirit in Motion

This video documents Ranna's movement explorations and meditations in wild and sacred places photographed by Robert Dash along with his photography. "It reflects my deeper journey as a spirit in motion, a meditation in connection with wild nature listening to the deep inner sounds of being, which requires a trust in the intuitive wisdom of the inner ear of the body. In that listening a gesture becomes a prayer. These images are meditations as prayers, glimpses of courting nature by merging with the elements, allowing sand to caress my feet, feeling the form of a mountain within, or whispering songs and prayers to wind spirits. In this space I drop in to the timelessness of being one with all that is. I invite you to join me on this creative journey." Video produced by photographer Robert Dash, music by Susan Osborne.

Locations: USA: Great Sand Dunes NP, Olympic NP, Cascade NP, Glacier NP, Patos island NM, Grand Tetons NP, Orcas island WA, Turks & Caicos: Grand Turk island Little Bluff

Teaching

I completed Gabrielle Roth's teacher training in 2011 in what would become the last group to train under her guidance with her passing in 2012. I was also a participant of the last Silver Desert training which became a ritual of prayer dances for Gabrielle. This helped me understand what I needed to do when my father passed shortly after Gabrielle. For me, the power of the dance is the transformation of grief into an offering of creative expression.

Presently I am not teaching 5Rhythms but here are some highlights from past work:

My process of teaching 5Rhythms® incorporates themes of discovery related to the maps of the practice unfolding in a series of classes exploring each rhythm in relationship to that theme.

Class workshop series previously offered on Orcas Island :

Moment by Moment -- We will dance and find new ways to be with ourselves in the light and shadow of our being, dancing our way into our bodies and finding inspiration for our spirit to move us into our true vibrancy of aliveness moment by moment.

Prayer Body - Dream Body - Body of Love -- We dance to surrender our prayers to our body wisdom, to ‘sweat our prayers’ and let ourselves be danced into our own moving meditation, allowing our bodies to show us what is held within and what needs expressing. By quieting the mind we eventually arrive in the stillness of our own being. We dance in group to help each other see and be seen in this prayer field, a chance to practice being in our depth in order to be met and meet others in this field of presence in all aspects of our lives. By inviting ourselves to practice, we can experiment, stumble and fall, then pick ourselves up again as each dance is an experiment and invitation to more fully embody our prayers and dreams as living energetic fields within us.  I invite you to play in this field of love.

Night Waves - into the Dreamtime -- Night Waves will move us through the wave of the 5Rhythms® with the intention of arriving into the Stillness of the night with more spaciousness, preparing our spirits for dreaming well into the Dreamtime. 

Creative Waves -- An exploration of creativity and transformation related to each rhythms teaching. Finding our places of willingness or obstacles and finding new moves to create freedom within.  "The 5Rhythms® are the DNA of the creative process" Gabrielle Roth.

States of Being -- A deeper conversation and investigation into qualities of being. We each have a unique combination of qualities somewhat akin to the uniqueness of snowflakes. What qualities of being do you most relate to? These qualities are what emerge as the uniqueness of your dance. Your spice. Your Love imprint.  

Painting Freely -- As part of my art residency at the Idaho Art Labs I offered a 5Rhythms® workshop exploring painting with each rhythm. It was a joy to see the beauty and freedom expressed by the dancers once they dropped into the presence of home within and felt the freedom to create from that space.