The 5 Rhythms® Practice

The 5 Rhythms® are a physical and spiritual practice that offers healing, aliveness and awareness through dance. They are a simple, powerful moving meditation that anyone – of any age, size, or physical ability – can practice. There are no steps to follow, no choreography to learn, no way to do it wrong. The only requirement is a body that is still breathing, a heart that is still beating, and a mind that is still curious!

Just like light, sound or ocean waves, a dancing body, when moving , passes through 5 distinct rhythmic patterns. These patterns continuously repeat themselves in a wave of motion. The 5Rhythms are:

* FLOWING – the fluid, continuous, grounded glide of our own movements

* STACCATO – the percussive, pulsing beat that shapes us a thousand different ways

* CHAOS – the rhythm of letting go, releasing into the catalytic wildness of our dance that can never
be planned or repeated

* LYRICAL – the rhythm of trance, where the weight of self-consciousness dissolves, where we
lighten up and disappear into our own uniqueness

* STILLNESS – the quiet emptiness, where gentle movements rise and fall, start and end, in a field
of silence

There is unlimited learning and exploration in the myriads of ways of moving these rhythms.    Give yourself time to develop your practice. Finding flow, that place between feeling at home and learning something new, will manifest. We don’t have to force it, we just trust that the movement will take us where we need to go.

For more information, go to Gabrielle Roth’s website or check out her books Sweat Your Prayers, Maps to Ecstasy or Connections.  The West Coast headquarters for the 5 Rhythms is The Moving Center School and the wording for the 5 Rhythms above is from beautiful teachers Kathy Altman & Lori Saltzman who run that School.