The Dances of Universal Peace combine simple folkdance movement with chanting or singing of sacred words and phrases. They are usually done holding hands in a circle, and are easily learned. Everyone is welcome in the circle. The leader teaches each dance gathering as though all present were learning the Dance for the first time. We sometimes say, "old hands and new hands join together to form the sacred circle." The dance leader gives the meaning of the words or phrases, sometimes a brief teaching story, movement instructions, and often a reminder to be aware of the breath. This attuning to the dance reminds me of Indian raga music, where the musicians spend some time tuning their instruments and themselves before they begin their concert. 

I first encountered the dances in the early '80s, when I lived in Southern California. At about the same time, I was initiated into Sufism by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan. Sufism, often referred to as the mystical side or heart of Islam, is a universal philosophy of spirituality. I found the dances to be a deepening practice and a wonderful expression of universality and unity. 

Movement and music have been an integral part of Sufi practices for centuries. Many are acquainted with the poetry of the 13th century Persian Sufi mystic, Jalal al-Din Rumi. It is said that in his search for the Beloved, Rumi originated the famous whirling dance of the Mevlevi dervishes. 

While the Dances of Universal Peace are a more recent development and a different form, they were birthed out of the same, very ancient stream of sacred dance. They are a pathway to experiencing different qualities and states of being. Some dances evoke a very joyful, ecstatic experience; some invite the dancer into a quieter, more meditative state. 

The walks are an important aspect of the dance work. These practices focus on specific transpersonal qualities such as compassion, mercy, forgiveness, or the characteristics of the elements or planets. By bringing particular awareness to concentrations of movement, breath, rhythm and posture, we observe the different aspects and experience of each walk. In this way the walks, like the dances, awaken us to inner places we may not be as familiar with, or may not express in our everyday, fast-paced lives. These concentrations make us aware of the potentials and possibilities of our divine nature. 

 
Once the collective consciousness expanded to include the feminine side of life, the goddess tradition began to flow into the body of the dances, especially through Saadi's work (Desert Wisdom, 1996). His research of ancient cultures (scriptures, language, writings and practices) along with his personal meditations have brought through many wonderful dances honoring and invoking the attributes of the Great Mother. We dance and chant her name in Babylonian, old Canaanite, Sumerian, old Hebrew, and Egyptian. The mystical translations of her names, flowing from Saadi's work, give us a much larger view and more expressive sense of how the Goddess was conceived and experienced in earlier times. For example, from the ancient Canaanite period, we chant Belit Mati, which may be translated as "holy mother of darkness"; and Allatu, which carries the meaning "a breath from underneath and a breath from all around"; or Asherah, "uprising, growing, greening and burning life force in all beings." Another name for the Egyptian goddess Isis, Ast Amenti (Lady of the Ament), carries the meaning "the underworld" or "the ground of being to which we all return." 

These cultures are the ground from which the languages and cultures of the Middle East later arose. Ancient language influences are found in later Aramaic, Arabic and Hebrew. I love the imagery in the translation of Shaddai, an old Hebrew name for the Goddess-"mounds of breasted nurturance." Shaddai not only names the Goddess; it also carries the meaning "places on the earth that represent her . . . the hills and fields." What does all this mean for the dances and one's transpersonal journey?  The experience of the dance goes beyond simply chanting a name or phrase. The unique and expressive meanings of the names for the Goddess influence our inner experience. The Goddess ceases to be a concept; she becomes a bodily felt experience. 

An early Babylonian poet writes "the mother womb, [as] radiant source of warmth and life, the one from whose depths humanity may arise" (Desert Wisdom, 1996). In many dances, we sing or chant the Arabic words rahman (mercy) and rahim (compassion). In Sufism, these are two names for the oneness in which we all have our birth (God). Interestingly, both share the same stem rahm, which translates as "womb." We see, then, that embedded in the Arabic language is the meaning that the womb is the birthplace of mercy and compassion, the womb is God. Now, we move with this interesting linguistic feature to an image of the Great Mother as the cosmic womb, birthplace of love, and we allow this understanding to flow through the open heart downward to a sense or image of the personal womb, into the source and origin of all life-the body of Mother Earth. As we dance and chant, the mental pictures of the great cosmic womb shift to a bodily-felt experience of ourselves as birthers of mercy and compassion. This is transformative! 

The Goddess Dances seem to uniquely turn us toward the lower centers, with the imagery of the "mother womb" and the juicy fecundity of the Earth, reflections on the personal womb experience, being seen and not being seen, as in the veiling and unveiling dance between the Goddess and her consort.  From a psychotherapist's perspective, I appreciate that some of her names, rich in metaphor, elicit shadow elements and lead to natural starting places for deep inner work.

 
One can see the potential of the dances to develop and nurture the integration of mind, body, and spirit. For some, they have provided a means of psycho-spiritual growth and community healing. They have been helpful in social and therapeutic settings such as transpersonal psychology and holistic health conferences, senior centers, schools, hospitals, drug treatment programs, and mental institutions. Some dance leaders have specially focused their work with children and the physically challenged; and others who are therapists have integrated aspects of the dance work into their practices. 

I have been dancing since I was a little girl, have taught various forms and began leading the Dances of Universal Peace after six years of participation in them. I was a member of a dance-for-peace mission to the USSR, when that country was on the brink of freedom in 1989. We introduced the dances to people in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and the State of Georgia and later shared them in Poland and Bosnia during difficult times of war and peace. In 1993, at the exact moment the handshake of Clinton and Arafat was viewed around the world, a group of women dancers from the West stood with "the women in black" at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. The dancers on this Middle East trip also visited the first Eastern Christian Church, where the only drawing of the Virgin Mary made during her lifetime is hung. 

In my adult years I felt drawn to dance from the place in me that would be more expressive of the deeper side of experience, the sacred. My involvement with the Dances of Universal Peace has been a wonderful adventure in so many ways. 

 
The spiritual dances and walks were initially created in the mid-1960s by a Sufi teacher, Samuel Lewis, who lived in the Bay Area. He taught the early dances to the flower children, the hippies in Golden Gate Park, introducing them to a different way of experiencing "the ecstatic." Following his death in 1971, his students and the next generation of dance leaders expanded on his work. In all, there are now about 500 Dances of Universal Peace-mantric dances (sacred phrases chanted in Sanskrit); dervish dances (sacred phrases in Arabic and Persian), dances drawn from the world's Sufi practices of remembrance (zikr); and dances accompanied by the sacred phrases of several other earth traditions-Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, Native American and Great Mother traditions. 

One of my teachers, Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz (Sufi teacher, language scholar and mystical writer) was instrumental in organizing Peaceworks International Network for the Dances of Universal Peace, a non-profit umbrella that was created to hold the dances in sacred trust. Peaceworks serves the dancers as an international resource center and networking organization. Saadi and Tasnim H. Fernandez, the organization's first directors of dance leader training, have led circles throughout the world. Today, a mentoring system supervises and certifies dance leaders to preserve the integrity and spiritual transmission of this work for future generations. 

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Malika has been leading the Dances of Universal Peace since 1988. She travels in the US, leading dance circles, retreats, and workshops. She leads two dance circles locally-one in Willits at the Marlana River Design Studio, on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 7 pm (contact 459-3410), and one in Laytonville on the 1st Saturday at 7:30 pm (contact 984-6439). She mentors other dance leaders, and is a psychotherapist in private practice in Laytonville. 

Dance circles and retreat camps are held in many places around the planet, with regularly scheduled dance circles in forty-seven countries. For information on events and dance leadership training, Peaceworks can be visited on the Internet at:

dancesofuniversalpeace.org.