Setting the container for the glorious manifestation to become into this dimensions for this fleeting eternity of today
The dancers come out of the Kivas in the morning, stepping, bringing into this reality a vital life enhancing being - the dance .
It lives mostly outside of time and the Pueblo embody the coming, flowing into into time and space.
There have been weeks of calling it into being.
People gather together; refresh the song, teach the song, learn the song and put on the song with beautiful paint, costumes and feathers.
They step into he drum beats.
The dance lives in each member and beyond them all.
It gathers every memory of the dance through time and brings it to the present.
For most of the participants, this is as familiar and as precious as the sound of their mother's voice.
The dance comes into their feet, their hearts, their lungs, their lives and fill it, breathing joy and unity.
There are conversations, preparations.
Remember this?
How does that go?
Laughter and teasing.
What if we try this...
There are many of us, how do we fit in the plaza?
Where will this rhythm take us this year?
How do we express our gratitude for the blessing of life?
Many evenings are spent together calling this dance into being.
The dance in the wombs of the mothers, the seeds of the fathers that come into the world in each child.
The songs are themes of life.
There are human logistics - lining up properly, keeping all the raiment on, removing rocks from the plaza and paths . The movement of bodies through time and space... who carries the banner? Who drums which song? We are all blessed to participate.
The is receptivity to the village .
An anticipation of the ceremony to keep the world whole.
Everyone brings a good heart, lets go of their small self and comes to become the dance.
It carries the dancers, the the receivers, the cooks and feeders.
The heartbeat of the drum, the intricacy of the song, the rhythms, the memories of dancing enfold the community and new dance becomes as we participate in this eternal temporary being.
The children know the dance and stand fully present and quiet when the dance stills a long sweet tail of vitality, woven into the pattern of the culture .
Each individual brings themselves their precious iteration.
The dances are the same and always different. They are a collaboration amongst all participants .
The rain, the wind, the sun, the clouds, the eagles and the dogs.
Singers bring new songs and everyone practices them into being.
New patterns are woven.
When a step is forgotten or unfamiliar the dance pulls us back into it sweet loving embrace. Here sweet being like this.
Those who have gone before, those who will come after are all here with us in the dance.
The dance is in everyone and everyone is the dance.