Sacred Geometry

The Dance Complex is an establishment in Cambridge, operating for decades with six floors of dance studios and the most eclectic variety of classes you could possibly imagine. They have everything from break dancing to salsa to organic ballet, which must entail hemp leotards, right? And with a cheap drop-in, pay as you go option, it’s the perfect excuse to experiment with one of the many dancing hybridizations they offer. So experiment I did—with a course in tribal belly dancing.

The Harvard Gazette recently published an article on staying sane, in which Laura Kubzansky, HSPH associate professor of society, human development, and health, wrote, “Everyone needs to find a way be in the moment, to find a restorative state that allows them to put down their burdens.” Dance is one of those exceptional activities that transfixes my mind long enough to forget itself. Sometimes I am completely suspended by the challenge of learning a new move, captivated by a new pattern of subtle twists and body isolations. Other times, usually after much practice, the dance becomes an intuitive expression that performs itself, without any effort or consciousness on my part. Like spinning a hula hoop, I could go for days. Either way, I am fully present to the moment.

It was during one of these ultra focused moments that my belly dancing teacher said something that would disrupt my whole world in an instant. “This next move mirrors the symbol for eternity, akin to a figure eight.” She demonstrated the weaving motion, and then added, “It’s as if you are tracing eternity with your hips.”

My heart raced, and a million tiny hairs stood on end, saluting some basic truth that they have always known. This was the most delicious poetry I had ever tasted. And, yet, it was intended for so much more than my lips.

She continued, lyrically improvising the figure eight sway and the meaning embodied by it: “People may not recognize this consciously, but it is intended to speak to the latent yearnings for eternity. We are enacting a kind of sacred geometry with our bodies.”

Now if that doesn’t implode every tidy category of the sacred and profane, the mind and the body, the spirit and the flesh, I do not know what will. It purposefully disrupts any notion that we have about spiritual enlightenment belonging to the intellectual or mental sphere alone, because it insists that our bodies, without external direction, naturally grope towards eternal truths. All of which is to say, I think if I want to become more adept recognizing real wisdom, than I ought to listen to what my body is saying. And if I want this wisdom to take real effect in my life, through my actions, attitudes and behavior, well then, I’ve got to keep on whirling!