The 5Rhythms® Movement Practice is a map; a moving map of the natural path of energy in any creative process. These rhythms are inherent in all of nature, including every cell of our body. We move with these rhythms to bring what already exists in and around us more fully into our bodies, connecting us deeper with the fullness of life.

In a class or workshop setting, we use live or recorded music, to seduce us into the shapes and patterns of each rhythm. Suggestions are made to assist in deepening our own exploration into what each rhythm has to reveal.

The dance is improvisational and expressive. There is no right or wrong way to do it. You can be any size, shape, age, or level of experience. You can be a closet dancer, have never danced, or have always danced.  The music, the suggestions, the rhythms are tools used to bring us deeper into our body, deeper into our dance, deeper into the experience of who we truly are.

Each rhythm is rich with information. The rhythms teach us who we are in the light and in the shadow. They teach us who we are alone, in relationship and in community. The rhythms reveal to us our truth and our potential.

The rhythms help us to locate ourselves in any process; where we are, how we got there and where we are going. We begin to release our judgments, and honor ourselves as energy in motion. With this honor comes compassion and fluidity within our daily life, with ourselves and with others.

The 5Rhythms® follow a cyclical pattern called a Wave: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness.

Flowing starts with our feet, connecting us to the earth, rooting us in our body. We explore our body, and the space around us, how we move, unformed, always changing, exploring possibilities, strengthening our capacity to trust our feet, trust our body, trust the support of the earth, trust our intuition.

The gathering of flow builds into staccato, which moves out from our hips and heart, pulsing expression with clarity and definition. This is the rhythm of fire, passion, lines and boundaries. We experience our power, sense of direction, and potential.

From the clarity of staccato, we release into chaos.   Our heads let go, our minds empty. This is the rhythm of water, dissolving our limitations. Grounded in our feet, we release our weight, let go of what holds us back, and surrender to possibility.

From the shedding of chaos, we lighten up into lyrical. We dance the light of our soul, who we have become, integrated, reborn, in recognition that we are not alone.

Lyrical naturally brings us into the gratitude and compassion of stillness, the rhythm of emptiness and fullness, of quiet, of breath, of Spirit. Stillness contains all rhythms and no rhythm. It permeates all rhythms and moves unto itself. In this rhythm we follow. We follow our breath, the breath of life, we dance the embodiment of Spirit.

The 5Rhythms® is a spiritual practice.
We dance the wave over and over again, no matter what life brings to us on any given day. The dance is life, and a metaphor for life. We go beyond what is familiar and explore the unknown. We uncover, unwrap, bring forth what is waiting to be discovered.

The deeper we embody the rhythms, the more connected we feel to the impulse of life. As we embody the rhythms and trust what they teach us, we lean on the wisdom of each rhythm and how they move through a wave, to guide us in our daily life.

We breath, we move, we explore. The Dance is who we are in each present moment and we allow each moment to teach us, hold us, and love us. We dance to free our body, heart and mind, to feed our soul, to free our soul and open us to Spirit. We dance in service for ourselves, for each other, and for the planet.

For more information written by other 5Rhythms® teachers around the world, search the web using the words 5Rhythms® or Gabrielle Roth.

Direct links to the schools in the USA:
www.5Rhythms.com
www.movingcenterschool.com