GALINA SANDERSON

Me, the Singer, is dancing barefoot in the churches of London. That is where the 5 Rhythms movement is happening–more and more people come to dance, but not to night clubs or discotheques. Those places where sweat is mixed with alcohol and tobacco smells are still in power; but they do not empower. These – have wooden floors, high ceilings, stained glass windows and so much white clean space.

It is easy and fun to breathe, scream, hum and moan in these white clean spaces.

5 Rhythms was the child of Gabrielle Roth, an American theatre director, dance teacher-explorer, an urban shaman woman from New York, who wanted bring people into Ecstasy state without substances and introduce them to freedom from the mind. To make it through the body and make the body an object of adoration.

   We are so different. Some dancers have been coming to 5 Rhythms for 8-       10 years; others are beginners - different sizes, ages, nationalities and            incomes, short legged and long legged.  Most of us are not professional          dancers. Some are; but we all love to move in a room where nobody                judges, evaluates or compete. We are all searching – some for inner              alignment, some for community, peaceful mind, some for freedom from            pain, losses and grief.

Five rhythms – Flowing, Lyrical, Staccato, Chaos, Stillness form a wave, a cycle of a dance. We become that wave as the body is carried forward by sound, without the mind deciding where to go and what part to move in which direction. Music, very colourful in mood and rhythm, is heard by all the body, not only the ears. The sound fills your cells and takes you into another reality. This is pure meditation. Meditation in motion. Trance follows.

We are reminded by the teacher to breathe consciously, to have a certain intensity and speed of exhalation.  Breath leads me and gives me an indication of how fast I can go. At some point, after approximately an hour of dancing, the intensity of the atmosphere reaches such a peak, the tension which accumulated in the body during the week in all of us, collapses. A firecracker Bang! And the sound of release escapes the bottomless bodies. Uuhs and Ahhhs and Humms and Mmms – all of us are in these sounds at that moment.  We laugh together when we dance with a partner, repeating each other’s movements and creating unusual new ones.  We cry too, knowing that even if someone notices, they won’t judge. Crying happens when the freedom of being yourself hits us. 

Usually I quietly hum at the end of the class, when Lyrical section starts. My voice blends into the melody. I feel expanded, free, happy, and a little bit tired. At the same time there is this knowing that my voice lives in this body, in my bare feet kissing the wooden floor, in my flying arms and hands, in the movement of my neck.

Music, voice, energy, body. Everything is a dance.

HARMONIES OF LIGHT by JIM OLIVER                                  

Everyone brings their own unique gifts to the field of sound healing. We offer the environment for healing (to make whole) to occur.

My formal music study began with piano lessons at age 5, then popular organ study at the Hartford Conservatory of Music at 14. Next was music theory, classical organ and piano lessons at Julius Hartt School of Music when I was 17 which was in preparation to be a classical organ major at Hartt College of Music in 1971. Lots and lots of Bach. I also conducted and played with a guitar based folk mass group with 40+ teenagers. Tens of thousands of hours of practice and performance playing in many different venues including churches, night clubs and show rooms. The remainder of the 70s found me on the road with a variety of bands including about 3 years with a Vegas-show road band. A total of 7+ years living in hotels throughout the US and Canada - 52 weeks a year, playing 6 nights a week and travelling on most “days off”.  Through it all, I observed the profound response people have with music of varying types and wanted to offer music that was the “main event” rather than background or accompaniment. In the late 1970s that began to take form.

In 1982 in the course of my explorations into the field of sound, music and wellness, I heard of two ladies that were using water filled balloons placed on specific parts of their client’s body and they hummed into the water balloons. The water provided a more direct connection with the body. Brilliant!

I soon began working with a Kineseologist, Oriental Medical Doctor, Naturopath and Acupuncturist. We explored using specific frequencies and waveforms for specific ailments. We sought to find ways to present the sound in the most effective manner. If we were playing a sound for the lungs or liver or an acupuncture meridian, I would place the headphones on the client’s ankles with an extremely low volume level so they could not hear the sound with their ears. The muscle testing showed the benefit whether they could hear the sound with their ears or have the correct sound connected to their body/being by headphones. We also infused a quartz crystal with the sound and it also tested strong when the appropriate frequency and waveform was implemented.

Being a keyboardist and having access to analog synthesizers was a great plus. I could specify frequencies and waveforms to observe what had a more beneficial effect. In my observation, the waveform has as much to do with the response as the frequency. Based on orchestral instruments, sine waves are more flute instrument sounding. Square waves are more woodwind instrument sounding such as clarinet and oboe. Sawtooth waves are more brass instrument sounding such as trumpet, trombone, sousaphone and tuba. Sawtooth and square composite waveforms are more like strings such as violins, cellos and bass. Each waveform or combination of waveforms resonates with the body, mind, spirit and emotional bodies differently as well as chakras and etheric energy fields. Different waveforms have different harmonic overtones which contribute to the receptivity and resonance of the tones and music. I mention emotions because I feel that emotions are what are “in the driver’s seat”. Tones resonate with certain aspects of the physical being and emotions engage what is affecting people’s moods which then relate to physical manifestation of health and perceived well-being. It is a complete, cohesive experience rather than a conglomeration of isolated elements.