This weekend the Tara Dancing group of Salvadore, Bahia invited Anahata to give a workshop focused on the music for the Tara Dance. Anahata’s invitation….. “We will focus on sensitivity and contour, responding appropriately, musically, for each Tara and we will create Tara’s pure land through sound and intention.
We will learn how to play the songs of our Tara practice, using the guitar in open tuning, the swarsangan, harmonium, recorder, drums and other percussion instruments. Here is Anahata’s report.
The workshop was very successful on every level.
We had 18 participants. Gisele came as my assistant.
The range was from professional musicians (graduated at the university as musicians), music therapists, psychologists, artists, doctors, lawyers, people from Dances of Universal Peace, and house wives who had never touched an instrument before.
Some of them were previously in Tara’s practice in Bahia but many others had never heard about Tara or Dances of Universal Peace.
So you could say, the group was supremely diverse but very motivated and my task at engaging everyone at every level was a challenge. They came with different experiences and different expectations, but what was beautiful is that everyone found his or her place to contribute their gifts to the practice as a whole. So my goal at making it a whole practice was fulfilled. Also my goal of cultivating a no preference attitude about whether to dance or play was achieved, because people moved with ease from instrument to instrument and from instrument to dance, even those who had never danced or played before. They all enjoyed the process of exploration and of exchanging experiences. The more experienced musicians helped the beginners to understand the process. At some point every single person played and every single person danced.
I feel as if we opened a new door for many people and they realized early on in the retreat that it is possible to have live music. They became very enthusiastic at every level of realization so that by the end of the retreat they were planning level two and proclaiming this a new era for the dance in Bahia.
You will see from the photographs the array instruments that Diana, Sandra and André gathered, and I attribute a large part of the success of the retreat to their careful planning. They really listened to my requests and as a result there were more than enough instruments to share.
The weekend concluded with a full presentation of the Mandala Dance exactly as we usually make a public offering, starting with the welcoming Slow Mantra of Tara all the way through the celebratory Dances of Universal Peace at the end!
Eh Ma Ho! Tara Turns in Bahia and her song is heard far and wide.
