_Quotes
Quotes from some of the mystics and writers relating to Sacred Dance and Music.
Dance Quotes from the Mystics
“Could there be anything more blessed than to imitate on earth the ring-dance of the angels and at dawn to raise our voices in prayer and by hymns and song glorify the rising Creator?”
– St Basil, 4th Century Mystic “The heart of man has been so constituted by the Almighty that, like a flint, it contains a hidden fire which is evoked by music and harmony, and renders man beside himself with ecstasy.”
– al-Ghazali, 11th Century Mystic, "A Dissertation on Islamic Mysticism" “What does dance do for us? First and foremost, it inculcates the sense of rhythm and enhances our response to rhythm. This is really a response to life. It makes us more living, which is to say, more spiritual. It brings out beauty of form and movement, and envelops our personalities in the enjoyment of them. It takes us beyond ourselves, bringing an initial taste of the state of non-being, which is really a balm for the soul.”
– Samuel Lewis |
“Grace danceth. I would pipe; dance ye all. Amen... The Whole on high hath part in our dancing. Amen.”
– Jesus, Acts of John “Dance uplifts the body above the earth into the heavenlies. Dance bound up with faith is a testimony to the living grace of God.”
– St Ambrose, 4th Century Mystic “The purpose of music, considered in relation to God, is to arouse longing for Him and passionate love toward Him and to produce states in which He reveals Himself and shows His favour, which are beyond description and known only by experience. These states are called ecstasy.”
– al-Ghazali, 11th Century Mystic “When you hear music you enjoy, it tunes you and puts you in harmony with life. Therefore man needs music; he longs for music.”
– Hazrat Inayat Khan, "The Heart of Sufism" |
Dance Quotes from the Writers
“In the dance the boundaries between body and soul are effaced. The body moves itself spiritually, the spirit bodily.”
– Gerardus Van der Leeuw, "Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art" “The surrender of oneself to a stronger power, the unification of one's own movements with the movements of the whole is what makes dance religious and lets it become a service of God.”
– Gerardus Van der Leeuw, "Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art" “When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point.”
– Alan Watts “Historically and phenomenologically viewed, dance is the original art. All arts are found within it, in its undivided unity. The image, made dynamic through movement and countermovement, sings and speaks simultaneously...”
– Gerardus Van der Leeuw, "Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art" “In Hinduism, Shiva the Cosmic Dancer, is perhaps the most perfect personification of the dynamic universe. Through his dance, Shiva sustains the manifold phenomena in the world, unifying all things by immersing them in his rhythm and making them participate in the dance – a magnificent image of the dynamic unity of the Universe.”
– Fritjof Capra, "The Tao of Physics" |
“Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself.”
– Havelock Ellis, "The Dance of Life" “The first expression of religion was the dance, and the first motive of the dance was religion.”
– La Meri, "Dance as an Art Form" “We ought to dance with rapture that we might be alive... and part of the living, incarnate cosmos.”
– D. H. Lawrence “The art of beautiful motion is far and away the oldest. Before man learned how to use any instruments at all, he moved the most perfect instrument of all, his body. He did this with such abandon that the cultural history of prehistoric and ancient man is, for the most part, nothing but the history of the dance.”
– Gerardus Van der Leeuw, "Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art" “Now before he (Jesus) was taken by the lawless Jews, he gathered all of us together and said: Before I am delivered up unto them let us sing an hymn to the Father, and so go forth to that which lieth before us. He bade us therefore make as it were a ring, holding one another's hands, and himself standing in the midst he said: Answer Amen unto me. He began, then, to sing an hymn...”
– Acts of John |