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Razgovor u originalu…

Kaj je bistvena razlika med Nudanzo in ostalimi vodenimi plesi?

Čini mi se da je važno naglasiti da NuDanza nije vođeni ples. Postoje određene blage smjernice o tome kako plesati, ali glavni naglasak je na spontanosti i kreativnosti. Plesači puštaju tijelu da ih vodi, bez uključivanja unaprijed zadanih pravila ili elemenata. Vanjsko »vodstvo« se uglavnom svodi na naputke o tome kada usmjeriti pozornost na određeni dio tijela ili disanje.

Nudanza izvira iz Neo danca, le-ta pa iz izročil starodavnih kultur, ki jih je raziskoval Adrian Kezele. Nam lahko poveste malo več o tem – katere prvine so se obdržale v vaši obliki plesa?

NeoDance je bio prvi naziv za isti ples (pod tim nazivom se pojavila za sada jedina knjiga o tome), ali smo ga prije nekoliko godina »rebrandirali« u NuDanzu. Radi se o potpuno istom plesu koji se s vremenom nadopunjuje i razvija. NuDanza je živi organizam. Početna radionica (NuDanza Starter) je standardizirana i uglavnom uvijek jednaka. Međutim, na daljnjim radionicama (NuDanza Deepness) ples kreće u neočekivanim smjerovima, uvijek novim, uvijek drugačijim. Blisko surađujem s Adrianom na svakoj radionici, a Deepness radionice vodimo zajedno dva puta godišnje u obliku plesnog retreata.

V Nudanzi se ‘proslavlja’ vse štiri elemente; zrak, ogenj, vodo in zemljo. Vsak ples, čeprav je svoboden (brez vnaprej določenih korakov), ima določene izhodiščne položaje. Na podlagi česa so se le-ti izoblikovali? Kaj predstavlja posamičen element?

Adrianova pustolovina otkrivanja duhovnosti Stare Europe opisana je u njegovim knjigama »Povratak Boginje« i »Duša Stare Europe«. Iako nisam sudjelovala u tome, često pričamo o detaljima nekih postupaka u NuDanzi.
Početni položaji, kao i oblici kretanja, zasnovani su na značajkama prirodnih elemenata. Primjerice, zemlja je čvrsta, stabilna i snažna. Njen osnovni oblik je kvadrat. Kao simbol zemlje, kvadrat se može pronaći na crtežima (primjerice keramici) iz doba neolita. To nije značajka samo Stare Europe, već i izvornih tradicija širom svijeta. To znači da postoje neki univerzalni simboli koji prožimaju arhetip »zemlje«. U NuDanzi položajem, a kasnije i blagim naznakama kretnji, ocrtavamo taj arhetip vlastitim tijelom. Rezultat je usklađivanje s elementom zemlje; plesači postaju utjelovljenje čvrstina, stabilnosti i pouzdanosti. To je ujedno i izravni učinak NuDanze na psihologiju i ponašanje. Jednom kad ste utvrdili arhetip zemlje na razini tijela, postajete zemlja, živite njene značajke. To isto se događa s drugim elementima – vodom, zrakom i vatrom. Svaki od njih ima svoj položaj, oblik, kretnje i – a to je možda najvažnije – način disanja.
Svatko od nas je dobar u nečemu, a malo manje dobar u nečem drugom. Primjerice, ako vam nedostaje pokretnosti i kreativnosti, plesat ćete zračne plesove. Ako vam nedostaje motivacije i energije, vatra je vaš ples. Ako ste kruti i zatvoreni, potrebna vam je prilagodljivost vode. Naravno, najbolje je uskladiti se sa svim elementima. To radimo već na prvoj radionici, NuDanza Starteru.

Z Nudanzo se ukvarjate že od leta 2008, vodite pa jo ob 2016. Kako ste prišli v stik s plesom?

Mislim da sam bila zaljubljena u ples od malih nogu! Moje tijelo je oduvijek plesalo. Voljela sam plesati na bilo koji način, ali na žalost, vrlo rijetko sam za to imala prilike. Naime, klasični plesovi, čvrsta koreografija i sve što ide s tim, nisu me privlačili. Sputavali su me. S druge strane, na koncertima i mjestima na kojima se obično pleše ima previše negativnih elemenata. Izgleda da se ljudi danas ne znaju zabavljati bez dima cigarete, alkohola, a na žalost i droge.
Sve u svemu, osim moje dnevne sobe, gotovo da nije bilo pravog mjesta gdje bih mogla plesati slobodno i nesputano.
Proslavu nove 2008. godine sam odlučila provesti na Adrianovoj radionici i… to je bilo to! Osjećala sam se kao da sam se vratila kući. Iako tada o tome nisam razmišljala – bila sam toliko sretna što sam pronašla nešto tako jednostavno, a opet duboko i oslobađajuće – sada shvaćam da sam u srcu već tada odlučila da će NuDanza postati moj život.

Kako Nudanza vpliva na ljudi – kakšne razlike (kar se tiče telesa, uma in duha) ste opazili pri sebi, odkar plešete, in o čem vam poročajo vaši udeleženci?

Otvaranje. Otvaranje. Otvaranje.
Nema više granica. Tijelo postaje savršen instrument za doživljavanje izrazito dubokih osjećaja. Ne biste vjerovalo koliko uživanja i sreće može proizaći iz jedne NuDanza plesne večeri.
Na kraju Startera svi se osjećaju kao da su najbolji prijatelji i kao da su cijelog života plesali zajedno. I meni je teško suzdržati emocije, a osjećaj ispunjenja je neopisiv.
Evo, nakon prošle radionice dobila sam mail u kojem mi jedna polaznica piše kako ima osjećaj da joj tijelo i dalje pleše, iako je prošlo već tjedan dana od radionice. I doista, ako plešete NuDanzu, svaka stanica vašeg tijela nastavlja ples, čak i ako više nema glazbe. Rezultat toga je sasvim drugačiji odnos prema svijetu, drugim ljudima i, naravno, prema sebi. Jednom riječju, rezultat je oslobađanje! Obrasci nestaju, i to na svim razinama.

Za koga je Nudanza po vašem mnenju primerna? Obstajajo kakšne omejitve?

U načelu ne postoje ograničenja. Teoretski, plesati može svatko. Čak i ako biste, primjerice, bili ozlijeđeni, u kolicima ili nepokretni. Ako postoje mišići koje možete voljno pokretati, njima možete i plesati. Ipak, u takvim slučajevima je potrebna posebna pažnja, pa standardne radionice za javnost preporučamo prosječno zdravim ljudima. Nije potrebno nikakvo predznanje, kondicija ili sposobnosti. Tokom radionice svatko može prilagoditi tempo i način rada svom tijelu.
Nema ograničenja ni u starosti, naravno. NuDanzu plešu i djeca i stariji ljudi podjednako.

En izmed zelo zanimivih delov starterja, torej prve delavnice plesa, je kaos, kjer se lahko povsem prepustimo, se očistimo, znorimo … sledi pa mu tišina, kjer počivamo, si opomoremo, se umirimo … Kako je prišlo do izoblikovanja teh dveh pojmov v Nudanzi?

»Kaos« je zapravo peti element. U nekim tradicijama on se označava kao prostor, eter ili akaša. On objedinjuje prethodna četiri, spaja ih u cjelinu. Kao takav, u njemu ne postoje pravila. U biti, kaos je očitovanje slobode, »statističke nepravilnosti« odnosno »kozmičke anomalije« koja život čini sočnim i tajanstvenim.
Njegov sveobuhvatni aspekt predstavljen je tišinom i nepokretnošću. Doslovce, taj dio petog elementa se pleše bez pokreta.
Njegov »anomalijski« dio, pleše se kaotično, energetski snažno i, da, ponekad pomalo »divlje«. Ali, sve su to dijelovi našeg bića i potrebno ih je plesom izvući na površinu.

Druga stopnja Nudanze (po plesu prirode) je Deepness. Kakšna izkušnja je to in za koga je primerna?

Deepness je retreat radionica, obično traje pet dana (od srijede do nedjelje). Organiziramo ju za sada dva puta godišnje, tokom ljeta i tokom zime.
Pet dana plesa! Već sama ta činjenica mogla bi vaše tijelo pretvoriti u savršeni plesni instrument, a to se i događa. Ako se nakon Startera teško rastati s plesnim prijateljima, nakon Deepnessa to postaje gotovo nemoguće. Deepnees zadire toliko duboko da više gotovo da ne govorimo o iskustvima ovog života, već o prisjećanju na izgubljena vremena neokulture (Stare Europe). Duša ne poznaje ograničenja; svijest postaje sveobuhvatna.
Na Deepnessu se rade dodatne tehnike kojih ima vrlo mnogo, od tehnika disanja pa do otkrivanja erotizma i seksualnosti u plesu. Deepness se kreće u smjeru opisanom u Adrianovoj knjizi Sadashiva Tantra. Tijelo se oslobađa ograničenja, duh ulazi u orgazmičko stanje, duše se spajaju i pretapaju u osjećajima za koje prethodno niste ni znali da postoje.
Što se mene tiče, rekla bih da je Deepness neophodan svakome. Iako NuDanza na mnogim mjestima tokom Deepnessa prelazi u prilično intimno plesanje, nema nikakve obaveze niti očekivanja od sudionika. Svatko ide svojim tempom i na svoj način.

Nudanzo vodite v Zagrebu in v Ljubljani. Ali bi lahko potegnili kakšne vzporednice med obiskovalci v obeh državah? Smo enako odprti? Se plesa udeležujejo pripadniki obeh spolov? Kaj pa starosti?

Ah, to je nezgodno pitanje. Reću ću samo toliko da sam oduševljena Slovenijom! Otvorenost je fantastična, osjećaji su na visokoj razini, cijela atmosfera je entuzijastična i pozitivna. U Hrvatskoj je malo drugačije, ali slijedimo vas, slijedimo.
Na radionicama ima polaznika svih dobnih grupa, ali u prosjeku je najviše onih između 30-45 godina. Što se tiče spola, žene čine oko 70% polaznica u gotovo svakoj grupi. Možda bi bilo dobro uputiti poziv muškarcima da nam se pridruže u većem broju.

Kateri elementi so po vašem mnenju bistveni, da se človek počuti izpolnjenega, notranje mirnega, srečnega?

Sposobnost održavanja unutarnjeg mira, dovoljno kretanja i kontakt s prirodom, zdrava seksualnost i sloboda uživanja u osjećajima i tijelu.
I naravno, za mene vrijedi najvažnije pravilo: svaki dan bez plesa, izgubljen je dan!

Zahvale za članak i intervju, autorici Vesni Hauschild.

If you ever thought that you could break the patterns ruling over your mind, without breaking those ruling over your body, you were wrong. Those two are not separated; they work in unison. But you know what? The mind patterns are elusive, hidden and quite hard to grasp. One day you think you got them, and tomorrow you realize you don’t.

It is easier with the body. The patterns are painfully visible. You do what you are told to do. You express yourself the way you have learned to do it. But, your body can do – and feel – so much more, if only you could let go.

It’s straightforward with the body: when you keep your guard and try to control it, you feel uncomfortable. You feel ashamed. You don’t want others to see you for what you really are.

If you lower your guard and step over the illusionary boundaries, you will feel pleasure. A lot of it! The body’s natural state is the orgasmic state. Yes, orgasm should not be a one-time event (short as it usually is), but the living vibration of your material existence.

That state, when achieved, is a magnet for cosmic impulses. They will come into your body (and mind) attracted with the uniqueness of the human experience. You will cease to pretend that you are a separated being, and your body will shine out the power of oneness.

Can you imagine what that will do to your sex life? Can you imagine what that will do to your perception of reality? No, you can not. You have to experience it first, and then… well, you will not have to imagine it; you will live it.

That is what Sadashiva tantra does to people. That is what NuDanza does to people.

***

Pictures are taken on the day of Shivan tattva ritual, performed after few days of preparation during NuDanza Deepness, Rogla, Slovenia, August 2019.

As an artist, it is difficult for me to evaluate my work. It is best to leave this task to others. Although, the artist is his own greatest critic. The work you have created often isn’t what you imagined it should be, or even leaves you indifferent. But sometimes, if you are lucky enough, your own work can surprise you! While looking at what you created you become overwhelmed by the feeling of wonder, “… every time, as it was for the first time …”. Such moments are rare. It rarely happens that the more you look at it, the more you like your own work.

… Body … Silence … Movement … Tension … Perfection …

Months went by in preliminary preparations. A lot of twists in finding the right set for the photo shooting. A set can speak, you know. One is sad, while others have nothing to them, as if they were dead. And you know that this is something special, so you look for a special set. You look everywhere. You’re looking for the moment when you open the door and the space sings to you. The set smiles at you. And then you know.

After a long search, we found it. We found it where no one would expect it. It was standing in the middle of a small village, our set. We knew right away. It sang to us.

… Heart beats, breasts rise and fall … though covered with silk, you can feel them …

From the moment we found the set, everything flowed smoothly. I think that that was the moment when we all began to slowly fall into some kind of ecstasy. Fantastic things came to our minds. Clothes, creations long forgotten, revived through this dance, fitted perfectly with Emina and our ideas.

… The day before the start. Nervousness, disquiet, excitement …

What does an artist live for? What is his motive? What does he want?

He has many ideas how the project should look like. Ironically, that never happens. Often nothing comes from those ideas, nothing. And then, somewhere, sometime … something unexpected and indescribable appears.

… Moment … Fragments … Vortex …

Frames created themselves. I had an idea how I wanted to work, but this…this was completely beyond any plan. There were moments in which we were unable to speak, and just looked at what was going on. There was a silence that you could cut with the knife. Emina looked at us … and it started. She started dancing. She started dancing the most beautiful dance of that day.

The music was heartbreaking, the body trembled … the perfection of body, movement and music. In that moment they were one.

At moments her movements were fast, and the light was entangled with tense muscles. Contrast … from light to darkness, from darkness to light.

Then, the movements became slower … as though she was enveloped by a gentle fog, that calls for the beauty of sensitiveness. Calls for gentle movements. And love.

In that dance she gave everything.

… Fragments …

I do not know how I did it. I barely looked through the lens and photographed, because tears flowed all over the camera.
When the dance ended, I looked at Adrian, who was sitting beside me. I looked at Marina. I think we were all crying then.
And Emina, out of breath, looked at us with a question in her eyes … was it okay?

The answer to that question is left to you, dear readers and viewers.

In this place I wish to thank you, dear Emina. For your complete commitment to the project, for your openness to the ideas that we proposed and for your incredible motivation. Everytime I see you dance, I am touched by the amazing love you have for dancing. I would also like to thank you, dear Adrian, for all the help during the photo shooting and for the unforgettable moments with the leaf blower, which still make me laugh. Thanks to the love and warmth that you radiate, this project was much easier to accomplish. And finally, to you dear Marina, for the support that a man can only dream of. From the fantastic make-up for Emina to thousands of little things that you did on the set without anyone asking and without which the project would not be possible.

Thanks to you, dear NuDanza dancers, who were our inspiration.

With love,
Sašo Kos

Fifteen years ago, when I wrote a series of books on the Neolithic culture of Old Europe (The Return of the Goddess, the Soul of Old Europe), emerged a practice of a spiritual dance called NuDanza. Suddenly there appeared a lot of people who wanted to dance, and I, at least temporarily, changed from a teacher of meditation to the teacher of (neo) dancing.

NuDanza is genuinely a magical dance. It combines the oldest human traditions of ritual movements with most of modern spiritual research and ideas. It is intended for a direct connection with natural laws and elements, but also for creating the experience of unity consciousness ecstatically.

After the first wave of interest, and many workshops and activities, my attention was caught by other projects. However, lately, new energy and the will to dance have emerged. This was mostly influenced by Emina, who added to NuDanza the much-needed warmth but also an unquestionable skill in leading the workshops.

Apart from the NuDanza Starter workshop that is organized on weekends, there is also NuDanza Deepness – a kind of dance retreat we host twice a year.

Have you had the opportunity to look into my book “Sadashiva Tantra”? The Deepness program enters into the area of intimacy and sexuality, but in a way that is acceptable to all. If you indulge in such a dance, it will take you to unforgettable experiences of inner and outer unity.

You can read more about the theory of NuDanza in the article ” NuDanza, a liberating dance” and you can watch the video that was created in the early days of NuDanza (called NeoDance).

Patrick Adrian

NuDanza is a collective name for many dance techniques that create compeling liberating experiences. At this moment NuDanza can be considered a spiritual practice, but its history is very interesting.

NuDanza (then called the NeoDance) was created fifteen years ago as a result of my research of the forgotten Neolithic civilization of Old Europe. This civilization existed in a large area from today’s Czech Republic to the north, across the Balkans, Greece, and to the south and east across the territory of today’s Turkey. Its features were unusual to the extent that they would be almost incomprehensible to the people of today. For example, cities were quite large (often with tens of thousands of inhabitants) and did not have any fortifications or military facilities. No traces of military activities were found, and no substantial differences in social status either. Everything points to gender equality (as opposed to the later emerging patriarchal civilizations with a visible strong male dominance). This indicates the presence of Goddess worship, the female form of supreme intelligence, as opposed to God being male, which became commonplace later, and still is.

Interest in that particular part of humankind’s history necessarily raises the question of how it is possible that for such a long time (about seven thousand years, from 10,000 to 3,000 BC) there were no wars or social upheavals, and how people lived in equality without gender or wealth-based discrimination? Aren’t war and exploitation of others a kind of humankind’s and human society’s common feature, especially in the earliest societies? It seems it is not so. The history of the Neolithic culture of Old Europe teaches us that things may have been different in the past, and that gives us hope that things may, perhaps, change in the future.

What people do and how they act toward themselves and each other is based on their experience; on the inner experience of the world. Obviously, at the time of Old Europe, the experience of people about the world and themselves in it was different than today. Apart from the indisputable historical facts, it is not possible to know what the quality of life of people in Old Europe was and whether it was utopia-like. However, all of us dream of a better society, of more fair relations and more freedom in life.

If there is any chance of realizing a dream of a better world, it lies in changing the experience; in changing the experience of reality inside ourselves as well as outside.

One of the ways to initiate this change is the liberating experience of dance.

We will leave the possible social consequences of that inner experience change to the passage of time and to the increasing number of people who have this experience. Now we are interested in what kind of experience NuDanza creates and why would anyone today decide to start exploring and practicing it?

Dance

First and foremost, NuDanza is a dance. You could call it the “spiritual dance,” but it is crucial that, like every kind of dance, it creates a sense of pleasure. When the body moves in the rhythm of the music, one feels the happiness which, under certain conditions turns into ecstasy.

You might wonder – why not dance the usual way? What’s so special about NuDanza? Well, first, the environment. As you know, dancing today, especially with young people, is almost always related to alcohol, and often to drugs. The attention of such “dancers” is almost always turned outward. Emphasis is on surface values such as appearance, performance or some other value imposed by the subcultural environment of the dance. It is almost impossible to devote oneself to dance without being exposed to excessive noise, smoke-filled dance floors, intrusive people, drug abuse, and other negative phenomena. When was the last time you had a good dance without these seemingly necessary side effects?

NuDanza is a dance in the full sense of the word. It can move you, liberate you, fulfill you… and all without unwanted add-ons, in an environment that you can call spiritual, but is primarily human and free.

Another distinctive feature of NuDanza is that it is intended to create powerful and liberating experiences. That’s its goal. That is why it exists. With other kinds of dance, these experiences appear as side effects, which means the attention of the dancers is not on them. In NuDanza, they are in the very center of the dancer’s awareness, which means that they appear sooner and more frequently, they are stronger and deeper, and they develop and increase over time.

Liberating experiences

Freedom, being the essential feature of a conscious being, is what we all desire. We feel that life is worth living only if we are free. The so-called “spiritual work” is a quest for freedom.

However, how free we actually are? How much of our life do we live outside the patterns that bind us, and how much like prisoners of our desires and needs, prisoners of our karma? To that question, everyone has to find the answer on their own, but the aspiration to freedom – as big and as complete as possible, is familiar to us all.

In my book, “The Elimination of Karma Factor” I have pointed out the nine fundamental karmic factors that captivate us, but also the nine necessary liberating experiences that break the chains we are trapped with. All of the spiritual, personal growth and awareness-raising work can be reduced to these nine liberating experiences. The more such experiences you have, the less you are trapped.

There are various ways to awaken those liberating experiences in yourself. You might be working on some of them in the future, and you must have already experienced some others. But now it is important to point out that NuDanza is a method of direct exposure not to one but instead to four of them!

The first liberating experience is spontaneity, which alleviates or eliminates the constant need for identification. It begins with the spontaneous movements of the body, but spontaneity is transmitted to other aspects of life.

Then, there is playfulness, then the flow experience and ultimately the direct experience of spiritual empathy. In addition to these four liberating experiences that NuDanza awakens directly, it indirectly includes two more: the experience of mystery and the experience of synchronicity.

All in all, by exploring NuDanza, with one move we ease the multiple influences of karmic patterns in our lives and our freedom increases.

The NuDanza Structure

The NuDanza dance method begins by removing patterns at the level of our body or movement. The body is the most common and most potent focal point of identification. The phrase “this is me”, for most people, primarily refers to the body. We are powerfully centered first around our body, and then around the “this is me” feeling. Though we can theoretically understand that this is not so, we have difficulties reconciling that knowledge to our experience. The most important benefit of NuDanza practice is the end of such a firm and unquestioning identification with the material body, which in itself represents a kind of profound decentralization.

Any further exploration of NuDanza is based on the basic dance of “elements” in the so-called “dance of nature.” For this reason, the first workshop (NuDanza Starter) is mandatory and is the foundation of further practice. We learn how to release the body to “natural elements,” earth, water, fire, air, and chaos. In addition to specific but smooth movements, each element belongs to a particular type of breathing. At a deep physical level, the dance of elements breaks the illusion of being separate from nature and each other.

Once a dancer learns how to combine the gentle guidelines of an element with unquestioning spontaneity and to let go to the flow, he/she is ready for further exploration of NuDanza. It can be further pursued through group follow-up dancing or by dancing alone, but the most potent practice is done within the so-called NuDanza Deepness Program (NDP).

NDP is organized as an occasional two-day, three-day or multi-day retreat when we explore the secrets of dance. Each NDP is a separate experience, a one-time unique program that allows dancers to continuously develop while at the same there is no hierarchical structure of gaining experience. Participating in an NDP is not a requirement for attending another, nor is the order of experience essential. Each NDP is a unique opportunity, a small piece of art, a giant step into an area that would otherwise remain untouched. The content and structure of the NDP are dependent on the teacher, but above all on the experience of participants.

The NuDanza Deepness Program is based on the knowledge and techniques covered in the former NeoDance Workshops 2 and 3 (The Dance of Consciousness and Sadashiva Dance) but is not limited to them. Many of the elements and techniques that were barely touched on those workshops will be deeply explored during the NDP.

For example, the areas of NuDanza experience in Deepness Programs will include ritual movements, ritual dances, and generally dances that encourage the emergence of a collective, shared awareness of some experience. The body, as well as the individual self, is no longer seen as the focal point of reality, but as a fragment in which the whole is reflected. In this way, the limitations of individuality become smaller and lighter. The elements of nature have been awakened, and through the rituals, the body, spirit, mind and feelings have become more adaptable and have taken on the role of an instrument, rather than the solid base around which our identity is built.

In some NDPs the focus will be on the problem of subtle male and female energies that exist in all of us. We could explore the area of love and sexuality by breaking the final and most potent chains of centralization, leaving a dancer in the field of complete freedom of body and spirit where one consciousness is perceived through many bodies without limitations.

On this journey – a journey of fun, pleasure, ecstasy, and love –new creative and dance accomplishments are possible; new deepness programs that we cannot yet imagine and which will create themselves as a result of further research into NuDanza.

***

Welcome to the world of NuDanza! You will undoubtedly enjoy a dance practice whose benefits are so far-reaching. You will not even notice when it starts happening, but you will surely know that something has changed, that you are different, freer, and that the world around you – just like the one in you – is no longer the same.

Patrick Adrian