Dancing with the spirits, Act 1: ‘Being grounded and being able to fly are not mutually exclusive’1

Abstract

This article is the first of a diptych, to discuss a particular approach to dancing with the spirit world, from a contemporary shamanic perspective as taught by the Scandinavian Center for Shamanic Studies. It emerges from my participation in the Spirit Dance Workshop from 24 to 29 June 2012 in Sweden with Jonathan Horwitz and Zara Waldebäck, which in turn led to interviewing them over Skype on 9 August 2016. After methodological reflections on source justification, personal immersion and embodied enquiry, this article introduces the concept of spirits in (this) shamanic context and discusses the possibility and etiquette of relating with other-than-human-beings through dance. It contemplates the notion of power and empowerment, drawing from three concrete examples of dancing with the spirit of a tree, the spirit of the night and the spirit of a power animal. Instead of a conclusion, I offer an entr’acte as an in-between, linking this first Act/Article/Acticle of the diptych with the second to come, which will focus on community, ceremony and performance.