5Rhythms RVA

This is an invitation to the dance only you can do. There are no steps to learn, no preparations to make, no prerequisites to participation. Only curiosity, breath, and your presence, moment by moment, a practice of being. 

Creativity. Community. Connection.

5Rhythms is a movement meditation practice devised by Gabrielle Roth in the late 1970s. It draws from indigenous and world traditions using tenets of shamanistic, ecstatic, mystical and eastern philosophy. It also draws from Gestalt therapy, the human potential movement and transpersonal psychology. Fundamental to the practice is the idea that everything is energy, and moves in waves, patterns and rhythms.

Roth describes the practice as a soul journey, and says that by moving the body, releasing the heart, and freeing the mind, one can connect to the essence of the soul, the source of inspiration in which an individual has unlimited possibility and potential.

The 5Rhythms include “flowing,” “staccato,” “chaos,” “lyrical,” and “stillness,” and form the “Wave,” a simple moving meditation that encourages us to find our own dances of embodied feeling and to discover ourselves at our most fluid and creative levels.

Wear clothes that allow you move freely, including layers to adjust for more or less active movement. Dance barefoot or in soft-soled shoes only. Beware of slippers or socks! Move at your own pace. Be responsible for your own body. Don’t distract yourselves or others with talk. Bring along some curiosity about yourself and others. Move as you feel, and remain open to change. Know that everything that is alive has a dance, and your only task is to find and express yours. Above all, enjoy yourself!