It is based on a lot of research, however I have not included my citations in the text. If you wish to know what texts I looked at for your own research, let me know and I can send you a bibliography.
Enjoy!
-Shanti
Dance is something that is commonly associated with the Craft, with images of witches dancing in ecstasy under the full moon and celebrating the Goddess. We're all familiar with the concepts of the Circle and Spiral Dances, which make their appearances in group rituals quite frequently. There are a lot of reasons why dance is useful in ritual, and can often be used in place of the spoken word. Dance can be used to raise energy, as is the primary function of the Circle or Spiral Dance; it can be used to honour the spirits and the Gods; to invoke; to align to the elements; to induce a trance or state of ecstasy; and even for exorcism. But how many of us harness that power and spirit we feel in the circle at home, in our own sacred space? In this talk, I aim to establish how dance has been used in ritual and spellcraft over the centuries and how this can inform and enhance our modern day practise.
Exploring the use of dance to honour the Gods and Goddesses is an element of dance ritual that goes back centuries. Historical evidence tells us about the different dances that took place in Egypt, Greece and many other countries that were in celebration and honour of their chosen deities. An example of this was an annual dance performed in honour of Persephone and Demeter, which was described by Euripedes as he wrote about the mysteries at Eleusis.
Dance in general was also sacred to several Goddesses of the pantheon, such as Aurora- Goddess of the Dawn- who was believed to have her sacred dancing places. Eurynome, the indigenous Greek Goddess of the Pelasgians, is a very interesting one. She was believed to have risen from the primordial chaos, and her dance was what separated the light from the dark and the sea from the sky. Her movement was raw and powerful, the centre of a creation myth. We can carry that spirit within ourselves when we use our bodies to create magick.
However, ritual dance does not hold its roots in Ancient Greece alone, and it may have been brought over from Egypt by the soothsayer Melampus, via the dances performed at the Dionysiac and Bacchic festivals: Eumeleia, Kordox and Sikinnis. Although this has not been conclusively proved, the theory springs from the Phaiakian dance described by Homer, which greatly resembled a protective dance ritual from Egypt. Additionally, the mimetic dance style appeared in Egypt in honour of Osiris in three forms: the Dance of Lamentation, retelling the sorrows of Nepthys and Isis when Osiris was killed; funerary dances designed to give vitality to Osiris so he can rise again; and a dance for protection and fertility in honour of Osiris and his dominion over the fields.
In the Phaiakian dance, young men danced around a central singer- a format that has survived into our modern day Paganism, where some Wiccan High Priestesses observe their dancing coven from within their circle. It is she who then determines when enough energy is raised for the ritual's purpose and when/where it is directed.
The use of dance to focus the mind and intention of the spell is not isolated to Wicca. It is often a prominent part of Shamanic practise, where the use of music and chanting with dance shifts their state of awareness to another realm. This is another aspect of dance ritual we will explore later.
So far, I have only used examples of group ritual as these are the ones most commonly recorded. However you don't need to be part of a group to work magick this way. Freeform dance and improvisation work just as well and can take on various forms. Referring back to mimetic dance used by the Ancient Greeks, the style can also be used to symbolise what you want your ritual to bring. It doesn't have to be strictly mimetic either, simply use movements that mean something to you. After the mimetic dance was used to shape the ritual, it was then used to give thanks and a tribute to the Gods. Dance works well as an offering to the Deities as it offers up several things that are unique to you: your creativity, your breath, your heartfelt feelings aroused by the dance.
Dance used in ritual seems to be historically in favour of increase: an increase in crop yield, peace, fertility, love, supply in the hunt, etc. Even dances performed in preparation for war have been thought to be mainly for increase in food supply, since most War Gods also have dominion over agriculture. The Aztecs had an annual dance ritual to bring about a successful harvest, one that adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "dance until you drop". In this ritual, a young maiden would dance in a festival honouring the Maize Goddess and it was believed that the more vigorously she danced, the greater the harvest would become. So the maiden would dance and jump and leap and pirouette until she could no longer even hold herself up. At this point, she was sacrificed and her blood was poured into the ground, believing that all the energy raised by her dance ritual was held within and would bless the seeds planted. While this is a rather gruesome example, you can see the parallels of this method of energy transference to that of grounding, which is just as important in dance ritual. The energy raised by the dance ritual is released to where it is intended, and the body is grounded, which is something that can- and is- recreated in modern day ritual, without the exhaustion and bloodshed.
Of course, there are some exceptions in the "increasing" rule, and one of these is the Tarantella. It is now known as a romantic dance traditional to Italian weddings, but its origins are very different. In 1370, a disease broke out in the Italian coastal town Taranto called Tarantism, caused by spider bites and resulted in fever, delirium and vomiting. The dance was similar to the Aztec ritual, in that the dancers would dance energetically and frantically for hours with the purpose of expelling the toxin from the body and saving their lives. Unlike the harvest dance, this was always performed in groups on a relay as it was unlucky to dance alone. There is later evidence that suggests that the spider bites weren't actually fatal and therefore it is possible that the story was used as a smokescreen for the villagers to perform dance rituals to honour a spider Goddess in the open. A dance associated with the Tarantella is the Tregunda, another Italian ritual which was described by Charles Godfrey Leland. In this dance, the witches performed movements that wove an intricate web to catch unwary travellers, the spider imagery carrying on through the Italian Streghe tradition.
The combination of imagery and dance works greatly when movement becomes the main basis of your ritual. Moving away from mimetic movement in ritual, another basis of improvisation in dance ritual is to hold an image within your mind- an image of what/who you are honouring or your spell's intention- and allow that to influence your body, to shape your movement and ritual. There are no right or wrong answers here- like with writing spells, no two practitioners will do it the same way. Allow your body to take over and let it do the talking for you. You will find that your mind will try and take over and tell you want you "should" do in terms of your movement- that perhaps a circular movement would be better than a linear one, or that you must look ridiculous circling your foot that way. It is difficult to let go of that voice, but it is something that you will need to do in order to maintain your focus on your spell. As Isadora Duncan once said, "art which is not religious is not art, it is mere merchandise". This is something we have all come across in our journey as witches- it isn't enough to have the right candle colour, the right incense, to be in the right phase of the moon. If we do not feel it within ourselves, believe that we have that power within ourselves beyond our tools, then our magick will not work. The ritual is a performance and nothing more. It is important to try to maintain that balance between keeping the will of your ritual whilst letting go of insecurities and mental blocks. You need to let your body internalise that focus, not your mind. Your mind will make the dance pretty, your body makes it real.
This is where the trance state created by dance comes in quite handy. If you have ever danced in a club, to a band or as a participant of a dance or dance fitness class, you may have found moments or even long periods of time where you found that you thought of nothing. You lost yourself in the music or the movement and let it carry you, allowing all your mundane thoughts to escape during that time. It may seem like a Catch-22, needing the trance to dance but needing to dance to get into that mindset, but it's no different to establishing the space for your usual ritual. You move in stages to shift your perception from the mundane to the magickal. It may even be worth doing some freeform dance before your ritual, or even a few times before, to get your mind and body to adjust.
In your preparatory dances, focus on allowing whatever you feel to influence how you move. If a certain emotion makes you want to fling your left arm over your head, do it. If your feet feel a need to leave the floor, jump. Similarly, if you suddenly feel no desire to move, allow that stillness to take you. Don't feel like you have to be constantly moving to achieve what you need from dance ritual. You can use that time of stillness to observe your breathing, gathering your energy within you and focus on your intent. When your movement resumes, don't think that your movement must be vigorous or using the entire body. A simple movement of the hand or the finger, a flick of the eye, could be all the dance you require for that moment. There is no need to force any movement, let it come to you, let yourself become one with the space, one with the music if you're using it.