Hello to all Dance and Joy lovers,
Many of you receiving this newsletter have been our friends in the Lava and dance community for years. And many have yet to experience the benefits of a weekend of Dances of Universal Peace. So I thought I would write a story on what it’s like to come to us for the first time.
Please share! It would be wonderful if our old-time friends could post their experiences on our Facebook page. Tell us, in your words, what it’s like to come for the first time. What it’s like to come back after a long break.
Lava Hot Springs
The first part of this adventure is driving up to Lava Hot Springs. We know the Colorado people come a long way! And we also have so many people who fly into the Salt Lake airport and either rent a car or catch a ride up to camp. Even Idaho and Montana folks have quite a drive! Either way, you’ll get your first feelings of delight as you pull into this vintage town! Lava Hot Springs is very small, and just full of natural hot springs. No big-box stores here! Over the years Lava has kept their old-timey feel. In fact, there is no big anything!
When you first pull into town you will see the Senior Center on the left by the creek. Drive across the bridge and you are immediately in the downtown where you will (likely) find your motel. There is also camping right across the road from the Senior Center. Check into your motel and then hurry on over to the Senior Center to meet the gang.
Dancing in the Senior Center
As you walk into the Senior Center you’ll immediately be in the hustle and bustle of camp setup. You’ll probably see Wayne and Chris climbing around on ladders and putting up lights. There will be numerous creative people stringing prayer flags, and our delightful cook will be baking for the evening’s potato bar, and arranging pot luck offerings. If you have an offering it’s best to get that situated right away!
Then you’ll find a line of tables by the door where you can meet your first people, finish up any registration for camp, and make a colorful name tag. You’ll notice musicians tuning up and even practicing dances for the evening.
At 6:00 we eat! This will be your first chance to sit and meet some of our far-flung family. We won’t linger over dinner, though, because dancing is at 7:30. Before you know it, we are pushing back chairs and gathering dishes to clean. If you are new, one of the funnest things is to be on the Friday dinner cleanup crew. You’ll feel like one of the gang in just a few minutes – and may even be surprised at how we all jump up and do everything that needs to be done with barely any supervision! Everyone seems to know what do to!
Time to Dance!
By 7:30 the floor is clean, musical instruments are set in the center, and the last dishes are clinking to dry in the kitchen. Someone will start to play a guitar and people will calmly begin walking around in a circle. Some will be quietly by themselves, some will be holding hands or hugging and laughing in small groups. Slowly the sound will build and more and more people will join in with the song.
When we feel like we are all gathered one of the leaders will help us form a circle, lead a short invocation, and get started on the first dance. It’ll be something short and easy. A catchy little tune that you’ll learn so quickly that we will likely drop right into the dance… everyone holding hands and moving to the right, then the left, then in and out. Our feet follows the rhythm of the song, a drum follows the feet.
If you’ve never done this before you’ll go, “Wow!” It’s like you just knew how to do this all along!
Dance and Pray
This is a spiritual meeting where no spiritual teacher gives long talks. The music and song speak. It’s an honoring of all the many beliefs and traditions of the world. Each song is from a different place, a long-ago knowing of truth. Our dance leaders know just what to do! They will step in with an offering – maybe it’ll be fast and crazy, maybe we’ll select partners and get to know each other on a new level, maybe we’ll have a moment of introspection or gratitude. Each leader and each song and dance will bring something different to the group. Each song will be taught new. You’ll never (or rarely) feel new or inexperienced.
We dance from 7:30 to about 9:00. By the end of the first evening it’ll be like we have been here all along; been with each other forever. By the closing we have already created a community. We feel like we could go forever, but we are tired from the long day of traveling and head off to our many beds, and maybe a late soak in the natural hot pools.
Saturday
Saturday morning it’s up early (if you can!). Breakfast starts at 7:45 and dance at 9:00 am. (If you are a dance leader and want to lead, you simply join the team for Saturday morning breakfast and help us put the morning together). Once again we’ll eat, clean, and be walking with each other and the music: holding hands with new friends, appreciating the smiles of people we did not know before, being called into community by the rhythm and harmonies.
Saturday morning dance is three hours which can go in every direction imaginable. We’ll have a time to sit and talk and introduce ourselves, and we’ll have time to go deeper into the experience of the dance and each other as the morning unfolds. After the dance we will roll out a quick lunch, and then have the entire afternoon for soaking in the pools, shopping or selling in the bazaar, attending a class on dance leadership — and often other offerings.
Dinner is again at 6:00 pm, and dancing at 7:30.
By Saturday evening we are experts in music, song and each other. The Saturday evening dance is an opportunity for a deeply unfolding remembrance of who we are. As we gather hands we feel that this is a different kind of moment. Fears and concerns are gone. The people in the circle are particularly beautiful, familiar and joyous… and we start moving. Again, leaders will come in and out, but there is hardly a change or a break as we build, and move, and soften in song. The experience is one that replenishes and rejuvenates through the evening until we finish in a soft clump all together.
This is a moment that stays in the heart. As you sleep Saturday night you’ll enjoy melodies in your head which seem to come and go by themselves through the night.
Sunday
As we awake on Sunday morning we start feeling the call of our moment of leaving. Breakfast is still early, but we have a little extra time to check out of motels and gather for our final dance at 9:30. The call of the road is beckoning… but we have a full two and a half hours of dance and joy, now, with the best family you have ever known. We’ll definitely kick up our heels and spin. We may even shed a tear, and find a warmhearted hug. As we move through the circle we know that this is something we want to do over and over! You may even start planning your next dance with us in the fall, or start looking at schedules of dance camps all around the world and dreaming of your next circle of friends.
Just before noon all the stops are out! Every guitar, drum and voice in the room joins for a final goodbye to each other in the circle, and the final hugs are more an “I’ll see you soon!” than a goodbye. Once again lunch is whisked into the room and we sit with anyone with whom we have made a special connection. Some people pack and head out immediately for long journey’s home. Most jump up and clean and arrange the Senior Center back the way it was when we came. Again you’ll see Wayne and Chris up on ladders taking down lights. Creative decorators will lower and fold the flags. Someone will grab the broom and start sweeping under everyone’s feet. Several hearty souls will spiff the kitchen to a level of shine it hasn’t known since our last retreat.
Slowly, by ones, two’s and three’s, the friends depart. As you leave this place, that was so strange to you the day you walked in, you’ll pause and look back in gratefulness. So much happened here in such a brief moment of time. You’ll say, “Thank you” to yourself for taking the time to come.
And that’s what a dance retreat at Lava Hot Springs is like!