Dance Leading Check List

1. Why: Self Reflection
   1. Always keep your purpose in mind and look deeply to understand your motives.
   1. Why do you want to lead? Are you committed to the work?
   1. Why do you pick particular chants? Is it about you, or is it about what will fit the session and the group.
2. What: Your list of Dances
   1. Words: Do you know the words correctly?
   1. Attunement: Have you explored the meanings/intention/goal of that particular version of the chant?
   1. Rhythm: What is the rhythm?? What key?
      1. Make sure the key is not too high or too low – A good guideline is to go no lower than G below middle C, and no higher than A.
      1. Can you sing it comfortably? Will the high voices strain to reach high notes? Will the low voices bottom out? Will anyone be jumping octaves as they sing? If you’re not sure, check this out with musicians or trusted singing friends before deciding on a key.
   1. Musicianship: Are you playing a musical instrument? Have you practiced? It’s good to practice playing your instrument singing and dancing the movements, and calling changes to the circle, all at the same time.
   1. Musicians: If you have musicians, do you have supporting materials so they can best help you? This could be the printout of the DUP writeup. If you know the chords are you ready to communicate that with your musicians?
3. Where:  The circle and the team
   1. Local Circle: This is typically, one session, evening or weekends. Often on a regular date (like first Thursday).
   1. Your Own Retreat: If you are putting on your own retreat you have lots of work to do! I won’t even start.
   1. Staff at Retreat: If you are staff at a retreat, you will have specific responsibilities. You’ll know your role. Be prepared.
   1. Attending a Retreat: If you are attending someone else’s retreat and hoping to lead it’s a totally different matter. Be very prepared if you get a chance to lead.
      1. Pro tip: Choose something simple and bulletproof that will fit in the overall session, rather than pulling out your favorite complicated dance.
   1. Solo: If you are the only leader in a local circle, you will be in charge of all details. The more prepared you are, the easier it will be to grow your circle.
   1. Team: If you are working with a dance team you’ll need to plan when to meet, and how you’ll coordinate the dance session. Here are typical structures.
      1. Dance Pole: Sometimes one leader is chosen to be the pole. They hold the container of the dance, set the order, usually start and stop the session (i.e. open the container for the session and close it.)
      1. Dance card: A dance can be planned with specificdances and their order decided beforehand.
      1. Leader Order: More experienced leaders can simply assign each leader a spot, and dances chosen on the fly.
      1. Just wing it: This can sometimes work with an experienced team (or if for some reason there was no time to plan). It can also lead to dead space while everyone chats about what to do next.
   1. Time: How much time do you have? Ballpark calculation is that each dance takes 15 minutes. So, a 2-hour session could have 8 dances.
   1. Logistics: Also important is the planning and coordinating: who rents the building, who sends out emails or advertisements, who has the key to unlock the building, who puts up the tent? How do people get fed and who cleans up.
4. Leading the Dance
   1. Sing first: ALWAYS sing the chant first. This captures the dancer’s attention and lets everyone know what’s coming. It also brings the chant/melody into the space as a vibrational container for everything you subsequently say/teach AND it grounds and centers you, as the leader, in the energy of that chant.
   1. Really I mean it…  Sing the chant first.
   1. Connect: Connect with the people around you, the dancers and the musicians. If the heart connection comes first, then it’s easier to teach the song.
   1. Teach the Words: And get everyone singing. Help everyone get the pronunciations and meanings.
      1. This can be done by calling the next line [LOUDLY] as people sing along, or if there is not space in the melody to do that, you can stop and teach it. Ask, “Does anyone need to go over it again?” or “Are we good?” before moving on. Don’t skimp here; take enough time that most of the people get it – but if the words are simple (“Amen alleluia” or “Allah”) don’t belabor it.
      1. Chattering: Pay attention to the sort of thing that makes people start chattering. If the words seem complicated you can say something like, “Don’t worry, the movements will help you learn the words.”
   1. Teach the Movements: It’s very helpful to have planned this out beforehand. Trying to wing it can be uncomfortable for everyone.
   1. The Attunement: You may have given an attunement while teaching the words. But it might be good to give an extra attunement before starting the dance. (Did I mention that you shoulda started by singing the song, which means you didn’t start with the attunement?)
      1. PLEASE!!! Think all the details of your attunement beforehand and then shorten, shorten, shorten, until you can be interesting and brief.
   1. The Dance: Start the dance watching carefully for confusion.
      1. CALL the directions the first few times, if need be.
      1. It’s perfectly okay to stop the dance and start over if you need to.But unless the Dance immediately falls apart (people just standing there looking confused, or partners getting lost, or the circle trying to go in three directions at once), give it a couple of rounds to see if it falls into place.
      1. Trust your dancers. They will help each other.
   1. Dynamics: Changing voices, volume and tempo are good ways to keep the dance interesting.
   1. Changes: It’s critical to call for changes before the end of the phrase. Listen carefully to the song as everyone is singing. Where is the space where you can be heard?
      1. If you wait too long people will already be singing the next phrase before they can respond to your change.
   1. High/Low: Calling for high and low voices really changes the dynamics, it also gives the people not singing a chance to listen and rest.
      1. Call your bit first: If youare a ‘high-voice’ call for high voices first. If you are a ‘low-voice’, call for the low voices first. This is so the dancers can feel comfortable singing along with you. It puts people on the spot to suddenly be singing by themselves if they don’t know the words.
      1. Low Voices: The dances are usually predominately high voices. If you only have one or two low-voices in the circle it’s most kind to not put the poor guys on the spot. In that case, don’t call for voices.
      1. Don’t overdo it: Please don’t make it overly complicated by switching the voices over and over, unless that really adds to the dance.
      1. If you call for voices it’s usually good to bring back everyone before you call “on the breath” so that the full tone of the music reverberates in the silence.
      1. Try to vary the dynamics throughout a full session. Don’t always go: high voices, low voices, everyone, on the breath.
   1. Energy: The best way to change the energy during a dance is to either embody it or follow it. Sometimes things will go quiet on their own, sometimes it will go exuberant on its own.
      1. Energy: It’s best not to say things like, “With more feeling.” Or “With more love.”Follow the feelings and it will get there. It’s best not to, name an energy, push it or fight it; let the circle’s wisdom decide. One exception might be if you KNOW a Dance is supposed to be quiet and introspective and the party-animals in the circle want to rev it up.
      1. Faster/Slower: On the other hand, it’s perfectly legitimate to say Faster or Slower, as that is a very efficient way to change tempo. Sometimes you can embody tempo, sometimes you can use your words. Look at your musicians as you lead… hopefully they are looking at you!
      1. Disasters: Sometimes partners get hopelessly lost in a dance.It’s okay to stop the dance, re-partner and start again. Often it’s good to give the people in the circle enough time to work it out. It can actually be fun.
   1. Ending Options:
      1. Say it: You can call out, “Last time.”
      1. Slow down: just slow down as you get near the end.
      1. Bring people in close before the end: Sometimes is nice to sing the song again in close where everyone can hear.
      1. Sudden stop: A sudden stop is tricky… make sure all your musicians are watching you. And believe it or not, at this point most of the circle is watching you too, so give a clear cue, and it might really work well.
   1. Closing:
      1. Silence: Very often a silence at the end of a dance brings the dance deeper.Hold the silence as long as feels comfortable to you. A count of one-two-three-DONE is probably not long enough.
      1. Like a symphony: if you have a number of dances that will work together as a symphonic movement the ending silence on the first dances can be short, working up until the final dance goes deepest of all and holds a long silence.
      1. Sealing phrase: Seal the song with the appropriate ending: Amen, Amin, etc.
         1. Know what the appropriate seal is before you step in to lead that Dance!

Transcript of Video meeting

Okay. Cool. Hello, everybody.

Sky isn’t making it this time. She is at a retreat up in Canada. So, um, I started putting together this dance-leading checklist. I thought we could just go over it.

Has everybody seen it? Let me put a link to the website where I have it. Message everybody.

And what’s funny about it, I don’t know how well we’re going to get through this thing, because I thought it was going to be this little tiny checklist, and then it just grew and grew and grew. And then Sky added a whole bunch of stuff to it, and more than likely we’ll change it again. It doesn’t seem to get any shorter as we do this.

So why don’t we just kind of go through it? Is everybody seeing it?

Participant: Yeah, I’m looking at it.

Zareen: You’re looking at it. Okay. Let’s go through every little section, just kind of briefly, one by one, and see what people have to add to it or change.

So, of course, we start out with, like, why? Why are we even doing this?

This is kind of just a really good practice for each of us to do before we stand up and start leading. I find that it makes me less nervous when I have kind of a firm why of why I’m getting up to lead a dance.

The things I put in the list were: have your purpose in mind and always check your motives. Why do you want to lead? How committed are you to doing this? And then, why are you picking these particular chants that you’re going to be doing in the dance that you’re getting ready to lead?

Is it about you, or is it what will fit the session in the group?

Does anybody have anything to add to that?

Participant: It seems elementary for where we are in the Sedona group. We’re getting together all through the month and choosing the theme, choosing who’s going to lead what dance. We’re prepared to go into rehearsal an hour before the dance.

And it seemed like I really related to the person who was talking before, where she said that that whole part is organized. Do you have new dance leaders coming up?

Zareen: No.

Participant: And do you have people that just show up to lead? Like, say someone comes to your circle and they’re a dance leader from somewhere else. Does that—

Zareen: Unless we’ve requested them to be there.

Participant: Yeah, yeah.

Zareen: So what we’re trying to really gear this for is new dance leaders, because it’s dance leader training, and to help us, as more experienced dance leaders, kind of think about the needs of new leaders as well. Like, how do we bring them up, and what advice do we give them?

Participant: Right. You know, I think that I’m going to go over your written materials, and if that situation arises for us in bringing new leaders in, I can come back to this, and the recordings will be there.

But I don’t think that this is necessarily for me because I’ve been—I learned from a long time ago, in 1990, from Neil Douglas-Klotz in Santa Fe, and have been doing the dances for, let’s say, 10, 20—say 30 years or so.

So I appreciate what you’re doing very much, and I see that you’re coming from an attitude of love and consideration and caring for all who are there.

Zareen: And we’re really committed to bringing new dance leaders in.

Participant: Yeah.

Zareen: Are there young people?

Participant: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Another participant: And older people, too. And there’s a lot of people who are in circles that are starting to decline and diminish, who’ve been a dance leader—who’ve been a dancer for a really long time—and are stepping up into the dance-leading role.

Zareen: Yeah. So that’s really that. So thanks, Kate, because that really kind of helps focus, right, the exact intention that we have for doing that.

Kate: Yeah. Thank you. And I will be the grateful recipient of all you’re doing.

Zareen: Okay.

Kate: Okay. Thank you.

Zareen: I’m like, God bless you. Bye.

Kate: Okay.

Zareen: Anybody else? Are we moving on?

Okay, number two.

Participant: What? Add to it?

Zareen: Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you have about the why? Why are we doing this?

Participant: I missed what you had said. Are you looking for our descriptions about that or our experience of that?

Zareen: Yeah, and to look at my checklist here. I’m hoping to turn this into something useful for people.

So in the checklist, I just always said, always keep your purpose in mind, and really that’s kind of useful for us experienced people as well, right? And then why? Why do you want to lead or learn to lead, and how committed are you to this?

Participant: Yeah, I have it in front of me. I’m asking, when you read it, are you asking us if there’s anything more to add to the list, or our experience of the why?

Zareen: Oh, I’m asking—I don’t know what I’m asking. I didn’t think of it.

Participant: I think both.

Zareen: Both of those things. Yeah.

Participant: Or maybe, is this useful to having this list at all?

Zareen: Okay.

Participant: Well, I can answer all three, if I can put short input. I think it’s a great ABC question. All of them are great. And it’s very in-depth, because what does that even mean? Are you committed to the work? That in itself is huge.

Zareen: That, yes.

Participant: Why you want to lead? I think it’s really important to ask ourselves why we’re doing anything we do at any point in time. I think it’s a really good question to start with.

Why do you pick a particular chant? Well, maybe because I feel really connected to that. I personally feel really connected to that dance. So it is a—

Zareen: Right.

Participant: And it’s not because, “Oh, I learned that here with this person,” and now it has none of that. It’s just, this is my—I have a connection, and it’s where I can lead beautifully and well.

Zareen: Right, right.

And, you know, that is kind of a little slanted towards the experience that Sky and I have in bringing new people into our retreats. So many times someone will step in, you know, and as we go through this list, you’ll see I try to distinguish between the difference of doing your own regular, you know, monthly practice at home, or going to someone else’s retreat, or putting on your own retreat.

So you step in and you’re a new dance leader. We have lots of people who step in and just want to do their favorite dance that’s really speaking to them, rather than thinking about the whole continuity of the particular session that they’re stepping into.

So I think we’re really emphasizing that in this list. Does that kind of make sense?

Participant: Zareen, I can’t hear you.

Participant: In that regard, if there is someone stepping in and there’s not been time to meet together and know what the purpose of the theme is, how would they know what’s going to fit?

Zareen: So our next lesson is going to be, “How do you put a dance session together?”

And one of the ways you can do it—one of the skills we can have—is learning how to popcorn. So what you do is you kind of pay attention to what happened before.

And there’s been so many times where I’ve had a particular dance planned, and then something happens before my time so that I have to completely change what I just did. But that’s a lot to ask a brand-new dance leader to do.

You know, and I’ve also been in situations where we have a brand-new dance leader coming in, and so all the experienced dance leaders focus their intention to create a perfect container for this new person, so that what they’re doing is going to land.

So no matter what they do, it will fit. You know? And so that the cohesive whole happens, and that person gets a really positive experience in learning to lead, too.

So all those things are important.

What then? This kind of leads to this: what your list of dances that you’re bringing—what is it you’re bringing?

Do you know the words? Have you really thought through your attunement?

And then just some really specific things that we see go wrong.

Do you know what the rhythm of the dance is? Do you know what key it needs to be in so that it’s not too high and not too low?

And we could have a whole session just on that, because women’s voices, high voices, have very different needs that don’t necessarily fit on the scale.

Well, can you sing it comfortably?

Very important, especially if you’re going to follow the guideline to step in and just sing it. Is it too high for you, or is it too low?

And I’m sure you guys have all noticed that you show up in the morning, say it’s going to be a morning dance, and your voice is really low. But by the time it comes for you to lead your dance, it really needs to be higher.

Has anybody experienced that?

Participant: Because you warmed up.

Zareen: So can you sing it comfortably?

And it’s always really good to know the musicianship that goes along with it. Like, if you’re playing a guitar, you can really be in charge. And have you practiced? And, you know, exactly how have you practiced with your guitar?

But if you have other musicians, have you given them what they need?

And before we started, Carmen gave a really good example of her circle. The musicians always practice beforehand, which is, of course, the ideal.

So, anybody have anything on this? Exactly what with your dances?

Okay, now into the practical: where?

So, are you doing a local dance circle? Are you doing your own retreat? Are you a staff person at a retreat? Or are you just attending a retreat and hoping to get to lead?

So those are very different places where you can be leading dances.

And I want to emphasize: anybody can start a circle. And anybody can start a retreat, too. I think we kind of think that only the big guys can do that, but it’s not true.

And a local circle—local circles are the backbone of the Dances of Universal Peace. Because without local circles, people just really wouldn’t know.

How many people here do a local circle?

Oh, okay. Good. Good.

So the needs of a local circle are very much different from the needs of a retreat. Because, first of all, you’re going to basically just do one dance session per day for your local circle.

In a retreat, there’ll be several days, and so you actually work on starting the retreat and then building the energy and then bringing it to the close at the end, days later.

You do that whole thing in, what, two hours, when it’s a local circle.

So that’s two really different skills: to know how to lead in a local circle and know how to lead in a retreat.

Or there’s one other thing that can happen. You can lead in somebody else’s thing, like Songa Fest, or you could be asked as a dance leader to come just lead a few dances at some other things, like a gathering down in the park or something like that.

Has anybody ever done that?

Participant: Yeah.

Zareen: Or maybe, like, in a school, come lead a few dances in a school. That’s a totally different where. I probably won’t add it to my list because my list’s too big.

Oh, and so, more where: are you the only dance leader in your local circle, or do you have other people?

Right? Those are totally different considerations.

And if you’re working with a team, how are you going to organize it?

And I think we’re going to have our whole next Zoom meeting be talking about this: how to put a dance session together. And so we’ll be talking about doing it solo or with a team.

Who all does it solo?

Ah, okay.

Who does it in a team?

Okay. And I would assume everybody that does it in a team might occasionally end up in a situation where you’re doing it solo, right?

Participants: Yeah. Yeah.

Zareen: So, anybody have anything to add to that?

What’s the difference between solo and in a team?

You know, yeah, yeah, go. Just unmute and go and talk.

Participant: In my experience—yes. Do you hear me?

Zareen: Yes, I hear you.

Participant: Okay. Hello. I’m from Belgium.

Zareen: Oh, hello. Hello.

Participant: In my experience, if you lead alone, you hold everything in your own hands, and for me personally, that gives me some peace of mind.

I don’t play any instrument myself. I have two musicians who accompany me, so that’s really nice, but I’m the only dance leader, so I’m really in charge.

And I find it easier when I just know and can prepare myself and do the whole setting than when I have to do some parts.

Like, for example, on a Sufi day, there are some meditations and then dance or something like that. I find it more complicated that way because then I would certainly have to jump in.

Well, if you’re on your own, you can totally make the atmosphere and, you know, bring how you want it. And then suddenly it’s like, yeah, now you—

It’s going to be a very big difference.

I practice in the Netherlands. The training, the density training, and then all the training—all the dance leaders have to do one by one. So you just take over from somebody else. You don’t make the atmosphere yourself.

So for me, it’s harder to do that than if I do it on my own.

Zareen: Right. Right. Yeah, I really hear you, and I agree that, I mean, there’s really—when you can just do it all on your own, you have it all planned and you can really focus.

But when you’re working with a really experienced team that knows how to do that together, it can be just as—yeah, it can be just—

Participant: I can imagine that.

Zareen: Uh-huh. It can be just as cohesive.

Are you planning on working on bringing new leaders in and training new leaders to join your circle?

Participant: Just training myself. Step by step.

Zareen: Okay. Good.

Well, you’ll find that everything you learn for yourself is what you then turn around and teach other people. And so it can be really disruptive for a new person to step in. And it can also be really beautifully surprising what can happen, too.

So, Amy, did you have something?

Amy: Well, really, I love to collaborate, but we have to practice ahead of time, and we need to have the lineups. I like it when it’s organized. I don’t like it just people popping in, and I think that’s unfair to musicians and everybody else.

I do enjoy—I think it lightens the load of having to retain and play for me for six dances or seven dances.

And I just, I like that process also, but, you know, do what needs to be done.

Zareen: Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes working with a team is very relaxing because they do something, and then you come in and you take it from there, and then they take it from you, and that can be really nice.

Amy: Yeah, but the people who are supportive of each other, and you kind of have a philosophical agreement of how you want it.

Zareen: Mm-hmm.

So when you are—so here’s my next thing on the list, too.

So when you are working with a team, there’s different ways you can do it. You can have one person who’s the poll, and they just decide, “You’re going to do this. You’re going to do that.”

You know, or actually, the poll can do it all sorts of different ways.

You can actually have a dance card.

And that sounds like that’s what you like to do, Amy, where everyone knows what they’re going to lead and they practice it beforehand, and it goes in order, and then you just get together and you—

Amy: Right. It’s still fluid because we’re coming into a circle that we might not know. If we have a lot of people who have some mobility issues, or if we don’t have—sometimes it’s going to be a very small circle, so maybe what you do about partner dances, so you need to be able to—

Sometimes you never know.

Zareen: Yeah. Sometimes something just doesn’t fit, so it’s good to have something else in your pocket.

I think it’s a hard balance between planning it, but then also having some fluidity in the circle, because you want to be able to respond to the now, you know?

Participant: Right.

Zareen: It’s probably very few of us that have such large, well-established circles that we don’t ever get any surprises.

Participant: Right. Right.

Zareen: So a dance card works really well that way, you know, especially if you know the people that you’re working with.

Another way you can do it, though, is you can just say, “This is the order we’re going to go in. You know, it’s going to be Mary, then it’s going to be Joe, then it’s going to be Bob.”

And then each person just knows where they’re going to be in the circle, and then they each decide what dance they think will fit there.

Well, you want to try to set your—so I don’t want to do five aerobic dances in a row. I mean, I think you need to have some kind of a pacing so that—

Participant: Yes, you need to have a real—Arabic dances—

Zareen: I mean, I think people need to plan to present a variety and have a presentation that is cohesive and fit, but also works. I mean, has to work for the whole circle.

I think a real experienced team can do it.

Participant: Yeah. Yeah, an experienced team would know.

Zareen: So, you know, I’m given the spot right after you, and you just do this killer aerobic dance. I’m not going to come in and try to do a killer aerobic dance right after that. I’m going to change what it is to fit.

Which is interesting, because by the time you get to the end, you have no idea—you had no idea at the beginning where you were going to end up, right? Because everybody has to change as they go along.

Sometimes it can be very, very beautiful that way. Sometimes it can be a complete disaster as well.

Participant: I think I like it more planned, although we know that the next dance—so that the next person—so that everyone sets up for the next person. You know, I think that’s really important to think about, too, because some people really, really like the planning and some people really like fluidity.

Zareen: Yeah. Like if you took Bernie Hudeman and you tried to stick him into just totally planning, you’d hear about it afterwards.

So actually, I think—so me, I go around and I lead at all sorts of different situations. And so I try to be comfortable with all these different ways to do it.

And then, so I have—one of my ways you can do work with other people is just wing it.

And that can be really good. Like, there’s so many times, like, you show up and you have no idea who’s going to show up. I mean, I do so many things where we’re still just such new circles that we just don’t know.

And some Betty will show up from Oregon or something like that, you know, and we want to include them in, but we all show up late. Or somebody shows up late and so we have to just wing it.

And that can work.

As good as popcorn.

But the thing you’ve got to really make sure doesn’t happen is that there’s a big silence while people are going, “Well, who’s going to go next?”

Does anybody have something? You know, that’s awful.

So just winging it can work. But, boy, really pay attention to the experience that your dancers are having, because it can just turn into talking, talking, talking, and all the energy gets dispersed.

Rockman: One of the things I’ve used when there’s that kind of empty space while we’re preparing is to suggest to the circle, you know, “So we’re going to take a couple minutes here while we’re doing this.”

While you continue holding hands, give them a little practice. Do, do on your breath from the dance we just finished, on the breath. Inhale this, exhale that, or some other thing for them to do to stay attuned so that when the next leader comes in, it’s not just chaos of people having chatted.

Zareen: And be aware ahead of time. Also, you know, there’s always the situation where you do a couple of dances and then everybody needs to go get a drink or go to the bathroom or something like that, too.

Participant: Right.

Zareen: And so you have to try to get them to come back.

So I do kind of that same thing, Rockman, where you want to keep the people that are staying engaged while the other people go and come back.

Participant: Yes.

Carmen: There is also a hybrid option here.

Zareen: Yes.

Carmen: That incorporates some of the options here. Like, for example, you can have a dance card, but somebody can wing it.

Zareen: Ah, yes.

Carmen: Like, you could have—and I’ve been in circles like that.

But Bernie could do that. Bernie can be the person that wings it, and others want—like, there’s a dance card and there’s a sequence, and this leader is going to do this dance, this leader is going to do that, and Bernie’s going to do this one, and maybe two dances later Bernie’s going to do that other one.

But then everybody’s really tired by the time that Bernie’s going to do his second dance, and he can sense that, and he’s done—it’s a high-energy—and he says, “Nope, I’m going to do this other one.”

And he has the guitar, and he doesn’t need anybody to follow him with the guitar, and he does whatever feels right for the moment.

So some people can do the winging. Some people cannot. If you don’t play guitar, you can’t expect anybody will just follow you on the spot.

So they could be hybrid versions of the options presented here, too.

Zareen: Yeah, very well said. I think Amy mentioned that a little bit, too, that sometimes, you know, she has her set session, and then sometimes something needs to change.

Didn’t you say that, Amy?

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. You want to be open to—yeah, the people seem tired. You’re not—you know, they’ll want an energetic dance at the end, or to be able to adapt.

And we have some people who have the mobility—sometimes we’ll sit down to learn the song, right, a couple of times, and then get up and do the movement so that we don’t wear some of our people out.

Especially if it’s a song that’s got a lot of words or something that requires a little bit of time. That’s kind of an enjoyable part of the process also, that people aren’t doing that.

And we’re dealing with this—our community is significantly way over 70. You need to be 80.

Zareen: Yeah. I hate it when I have to just stand there for a really long time. I need to be moving.

Participant: Yeah.

Zareen: Let’s see, Eliana. I said, hand is up.

Eliana: Hi.

Zareen: Yeah.

Eliana: So I just had this thought that maybe, even though you might have a song planned, maybe you should choose two songs—like one that’s up and one that’s more mellow—so that you have two songs in your head just in case.

Like, instead of going, “Oh, no, now I’ve got to scramble and figure out a song.”

Like, for me, because it would be harder for me because I don’t know the songs, like, if I just had them written, or, you know, like, where you just were ready for two different songs. Does that make sense?

Zareen: That totally makes sense.

And you know, that brings up a thought that—it’s like I show up to places, you know, and everybody’s leading, and I always think everybody is so much smarter than I am, that they all just know all these dances and they just do it.

And so I remember—so I’m sitting in the circle with Sky and Bernie, right? She’s going to watch this later and she’ll know.

So I’m sitting in there, and I noticed they both have all these sheets of paper, and they’re going through the sheets of paper, and I’m like, “Wait. They have to practice, too. They don’t just know everything.”

Participant: Well, I just want to say, Zareen, how amazing you are, because I never—I always feel like you’re so ready and you just—you’re up and you just flow right into the song. You just start playing.

Zareen: Yeah, well, it’s not true. I have an app on my phone that has all my songs in it. And so I can just pick it up so quick, and I’m like, “Oh my God, what am I going to do? You know what I’m doing? Oh, that’ll work.”

Participant: Well, what kind of app is that? What kind of app is that?

Another participant: Right. Tell the app.

Zareen: It’s an app. It’s called—I use one that’s called Songbook.

Participant: And the Apple or Android?

Zareen: It’s everything. It’s Apple, it’s computer, it’s Android. And what’s really cool is it can sync. So Wayne and I have the same thing.

And so I can put together a playlist and then I can sync it with him, and all he has to do is—

Participant: Say the name one more time.

Zareen: He’s going to go, though. Okay, so, Songbook. Songbook.

Participant: Yeah, I’m good at that.

Zareen: Yeah. Let me show you.

So, let me go get—so you can see, maybe, there’s all the various kinds of dances that I do inside Songbook, and like, here’s all my playlists.

And so I can click on a playlist, and so here’s—here’s all my dances that are just ready to go that I’ve practiced.

Participant: But you’ve recorded it auditory into that?

Zareen: You can add a link to—but no, it’s written. It’s written out. Let me show you one.

Like, here’s “Amen, Hallelujah.” That’s what it looks like.

Participant: And how’d you get it in there?

Zareen: Um, you—they type it in. You type it in. Like, so here it is. Here’s the editing part. You type—you put it in.

It’s got this little code. It’s really easy to learn once you figure out how to do it, and I could send you some sample codes.

Maybe we should have a whole lesson just on how to use—

Participant: How to cheat.

Zareen: How to cheat! How to cheat so fast nobody knows you’re doing it.

Participant: But is the audio also recorded?

Zareen: I can put a link to audio in there, and I also can put a—let’s see. Let me find one.

I can also put a little image.

Participant: The score.

Zareen: Score.

Participant: And where are you linking these things to? You said a link, but where are they linked to?

Zareen: If I do a link, it would have to be a link to someplace online, which, of course, isn’t going to work if you’re not online.

Right. But what I usually need to know is—I’m like, I mean, do you guys have the same problem? Of course, we’re totally off script here.

But it’s like so many songs are so much the same, and I’m like, “Wait, how does that one go?” Right?

And so if I can look at the little write-up, then I’m like, “Oh, you know, it’s—what is this? La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” I can remember.

You just need to be able to read music if you’re going to do it that way.

But you could put a link to something online, too, and I’ve done that before, too, where I’m like, you know—

Participant: Oh yeah. I’ve had to do that on my online Zoom sometimes. I haven’t written down a Lila, Halala.

Zareen: Okay, which one?

Participant: So, not to keep us too off script for what you want to do today, but I just looked it up. There’s Songbook. There’s Songbook Pro. There’s a number of Songbook—

Zareen: Right. I have Songbook Pro. And here, can you see the icon right there? It’s kind of orange.

Okay, and I do Songbook Pro, and it’s like a one-time purchase.

And so I can—and then I hook it to my Dropbox so that I can sync with Wayne.

So I can actually input the songs on my computer because it’s so much faster and easier, right? And then sync it to my phone.

And the really nice thing is I can put together a playlist, and then I can sync it to Wayne, and so he knows exactly the order I’m going to do things.

And we do it for kirtans and for dances, and, you know, if we’re going to be playing music down at a restaurant or in the park or something like that, too.

So, yeah.

So maybe, maybe I should change the name of my list, or maybe I should make a new list. It’s like, “How to cheat so no one knows you’re doing it.”

Participant: Can I add something?

Zareen: Yes, yes.

Participant: I have these little notes. There are several dances—very little. I wrote them out with the chords in it and the steps in it so I can look it up.

I put it in my—how do you say?

And then—

Zareen: Okay. Oh, yeah. All right. That will fit here.

Participant: So some six or seven dances that are always handy.

Zareen: So the way I started out is—remember back in the day when all we had was the books?

And I took all my books and I put them in this little folder so that I could go through and find it. And I made an index.

Participant: Yeah, great. Help me get to it.

Zareen: And I do the exact same thing, too, but mostly for practicing, because it’s just a little stressful, you know? And you wanted to sit down and just practice effectively.

And so I made this little—

Participant: Yeah, also—

Zareen: Yeah. And then I bring that because these are my totally bulletproof—no, you know, but I do need a reminder. It’s like, what key is it in, and stuff like that.

So—and really, that’s just kind of about being prepared. Be prepared in the best way, you know.

And I think maybe the biggest thing to let everyone know is that good dance leaders prepare and put a lot of work into it.

And that’s kind of what I meant in that very first thing where I—where I’m like, do you want to lead, and are you committed?

Because I think sometimes we make it look so easy that we don’t realize that everybody has to put in that amount of work.

Participant: Except for maybe—

Another participant: I mean, yeah, right. It’s not just me.

Zareen: Yeah. We have to practice, practice, practice. Get it in the body.

Participant: Right, right.

Zareen: And so that leads us right into the next thing on my checklist. It’s like, leading the dance.

And it all boils down to: have you practiced? Which is, first of all, going to make you more comfortable and less nervous.

If you practiced, right?

Participant: Confidence.

Zareen: Yeah.

So, um, well, see, Carmen came in and said—so I say, always sing the song first. Just one time through, though.

You know, like, sometimes someone will come out—

Well, and of course, Bernie, you know, I’ll sing it through over and over and over and over, you know. Twenty times later, you know, and you’re new and you’re like, “I still don’t get it.”

But if you sing it, the human ear and the human brain can pick up words inside melody easier than it can pick it up speaking.

Yeah, you know, there are scientists, anthropologists who are coming out now saying that music came before speech, before language. That it was actually the first language.

So you’re kind of using that trick with people when you step in and sing it first.

And of course, you know, nothing can be completely written in stone, but if you’re a new dance leader, or if you’re stepping into somebody else’s circle where you’re not really well known, you know, this just kind of makes everything work well.

You just sing the song.

You know, and then the people that know it, they’re like, “Oh, yeah.”

And then the people—hopefully it’s like a pretty song, or I mean, the melodies are compelling, right? And so you’ve shared the melody first thing.

And then—I am kind of stuck on this, aren’t I?

I have in my list, “Sing the song first,” and then I have, “Really mean it.”

And because what that does is it connects you with the people in the circle if you’ve sung it.

Then teach the words.

Make sure everybody’s getting it.

And, you know, you guys look like pretty experienced leaders, but don’t you really watch the circle?

Participants: Yeah.

Zareen: Like, you know, to me, if there’s one person that’s not getting it, use that person to make sure everyone’s getting it, right?

Because that person’s important, you know, and they’ll love it so much more if they kind of get it.

Sometimes the words are so complicated that they’re not going to get it the first time, really, and then you have to give them permission to not be perfect with it.

Because ultimately, when we move, that’s the thing that happens.

Oh, yeah. And you’ll notice that if you sing it first and then teach the words and get everybody singing it together, it reduces chattering in the circle.

And once the circle starts chattering, you’ve really lost it.

But my advice there is don’t criticize them and say, “Stop talking.”

I find what really works good is I just stop and I go, “Talk amongst yourselves.”

What? I tell them, “Talk.”

And then they like—talk on purpose—and then, boom, it just stops.

Rather than criticize them and try to stop them, give them a moment to talk. They want to talk.

So, anyway.

Carmen: Yes. I want to share what Bernie did one time in one retreat because it was brilliant.

Everybody was talking and laughing, and he started a song, and people kept interrupting and talking and laughing.

So pretty soon, he just stopped. He kind of hugged his guitar, and he just went around the circle looking at everybody with a big smile on his face.

And I’m just looking at everybody and just walking around in the circle and looking at everybody.

And eventually, people just got the message.

“Okay, he’s just waiting. Let’s just stop.”

And that did the trick.

Zareen: Yeah, yeah.

But, you know, if you criticize them, it kind of just ruins the whole point.

Participant: Yeah, I agree.

Zareen: Of an energy that you don’t want when you criticize people in the dance circle and you’re grumping.

Participant: Oh, nice.

Another participant: Terrible. In yourself, too. In yourself, too.

Zareen: Yeah. All of a sudden you’re not gently inviting people back in with their attention.

Start playing. Might walk around and start walking and playing, or do something really simple to kind of cohesive again, even if it’s not that they planned.

I always figure one of the reasons we’re doing it is to build community, right? And so when they talk together, they’re talking together.

So it’s not really like bad. It’s just—it’s fine.

So then, okay, so here we are: how to lead the dance.

So we’ve sung it. We’ve done the words. We have everybody singing it back and forth. They’re getting pretty familiar.

Oh, by the way, sometimes you don’t have to go over and over and over the words, because you know that the dance movements are going to help them learn the words, right?

Because they have a whole nother chance to actually learn these words while we’re learning the movements.

So you don’t have to be 100 percent there before you start leading the movements, particularly like in “Lord, Make Me an Instrument.”

I’ll sing it one time. I’ll have everybody that knows it sing it one time with me. And then I’ll say, “Don’t worry about the words. By the time we get to the end of the movements, you will know them.”

And then I go straight into the movements.

Right? Because if you just go all—you know, left brain—when you’re trying to learn too many complicated words—

So we are at “Teach the Movements” now.

And it’s really good to have this planned beforehand as part of your practicing. Like, how do you really describe these movements?

And man, I’ll tell you what. Fortunately, the circles I lead in are very forgiving, because I cannot get left and right straightened up.

I’m always like, “Let’s go right,” and then I go left, and someone in the circle will shout out, “Zareen, you’re going left!”

And I’m like, “Oh, yeah.”

So—but it’s good. It’s good to plan beforehand, kind of, you know, just a little strategy. How are you going to teach these movements?

And sometimes I’ll do it from something that I’ve seen other people do.

Like, “Lord, Make Me an Instrument” has some really complicated movements in it. But I’ve watched it being led really well, and I’ve led it really badly myself, and I’ve led it well myself.

So I kind of have this strategy that I do beginning to end to make sure that everybody gets it.

And once again, there will be talking if you’re doing a partner dance. So, you know, kind of a strategy of where that’s going to happen.

So then, personally, me, I don’t do the big attunement until I get to this point in the dances.

Very often, when you’re teaching the words, you need to teach kind of what this means, what language it’s in, and kind of give a—

But if you have, like, a real attunement you want to give, this—get through, you know, the words, you know the movements.

And then before we start, it can be, “Oh, you know,” you can bring a little something in.

And I also find that if I do that, I’ve split my attunement into two different pieces, so it’s not just a long monologue from me, right?

And it usually lands a little better, and I tend to be more succinct when I do it that way.

Really long, monologue attunements can really break the energy of a circle.

Sometimes it’s necessary.

Wally always said, if you’re going to give an attunement over just a couple of sentences, have everybody sit down because now you’re giving a teaching.

Participant: Right.

Zareen: Which I never do because we can’t sit down on the ground anymore.

Participant: You don’t get up anymore.

Zareen: We can get down. We can’t get up.

Participant: Yeah.

Zareen: So, yeah, that’s right.

And just think of, you know, as you’re doing all these things, how many opportunities in putting the dance together you have for setting the attunement without having to actually describe it.

You know, when you first sing the song, that gives the energy right there. And then when you’re teaching the words, that gives more energy and meaning right there.

And so by the time you get to the point where you’re just about ready to lead the song, 90 percent of what needs to be said has already been said.

And sometimes people in the circle, you know, you’ll have somebody who’s a really, you know, 30-year-long Buddhist practitioner who will come in and add something into it.

So sometimes by the time you get to the place where you’re ready to start the dance, everything’s been said.

Any suggestions on that?

Nobody has a really long attunement to give.

And then another thing is, you know, we’re kind of gearing this towards new dance leaders and bringing them in.

And hopefully new dance leaders will watch this and read it online.

When you’re stepping into somebody else’s circle, you are not the main event.

So you don’t need to make your dance be the biggest, most important attunement.

You can—and it’s just like Amy was talking about, too—you can, because you’re coming after somebody else and you’re coming before somebody else.

So how do you make what you’re doing fit?

Just what they said.

Lots of times I’ll come in, and I’ll say, “You know, Sky just taught us blah, blah, blah,” you know, and then, “Let’s do X, Y, Z,” you know, and then that kind of ties the attunement in.

It makes it feel like we’re doing it together.

Carmen: Yes. Well, you’re giving an example right there that we do sometimes. Repeat something that somebody else said before, tying it with the dance that you are doing now.

But, you know, I’m thinking now that it might be very useful for new leaders—and I’m not completely new, but I’ve only been leading for three years, so that’s relatively new, I think, comparing it to you and many others.

So it would be good to have at least some sample attunements. You know, like, this one could be examples.

So really new leaders can envision what the meaning of attunement is in different circumstances and settings, because that is not an easy thing to wrap your mind around.

Zareen: Right. Yeah, that’s a really good suggestion.

And another thing that we need to put together, and I would appreciate everybody’s help with this, is the closing seal.

You know, it’d be really nice—some people are really good at it, and then some people, like me, aren’t.

And it’d be kind of really good to have some wisps of that as well, I think.

So we can roll—we can, and Sky’s going to help me put that kind of together for our—for actually for a whole session, I think.

So the more input everybody has into that, wouldn’t it be nice to kind of have that kind of put together?

And so we are almost at an hour, so there’s no way we’re getting through my whole list.

But we’re through pretty good.

So we’re at the place where you’re starting the dance.

And I always start the dance and really watch for confusion as I first start it, because this is the time where it’s really easy to stop it if things are going wrong.

And if you’re doing a partner dance, it’s really important.

You’ll notice that you’re doing a partner dance and you’re just explaining it, and you even say, “Don’t do this yet. Just watch me.”

Half the people will do it, and half the people won’t do it.

And so now half the people have progressed and they don’t have a partner, and half the people haven’t progressed and they don’t have a partner, and the whole thing’s a giant mess.

So that’s really important to watch.

And when you’re leading a partner dance and it’s like, “Go back to your original partner,” is what—the way we usually solve that.

But, um, sometimes—oh, one time I was leading a dance in a big retreat. Gosh, and I think, like—was Wally Olly there?

And it just completely fell apart.

And what had happened was it was a dance where you—it was slow, and you start out with right hand and you see somebody, and then left hand and you see somebody.

And somehow I had started it and stopped it so that half the people were starting with their right hand and half the people were starting with their left hand.

And so the whole circle was just completely messed up.

And I should have just stopped the dance and made it go and start again when I did that, but I wasn’t smart enough to do that way back then.

And just the whole thing just like fell apart, and it was a disaster.

So, start the dance and watch carefully what’s going on, because it’s so easy to stop it after the first time, the first couple of times, and get it going again.

Anybody else have these experiences?

Participant: I had a couple questions about earlier stuff.

Zareen: Yes.

Participant: One is, so if you have a little card with just little notes on it, reminders that, you know, you review beforehand, do you ever use them just to sneak a peek as you start explaining things, or—

Zareen: No, before—beforehand, usually.

Unless I happen to be in a situation—I have literally been in a situation where it’s like, I step in to lead a dance and I suddenly remember, I have no idea what’s going on.

And then I have to pick up a piece of paper or use my phone.

I have been in situations where I’m leading way more dances than I knew I was going to. And so I’m just sitting there on my phone. Well, what should we do next?

And I’d pick one out real fast, and then we do it.

So, yeah. I try to avoid that if at all possible, but yeah.

Participant: On the end, the ceiling—sealing, I mean, you can say, you know, “Me” or whatever the appropriate word is—but do you go back and do a little bit of a touching of a summary, or a touching the meaning of the dance at that point?

Zareen: I don’t usually, just because it would interrupt the sealing of it and the silence.

The only reason I would do it is if I’m leading two dances in a row and it’s going to lead into the next dance.

For me, feelings after the silence, to take it in.

Participant: Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Another participant: In most of the situations where I lead, when I’m done with my dance, somebody else steps in and leads the next one, so it wouldn’t be appropriate to do that.

Other people have things to say about that?

I like that. I kind of go with that.

Sometimes in the circle, as soon as it’s over, people are done and they’re moving. So I may give the suggestion to just stay with your experience for the next moment. Just be with what you’re experiencing.

I don’t recap because people are having their own experience, and going into the mind of what it means to understand what it means kind of takes them away from their direct experience.

Zareen: I agree. And I actually kind of have that in this list at this—”Trust your dancers.”

These are your friends, and some of them are way better at dancing than I am at leading, you know?

And so, you know, what you said right there is you kind of just stay with this.

They have had an experience.

But Wendy, I would say every once in a while, by the time I get to the end of the dance, something has really occurred to me that needs to be said.

And if I can do it succinctly, I will.

But I don’t think that’s real—

Participant: What do you do? Sometimes I get so into the experience I totally like, “What was this all about?”

Zareen: You know, I guess. But, yeah.

Participants: Yeah.

Zareen: Okay, so we are at an hour.

So I think probably we better go.

Did you have something? I don’t know how to say your name, Maha.

Participant: My, yeah. Epsilon?

Zareen: Yeah.

Participant: You can see it in Ipsilom, but in my language, it’s Rita Mita G.

Zareen: Oh, okay.

Participant: I have to go. I promised my son, but thank you so very much.

Zareen: Right.

Well, let’s end this here, and maybe we can do some more list.

But, um, thank you, everybody. Good suggestions.

I think we just made our list a lot longer.

Participants: Thank you, Zareen. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. So nice to see you.

Yeah. Bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.