Dance a flower – and let it heal you

Bolette Daniels Beck

Working together and integration characterise the dance for Rescue Remedy: the movements help the individual to reunite with the group and sense a connection to heaven and earth.

Happy dance music meets us and fills the room. Martine gathers the circle in an opening dance with simple waltz steps and swaying movements from side to side. We are on a weekend course in flower dances – a fun and lively way to integrate the positive qualities of the Bach Flower essences through meditative circle dances. The organisers from Køge Alternative Association have decorated the room with the flowers of spring and pictures of the flowers and trees in Dr Bach’s series of 38 essences.

The instructor is Martine Winnington from Switzerland, who has been asked to come to Denmark to share her inspiration and love for the flower dances. They were originally created by the Latvian Anastasia Geng, who was inspired by the Latvian folk dance tradition.

During the weekend we learn a number of dances in an open and light atmosphere. The nature of the dances varies from the joyful and happy through the devoted to the elegant and serene. The beautiful folk tunes and the movements, which symbolize the healing potential of every flower, penetrate in all their simplicity to the depth of body and soul.

The dances touch primarily upon the positive qualities of the flower essences, so you can benefit from working with many different dances during a weekend. Then many different aspects of life, and of the emotional side of life in particular, are touched and mirrored for the participants, and the qualities of the essences are given a chance to be integrated and grounded.

In the dance for Crab Apple (quality of purification, that helps one to gain greater self-acceptance), we purify ourselves symbolically by visualising that we move water or light in our hands and let it pour down over our bodies.

In the dance for Cherry Plum (given to people who harbour frightening thoughts and fear of losing self-control) we let go of the inner pressure through a quick stamping of the feet, and thereafter dance the phases of the moon to reunite with the harmony of the rhythm of nature. The dance stimulates mental strength and balance.

In the dance for Rock Water (the remedy for mental rigidity and perfectionism) we illustrate the movements of water. We dance in and out of a spiral like a roaring wave. We get entangled with each other and bump into one another like the waves crashing on the rocks, and we make bridges that symbolise openings to the new and unknown. The group is getting very lively, and in the short silence following the dance, I see huge roaring waterfalls in front of my inner eye.

From the culture of Latvia

Flower dance for Crab Apple (near Grenoble in Switzerland)

The flower dances were created in the nineteen-eighties and nineties, when Anastasia Geng (residing in Germany) retired as a teacher and started teaching sacred dances. Anastasia had throughout her whole life been interested in the traditional music and dances of her native country. In Latvia the songs, music and dances have roots that go all the way back to pre-Christian times, to the worship of ancient mothers, and particularly Mara ,the Mother of Life.

The dances honour the trees, the flowers and nature in all its beauty, and express human emotions and spirituality. Anastasia discovered, in working with her groups, how several of the old Latvian dances corresponded to the qualities described by Dr Bach for his flower essences. Some of the dances are therefore also dances for the sun, laughter, the owl etc., as they are in the Latvian tradition.

From these discoveries, Anastasia started to choreograph more dances, so that there now exists at least one dance for each of the 38 Bach flower essences. In her book, she writes that she does not hold the opinion that Latvian dances are any better than the dances of other countries, but believes they are preserved more intact because the Latvian people have used their old culture as a way of surviving the rough suppression they have been victims of during hundreds of years.

Anastasia does not teach anymore but has trained a number of teachers, amongst them Martine. Martine describes Anastasia as a wonderfully rounded fairytale grandma, white-haired with rosy cheeks and clear blue eyes, dressed in a loose skirt and homemade leather dance-shoes. Anastasia has taught her dances with an open heart filled with understanding, compassion, wisdom and a thorough knowledge of human nature.

This attitude and wisdom are passed on by Martine in her workshop. After each dance we remain silent for a little while to experience the effect on mind and body. Martine says a few words that intuitively catch the healing process that is active in the group, or gives a few words to ponder.

After the dance for Beech, whose purpose is to see the beautiful in each other as opposed to a state of intolerance and criticism, she says: ‘Experience how it is to be appreciated as the person that you are, to be present in this moment, to be accepted.’ A beautiful energy fills the room and it becomes a lot easier to receive the kind glances that moments ago were directed your way.

Art and healing

Martine Winnington from Switzerland has a background as an English teacher. She trained in many different styles of dance and with many different teachers before she met Anastasia Geng, and she experienced a wholeness in those dances, that made her follow in Anastasia’s footsteps. Martine teaches flower dances all over Europe and on Bali. At home she works with the dances in many different contexts, among them teaching the handicapped, elderly and people with impaired vision. The dances can be learnt by people of all ages, and she welcomes families on her summer workshops. She likes to teach outdoors in the presence of big trees.

Martine Winnington from Switzerland teaches the flower dances throughout Europe. She herself was taught by the creator of the dances, Anastasia Geng from Latvia.

Martine describes her process with the Bach flower essences: ‘First I read about the flowers and the remedies. Then they came alive through the dances. The experience of the flowers and trees in the dances created in me a wish to go out and see them in nature, and that has given me a wonderful joy.’

Martine feels that the flowers of Dr Bach are a gift of nature to mankind, to preserve hope so that we can continue the work for the healing of the planet. During the workshop Martine seasoned her dance sessions with stories of her experiences with the flowers in nature. She told us how she found the little golden flower Rock Rose, after a whole day’s search, on the very edge of a cliff. The Rock Rose remedy helps people to centre themselves and face dangers, and to find the courage to get through a crisis.

Dr Bach writes that all in nature is simple. The flower dances are correspondingly simple, and everyone can learn them. The dances are an art and a form of healing, not to mention a way to socialise. They build up a group energy which supports the experience of being part of a greater whole. You move in circles, in pairs, in double circles, in and out between each other. In the group you find a complement to your own movements, and you feel how the flow of the energy is more and more free.

The tunes to which we dance are folk tunes from the Baltic, Italy, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and even of Celtic origin. The music has been chosen to contribute a spirit that suits the individual flower remedy.

The simple repetition and rhythm of the folk music contributes to a feeling of home. It invites an unfolding of individual creativity within the framework of the music and the dance. Some of the good qualities of the traditional dances – grounding, togetherness, joy, tradition and recreation, simplicity, and the centring and equalising influence of the circle – work well together with the transforming qualities of the flowers.

The forms that the dances create on the floor remind us of ancient themes: to move in the formation of 8 balances oppositions in relation to a point of integration. The number 8 symbolises eternity – and in the dance it becomes an experience of ‘walking on the spot while experiencing eternity’ as one participant put it.

To move in the form of a star is another pattern that supports centring and protection. The spiral shows the movement inward to the soul and outward to the outer world, bringing the qualities of soul to the outer world.

The movements are composed of symbolic gestures: To open your heart is shown through open arms, to lift yourselves above problems is done by elevating yourselves on the tips of your toes. The circle of dancers and the dance as a whole create in time a Mandala form – seen from above. This again illustrates, in a wonderful way, the nature of the flowers.

Choose your own flower dance

How do the dances complement the effect of the flower remedies? Martine tells us that when she teaches groups, she always encourages each participant to choose the dance that they need at the moment. It can be a dance that corresponds to the flower remedy that the person is taking at the time.

Mandala for the Beech dance.

The dance vitalises the emotional and mental themes that are in a healing process at that moment. Through the movements of the body, the themes are activated on a non-verbal and a bodily level. Through the music and the movements you are put in contact with the emotional experience. Through awareness of the qualities involved, the transformation is integrated on the mental level. Many senses work together: the visual, the kinaesthetic, the auditory. It is a holistic way to learn.

For me the dance for the ‘intuition remedy’ Cerato made a special impression. Cerato is a small bush with blue flowers that was discovered in Western China. According to Dr Bach, the remedy is for those ‘who do not possess enough self-confidence to take their own decisions. They always seek the advice of others and are often led astray.’

This dance is accompanied by beautifully tempered flute music. First you move sideways in the circle with the one leg stepping behind the other in a movement which Martine describes as the movement of a child who is insecure on his legs and stumbles ahead. Then you go four steps towards the middle with your hands open, then back four steps while you bring your hands to your heart, and then four steps around yourself with arms up and palms outward.

Mandala for the Wild Rose dance.

The first part of the dance shows how you try to support yourself by taking the advice of others and you stumble. The movements towards the middle and back symbolise that you go to the source within to look for an answer and to accept the answer. In the backward movement there is also the feeling of being guided and supported from behind. When you lift your arms up, you give your inner knowledge and wisdom to the world. Everyone of the small Cerato flowers only blooms for one day. Martine sees that as a new hope and a new answer for every day: Continuously to trust the inner voice.

The dance for Vervain is enormously funny and appropriate for all ‘project people’. The problem for ‘Vervain people’ is a too highly-strung enthusiasm and energy and inner tension, which result in exhaustion, stress and too many projects.

Mandala for the Star of Bethlehem dance.

The dance starts with an energetic kicking away of all that is in the way, accompanied by pompous opera music. Then you trample all the way around yourselves to prepare the ground. Then things start to flow, and that is shown by making wavy figure-of-eight movements with the hands.

Then the spirit and all sleeping guiding angels must be woken up, and this is done by clapping hands in the air. At last you must acknowledge yourself, and this is done by clapping first yourself on your own shoulders, and then the person ahead of you on his or her shoulders. Then you realise a deep satisfaction that the ‘Vervain people’ seldom reach before they plunge into new projects.

The great unity

‘Lie gently in the water’ – with swaying movements, the dancers unite with the water element.

During the workshop the flower dances were accompanied by other circle dances which honour the powers of nature. One example is the dance for Mother Earth and the Four Elements, danced to the singing of Carolyn Hillyers:

Tread gently on the earth

Breathe gently of the air

Move gently in the water

Touch gently to the fire

Dr Bach wrote: ‘The cause of all our troubles is self and separateness and this vanishes as soon as Love and the knowledge of the Great Unity become part of our natures.’

Dancing in circles is one way of rediscovering the connection with the Great Unity. To experience connectedness with other people, to link up with nature, to tune in to inner peace.

The flower dances are not locked in rigid forms, but are constantly evolving within those groups that work with them around the world. I predict many future developments for the continued creative dance process with and for the flowers. I am sure that the flower spirits will be happy and supportive of any initiative in that direction.

Anastasia Geng on the Gentian dance

A dance for the belief
in the powers over us and in us
on that which we draw upon
on that which carries us
on the powers between us
on the peoples with whom our souls meet