In This Issue




Website & More
Missed earlier
issues of this
Newsletter?
See all the back
issues at

Remember!
You can post your
events and event
flyers on our
website Calendars:
Dances of Universal
Peace International
PO Box 55994,
Seattle, WA 98155 USA
(206) 367-0389

August 2020
Leaders Guild News and Update

 
notDear Beloveds,
In these days  of much change in the outer world, one question has been asked - 

''if I  am not on the sufi path in the Ruhaniat organization, can I continue to lead dances?''

If you asked yourself this question, I want to make clear:
dancing is not the organization.

it is not necessary 
to be on the Ruhaniat path in order to be 
a Dance Leader or Mentor. 
It never has been and still is not.

How this came to be is explained a little in the history of the Dances:  https://dancesofuniversalpeace.org/duphistory.shtm .

Some dance leaders have a Ruhaniat guide, some have a guide in a different sufi order, some are on a different spiritual path.
 
To be a member of the   Leaders Guild  
two things are needed:
1. you need to have a dance mentor, and
2. either you pay the annual Leaders Guild fee OR you ask for fee support (that way we know you still hold an active concentration as a dance leader):

If you have any questions about this, please contact me at  director@dancesofuniversalpeace.org .
With love,




Aziz Dixon 
Executive Director
Dances of Universal Peace International
library
200 Dance Write-ups added to the Resource Library

Since March we have been working on a major project to identify the most popular dances which are not yet available in the dance resource library.  

  • In Latin America a mentor team co-ordinated a search for the top ten dances which need to be added, so now the spiritual traditions of this whole region are better represented in Spanish - and soon we will be able to add more dances from Brazil, in Portuguese. 
  • The complete German foundation manual of dances is being added, and 
  • other dances have come from Latvia, France and the Czech Republic as well as from North America. 

This has been a major investment of time and energy, involving mentors and originators all round the word. Now our library has more to offer across many languages and geographic areas, supporting our rich diversity in unity.


At the time of writing, over 200 dance write-ups have been added or updated on the dance resource library since the start of this year. Please check it out - here is the link. 

Please note that the basic search results will include dances written up in all languages.  To limit the results to a specific language, please use the advanced search, which can be found by moving your mouse over the 'More' button on the relevant web page, as illustrated here:

Also, please send me any more write-ups that you feel are 'ripe' for sharing. You can contact me at director@dancesofuniversalpeace.org.
how
How are we dancing now?

How are you keeping the dances alive during the pandemic? Are you making new dance contacts in other continents?  

Soon I can pass on news about new experiences of dance leader trainings in these virtual times. You will have your own news - p lease send me your stories for sharing across the Leaders Guild.


shrikesFrom the editor

Darvesha has invited me to share with you this poem, which says a bit more about me.
It came to me on a summer retreat. 
It will be published later this year in the Buddhist magazine  Urthona.

Shrikes on retreat

Our teacher says
Thoughts are clouds,
but the sky is for ever.
Love is a wave of the ocean.
We eat, dance and pray together.
 
My friend knows a buzzard
from a black kite. I tell him
where we saw the cranes,
watched them dance at dusk
in the cornflowers.
 
Our teacher says
Respond, don't react.
Clear the mirror.
There is no mirror.
There are storks
 
in the village. My friend
will show me the shrikes,
the illusory posts they perch on,
the spikes where they larder mice,
balance breath on a sloe-thorn.


Dances of Universal Peace International | (206) 367-0389 | inoffice@dancesofuniversalpeace.org | https://www.dancesofuniversalpeace.org
P.O. 55994
Seattle, WA 98155-0994