Hold my hand: A somatic analysis of Sacred Circle Dancing

Abstract

In a recent ethnographic study of Sacred Circle Dancing, I noticed that prominent circle dancing websites focused on its meditative and community-building aspects, whilst distinguishing features of practice – circling, handholding, centring and the sacred – remain mostly unaddressed. Developed in 1976 for Findhorn’s spiritual community in Scotland, Sacred Circle Dancing is usually considered from a folk roots perspective. What might somatic analysis offer Sacred Circle Dancing? In their editorial note to the Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices (6:1) on dance and somatic practices across cultures, Sylvie Fortin and Andrée Grau describe a prototype for somatic analysis that uses embodied methodology and challenges logocentric ways of knowing. I argue that somatic analysis excavates a spectrum of values embedded in practice, vital for the ethnographer in understanding why a group chooses a particular dance form. In the case of Sacred Circle Dancing, a contemporary discourse emerges engaging intimacy, culture and identity, ecology and the sacred, suggesting that the practice addresses these needs.