About the Dance of Shiva

Dance of Shiva is a means of exercising consciousness by learning how to see movement possibilities, and then exercising those possibilities by moving between them.

At the most basic level Dance of Shiva is learning the two basic spiral movements for each arm. In one spiral the hand is continuously held horizontal. You can imagine trying to balance a tray or a bowl of oil (with a candle burning in it) on the palm and moving the arm in a continuous spiral without spilling any oil or causing the candle to blow out. All though we don’t actually practice balancing something on our hands the intent of keeping the hand horizontal is important and is a big part of what makes the dance so effective. It gives the movements a meaning.

The second movement is a “vertical” spiral. In this case the palms are turned out and they are kept facing outwards for the entire movement. It’s a little bit more difficult to use the hands to hold something in this position but there is a similar intent, keep the palm facing outwards.

In both cases having an intent gives a focus for the mind and it also causes the shoulders, wrists and elbows to work through a complete range of motion. Add movement synchronized breathing and movements of the spine and the practice can be an excellent method for improving range of motion in the arms and spine and bringing balance to both sides of the upper body.

To make the dance more conscious, once we have learned the basic movement patterns the next step is to break down each path so that they each have four stopping points. The Horizontal path is given four stopping points labeled from 1 through 4 and the Vertical path is given four points labeled from a through to d. With these stopping points we introduce the idea of possibility. How can we get from each point in the Horizontal plane to every other point. We need three different movements, four if we count a zero movement. And so we create four movements to move between these points. We can go Forwards from 1 to 2, from 2 to 3 and so on, or we can go Backwards from 3 to 2, from 2 to 1 etc. And then to get from 1 to 3 or from 2 to 4 we create a movement called a transquarter. Instead of getting from 1 to 3 via their midpoint we got straight from 1 to 3. The hand doesn’t even stay horizontal for this movement it just takes the most direct route between those two points. With a zero movement we have four movements in the horizontal plane and we can apply these same four movements in the vertical plane. The job we have in learning dance of shiva is practicing all of these movements until they become second nature.

Initially that might not sound that complex or difficult or challenging but consider this. For each arm there are 8 possible positions and 8 movements (including a zero movement) to move from any one position to any other position. Now with both arms there are 8x8 possible positions. We can have the right arm in position 1 while the left arm is in position 2, or the right arm in position 3 with the left arm in position c. That means there are 64 possible positions for the arms altogether. Now there are only 64 possible movements (some of them with only one arm moving) but when we consider that from each position there are 64 possible movements then that means in total there are 64x64 movements.

Why learn so many movements? Why not?

One of the ways that Andrey explained it was that at each level you learn a certain number of movements. As we get better and better these movements become like habits, they are so familiar and easy. But then we have to move on and learn new habits. We don’t necessarily break old habits as we do give ourselves more options, more habits from which to choose from. Eventually we have so many “habits” they are not really habits so much as they are options, and if we can move among them all equally well then we are no longer imprisoned or held captive by any of them. Instead we can dance among them all.

Another thing to consider with all of these movements. We don’t just do the movements with our body, we do them with our mind as well. Moving forwards from 1-2 to 2-3 (left hand from 1 to 2, right hand from 2 to 3), we do the movements with our body but we make a note of that with our mind by either saying the positions we are moving from and the positions we are moving to or by saying the movements, both arms forwards. And we’re not just doing this for one arm we are doing it for both. So if we do a movement like 1-2 to 4-3 (left arm backwards from 1 to 4, right arm forwards from 2 to 3) we have to be cognizant that the left arm is doing one movement while the right is doing another. While it can be frustrating as hell initially, there is a certain amount of joy when the movement is mastered and we can watch ourselves do two movements at once. But imagine, because we are doing these movements with mind and body, we are learning to better coordinate mind and body together. Not only that we are learning to control left and right sides of the body. Imagine what this can do for the cross connections within the brain itself. This may be the reason why doing the dance of shiva can help to make us smarter, it creates more and more connections within the brain. Not only that, it creates balance within the brain so not only are we left brain smart we become right brain smart as well, we balance the engineer and the artist parts of ourselves.

My own practice is about half an hour a day and I try to do it about 3 times a week. Your own practice may vary. The nice thing about the dance of shiva is that it can be broken down into parts so that if you have limited time you can do something meaningful in five minutes. And so one possibility is to break down practice into 3 parts and practice those parts when you have time.

Another beneficial way to use the dance is as a warm up or mental preparation for other exercises. Especially when you are distracted dance of shiva can be an excellent way to center your body and especially your mind. The other beautiful thing about it is that once you’ve learned the eight basic movements it’s pretty easy to figure out the combined movements so that one you’ve learned it and once you understand it you don’t need a teacher. All you need is yourself.

The benefits that I have experienced from practicing the Dance of Shiva are that it has helped me to become smarter, I see connections easier and quicker. My physical coordination has improved, and I find that when I do it before my Tai Ji practice I can do Tai Ji a lot better and I’m able to implement suggestions from my teacher a lot quicker.

One of Andrey’s students is a violin player who experienced an inability to play because his body had become so in-balanced from playing the violin. After doing dance of Shiva not only did he recover the ability to play but he felt like his creativity had improved as well.

Another teacher has had success with students who used it to help them stop smoking.

I don't know if this could be considered a benefit or not, I also enjoy doing the Dance of Shiva. It leaves me feeling calm and centered afterwards, and I have fun teaching it to others.