Level 1 explained

Enlightenment on the Level 1 of the Dance of Shiva (which is sometimes called "Conscious Movement" because that is what it is...

You can't get much more basic than Level 1, or can you? Well yes you can. There's the Dance of Shiva Level 0 , which includes edumication on the basic arm positions and the basic movements (which use only one arm). In Level 0 you can learn the eight basic movements and positions for each arm. The eight positions are in two groups of four, each of which are in different planes. The first four positions are with the hands held horizontaly. They are called 1, 2, 3 and 4. The next group of four positions are with the hands held so that the palms are vertical. These are labelled A, B, C and D. The eight movements allow you move from any one position to any of the other eight positions.... wait there are only eight positions. Okay, the eight movements allow you to move to any other position including the one you are already at so what we really have is seven real movements and an eigth "zero" movement.

Lets take a break for a moment to look at what we have. Looking at only one arm we have eight positions and eight movements from each of those positions. That gives us a total of 64 possible movements in total.

Now the positions and the movements are the same for each arm. If we look at the arm combinations. If we have eight positions for each arm, then together we have a total of 64 possible arm position combinations. That's 64 possible arm positions where both arms are used. Not only that we also have 64 possible arm movements from each of those positions. (I'm just using the same logic for one arm and applying it to the situation when we use both.)

64 arm positions and 64 movements from creates a lot of possibilities.

Level 1 is a beginning look at some of those possibilities. Likewise all of the other Levels. If you know the basics you can start of at level 1 but you don't have to. Level's 1, 2, 3 and 4 etc are just ways of structuring the Dance of Shiva so that it is easy to learn and easy to do. It is simply a system of organization. Be aware that if you do skip around the instruction is geared towards following the levels, building up on each level, so you may have to do some studying if that is your approach. To really be free in Dance of Shiva you have to learn the material in all of the levels anyway, so no matter where you start eventually you'll have to come back to Level 1. So it doesn't really matter where you start. But this is where I am starting.

For ease of learning there are four main groups of arm positions. The first group is where both palms are in the horizontal position. the second group is where both hands are held vertically. The third and fourth groups have one arm held vertically and the other horizontally. I usually label the third group as having the left arm horizontal and the right arm vertical.

The groups are labelled as follows:
Horizontal-both arms horizontal
Vertical-both arms vertical
Horizontal-VERTICAL-Left arm horizontal and right arm vertical
VERTICAL-Horizontal-Left arm vertical and right arm horizontal

Level 1 focus on the positions where both arms are in the Horizontal plane or both are in the Vertical plane. It also focuses on the basic movements that take both arms from one plane to the other.

Lets define a movement. A movement is any change that takes an arm from one position to another without passing through any other positions. A movement combination is any movement where both arms are used and where each arm moves from one position to another position without passing through any other positions.

An example: from Position 1-3 we could go to Position 2-4 where the left arm moves from position 1 forwards to position 2 and the right arm moves forwards from position 3 to position 4. Because both arms move forwards we can call this movement combination "Forward-Forward" or "Double Forwards" since both arms move Forwards.

The movement combinations we learn in Level one are as follows:
Forward-Forward where both arms move forwards
Backward-Backward where both arms move backwards.
Forward-Backward Where the left arm moves forwards and the right arm moves backwards
and Backward Forward, it's opposite.
We also have a Transquarter-Transquarter and a Change Change.
See level 0 for an explanation of these two movements.

When talking about arm positions the usual convention is for the left digit to signify the position of the left arm and the right digit that of the right arm so for example
1-3 means the left arm is in position 1 and the right in position 3. Note that in all of the pictures I am mirroring what you would be doing. So even though my right arm might be in position 1 and my left in position 3, the pictures are labeled in the opposite fashion so that if you mirror the pictures the labels are correct for you.

I've divided the movement combinations into two sets. The first set has all of the movements in the Horizontal Plane and the second set has movements that are in the Vertical Plane. For the Change plane movements, the movements that start in the Horizontal plane are included with the movements of the Horizontal Plane, likewise for movements that start in the vertical plane