The Dancer

The dancer is a figure closely associated with

sexual energy and the female power of initiation.

A mystic song of the Tantric tradition

declares that "The dancing-girl has the

power to initiate the process of sexual rejuvenation."

Many temples of the ancient

world housed dancers, whose dancing conveyed

the very essence of eroticism. Their

presence in the temples of India shocked and

offended the puritanical morality of the British,

who passed laws forbidding such activities.

It is unfortunate that the sexual prowess

of the temple dancers caused the British to

mistake them for prostitutes.

The temple dancers or "Devadasis" (literally

"servants of God") of India were divided

into various categories. The highest

were experts at the different kinds of Yoga

and through years of training developed control

over their body functions. As initiatresses

of Tantric Yoga, they served an important

role. They were considered to be the mistresses

of the temple gods, the embodiments

of the Gopis, and emanations of Lakshmi.

The prosperity of the country was believed

to be related to the rites and activities of the temple dancers.

The courts of Kings and Emperors were

filled with dancing-girls, whose function was

to evoke the erotic sentiment and to engender

a mood of spirituality and love. In ancient

Egypt, the dancing-girls of the court

or temple were believed to have power over

life and death; many became influential as

priestesses, for dance lends itself to expressing

esoteric concepts that cannot be described

by words or static pictures. Dance embodies

the full range of emotions; thus it can reveal

the Subtle Body of Tantra in all its glory.

The following contemporary account by

Allen V. Ross stunningly illustrates the sexual

role of the Indian temple dancer:

The girl entered softly on bare feet. She

knelt before me and kissed my feet. She

was good-looking, about thirty, with a face

that was at once worldly and childlike. Her

body was completely sheathed in a transparent

gold silk sari. Her hands, feet and

head were bare, except for some gold jewelry

that jangled as she moved. She began

to dance without any accompaniment at

all. This Devadasi conveyed sexuality with

every little twitch of her rouged lips, the

gestures of her hands, the movements of

her head, the stamping of her feet, the roll

of her eyes. The opening and shutting of

her nostrils, the sinuous twisting of her firm

but pliable body, was an amazing performance.

I could feel the electrical charges

of the girl's erotic magic and it seemed to

me that she was using only a fraction of

her skills. Her dance, slow and ecstatic,

was highly symbolic, displaying various

sexual moods, from enticement and arousal

to seduction and final rapture. It must have

lasted hours and I was completely taken

with her. Then she possessed me. There

was no vulgar striptease. She daintily

slipped out of her clothes, displaying a

supple body the color of wild cinnamon.

She told me to lie on the mat. After that it

was just my Lingam and her Yoni in cosmic

union. Her intimacies possessed me.

I was devoured. She was what the Hindus

call the "saraotastryan" or "nutcracker"

woman," because of the amazing power

of her sphincter muscles. I was almost out

of my mind. All the while she made murmuring,

humming, drone sounds that put

me into a trance. Suddenly there was an

explosion in my brain and I felt myself in

another dimension. There were amazing

lights and fantastic colors. The walls

seemed to be melting and I felt ecstasy in every cell.

This description is an accurate account of

the potency inherent in the dancer archetype.

A dancer needs to gain considerable

control over normally automatic responses

such as breathing, balance, and emotion. This

control is similar to the control needed to

master the teachings of Tantra. Emotion is

the ultimate key; by consciously evoking and

channeling the emotions, transcendence can

both be achieved personally and transmitted

to another person. The emotion of sex is

easily evoked through dance. When the body

is in a healthy condition and finely tuned,

then dance really can become initiation.

The multifarious forms of dance can explicitly

or unconsciously convey meaning.

All dance forms involving couples present a

ritualized, social reflection of the sexual act.

The art of spiritual dance has almost become

a thing of the past.

A display of dancing brings out the spectator

in everyone. Public dancing and private

dancing have distinctly different

potentialities. This art form can be performed

in solo, for your partner, or improvised together.

Let your inhibitions go and indulge

your creativity and spontaneity to the limit.

Dance can be many things: an individualistic

search for ecstasy, a means of communication,

a social activity, a healthful exercise,

or a courtship ritual. Of the Sixty-four Arts,

dance is one of the most closely related to

the Art of Love. The dance of a woman has

a unique potential for firing the vitality of

man and reviving depleted energies. The

tones and rhythms of music incorporated into

the erotic dance can enhance and sustain the

consummation of love.

An Indian temple dancer. This dance form

makes use of erotic body movements and

tells a story through gesture and mime.

Whole epics were expressed in dance,

serving to initiate people into a non-verbal

level of understanding. The dance form

known as Orissi or "Odissi" is currently

closest to the ancient style of Tantric

mystic dance.

If in joy, songs are sung, let them be the most excellent Eternal songs. If one

dances when joy has arisen, let it be done with release as its object.

- HEVAJRA TANTRA

There are many delights of

visiting dancing-girls. When the

dancing is finished he retires to a

spacious tower, cooled by the

breeze, and there practices the

important methods of the Yellow

Emperor. He takes the tender

hand of a girl as beautiful as Hsishih,

and the white arm of

another one like Mao-shih. Their

bodies are beautiful, supple like

grass moving in the wind; they

put forth all their charms so that

one forgets about life and death.

- PIEN JANG

The dancer: a Yoga posture derived from

dance. It is particularly suitable for toning

up vitality and circulating energy.