CALL TO VISION QUEST DANCERS!
THE LONG DANCE (at the Birdsong Peace Chamber)
May 22/23 2010
Co-Chiefed by Jim Frank and Tom Bissinger
What is the Long Dance?
The Long Dance is a visioning dance held at night under the stars. The
dancers
move in a circular motion around the corral. It is a time to bring forth
associations that lie in the subconscious mind, and by dancing them,
they can be
brought to conscious levels, owned, and released. It is a time to quest
for your
spirit, to surrender, to endure. Beautiful Painted Arrow says: In
the Long
Dance of Life, every- step awakens three opportunities for the human;
One:
placement in eternity; Two: purification of past forms; Three: new
opportunities
for adventure, for in the instances of eternal time, the new always
refreshes
and cleanses. Arrive early Saturday afternoon and pitch your tent and
help prepare the corral A Sweat Lodge follows. Then we hang our Medicine
Shield
Banners in the corral. Following a light supper, as night falls the
dance begins
and goes into early morning hours, then the dancers rest. On awakening,
we have
breakfast, a sharing, and return home early in home afternoon of Sunday.
The Tradition of the Long Dance
The first Long Dance was held in Pennsylvania in 1987 under the tutelage
of
Beautiful Painted Arrow. At the end of 1996 he retired to his land in
Colorado.
We will dance at the Sun/Moon dance arbor at Birdsong Peace Chamber in
Pottstown, PA. For more info on Birdsong, go to www.birdsongpeacechamber.com.
Some people know immediately that this dance is for them while others
may need
time and processing to decide. Often times, people who have an initial
reaction
of 'I couldn't possibly do it' eventually come to understand that it is
part of
their destiny to dance. As with any decision, it is most important to
listen to
your heart. The tuition for the dance is $100. There is scholarship
money
available for those drawn to dance but who have financial difficulties.
To
register or for more information, please contact Tom at 610-469-9029, click
here
to email , or Jim at 610-648-0953, click
here
to email Jim. When you register, full instructions will be given
about
what to bring. If it works better for you, you can register on
line at
this link: (Register
on line)
The Medicine Shield Banner
You need to make a personal banner, 2 feet by 4 feet, with an overlap
sewn
across the top two foot edge. Insert a 26 inch dowel rod thru the
overlap and
attach string on each end of the rod to hang the banner. Any color may
be used.
Put artwork on it that depicts: a) where you come from; b) where you are
now; c)
where you hope to be after the dance. Let the making of the Medicine
Shield be a
way of forming your intention.
For a printable PDF flyer, right click here.
MORE ABOUT DANCES TAUGHT BY JOSPEH RAEL:
Joseph
taught three main dances, the Long Dance, the Drum Dance, and the
Sun/Moon
dance, and these are the ones that involve personal sacrifice and I
usually talk
about their “visioning” qualities. We also dance the Easter Dance,
the
Sand hill Crane dance, and the Corn dance in this area which are more
celebratory in nature and include the whole family - kids love them.
The
three dances require different levels of sacrifice both in time and
money.
At Bird Song, that dances have kept the price that Joseph request from
the
dancers, the length of the dance increases too. The Long Dance is a
one
day dance (actually one night – we start after dusk and end before
dawn), and
the tuition is $100. The Drum Dance is three days, and the tuition
is
$350. The Sun/Moon dance is four days and the tuition is
$750. There
is no commitment to repeat the Long Dance, but the Drum Dancer is
expected to
dance each year for six years and the Sun/Moon Dancer is expected to
Dance four
years with another understanding that once you dance you never stop
being a
dancer.
All
of these dances require a fast from food and water for the whole period
of the
dance. This doesn’t mean much to the Long Dancer but to the Drum
Dancer
and the Sun/Moon dancer this is a serious sacrifice.
Also,
the level of support varies greatly. At the Long Dance, the
dancers
support themselves, they even do their own drumming. The Drum
Dancer has
“professional” drummers but each person provides their own
shelter. In
the Sun/Moon dance, each dancer has a non-dancing support person, and
there are
the drummers, dog soldiers, medicine people, kitchen staff, etc. –
usually
making up to twice as many people in support roles as dancing.
While
all these dances have a visioning quality, the Long Dance is very
definitely
about personal visioning – each dancer makes a banner depicting their
personal
transformation. The Drum Dance carries the intention of healing
for the
whole world as well as that personal healing - this was originally
called “The
Drum Dance for World Peace.” And even though the Sun/Dancer
may
have the biggest personal insights of any of the dances, the emphasis is
on the
sacrifice that the Sun/Moon dancer makes for the rest of the community –
the
dancers dance “so the people may live.” The Sun/Moon dancer is the
sacrifice.
Joseph
taught us these dances over many years, the first being the Long Dance,
then the
Drum Dance, and finally the Sun/Moon Dance. While there is no
hierarchy to
these dances, no one dance is better that the others, the way
Joseph
taught them gives a hint to a way to decide which dance to do
first.
Joseph encourages us to dance all of these dances and while most people
pick a
dance and do that for a time, they also rotate through all the
dances. The
Long Dance is most accessible and seems like a good first dance.
All is
good.