We have been looking for so long for something that could help our children to overcome the scars of their troubled past, to remove fear and become brave.
Now, we found a treasure… from a very ancient time.
Shiva, the great yogi, introduced Tandava 7000 years ago. He taught this powerful dance to his disciples, for them to achieve physical and mental purity.
Back then…
Those were times of intense physical struggle for human beings. Nowadays, our struggle is different, but still the essence of struggle is the same. Our teenagers can tell you how difficult it is the process of growing up…
In those times, the actual family structure didn’t exist, and the task of raising children was completely depending on women. Shiva ideated this dance for men, to make them take responsibility, to feel a sense of duty to protect and take care for the weaker. To create in them a desire of welfare for all.
Tandava dance activates the glands in the body in such a way that you acquire a fighting spirit in life. Our children certainly need it to overcome the disadvantage of their upbringing, and to find their place in society. The hormones secreted through Tandava generate greater manliness and courage, fearlessness.
You might have seen statues of Shiva Nataraja (Shiva as the Cosmic dancer, the “Lord of Dance”). He is in this mudra:
Tandava dance is the foundation of the later classical dance of India. It is dominated by rhythm and jumping…
When you jump, you are weightless. Gravity pulls you back, but for a moment… you are flying. In that moment, some glands are activated in the brain. Those glands allow good memory and deeper thinking.
Human beings meet with crude desires, crude temptations… but that crude energy should not be suppressed, but transformed and elevated to higher emotions… and utilized for further development. Tandava dance is a great tool to transmute that energy, to achieve physical and mental purity.
Now, two of our best performers will demonstrate it for you:
…Dancers, ready for Tandava…
ONE, TWO, THREE
JUMP!
With the first jump, you jump as high as possible, and while in the air, you hit your buttocks with your heels.
Then you come all the way down, and with the second jump, you hit your chest with your knees.
Then start jumping, kicking the right foot up and to the left, while bouncing on your left foot. Land on both feet.
Then jump again, kicking the left foot up and to the right, while bouncing on your right foot. For a moment you are not touching the ground, then you come back and jump again.
Jump for one minute, two, three… as much as you can. As much as your strength allows.
Keep the arms as straight as possible. They symbolize the strength of your soul.
HAAAALT! Final jump!
With the last jump, again you hit the buttocks with your heels. Then prepare for landing…
THE IDEATION
In the left hand, there is a symbol of negativity: an object representing staticity, passivity…
In the right hand, there is a symbol of positivity: something representing the force of life, the strength to overcome difficulties, like the fire.
There is a fight between them. The forces of negativity are always around us, always trying to consume us, but we are struggling and, at the end of Tandava, the force of life has overpowered the force of staticity.
We perform Tandava collectively, after meditation in the night, all standing around the water tank, vibrating the whole place with this energetic dance.
When we dance Tandava all together, something happens to our chest area… The heart chakra opens up! We feel invincible, we can do anything. And there is…