This week I am dancing “Muladhara” also known as the Root Chakra or the Base Chakra. It resides at the base of the spine in the pelvis and connects us to the earth. As a flamenco dancer, I feel like understand this concept rather well, as the basis of our movement depends on being able to feel grounded, centred and stable. Yet, abandoning all flamenco technique and dancing “Muladhara” is a whole world of discovery and I feel like I am embarking on a long journey.
In Indian yoga and meditation philosophy, the Chakra System is an energy system in the body. According to this philosophy, energy is neither created nor destroyed, it is moved through the body. Energy is life force and can be called “prana” or “qi” or “chi” or if you watch Starwars, I guess it is “the force”! There are two energies that flow. There is Earth energy (female, yin) that originates from the core of our planet and Celestial energy that comes from the cosmos (male, yang). A person is a vehicle for energy, so we move this energy through the body through 7 points from the base of the spine to the top of the head, and these energetic centres are called Chakras.
They are basically where our nerve ganglia congregate into a ball, and if you are envisioning all of this, you can consider them 3D globes. From the base of the spine to the top of your head, there are 7 chakras that coincide with various attributes and rainbow colours: red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, violet. The idea is that we have to balance our chakras, they should neither be too open nor closed, and that the idea is to turn these globes by moving energy through them.
My book Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith.
I became interested in this study after reading “The Wheels of Life” by Anodea Judith because seemed to resonate with my thoughts on energy, as I talk about energy a lot in flamenco dancing and moving it around. I don’t think of them as “wheels” per se, because it connotes like a thin bike wheel to me, but I think they feel more like round balls like softballs or small globes.
More on Chakra rainbow colours here: chakra-anatomy.com.
As someone who has an enormous amount of energy, I tried meditation in November 2019 and found that I have total ADD, lol. Four inhale/exhales on the first day and I was done. Breath and meditation, they say, is the key to moving energy through the body.
My beach towel in Kauai with book, trying to meditate.
Yea, but…but what about all the people who buzz around haha?! Anyway, I tried and tried, by the end of my Hawaii vacation I could actually feel the beginnings and stirrings of a meditative practice achieving 20 6-second inhale-exhales and connecting to myself. But alas…I had to come back to city life and I guess the speed of my thoughts and lifestyle, thought maybe I can explore the chakras through movement such as yoga or dance. Moving meditation?
This week I was challenged to dance the root chakra “Muladhara”, which is the red chakra at the base of the spine. This is the beginning because humans absorb earth energy and must connect ourselves through imaginary roots to the earth. This chakra is responsible for your basic needs, security, money and safety. It is primal in nature and deals with survival instinct.
Dancing “Muladhara” began on the floor curled up in fetal position like a seed, listening to droning low tones and being brought to life by tribal music. This inspired dancing in the dark, stretching out and curling in and out in S and C shapes on the dance floor, trying to feel all the inches of the body on the floor. (Omg, I’m so happy I had some contemporary dance introductions on the floor last year with Salome Nieto and Alvin Tolentino to get comfy and dirty…insert flamenco dancers saying oooooo the floor, ewww ahhaha!)
Hair down, I started out as a seed but began my movement as a slithering snake and then a reptile on all fours. Eventually I made it to my bum and for whatever reason, started twirling from hands to knees to bum, round and round in a clockwise circle until I decided well…I better balance myself out and go counterclockwise. Clearly, I wasn’t fully into reptilian brain if I could make that decision to balance the twirling.
And therein lies my problem as a professional flamenco dancer! I will have to turn off the higher analytical brain and go into a primal, feral state to experience each chakra. Turn off the neocortex brain? Whoa. So hard for me!
4 pictures of my mandalas. The lower right is the regular conscious Kasandra and how I see the world. The top left, right and lower left are my mandalas after chakra dancing the root chakra.
Back to my Root Chakra dance, somehow I made it to my knees and started crawling around on all fours like an animal. Cat arched back, feline mode. I eventually made it to my legs and then I dance like an elephant, dragging imaginary trunk and tusks around. The root chakra did not inspire dancing with an erect spine at all. Nothing resembling flamenco or my Rubik’s Cube movement theory.
I had always thought that flamenco had a great sense of centre of gravity, with tucking in the tailbone, aligning the spine and being a grounded, earthy dance. Yet, actually dancing the root chakra, my centre of gravity was all over the place. I walked like a primate, danced with erratic arms, created figure 8 shapes and used cross-lateral and homo-lateral arms/legs with torso on all levels, high/medium and low!
Dancing with reckless abandon, I saw an image of a cat-lady, tiger warrior dancing in the campfire. Dancing “Muladhara”, a feral creature emerged and it was like dancing in the dark, making contact with myself as an animal and feeling powerful, buzzing with energy.
Root chakra takes you to your primal essence and most primitive self. I will have to dance it again and again until I stop critically analyzing like a dancer. I can see that dancing the chakras is the start of a journey and experience of the soul. I’m going to have to abandon technique and structure and the analytical mind to get the most out of the experience. Special thanks to Chakradance for the experience, opportunity and challenge!
Stay tuned for 6 more blogs, because there will be 6 more Chakras.
Covid Blog Day 79
“Dancing The Root Chakra, Muladhara”
North Vancouver, BC, Canada
May 25, 2020
About The Author
Kasandra “La China”
Flamenco Dancer and Instructor, Director, Producer, Choreographer
Kasandra is one of Canada’s leading flamenco artists well-known for her unrelenting drive to push the artistic envelope. A tirelessly ambitious artistic director, soloist and prima bailaora, Kasandra is always hungry for new sources of inspiration and knowledge, constantly pushing her musical and choreographic mastery to its limits. She has been identified as “Vancouver’s flamenco star who has embodied flamenco with her dynamic, precise style” by Flamenco-World magazine. Read More
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