Shepardsí Dance, The
Associations---Provence France Solstise Community Candle
Tapes Found On---DC II
Origin---France
Choreographer---traditional
Notes
This version is an adaptation of a traditional dance from Provence,
France;
the adaptation being that the second part is not repeated twice
in this version.
The name refers to the shepards who visited The Manger, and is
traditionally done at Christmas time, a lighted candle in the hand.
.
Done in a closed circle or in an open circle, the line of dancers
passing before one another. The trick is for the leader to bring the circle
into closure before the end of the music.
At Touchstone we traditionally dance this on the Winter Solstice
and seal the dance by each person, one by one, kissing the hand of the
person to their left and then blowing out that candle. This is an old seal
of the circle passed to Shaker by Yakzan Valdez, a sheik leader of the
sacred dance in both the Chisti and Mevlana Sufi Orders.
Witness, as each candle is extinguished, the truth of how important
it is that each member of the community hold forth their individual light.
Such a bonfire of light into such darkness, one by one.
The light, as we blow out the candles, goes in to the heart, there
to be held by the shepherd through the cycle of the seasons.
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