Dancing with MESA

Elective for apprentices with Christian de Sousa.

In Movement Medicine, we speak a lot about “The Mesa”

What does that mean?

And how do we find and deepen our connection with this mysterious presence at the centre of the MM work?

Of course we also do MESA practice – and then sometimes we talk about our ‘personal mesas’.

It gets complicated!

But it’s no accident that these three things share a word… and the exploration of all this is highly fertile… Coming from the Spanish name for table, mesa is used in various Latin American forms of shamanism to mean ‘altar’ or something like ‘medicine system’. It refers to the invisible realms that a medicine worker is connected to and the ways of working used to access and relate with those realms. Being connected with a mesa basically means being a practitioner.

Let’s bring it back to the dance:

M.E.S.A. practice (standing for Movement Energetics of Spatial Awareness) is such a simple and yet profound way to get in touch with who, how and where we are at any given moment – inside and outside; on or off the dance floor. The dances of micro, media, macro are fundamental to embodiment practice and together they give us access to the multi-dimensional possibilities of meta and the essence of mystica.

This foundation enables us to make dream-dance connections with our energetic support of all kinds – from personal allies (for example animal medicines and supportive ancestors we feel connected with) to the healing force of the mandala (which we can think of as a kind of radio receiver for the transmission signal of the MM Mesa) as well as other traditions and practices we resonate with.

Ya’Acov and Susannah describe the MM mesa as the energetic imprint of the MM story, a story rooted in relationship and connection. Being an MM apprentice means working under the protection of this umbrella in order to discover and deepen your own power, responsibility and harvest.

All this can be extraordinary and empowering – and it can be quite mystifying and whacky if we don’t keep our feet on the ground. This work can be deep trance journeying but it also needs to be matter-of-fact embodied consciousness. You don’t have to have grand visions in order to move with an awareness of energy!

This AP Elective is an invitation to dive deep into advanced MM practice, explore these various meanings of ‘mesa’ and weave them together to support your learning, your medicine and your presence.

We will work with MESA practice and the other core maps, we will study the mandala and we will take embodied journeys to connect with MM and personal mesa allies; then we will move into a ceremony before having some time for absorption and integration. We will be working alongside the other elective group held by Mark Boylan and will connect to dance all together every day and for the ceremony.

 

Christian de Sousa was one of the first ‘pathfinder’ teachers who worked with Susannah and Ya’Acov to develop the MM Professional Training. He is based in London and Devon, teaching in various European cities as faculty for the School, for One Dance Tribe and in connection with other communities. He is the creative director of dancingTao CIC, and is also a 5Rhythms teacher, as well as an artist, a Dad and a wannabe gardener.

More context – for those subscribed to the webinar, there is an episode from a couple of years ago by Christian working with Mesa practice.

This retreat is one of the electives for the Apprenticeship and is only open to current Apprentices and those who have completed the Apprenticeship Programme

Forthcoming date: Dec-2018, Devon UK